User blog comment:Rozh/Surface-to-Orbit Artillery/@comment-26685181-20110320202517

Ground-based artillery for a space-based target seems inefficient. There's the question of mobility - not just of the artillery, but of the ship. The velocities of spaceships can get ridiculous, and sensors can detect the firing of a projectile at supersonic velocities, possibly even the sub-light velocities of a regular MAC, and make evasive manoeuvres. There's distance - for a projectile to cross that distance gives the target a lot of time to detect it incoming, evade/counter it, and fire on its firing position. There's the question of firepower - having to fight the forces of friction and gravity, will it still have enough force to be effective? What effect will firing a MAC in-atmosphere at an orbital target have? Supersonic shockwaves? Electromagnetic pulse?

It seems much more efficient to me to have space-based weapons platforms, like the Super MACs. Less variables to account for.