Point Defenseless: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
"Point defense" is a military term referring to the active protection of a single asset, such as a ship or a building. In modern terms, this means computerized systems with sophisticated targeting sensors that [[wikipedia:Close-in weapon system|automatically engage]] incoming enemy aircraft or missiles. In fiction, this can apply to space combat as well. But when a target is
This may be in part because many fictional point defense system still use WWII-style manually operated, visually targeted cannons instead of the automatic systems that replaced them (even when the story ostensibly has a [[Schizo-Tech|higher]] tech level than modern day), but even the most futuristic AI-controlled [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser-firing]] point defenses can fall victim to this trope. Attackers may be forced to jink and dodge, or they may be able to cruise in straight and level while bullets whizz past them, but even if the point defenses manage to take out some of the attackers, it will never be able to stop them all.
This is an application of the [[Rule of Drama]]; it's far more dramatic when ''people'' have to defend a target, rather than faceless machinery. It can also be a form of [[Plot Armor]], when point defense can shoot down [[Mook
See also [[A-Team Firing]] and [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]. If the point defense guns blaze away at where the hero just was, that's a [[Hero-Tracking Failure]].
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== Film ==
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' franchise does this frequently.
** The climactic battle in ''[[A New Hope]]'' has the Death Star's ([[Schizo-Tech|manually aimed]]) point defense unable to hit more than one or two [[Red Shirt
** Similarly, the space battle at the end of ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' shows Naboo fighters getting blown out of the sky, but they don't seem to bother Anakin in the least.
*** These, at least, ''are'' targetted by machines. Of course, those same machines have probably downloaded all the major coursework from the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]].
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* [[Zig Zagged Trope|Zig-zagged]] in the ''[[Posleen War Series]]'', where Posleen defensive hardware is ''very'' dangerous to anything flying under its own power (even stealth equipment and hero characters), but completely useless against unguided rockets or artillery shells.
** Probably justified by that as a species the Posleen don't really know how to use their own (inherited) tech; even their technical geniuses at most tweak the stuff based on a partial and sketchy grasp of the underlying principles rather than invent. In particular, their sensors are set using control combinations discovered by trial and error.
* [[Invoked]] in some of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] books, particularly the ''[[X Wing Series]]''. Though lucky shots will probably take a few out, the only really effective way to keep [[Space Fighter
** Notably, the Empire created an entirely new ship packed with smaller, faster firing turbolasers specifically to counter the Rebellion's overuse of fighters. It ''still'' isn't as effective as [[Old School Dogfighting]].
*** The ''Lancer''-class frigate suffers from being [[Awesome but Impractical]]: it's effective (the one the Rogues face in ''Rogue Squadron'' is only beaten by a [[Macross Missile Massacre]] from the Y-Wings), but it's too expensive and requires too many crew. It is also a victim of [[Crippling Overspecialization]], having no chance against standard capital ships.
* In [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'', during the climax, the [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|mile-high tower]] that is the headquarters of J Corp is revealed to possess surface-to-air missile defenses to complement its private army. Considering that they are employed to deal not with aircraft but with a {{spoiler|[[Colony Drop|massive satellite falling from orbit]]}}, it's unsurprising that they prove ineffective.
* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'', being relatively-realistically-extrapolated [[Space Opera]] [[Military Science Fiction]], plays with this in fifteen different ways. Firstly, no one is ever actually flying in any sort of fighter that would be vulnerable to point defense systems, but they use many different layers of missile defense to deal with the [[Macross Missile Massacre]] that becomes the standard method of attack. Of course, actual point defense systems as we know them are only one layer of this shield, and not nearly the most effective one. On the other hand, they do form one of the final lines of defense against enemy fire. Of course, the older ships of the Solarian League use autocannon point defense (as opposed to laser) which is horribly obsolete compared to Manticoran or Havenite multi-drive missiles, and so will play the trope straight.
** One of the recurring elements of the books is loving, detailed descriptions of how many missiles are whittled
* Generally averted in [[Dale Brown]] books, where [[Macross Missile Massacre
* Averted in David Drake's ''Hammers Slammers'' stories because the availability of near-light-speed energy weapons has rendered aircraft and slow-flying missiles obsolete in a combat zone; if you can see it, you can kill it.
* In the assorted ''Starfire'' books by Steven White (and [[David Weber]]), point defense against fighters and missiles is a critical part of combat but doesn't work nearly as well as you'd think their technology should allow.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* A third-party supplement for ''[[D20 System|d20 Anime]]'' used this trope in order to match the feel of real anime. One of the settings, a [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]] version of ''[[Macross]]'', has a sidebar describing the capabilities of the heroes' home base ship, saying that it has no stats due to "[[Plot Armor|dramatic immunity]]" (except in the final battle) and that its point defenses can mow down hordes of cannon fodder mecha, but are useless against the enemy commanders (who will no doubt develop [[The Rival|rivalries]] with the protagonists).
* Anti-missile systems in ''[[BattleTech]]'' have aspects of this. Depending on the ruleset, they either run out of ammo almost instantly or are actually forbidden from being 100%
* Surprisingly an [[Averted Trope]] in ''[[Mekton]]''. A well-designed point-defense system can shred virtually any Mekton in only a few hits. For this reason, point defense is very often left out of warship designs...
* Averted in [[Battlefleet Gothic]], most starships have at least one point of Turrets that can hold off torpedoes and bombers. Though most ships only have one or two points of turrets, meaning that on average a Lunar-class cruiser attacked by four bomber squadrons is still going to take three of the attacks.
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* In the first ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'' game, the US fleet isn't the least bit able to defend itself against the slow moving hordes of alien ships. Worse, the fleet gets only a 5 second warning about the approaching ships before they wreck the carrier's flight deck by simply crashing into it. A later cutscene shows many more alien craft in the background, and a nuclear warhead had just been detonated, so [[They Just Didn't Care|they could've easily told us]] the aliens did a [[Zerg Rush]] and 99% were shot down before getting close and have the damage done by the remaining 1%, or that the systems were blinded by the nuke's EMP waves.
* In the various ''[[Star Wars]]'' space sim games, there are often laser turrets that are more specifically designed for swatting X-wings. They tend to fail horribly at their jobs when you learn how to handle them.
** In the ''[[X Wing]]'' and ''[[TIE Fighter]]'' games, you can simply jiggle the stick while moving in any direction but directly at a turret to evade all
** The ''[[Rogue Squadron]]'' games often forced you to directly confront these laser turrets, which is suicidal to do head-on, but if you can get below their firing arc (and they're often on top of hills or on canyon ledges to facilitate this), they're completely helpless.
** ''Battlefront II's'' Space Combat mode avoided player immunity to AA by having the automated turrets of capital ships shoot exploding lasers (don't think about it). This made up for their poor accuracy by making it extremely difficult for small fighters like A-Wings to fly within range of them, lest they run into a flak barrage and explode uselessly.
* Mostly averted in ''Privateer 2'', in which even cargo freighters are at [[Gunship Rescue]] level thanks to their relentless, targeted, and high-powered turret fire. Either you're constantly evading, you get out of range, or you get shredded. Depending on the ship, you might be able to take it out by getting into that blind spot.
* Capital ships in ''[[Homeworld]]'' almost invariably need escorts against waves of fighters, as they have little or no point defense. This is a deliberate part of the [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]], and a few capital ships are effective against fighters at the cost of not countering what capital ships normally
** In ''Homeworld Cataclysm'', most of the ships end up subverting this trope. All of the larger capital ships are at least armed with homing energy cannons or precise guns that severely negate the usefulness of fighter squadrons against them. The Somtaaw capital ships carry missile launchers in addition to the rest of their guns, killing off any chance of a serious fighter attack.
*** Cataclysm also brings us a whole new way of averting this trope - the little Sentinel defense pods, which are armed with a single (upgradable) gun. A full dozen of them are needed to fully shield a ship, but when you achieve that the ship's shield itself [[More Dakka|dakkas]] attacking fighters with frightful effectiveness.
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** Well, not so much RPS and much more appropriate defensive allocation. Any cruiser can stock more than enough anti-fighter/bomber point defense to shred even the largest cloud of them, but it'll cost them points that could be used for much heavier firepower, possibly leaving them open to capital ships. It must be pointed out that no quantity of fighters alone will be able to destroy a fleet that is prepared for them.
** Also, it's not really that the [[BF Gs]] can't hit the fighter/bombers, it's that they alone fly ''under'' the Cap ships' shields, thus attacking the generally weaker hull ''directly''.
* The original ''[[Free Space]]'' played this very straight, with even the heaviest Destroyers packing no more than a few easily-dodgeable "blob turrets" and puny missile launchers. In response, the sequel [[Averted Trope|loaded every capital ship down with exploding flak and hitscan Anti-Fighter Beams]]. For the most part this was an improvement, but it also gave birth to the Aeolus-Class Cruiser, a [[Demonic Spider]] so tough it ''never'' makes an un-[[
** Some fan-made mods take it even further: The Procyon Insurgency ups the fire rate on the blob turrets to the point where they're practically beam gatlings, making them ''extremely'' dangerous.
* ''[[Ace Combat]]'''s [[Battleship Raid|flying fortresses]] and naval ships frequently carry AA guns, but they're mostly harmless except at the very highest difficulty levels because of how the games handle damage. They're also completely unable to shoot down the player's missiles. On the other hand, flying fortresses and ships can also launch ''missiles'', which can knock you right out of the sky.
** In ''Ace Combat 5'', the heroes' aircraft carrier is damaged by a sea-skimming anti-ship missile [[Cutscene Incompetence|during a cutscene]], despite its CIWS's attempts to shoot it down. This is actually fairly
** ''Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception'' includes "high-performance" AAA that is able to intercept your bombs and missiles in one mission (two, actually... [[Remixed Level|sort of]]). This is so significant for the series that the mission briefing and [[Mission Control]] specifically point out the aversion.
** In ''Joint Assault'' {{spoiler|Sulejmani's Varcolac}} has a rear-facing gatling that shoots missiles aimed at his six out of the air.
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** In the Falklands War a number of British [[wikipedia:Type 42 destroyer|Type 42 destroyers]] got hit by not only guided anti-ship missiles but also Argentine aircraft lobbing unguided munitions at them. The early iterations of the class were fitted with GWS30 Sea Dart surface-to-air missile system for anti-air defense; problem was, if aircraft or missiles managed to close to within a certain range, software issues with the SAM system caused them to be unable to properly track and fire at targets because they were too close. This limitation was the reason why the class was latter fitted with two Mk.15 Phalanx CIWS.
** The newer Sea Wolf SAM fitted to a few ships in the fleet had a problem with its fire-control software that most likely inspired the example in ''[[Red Storm Rising]]'' described above; when multiple Argentine fighter-bombers approached in line-abreast formation, the program threw a fit because it was supposed to target the closest threat first.
* There's actually a group of people dedicating to make this trope [[Truth in Television]]
* The odds of downing a single enemy aircraft with ship's guns during [[WW 2]] were miniscule most of the time, but this wasn't really a problem. Flak wasn't meant to kill enemy aircraft, it was meant to protect the ship, and an aircraft that flinched or dropped its weapon from too far away for accuracy was as good as a kill. Thus it wasn't as important to hit the plane as it was to make sure you came close. This is probably where the trope comes from, and the heroic pushing through the flak screen was something that happened several times in the Pacific. Often, however, it came at a terrible cost.
** The Battle of the Eastern Solomons provides a good example: the last of Imperial Japan's pre-war carrier pilots pressed their attack home into the teeth of flak from both ''Enterprise'' and the new battleship ''North Carolina'' and several other ships. They got three hits on ''Enterprise'', but three quarters of them died to do it.
** Kamikazes were the ultimate recognition that it was impossible to accurately aim a bomb or torpedo under fire from US ships. Turning the aircraft itself into the weapon meant it had to be hard-killed to stop it, and consequently upped the percentage of hits.
*** The main reason that the Kamikaze strategy was deemed a failure was because of the Japanese air force's humanity; they were unwilling to commit more forces to a (literal) [[Suicide Mission]] than absolutely necessary, and squadrons typically sent in one or two planes at a time. Unfortunately for the pilots, this meant that their target ships and escorts had a much easier time picking out a target, so while the ''percentage'' of successful strikes went up, the total number of strikes dropped dramatically.
* Bombers in [[World War II]] such as the American B-17 [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Flying Fortress]] were armed to the teeth, with more and more defensive firepower added in later models. Compare the [http://www.aircraftarchaeology.com/B-17B%20Fortress_files/b17b.JPG B Model] to the [http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/uploaded-images/2008-4/2/12743.jpg G Model]. While formations of these planes could make for very dangerous targets, the preferred Luftwaffe tactic of head-on strafing runs of the formations,<ref>
** That said, any German ''[[Gratuitous German|Jagdflieger]]'' who wanted to live a long life always avoided attacking the American bomber formations from ''behind''. Doing so not only reduced the closing speed considerably, but also allowed the bomber crews to present the largest volume of defensive fire. One report of a bomber formation being attacked by Me-262 Schwalbe jet fighters had the planes being helplessly torn apart by the fast moving interceptors, until one hapless German pilot made the mistake of flying at them from behind... he flew into so much defensive heavy machine gun fire that his plane ''[[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|disintegrated.]]''
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