Drop Troopers in Sci-Fi Warfare (Helldivers 2, ODST etc)

The idea of "kicking in the door" by slaming down in a drop pod just have something natural badass to it.

Surprised the Steel Rain tactic isn't brought up. Defensive use of orbital drops to defend an area larger than the size of the defending force would normally allow.

The Oil must flow

I'm not worried about the lower-than-orbit supercarriers, Intel reports anti-air fire will be random and light

You’re basically all forward observers. In the US army Theyre called 13 Foxes, nickname of Fisters. Sure you can barrage a planet into lifelessness, but having a forward observer makes it easier to find or locate targets accurately with minimal cost in comparison. Seems like Helldivers universe ships are Soviet style, lots of firepower but not a lot of armor to reduce cost

As always on this kind of topics (Power Armor, Drop Pods, etc.) the best description remains the one given by R.A. Heinlein in "Starship Troopers" (THE BOOK, not the Movie!!!).

So for those of you who are too good to have heard this line, the destroyers are indeed NOT in orbit.On a long mission, At the 5 minute warning, you get the message from your captain "window is closing helldiver, we cant stay this low for much longer." If youre not ready to go, the extraction ship is automatically called and WILL leave without you, suggesting the urgency of this statement. I believe this suggests that the destroyers are staying in atmo, below orbit, and are burning massive resources to do so. The on bridge liason has a throwaway line that says "you know, each helldiver mission is approx the same cost as a liberty class cruiser." Keeping such a massive spacefaring ship in atmo conditions would go a LONG way to explaining this cost, because arty sure as hell aint that expensive.

Too bad Battletech didn’t get a shout out in this video. There are some epic drops in those stories!

Aww, no mention of the Basilisks mentioned in Kotor ☹

The fact that someone else remembers that Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles is a thing that existed brings joy to my heart.

My fellow tempestus scions

I always thought that Rebel blockade runners should be used to deploy SpecForce teams, spies and saboteurs to planetary environments.

Fast and light ship with minimal crew requirements, can land and comes with several escape pods.

“I just want to remind you apes that each and every one of you has cost the gov’ment, counting weapons, armor, ammo, instrumentation, and training, everything, including the way you overeat — has cost, on the hoof, better’n half a million. Add in the thirty cents you are actually worth and that runs to quite a sum.” He glared at us. “So bring it back! We can spare you, but we can’t spare that fancy suit you’re wearing. I don’t want any heroes in this outfit; the Lieutenant wouldn’t like it. You got a job to do, you go down, you do it, you keep your ears open for recall, you show up for retrieval on the bounce and by the numbers. Get me?”

You could just quote the original Starship Troopers that, despite its age, did almost everything better:
* Dropship decelerates from orbital velocity before dropping the pods, but then (apparently) goes away. Not hovering of course.
* Capsules are shot (not just dropped) from the height around 50-100 km or maybe even lower
* Of course they descend a lot faster than a human in freefall, duh.
* Have multiple layers of heatshield that also works as chaff and then deploy multiple small parachutes.
* Multiple unmanned decoy capsules additionally dropped to overload enemy's air defences and soften the landing area.
* The capsule itself is blown apart into decoy pieces before landing.

In Gundam, balute heatshields should work too, and the dropships don't hover too.
Of course it would be stupid to try dropping anything from 400 km orbit.
One of the worst, least researched videos you have have made, so far. Reminded me why I stopped following.

You didn't mention all of the G's a trooper would have to absorb with the sudden stop at the end. That slam into the ground would equal mush on the inside of the drop pod.

Drop troops would be more isolated than the vdv in hostomel

yooooo the starship troopers roughneck chronicles deepcut

Don't forget that the drop pods in helldivers are shaped like bullets, your helldivers aren't being used as human soldiers, but as AMMUNITION FIRED AT THE ENEMY.

What a poorly researched video. It's full of glaring inaccuracies and omissions timed solely to capitalize on the popularity of Helldivers.

Spacedock, do you plan to talk about your ships? Because I would love for you to do so.

Spacedock tienes planeado hablar de sus naves?, Porque me encantaría que lo hicieras

Huh I'm surprised you. Didn't mention cap troopers from starship troopers who I heard were original inspiration for ODST. The experience of insertion was really detailed in the book. Ifrc they had more of a power armor like the old 1988 OVA, it had certain and AAA counter measures, and even used the initial capsule as a chaff. When they landed they were highly maneuverable leapfroging like the hulk, and reasonably armed.

I imagine the reason the Super Destroyer eventually have to go back to high orbit is to avoid giving a QRF which could contain anti ship weapons from being brought into range of the Destroyers.

this got long, but needless to say I disagree that pods are impractical.

I wouldn't say they're impractical really. We used paratroopers for basically this exact thing, and we did it for a reason. It's a way to quickly deploy troops with shock-and-awe, loud and fast. It's also good because it allows deployment on a per-troop basis, allowing for fine-grained deployment as opposed to needing an entire dropship. (which is much easier to shoot down as well!) This may not seem significant, after all how often will someone need only 1 unit of reinforcement? But it becomes exceptionally useful when, "SHIT, OUR HEAVY WEAPONS GUY IS DOWN", "SHIT, OUR MEDIC IS DOWN", "SHIT, OUR PILOT IS DOWN". There are indisputably cases where your squad does legitimately just need one guy because they need someone with skills that they don't have anymore. Imagine trying to fly a plane full of skilled soldiers around to each and every squad that needs it, and imagine how many times you're going to need to send that ship because it keeps getting shot down. Plus the fine-grained deployment allows you to deploy units exactly where they are needed. There is a joke Collion Noir makes, "when every second is life or death the police are only minutes away" and it's true here as well. Being able to deploy a troop exactly where they are needed saves minutes or hours of travel time.

If you are using artificially accelerated pods from a sub-orbital ship you could probably get this down to under a minute. The drop times could be massively accelerated via the use of an ejection accelerator, be it a mini MAC cannon/railgun that aims and fires pods alread accelerated and aimed towards their destination at rapid pace, boosters on the top of the pod firing it downward, some pneumatic launchers, etc.

The thing to always remember is that every invention ever made would never work. I mean, take pikes, if we didn't know pikes were actually used in battles, who the fuck would take you seriously when you said "oh hey, maybe people in the past used 6 meter long sticks with metal points on the end!". I mean even just logistically imagine how much of a nightmare that'd be! It's hard enough to have to twist and turn a couch around, imagine making it 6 meters long! Then imagine how cumbersome it would be to hold that thing since you're putting a heavy metal weight at the end of 6 meters of leverage. Then imagine the cost associated with constantly breaking them because you're putting a heavy weight that will take a lot of force on the end of a long wooden stick, and the metal bit is the expensive bit, so you'll keep breaking them and losing the single most expensive bit of the entire weapon! The point I'm making is that every single idea or invention ever made or ever will be made, will never work. Pikes sound ridiculous, cars sound ridiculous, hell, who the fuck thought it'd be a bright idea to try to fire small rocks at people using literal micro-explosions down a metal tube? Of course, all of these things do exist and do work because despite sounding fatal, these issues are manageable and they're useful in the applications we make them for. Pikes aren't really used as weapons of traditional combat, they're more used like frisian horses. Even then, they still are massively inconvenient, but that extra mobility as a troop-weapon as opposed to a deployed fixture is often worth it, even if it feels like a horrible trade. (think someone massively upcharging you on something, but you buy it anyway despite knowing that because you still want/need the thing and can't/don't-want-to hold off. People like to blame muh capitalism for that, but no, it's just an intrinsic fact of the world that the real value proposition doesn't always match the percieved/felt value proposition. A prime example of this is the wonderful idea to stop people price gouging when a disaster strikes, until you realize they're upcharging because they bought expensive supplies, rented a truck on almost-no-notice, spent god knows how much on gas to get it there, and risked their own safety in the process, all specifically to get supplies to people who need it, and you're now stopping them from being able to do that because you don't want them charging more than the wholesale cost of the supplies themselves. And you've now guaranteed no-one is going to get those supplies to people in need in the future, good job. Only two things cause deadweight loss, a complete monopoly (which functionally never exist) and government taxation, everything else leaves/creates surplus for both the consumer and producer. Yes, you're paying more than you 'should', but the context is relevant.)

Whether drop pods would ever be the main method of troop deployment I can't really say and it'd definitely be subject to the exact technologies and (by proxy) warfare styles in question, but just writing them off as completely unrealistic feels rather unfair to me. Also, for what it's worth, despite seeming ridiculous the helldivers in-ground pod is actually one of the most realistic pods there are. It implies that the pod is artificially weighted to slam into, and through, the ground. Heavier things don't fall any faster, but they do slow down slower and crush/go-through more shit in the process. In other words if the pod is strong and heavy enough it will turn the ground below it into it's own cushion, and by proxy your own cushion. It won't make it comfortable, but it might be able to make it survivable. Extending an impact from 0m to 2-3m is a massive extension, so the fatal sudden-stop might be able to stop being sudden enough to not be fatal. Since super-earth is already space faring they probably already do asteroid mining and thus can afford to artifically weight the pods to make this happen, or maybe, counter to expectation, they fire boosters into the ground on/during-impact. I'm not sure if the physics would work out there for that ever be more viable than slowing down the impact with upward boosters, but it might still be worth it even if not since it gives the pod some protection while the occupant is readjusting. Again, this would be subject to the exact circumstances, but in a galaxy as hostile as Helldivers it might make a bit of sense why you don't want to send literally shell-shocked troops down in a giant metal tin-can that can be shot the second it lands. It might actually be more practical to punch through-and-into the ground for that brief protection, while using that period to slow-down. (speaking of slow down, yeah, as the pod slows down it's also an easy target)

(also, for the record, yes the drop times for kinetic bombardment would be on the order of minutes, but it's still way faster than traditional bombing and basically all of the things that would influence it's trajectory/landing-site are somewhat predictable. The real issue is that, 1 : space is hard, and 2 : getting up to space is hard. Making something go boom takes energy - with traditional bombs that energy comes from chemical or atomic reactions but, despite how it may seem, kinetic bombardment isn't free. Yes, gravity is accelerating the projectile, but you're the one sending this massive metal rod into space. You're still providing the energy, except instead of simple chemical reactions that need to go boom, now you need rockets and space stations. Note for admirals of the future : space-based industry and asteroid mining, you're welcome)

I'd like a video on stupid sci-fi weapons that are used too much -- like Rods from God.

One of my favorite examples of this is in the Red Rising novel series. In universe they call it an Iron Rain, where biologically enhanced soldiers in power armor are fired out of railguns at a planet in order to bypass orbital defenses.

the biggest problem is the inpact
imagen the amount of g-fosres you would have.
you are like cracrashing but ladderly

Orbital drop troops are my favorite feature in the sci fi genre

When Lord Edward Grey said the British army should be a projectile to be fired by the Royal Navy, I don't think this is what he had in mind, but I'm sure he would have approved.

Helldivers is such a fun lil polished gem!

I would think that pods would be equipped with the things you mentioned. Sensors, anti-air gear, stealth systems and so on to avoid some of the things you mentioned. I mean they are effectively flying caskets built and equipped like tanks. And I don't think that you noticed the boosters on the top of the ODST drop pods to help them get down quicker. Now to be fair, that may not help the occupant but will help them get down quicker.

The Super Destroyers make no sense as starships. The fully upgraded ship has a crew of around 20, but there’s nowhere near enough space for things like galleys, life support, crew quarters, medical facilities, and food and water storage for a crew that large. The aft section is inaccessible from the forward section thanks to a massive shuttle bay door. So I have to assume it’s fully automated and uninhabitable. Either the ships return to a starbase every 3 hours for meals and crew rest or there’s some unethical treatment going on. I’ll go report to the Democracy officer now.

The Drop Pods in Command & Conquer came down pretty quickly.

ZERGS... 90% OF THEM DIE trying end up on planet. But dear god that 10% is still to many to win aginst them

I like it because it reminds me of my time in the 82nd. Shock troopers rule whether its real or sci fi

Practical droppods are improved parachutes. Paratrooper assaults basically haven't happened except as a performative measure basically since WW2, because the time spent floating down is very risky, and you have to have air superiority already to get your transport craft into the vicinity enough. The exception, of course, is long night parachute flights by special forces, or HALO drops, which is relevant to the drop pod. Drop pod is an assisted HALO drop, equipped with stealth things to make it less obvious than the occupants would be, and able to clear the danger zone of being silhouetted against the sky while traveling slowly as fast as possible (If you don't have to rely on the mk0 leg to land, you can hit the ground a lot harder safely with some proper cushioning and orientation). ODST is a particularly good example, they can be launched directly into combat which is what the game often shows, but proper use is usually a stealth insertion as special operations; you can launch the pods from farther away and let them coast, or launch them during a flyby that wouldn't be enough time to get paratroopers out the door.

Can you do an in-depth analysis of the SEAF Super Destroyers?

Even with racks of frozen Helldivers, it feels weird to have 1 SD per Helldiver. And even when you get 4 on board, what are the other 3 SDs doing?

Maxim #11: Everything is air-droppable at least once

Hellpods also slam into the ground with enough deceleration to kill the people inside but maybe they have some inertial dampening tech.

im imagining a slightly different purpose and design for drop pods. instead of dropping the things straight down into anti-aircraft and anti-orbital weapons they're made to be hypersonic glide vehicles that descend into an atmosphere before covering a significant distance to reach the target while remaining below their radar horizon for as long as possible. you use drop PODS again to reduce the radar signature and the chance to intercept it during the final approach before the pod breaks apart and the occupant parachutes to the ground. they'd be used to rapidly threaten a wide area around the main landing zone, since you need to concentrate your fire on that landing zone to clear AA but still need to disrupt the enemy around that spot to stop counter-attacks pushing you back off the planet.

I love the Srop Troopers :D
ODST were always an awesome addition to Halo :D
Warhammer Space Marines And Elysian Drop Troopers
And of Course the Helldivers

What about geosynchronous orbit? I mean, thats something we already use today.

For Liberty!

Just build land vehicle can drop from orbit without taking damage

You can explain the short time it takes to reach the surface in halo by the fact that the pods are shot out of the ship and also have thrusters to reach ground faster

Drop pods that slam down in the middle of combat are probably better suited for deliberate shock tactics, like what the Astartes do in 40k as the Imperium's dedicated shock troopers.

Titanfall just smashing giant robots into the ground without any real warning for the other team or explanation how is absolutely one of the best parts. Why use it just as mech, when you can also use it as artillery first

If you want to see the best drop pods I suggest the film 'Genocidal Organ'.

"titanfall just yeets them" yeh in the main story we literally see a cruiser at low alt yeet a new Vanguard class titan for us

to counter your point of a loud drop pod, i bring you a different kind of pod:meteor ball
just cover the pod in a bunch of loose ish rock that shatters on impact, and send it in with a meteor shower
the result is they think a meteor hit and theres nothing to worry about unless it hit an important thing