the # of ships that blockaded naboo

it seems like if the trade federation really wanted to prevent any ships from entering or exiting naboo, they would need to cover everypart of the planet, not just have a ring of ships. any thoughts?

 

The TF ships seemed to have very sensitive radar systems that could track any incoming ships from a far distance. Factor that in with the fact that a ring of them were surrounding the planet presumably, all of which were capable of dispersing hundreds of droid fighters to intercept/persue any ship that got past the blockade in addition to the weapons on the TF ships themselves, and you have a secure blockade.

 

what if a naboo ship took off from a base near one of the poles, the TF ships would never get there in time.

 

From Curtis Saxton's Technical Commentaries:

It is implied that they are distributed around the planet in a ring. If they are evenly distributed at the density shown in the movie then there must be at [least] thousands of them.

It could be that the concentration of ships is more dense over the larger population centres of Naboo, like Theed. Regular fighter patrols likely criss-cross the rest of the planet, covering the poles and oceanic regions. Considering how many fighters come out of the droid control ship in the final battle, the Trade Fed. would have plenty of fighters available to patrol Naboo.

 

The Trade Federation had regular droid starfighter patrols over the planet to make sure that no ships could squeeze past.

 

kinda surprising that now starfighters were deployed to engage the queen's ship

 

That explanation dosen't work. The actual film contradicts it. If you look at the scene where Captain Obvious escapes from Naboo, you will see that there are only ship's in front of him. If there was a ring around the planet then you would see them when they show the queen's ship flying away from Naboo. In fact he doesn't even try to fly away from the blockade, he flies straight into it.

Now before someone says that they needed to fly in that direction to set up the jump coordinates, let me remind you that they are flying through space. And could set up a jump from any point in space. To the left, right, above and below the queen's ship we never see a TF capital ship or fighter in orbit.

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Come to think of it, couldn't some of those ships have attacked the Naboo fighters when they charged the droid control ship?

 

I think they flew straight in toward the ships because by doing so they offer the least amount of target space. If they had turned in any direction, the width and length of the ship would be completely exposed for direct fire.

Lucas probably didn't think of this; it just makes this seemingly illogical maneuver make sense for me.

 

im suprized a trading company could amass an armada large enough to circle an entire planet. if the ships are half a mile long and spaced 2 miles apart, and there were like 10 different rows, then they would need like...

anyone good at math


in fact, anyone know the circumference of naboo?

 

im suprized a trading company could amass an armada large enough to circle an entire planet.

Their ships are refitted freighters.

 

ok , lets ay that the circumference of naboo is similar to earth, maybe 30,000 miles. that means there were about 4 ships for every 10 miles. that means 12,000 in one complete ring. then say there were 10 rings, and you get about 120,000 of those gigantic federation ships.

just something to think about...

 

In other words, a blockade of an entire planet is nearly impossible.

 

It depends on the range of their weapons/sensor systems. A ring of ships set far enough away from the planet could concievably cover firearcs above and below, overlapping the poles. However, lasers in star wars seem to explode at a relatively short range, even for capital ships, so the above scenario wouldn't work.

If the TF spread the ships out in a sphere formation, they could better cover the approaches to the planets...but they didn't do that.

So...we'll have to accept that GL doesn't get how space combat (and the blockading of planets in particular) would really work. We saw the same thing with the Battle of Hoth. Either half a dozen star destroyers locked down the entire planet (not possible), or the rebels were operating under the same mentality of Captain Obvious and flew directly at the blockading vessels (stupid).

Take your pick: Stupid or Impossible

This is where suspension of belief comes in. And Star Destroyers look so ******* cool, it's easy to get distracted.

 

^^^ thats what ive always been wondering about!

naboo is this huge planet, and the blockade is a tiny ring.

the queens ship must have had to continually change course just to come into range of their guns.



why in hell, not fly north for oh, say 10 minutes, then make a break for it, makes no sense.


*sees nuclear missle approaching*
ohh, i have wasted my life

 

Maybe they could have flown up or down, but then maybe droid fighters would have been launched to pursue them. Why wouldn't they launch fighters to pursue them in this case.

If I'm not mistaken the Trade Fed did not relize Amidala was on the craft, if so they may have made a more concentrated effort to capture the ship.

Regardless, I would say they flew directly at the blockade to consume as little time as possible in getting away. Wether or not you go north, south, or straight at them you still have to get away from the gravity well of the planet in order to engage the hyperdrive.

The most stable and easy orbit is around the equator of any world, that would be why there is a ring around the middle instead of a swarm, although polar orbits are not that difficult.

 

They could have just as easily flown through the atmosphere to the OTHER SIDE of the planet, bypassed the severely limited blockade, made a mini jump out of the system, then taken a direct shot at Coruscant.

That they didn't either speaks well for the TF in anticipating this blunder, or speaks poorly of the writer for ignoring a logical solution not once, but twice in constructing this scene.

 

A ring of ships around the planet implies ships surrounded the planet.

 

>>> Regardless, I would say they flew directly at the blockade to consume as little time as possible in getting away. Wether or not you go north, south, or straight at them you still have to get away from the gravity well of the planet in order to engage the hyperdrive.<<<

Heaven forbid Captain Obvious take the additional two seconds to angle the ship in another direction.

>>> A ring of ships around the planet implies ships surrounded the planet.<<<

And yet upon watching the scene were they escape we never see a "ring of ships". Only that contingent of ships directly infront of Slick Ric's flight path.

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A ring of ships around the planet implies ships surrounded the planet.

well, yes, the planet was surrounded.

if it were a navel blockade, then being surrounded means no escape, since theres only front backwards, left and right.

however, in space, being surrounded in the same sense as above wouldnt have the same effect, since "up" and "down" come into play.

in order to maintain an effective blockade of anything in space, you would have to cover it with ships on all sides.