Planetary Defense

Another year goes by, hopefully this time some may be interested in a very potential Research Project. With all the interest the forum generates, I had figured the membership here would have been more eager to participate in a proposal as this.

So, once again, I offer a casting call of sorts to any and all members, who seriously feel they can contribute a prolonged effort of time and study towards a Planetary Defense Research Project.

This thread can be used as a think tank style tool, for ATSers who wish to. Once an established team can be composed, the actual project can be started in the Research Forum.

I'm looking forward to seeing some thing come of this, as with all the interest members show in this forum alone, it should be easy enough.

All interested parties, please just jump in on this thread, consider it as much your drawing board as any ones here.

To be honest I agree with many here that any defence against an alien attack would be extremely challenging due to the fact that they would probably arrive with little warning and have more advanced technology.

However, and it is a big 'however', they would also probably have extremely extended supply lines and be severely outnumbered. This means that there is every reason to at least atempt to defend ourselves.

The only real way to prepare would be to make sure that all of the world's governments have a coherent, united strategy with regards to this threat. We would probably be at a massive disadvantage all things considered, but if all of the Earth's military forces were operating as independant agents we would stand no chance. We would need to have every nation from the United States to Nepal acting together. There would be no time to sort out plans and chains of command after the initial strike had begun.

This is an area that we could be planning right now, even if we don't know the exact nature of any threat.

That is why there are "Concept Operations" or ConOps, exercises in developing some attempt. Why resort to pissing yourself and giving up.

Fight or flight is programmed into every species, but only if ititial or first contact is made with man vs enviornment, be it man vs animal or man vs man which is a stranger. Case being, we have a means of determining if our encounter is going to go smoothly or not.

Like dealing with those not morning people, hopfully an offering of coffee or peaceful cohabitation is customary. We all have seen bad days...

So, if an all out invasion was possible I am leaning with it would have happened by now. Sort of like a direct military strike against America or the Soviet Union and even China now. It is not going to happen, because it more than likely would have by now. Or did you all forget what the world wars were atttempting.

Obviously to the public knowledge, or accepted public knowledge, the world is not under off planet invasion.

I see no reason, to discuss weak-kneed toss in the towel reiterations.

I don't get it some times...

That seems to be the norm around here, people more willing to indulge their fantasies than actually concern them selves with the relevent world.

I should have known better presenting this to a forum with a bunch of confused kids.

Going to mark this off my list of useful discussion sources...

reply to post by ADVISOR


If I might suggest, Advisor - let's not throw in the towel too hastily. Perhaps it is merely a matter of venue aversion.

With due diligence and earned respect, then, let us continue...

One idea may be to collate the submissions on this topic within this thread or another repository.

For example, I've made some comment upon and have exchanged decent information with others regarding periphery subjects that contained substantial material relevant to planetary defense.

One enigma: What is the dynamic between the "official" posture of planetary defense as distributed by the MSM or made available via e.g. FOIA and it's true complement in the Black world? Is there documentation or evidence that could substantiate that the world governments "have a plan"? You know - just in case...

All I hear and read is that there is no investigation or study being done in this area "because UFOs don't exist" - so we have nothing to defend against.

I don't think so. We're then either incredibly naive or incredibly stupid. Out of the billions spent annually for DOD and all sorts of sundry ether-projects, you mean to tell me we don;t set aside ANYTHING to even consider that some critters may emerge from behind the moon one day in their giant ships and mutter, "all your bases (and women, and water, and food, etc.) are belong to us!"

So then, we, the bright humans on this miserable world then ...what? Do nothing!?! Because we have no plan??!? All those braniacs at all those mighty quasi-industrial/military/government will simply shrug their collective shoulders at humanity and say, "...oops?"

How reassuring...

Nah. Somebody somewhere on our Earth MUST be considering the possibility. Who are they? Where are they? What do they know? What do they think? What I would give to be a fly on the wall in that conference room...

Carry on...



[edit on 12/15/2009 by Outrageo]

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
To be honest I agree with many here that any defence against an alien attack would be extremely challenging due to the fact that they would probably arrive with little warning and have more advanced technology.

However, and it is a big 'however', they would also probably have extremely extended supply lines and be severely outnumbered. This means that there is every reason to at least atempt to defend ourselves.

The only real way to prepare would be to make sure that all of the world's governments have a coherent, united strategy with regards to this threat. We would probably be at a massive disadvantage all things considered, but if all of the Earth's military forces were operating as independant agents we would stand no chance. We would need to have every nation from the United States to Nepal acting together. There would be no time to sort out plans and chains of command after the initial strike had begun.

This is an area that we could be planning right now, even if we don't know the exact nature of any threat.

The hypothetical scenario of an alien invasion is fascinating, terrifying and humbling. You make an interesting point about the need for all the free nations of the world to unite and resist an extra-terrestrial incursion with a co-ordinated military strategy. I would think immediately that the United Nations would be key in uniting the world against an extra-terrestrial threat. Immediately the U.N would need to pass an emergency resolution which would make the U.N the sole and supreme authority in resisting the alien threat. National sovereignty would be dissolved and I imagine the nations of the world would be formed into resistance blocs. Perhaps each security council member would be responsible for certain sections of the world. All current political flashpoints would need to be deferred indefinitely. All these petty squabbles would be minor headaches compared to the prospect of an alien invasion. The level of co-operation among countries would be unprecedented and all nations would be required to surrender their natural resources and infrastructure to the allied cause. Reservists would be called up to serve, stockpiles of fuel, ammunition, food and other materials vital for survival would be assigned. Perhaps loan agreements would be put in place, such a feat could not be done in a short period of time. The poorer countries would require assistance and I imagine the more prosperous countries would oblige. An agreement such as the "lend-lease" programme would be put in place. It's saddening to think that such an event would need to happen in order to galvanise humanity to unite and stop its tribal warring.

I don't think even worldwide alien invasion would be able to unite Earth's population. I mean, we have not united to defeat things that already attack us all....like cancer, aids, etc. Last time I checked disease doesn't really care what invisible man you believe in or which government you support.

I would imagine that a alien invasion would be either huge and fast, or X-files style slow and devious. I prefer the huge and fast version myself. If that is the case, I would think they would come with overwhelming force rather quickly, knock out our ability to communicate, and possibly even travel by hitting major countries with massive EMP bursts. You can imagine most 1st world countries are pretty much useless when the power goes out, lol, so nothing to worry about for the aliens after they hit us hard and fast there. The human military response from such countries would be hasty and uncoordinated. I think any large exchange of missiles, etc, would be very brief.

For some third world countries that approach might not work as well, however unless they are geographically targeted for their natural resources, those 3rd world countries would be low priority and possibly skipped over completely for the first few waves of invasion.

Given a large scale surprise attack the best thing to do is survive the initial battle and maybe fight gorilla style if the battlefield conditions allow it.

Defending our planet against an alien race? I think there is nothing we can do even if we are united. The major powers of our planet wont be advanced enough. We have no defense against motherships, assuming they can launch an attack from space. Technology is really what we need to defend ourselves. I mean alien tech. I believe we already have been in contact with another alien race, if thats true, then they would help us.

Here is a good question. Could we defend against an attack from an alien race that has the same technology we have today, with the only addition of space travel technology, which we dont have, which would probably give them an edge in air combat?

I mean, imagine that alien race coming here to destroy us using the same weapons we already have. The come with thousands of spaceships filled with thousands of nukes.

They have the advantage of the first strike, which means that they could start with a global EMP attack, taking us back to the stone age, aside from nuking all the big cities and military bases.

They have the advantage that we can't strike their planet back, only their fleet, so surrendering would only be an option for us.

So, when we strike back and war begins we are already in a huge disadvantage. True, we are in bigger numbers and to really CONQUER a territory you have to send your troops. So, after all the destruction they would have to come down and fight us.

In conclusion, if we were attacked by an alien race with OUR technology(+ space travel), we would already suffer and having a great chance of losing. Imagine if they had much more advanced weaponry...

I guess we will only be safe against that scenario the day we have weapons in space. Right now, while we're still here bickering with each other inside our little planet, we're helpless... or at least in GREAT disadvantage.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by henriquefd]

reply to post by jedc28

Defending our planet against an alien race? I think there is nothing we can do even if we are united.

Although Henrique poses an interesting inversion, I personally doubt that aliens that have sufficient technology for interstellar navigation and travel would be stuck with the limited technology we lowly humans currently possess. Which means they'll have plenty of other cool "tools" as well.

Far more likely is Jed's scenario - such that if hostiles showed up with malicious intent that there would be little we could do to prevent them from carrying out any plan they care to envision.

It would just be a matter of how fast they want what they're after and how long we can hold out before they get it.

Of course, there's plenty of fairy tales about benevolent beings just hanging around our glorious jewel of a planet waiting to protect us from any "intrusions". Meh. Don't make me puke.

All we can hope for is that the good guys show up before the bad ones. I mean if there really is any so-called 'Prime Directive' to pray for when the time comes.

Since we don't know for sure, the ONLY prudent approach toward guaranteeing humanity's survival is to be prepared for the potential that we may not. Actually:

We'd deserve to be snuffed out if after a few thousand years of populating (and polluting) our planet, we took no precautions whatsoever, and just had our fat carcasses plucked off our couches from in front of our widescreens, from the prisons, the fields, churches, the malls. Let's get serious. What are we going to do - shoot at them with pistols and rifles?

Instead let us consider that maybe, just maybe:

The first to arrive,
will indeed carry a tome,
as first seen on the screen,
so long ago.

As you may recall,
we are all damned.
The book was entitled,
"To Serve Man"...

[Note to add: In fact, I have a theory regarding the probability that space-faring carnivores are as likely, if not more so, than the demure doe-eyed ET variety we've been spoon-fed since childhood. The numbers are alarming. Some other time.]


[edit on 12/17/2009 by Outrageo]

Resurrecting the this from the buried masses of dead threads within ATS

Was recently referred to to a thread, bumped for posterity.

Bumped due to reference in a related thread.

Looking forward to scenario concepts.

a reply to: ADVISOR

Imagine that, planetary defense is trending again.
This time for near earth objects.

Not every thing extra terrestrial had to be aliens.
Some times it's a 20 foot long meteorite and moving fast. Every day hazardous asteroids threaten Earth.

Soon, detection and defeat of those objects could be
The Space Forces primary assignment.

Time will tell.

a reply to: ADVISOR

Well. Long time no post!!

It'll be interesting to see where this proposal goes. My guess is no where. One never does know though.

a reply to: Astyanax


Humankind is pretty impotent against threats alright. We can't even agree to build a device capable of blasting an incoming asteroid, or other space body. Fighting off aliens? FORGET IT.

a reply to: Astyanax

Barring higher levels of energy manipulation than we currently understand as possible, I largely agree with you.

An attack of destruction from off-planet is impossible to defend against, over long time periods.


An occupation could go our way, as guerrilla warfare tactics would allow us to obtain some of their own technology and we'd have the opportunity to fight on near equal ground. (One of the major goals of guerrilla warfare, when one is less advanced than the aggressor, obtaining the aggressors' technology is a definite objective.)

We actually have some counter measures for advanced ET occupation attempts, but you won't generally hear them publicized due to the following reasoning, which makes logical sense:

Any strategy developed to fight beings of unimaginable technological advancement, could be used by other nations to fight more advanced nations. We do not gladly provide methods to fight us, to our terrestrial enemies. Any strategy developed to fight extremely advanced beings from another planet, could likely be utilized to fight ourselves.

I am aware of a few circumstantial weapons that can be used against a colonizing extraterrestrial force, that we do not use against other humans. (Believe it or not, we have some weapons that are complex weapons, consisting of concepts combining weapons systems that are not normally used in conjunction with each other. Those complex weapons, situationally, can surpass the utility of singular usages of nuclear arms by themselves.)

First of all...I believe it would be helpful too prove to other ET civilizations, that we are not the imperialistic type of civilization that would prefer to divide an conquer other peaceful ET civilizations of the same bent. This would probably help in persuading other possible highly advanced ET civilizations, that we need their help in defending us against the alien hordes that are hellbent on our destruction.

Trying hope and a prayer...I guess it wouldn't hurt.

That said...our civilization must strive --- head to head toe to toe --- too match any offensive and defensive technology that these purported evil alien hordes could possibly throw against us. I'm talking about FTL flying saucer technology, magnetically contained fusion plasma shields, anti-grav flying machines and whatnot.

We may not yet have that kind of technology ourselves at the present time --- but Gaod willing --- we will.

Defending a planet is kind-of like defending a castle or a city. Basically the winner is who can last the longest before getting relieved by friendly forces.

In a case where planetary forces are strong it basically becomes a war of attrition due to time. Blue team (the defenders) will try to wither down red team (the offensive force). Ways in doing so include active defense fleets, mines, defense platforms and to some degrees shields either of energy or military grade hybrid alloys. Then there are ground defense structures and forces as a last defense measure thou those are the most ineffective against a massive red fleet since they lack flexibility.

There are a number of zones. Going from outside in there is the 'outer limit zone' basically this is the zone just past the moons of the planet (if any). This zone is the hardest to defend since it is open and the largest of the zones. It does allow fleet maneuvering and should therefor be used by the blue fleet as the best location of active defense against a red fleet. Rather then having the blue fleet in that zone it is better to have them in the satellite zone and have scouts, drones and artificial satellites spot intrusion of the zone and respond accordingly.
The next zone is the satellite zone, meaning the zone that contains natural satellites such as moons. Often this zone gets its own sub-zones depending on the number of moons. the defense of this zone is important since moons can be good staging area's and hold their own resources and population. Its advisable to have a mesh network of defensive platforms and mines while still allowing fleets to maneuver to a degree. The moons themselves should be used ad surplus bases for repair and supply. Stationary defenses may also be placed upon the moons.
Then follows the high-orbit zone. This is the zone just after the closest moon and the highest reach of the planets atmosphere. This zone generally has a defensive grid. Personally I think energy shields are overrated power-consuming pieces of junk and prefer hybrid alloy constructed hexagonal grids but meh, to each its own taste. The basic idea is to force the red fleet to squeeze through various spots forced in by mines and defense platforms back-ed up by drone-fleets. Creating choke-points that can be targeted from the planet side for maximized damage.
The next zone is the atmospheric zone. This zone should be defended by drone- and air-force fleets combined with mobile and stationary platforms.

It should be said that once the satellite zone has fallen it basically is over unless there is a relieve fleet on its way for blue team. If the satellite zone has fallen the red team will take position around the high orbit zone and start chipping away on the defenses using long range barrage type ships. Once the defensive grid in the high-orbit zone is diminished enough the red fleet can analyze and find the concentrations of ground defenses and shell them using directional long range fire without getting in range.
Planetary shelling and invasion is only done in two cases generally; 1) enemy reinforcements are expected and the job needs to be done quickly. or 2) Out of spite or punishment.

For Earth this is not yet relevant by the way. I would worry more about the 4 degrees Celsius in temperature rise your planet will experience in the next 30 years. 4 degrees rise in temperature is a freaking amount and WILL change the way you biosphere will work. some crops will no longer be as good as they were and other will be better. You need to shift accordingly or mass starvation will be a thing.