planetary Defence

            Inhabited planets are perhaps the most valuable, but also most vulnerable assets of the Federation. Antimatter warheads can be used in the depths of interstellar space by war craft with neutronium armour, but only minute amounts of antimatter can wreck the delicate climate of a planet, it is therefore essential to protect planets against such threats. It is also an official position of the Federation military that they will act to protect the habitability of planets even when on the offensive against formidable forces.

            The first line of defence is independent of the planets themselves, Federation space is regularly patrolled by starships, and a sensor network, which provides effective detection of every starship in Federation space. These systems work together to eliminate any threat force comes into the range of planetary systems, however these methods may not entirely protect planets and so concentric levels of defence have been developed.

            Inside Federation star systems the sensor network is even more fine, and resolution greatly enhanced, this level of monitoring is especially intense near planets (making use of orbital sensor platforms), and any threat that has so far gone undetected by interstellar Sensor platforms is likely to be detected by the more scrutinising planetary sensor network. Detected craft can be intercepted by nearby fleet vessels or any standing defence force in planetary orbit. However in planetary space the warfare is rather different as antimatter blasts near planets can irradiate the surface, warfare accommodates for this, and planetary defence forces use tactics to account for this sensitivity.

            The last line of defence comes from the planet itself. Orbital platforms, space stations and sensor platforms are all positions for placing defensive armourment. Major Federation worlds have enough orbiting defence to protect their surfaces against effectively any attack from known weapons. Defence weapons at this level consist mainly of high energy particle beams, exotic field, and spatial distortion weapons, however in addition to these, spatial field generators can forcefully collapse propulsion fields effectively disabling propulsion and defence systems on enemy craft and missiles. In addition, a ring of field generators can distort space enough to bend radiation from nearby antimatter weapons from irradiating the surface. The level of these defences is proportional to the importance of the planet, homeworlds, Pholi colony worlds, and major Federation colonies are effectively impregnable to any force, as loss of these worlds would be catastrophic.

            In addition to Orbital defence there are also some surface defences, mostly particle beams, and high energy lasers which can additionally defend against missiles and craft, there are also shield generating complexes that not only protect settlements, but can also form a defence networks that can protect against the devastating explosions caused by antimatter explosions on or in the atmosphere above the planet. The aim of this final level of defence is primarily to limit damage if weapons have been detonated, On populated worlds the level of shielding is effective enough to effectively contain an explosion within a fixed volume of shields, and although surface irradiation may be devastating, the remainder of the energy can be contained and planetary damage limited.

            Though the first levels of defence are effectively always active and on alert the lower levels of the defence systems are on a scalable priority system, when no threats are expected all systems are on immediate standby, but no active scanning or targeting is in operation. If situations become increasingly dangerous then the levels of defence, including planetary shielding, begin to come into operation and active modes, the most dire of which is the erection of all planetary defence shields, and citizen evacuation to other worlds, or to sheltered underground bunkers.