Orbital defense platform: Difference between revisions

|era= Human-Covenant War

|affiliation=[[UNSC Air Force]]

{{Quote|That MAC gun can put a round clean through a Covenant capital ship.|[[Avery Johnson]], describing the gun of a ''Moncton''-class orbital weapons platform.<ref name="cairo"/>}}

Orbital defense platforms are frequently placed in [[geosynchronous orbit]] and deployed in groups, or clusters, of two to five platforms. The well-equipped and large bridge of an ODP is suitable for directing large-scale engagements. Such was the case when [[Lord Hood|Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood]] directed UNSC forces from an ODP during the [[Battle of Earth]]. These platforms are capable of destroying even the largest of [[Covenant]] capital ships but are vulnerable to [[Covenant boarding craft]] which can avoid the heavy slugs and latch onto the stations. If they survive the point defense guns, it is up to the UNSC personnel within the stations to repel any [[Boarding|boarders]].<ref name="cairo"/>

==Specifications==

===Facilities===

Internally, the stations are remarkably spacious, complete with high ceilings and a monorail system to move personnel and equipment. In addition to numerous small craft bays, there are two docks for larger ships, such as [[freighter]]s, or even [[UNSC frigate|frigates]]. These docking bays could possibly be used to hold [[GA-TL1 Longsword|Longsword fighters]] used to protect the station from hostile spacecraft. The design incorporates many features against potential hostile boarding action, including security stations and small arms racks situated at strategic locations.<ref name="armory">''Halo 2'', campaign level, [[The Armory]]</ref>

===Armament===

====MAC platforms====

The primary and crucial armament is a Mk. V "''Super''" [[Magnetic Accelerator Cannon]] capable of causing near-fatal damage to even a shielded Covenant capital warship with a single slug. The slug can weigh up to 3,000 tons and is launched at 4% the speed of light,<ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', p. 283</ref><ref>''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach|Halo: The Fall of Reach (2010 edition)]]'', p. 320</ref><ref group="note">While the [[Halo Encyclopedia]] lists the velocity as 40% the speed of light, the figure remains unchanged in the reissue of ''The Fall of Reach'', a more recent source.</ref> ensuring the complete annihilation of the target.<ref name="armory"/> As with starship-mounted MACs, a platform's cannon is commonly controlled by an [[Artificial intelligence|AI]]. Due to the immense power of the MAC, a large recoil dampening system is situated at the base of the cannon.<ref name="cairo"/> The weapon is vulnerable to the detonation of nuclear weapons, as their superconductive coils could be burned out from their electromagnetic pulse.<ref name="TFORC34>''Halo: The Fall of Reach'', Chapter 34</ref>

====Point defense guns====

Some platforms are armed with a number of [[point-defense gun]]s for close-in defense against enemy munitions, fighters, and boarding craft.<ref name="warfleetpgs3031"/>

===Power plant===

ODPs do not possess the power generation equipment necessary to fire their main armament. Instead, they receive power from [[orbital defense generator|ground-based generators]]. An effective strategy to neutralize the formidable ODPs would be to disable the generators via ground assault. This would disable the platform's weaponry without destroying it, allowing this valuable prize to be captured or destroyed outright. The Covenant used this strategy during their invasion of [[Reach]], dropping troops to the planet's surface and destroying these generators. This paved the way for Covenant forces to completely overwhelm the UNSC forces in the space battle over Reach.

==Deployment==

===Reach===

[[File:Magnetic Accelerator Cannon.png|thumb|right|300px|An ODP above Reach firing its main cannon.]]

By [[2552#August|August 2552]], [[Reach]] was protected by twenty ODPs. At least one of these platforms was in place by [[2517|May 2517]];<ref>''[[Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp]]''</ref> a number were online by [[2527]].<ref>''Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe'', p. 50</ref> During the [[Fall of Reach]], the orbital defense platforms inflicted massive losses on the Covenant armada in the opening stages of the battle, as well as providing fire support for ground forces on Reach. Large numbers of UNSC forces were deployed to protect the orbital platforms' planetside power generators, but they ultimately fell against determined enemy assaults. The disabling of the defense platforms was a major factor on the battle's outcome.<ref>''Halo: The Fall of Reach''</ref>

===Earth===

The outbreak of the [[Human-Covenant War]] prompted a massive expansion of [[Earth]]'s defenses. Even as late as the [[Battle of Reach]] preparations had not yet been completed; a series of new platforms above Earth were set to come online on September 14.<ref>''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', p. 104</ref> By October 2552, some 300 ODPs were operational.<ref name="armory"/> Many of Earth's ODPs were named after points of interest that they roughly kept station over.

During the [[Ur-Didact|Didact]]'s [[New Phoenix Incident|attack on Earth]] in mid-[[2557]], ODPs defended Earth from the Didact alongside the ships of the UNSC Home Fleet. However, the Didact's ship ''[[Mantle's Approach]]'' was too heavily shielded for even the ODPs Super MACs and as a result, the Master Chief had to destroy the ship from the inside with a [[HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon|HAVOK nuclear warhead]].<ref>''Halo 4'', campaign level, [[Midnight]]</ref>

===New Carthage===

The MJOLNIR GEN2 [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Infiltrator|Infiltrator]] was tested on [[New Carthage]]'s orbital defense platforms.

===Camber===

Several orbital defense platforms were stationed around [[Camber]]; these were eventually destroyed when the Covenant [[Battle of Camber|destroyed]] the planet during the Human-Covenant War.

===Meridian===

Several orbital defense platforms held station above the [[Outer Colony]] of [[Meridian]], owing to the world's critical importance as an industrial supplier of the UNSC; these stations were lost to the Covenant during the [[Battle of Meridian]] in [[2551]].

==Stations of the line==

*'''{{Class|Moncton|orbital weapon platform}}''' - A large MAC-based ODP that was deployed en masse over [[Earth]].<ref name="cairo"/>

File:HFB-ODP.jpg|Model of the orbital MAC platforms for ''Halo: Fleet Battles''.

</gallery>

==Gameplay==

===''Halo: Fleet Battles''===

*'''Fighter Cover''': Only Interceptors can be selected by MAC platforms. Bombers are not available.

*'''Vital Defensive Asset''': A maximum of two MAC platforms per full 1,000 points are permitted.

==Trivia==

{{Linkbox|gallery=yes|gallerypage=Images of orbital defense platforms}}

*The kinetic energy of a single shell from an orbital defense platform would be equivalent to almost''' '''51.6 gigatons of TNT, 1,031 times the yield of the real world's largest nuclear weapon currently tested.

*The orbital defense platforms had entered the conceptual stage sometime around the 2490s, as [[Avery Johnson]] mentions that they were being proposed around the same time he shipped out for boot camp.

==Gallery==

<gallery>

File:H5G-Infinity&Guardian.jpg|Several ODPs in Earth orbit as the ''Infinity'' and her escorts approach the Guardian.  

</gallery>

==List of appearances==

*''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'' {{1st}}

*''[[Halo Mythos]]''

*''[[Halo: Lone Wolf]]''

==Notes==

<References group="note"/>

==Sources==

<references/>

{{Human Ships}}

[[Category:Orbital defense platforms| ]]

[[Category:Space stations]]