I would assume that a fair number of those jammers would have thier own power supply, rather than being tied into an external grid, for exactly that reason.
For a city, that is assuming a lot. You might have emergency secondary power, but those things are going to suck energy and that's going to require a grid. Masking Yar's signal basically required her being directly under it and it didn't take much effort for Riker to get her out of range (distance wise). The most efficient means is going to be plugging them directly into the power grid. You might be able to set up secondary generators so you can run them short term, but they'll run out of juice pretty quickly.
That said, a military base or a bunker would not have that same problem.
I'm not so sure the cardassians can do even that, I think you might be overestatiming thier sensors capabilities because you're basing this estimate on what the federation can do, not what the cardies can. Unless I'm missing something, a sensor capable of detecting something as small as a jammer from orbit, should also be able to detect weapons and explosives from a roughly similar range.
Um, they can. The Cardassians can tell the difference between a Federation runabout from a local freighter by reading their warp signatures light years in distance. Granted, they can also be fooled by adjusting the warp field, but if they can read a warp field light years away, they can probably locate the jammers located on the ground. It's worth noting that the So'na did this as well by using their own shuttle/fighter craft in Insurrection.
But we know the Bajorian resistance was able to conceal thier equipment from the cardassians, and while certainly some of that could have been via hiding in areas with sensor jamming equipment or natual features that blocked them, they would have had to leave those places to attack, and unless they brought jamming gear with them everywhere (which would have been a bad idea), they would have had that stuff detected once they left those safe zones.
I see,
so that's what you're getting at.
You make an excellent point, but that isn't necessarily an issue about Union weakness in regards to UFP sensor tech (although it is not contested that the UFP is superior), but rather a limitation of occupation vs invasion. The issue isn't that a Galor (or satellite) can't detect Bajoran resistance fighters launching a raid on something--it's that doing so is intensive work that requires a great deal of the limited bandwith of the Union military.
If a Galor is actively taking part in an attack on a Bajoran city, it can focus its sensor pallets on where the fighting is, on the infrastructure, and enemy movements. When a Galor is part of an occupation force, it's not going to do that 24/7. Even if it did, no one is going to sit there 24/7 to keep an eye on it. Especially not the most capable people in charge as they would be for an invasion. Rather, what is going to happen is that the Galor is going to use passive scans across the city, focusing in pre-determined hotspots and occasional wide-scans. The ship won't put anyone in charge of actively looking at the sensor readouts, but will instead use Applied AI to keep an eye out for anything that would signal such an attack; energy fire and such. And an Applied AI, even one that is well programmed and holding a relatively wide array of scenarios, is not going to be a match for anything with general intelligence.
And that's assuming you use a Galor, rather than a street-level limited sensor network hooked up to a local occupation government's security office whose job it is to handle that sort of thing. Which means the hardware is far more exposed to the Bajorans, both in terms of the sensor, the network it works in, and the person who runs it. You'll occasionally have Cardassian patrols with skimmers, but you'll map their routes and prepare your attacks to compensate. If you wanted to say, bomb the Cardassian embassy or the local security office; you would plan it with those in mind. You just don't roll up on them.
So certainly, during an invasion, the UNSC can take advantage of the fact that the Cardassians can't see everything at once, but the fact is that the Cardassians will be able to see most things most of the time and that means that the jammer network is not going to provide a strong deterrence without city-wide shields or an especially capable AA defense network.
You've mentioned before that the cardassians are a third rate power, but I'm not sure if you're treating them as a third rate power all the time when assessing what they can do.
Third rate is probably a bit harsh. Second rate is probably more accurate.
No, I meant after the dominion started blowing up thier cities from orbit at the end of the war, the cardassians might be reluctant to employ such tactics themselves, like how japan is really, really anti-nuclear after we dropped the bomb on them.
Yes, but they aren't anti-bomb. So certainly I think the Union would not be able to get away with genocide or carpet bombing a city, but they don't need to. Their weapons and technology favor precision strikes anyway.
I'm not talking about special forces, I'm talking about marines vs cardassians in the trenches fighting it out with tanks and artillery.
There aren't going to be any "trenches". The Cardassians aren't going to just roll up and engage the UNSC on their terms, just because the UNSC happens to be good at it. The Cardassians are going to pick and choose most of the engagements and they're going to pick where they're going to attack and from where.
Certainly, in some of those engagements the cardies will have orbital fire support and mostly unhindered transporters, but sometimes the UNSC will have the edge there, and most of the time I don't think anyone will.
How? We've seen that hand sensor units can track targets kilometers away. And that's not including dedicated sensor machines or satellites or fighters or shuttles.
The cardassians probably can't afford to keep a capship presence up everywhere they're attacking, they don't have enough ships left for that, defending their territory, and trying to keep the UNSC's home fleets pinned at anchor all at the same time.
Capital ships tend to present over a world getting invaded. It's a different story once the world is held of course, but that generally means that the local troops have established a base with vehicles and transporters and a sensor network.
During the dominion war, it was not at all uncommon for neither side to have starship support on hand during an invasion, for precisely those factors.
I don't think there is any proof to support that assessment. Nor would it be the only support they would have. Certainly it is possible that there are times when a ship will be absent, because it must be so--but it makes very little sense to send something as valuable as a starship away from a planetary invasion force. AR-558 is not the end-all, be-all of Trek ground engagements. Which I have to say, I have the impression that is what you go on.
We can look at the invasion of Ajilon Prime in Nor the Battle to the Strong as an example of how these ground battles actually go.
BASHIR: It's a distress call from the Federation colony on Ajilon Prime. They're under attack. The Klingons have landed troops.
JAKE: So much for the cease fire.
BASHIR: The main hospital's been damaged. They're short on doctors and running low on supplies.
JAKE: What are we waiting for? Let's go.
BASHIR: It's risky. The hospital's only fifty kilometres away from the front line.
.....
ODO: Something wrong, Captain?
SISKO: I just talked to Doctor Bashir. He's on his way to Ajilon Prime to answer a request for medical assistance.
KIRA: Jake's with him.
SISKO: According to the latest reports, Klingon ground troops have captured two settlements in the northern hemisphere.
WORF: Half the colonists are still trapped on the planet. There are no ships in the area to evacuate them.
O'BRIEN: We're three days away at best.
SISKO: The Farragut will get there the day after tomorrow. Bashir says that he and Jake will leave as soon as the relief teams are in place.
...
JAKE: Ready to beam down?
BASHIR: No, we can't leave the runabout in orbit, not with the Klingons around. Besides, the colonists moved what was left of the medical equipment underground when the hospital was destroyed and there's magnesite in the rock face. There's no way to transport through it.
JAKE: I guess we'll have to find a place to set down.
BASHIR: Looks like there's a clearing about a kilometre away from the main settlement. Jake, things could get a little rough down there. They've got a lot of wounded.
JAKE: I'll be all right.
So some basic establishing notes. First is that the battle seems to encompass the northern hemisphere, where the Klingons have already captured two settlements. The hospital is about 50 km from the fighting and it was damaged and eventually the colonists had to move the medical equipment and personnel below ground. Bashir also indicated that they couldn't just leave the runabout in orbit and instead decided to land it to within a kilometer of the of the main settlement.
Immediately Starfleet sends the Farragut to provide relief for the colony. As we'd later see, it was intercepted by the Klingons and Sisko would later take the Defiant.
DAX: We just got word. The Klingons have destroyed the Farragut near the Lembatta cluster.
ODO: What about Ajilon Prime? Without reinforcements
SISKO: Dax, you're with me. We'll leave as soon as the Defiant is ready.
...
KIRBY: Don't worry about it. Same thing happened to me my first day. You know what I heard? That ship Starfleet sent, the Farragut? The Klingons intercepted it.
JAKE: Starfleet'll send another one, won't they?
KIRBY: It won't be here for days, and in the meantime we're looking at a ground war which is just what the Klingons want. According to a lieutenant I talked to, they've got so many transport scramblers online that we can't beam troops anywhere.
JAKE: What about using hoppers?
KIRBY: He says the Klingons have been shooting them out of the sky left and right. Unless something changes, he figures the Klingons'll take the settlement the day after tomorrow. Did you see all the bat'leth wounds today? Klingons get mad, they forget about their disruptors, go hand to hand. If you ask me, they're looking to get even for what happened on Ganalda Four.
With the Farragut intercepted, the Klingons are apparently pushing forward with a ground war. They used so many transporter scramblers that the UFP can't beam its troops anywhere and any hoppers they put int he sky was getting shot down left and right. They're estimated to take the settlement in about two days.
BURKE: It's just you and me then. What are you doing out here? Why'd you leave the settlement?
JAKE: I was outside when the shelling started. I guess I got lost looking for cover.
BURKE: Lucky me. I could use the company. Here. Water.
...
BURKE: You didn't see a crashed hopper around here, did you?
JAKE: No.
BURKE: They made it!
JAKE: Who?
BURKE: My platoon. The Klingons had us pinned down. We couldn't beam out because they had a transport scrambler running. We called for a hopper. As soon as it set down, the Klingons came after us. CO ordered me and Brice to lay down cover so the squad could get up the ramp. By the time Brice got in, the Klingons were practically on top of us. The hopper was taking such a pounding, I didn't think it would make it off the ground.
...
JAKE: But I have to. That way this'll all make sense. Maybe I ran for a reason, so I could find you and save your life.
BURKE: Ran?
JAKE: From the explosions. We had to get to the runabout for the generator, and the shelling started and I couldn't see Doctor Bashir and the explosions, they kept getting closer. I had to get out of there, so I ran. I ran and I kept running until I found you.
...
JAKE: I got knocked out when we were trying to get to the runabout. Did Doctor Bashir make it back all right?
KIRBY: He's in IC for the night. He's got plasma burns on his arm and shoulder. I don't know how he managed, but he carried the generator back here by himself. We went looking for you right after the shelling stopped. There was hardly anything left of the runabout. The whole place was nothing but bomb craters and smoke. We had pretty much given up hope.
...
ENSIGN: You know, on a mining team. They're the ones who split the asteroids up with phasers so the excavators can get at what's inside. You've got to have good aim. No matter what else you can say about me, you can't say that I don't have good aim. If I hadn't hit my foot just right, I would've taken my whole leg off. It's funny. One minute your life's moving along just like you always thought it would, and the next you do something that changes everything, that makes you realise you're not who you thought you were. At the Academy, I did really well in the battle simulations. I never had any problems. But when you're out there and the live shells are detonating all around you, it's a whole different thing.
JAKE: All you can think about is getting away from the explosions.
...
KALANDRA: Everybody listen. Listen! We're evacuating. We're taking the patients out through the north tunnel to the surface. A hopper will take us down the peninsula to the base at Tananda Bay.
KIRBY: That tunnel is almost two kilometres long. We have over seventy patients to move. Do you know how long that's going to take?
KALANDRA: Resource is sending a security detail to defend the hospital and give us time to evacuate. We can do this.
The Klingon artillery at minimum destroyed a runabout and left holes and craters. So much so that they had given up on any hopes of finding Jake--seemingly dead or alive. The ensign who shot his own foot also confirms that these are live shells detonating.
Then of course, when the hospital is evacuated, they need to take 70 people, plus personnel with them. That's probably at least 80 and probably suggests that a Hopper can hold at around a hundred people. Said hopper was then going to take them south of the peninsula to the base at Tananda Bay.
I imagine a lot of orbital support is just going to be a handful of ships at most, and they'll be constantly at threat from being picked off by the other side's navy during an engagement (the cardassians might have the worse end of this, since it's generally harder to warp thier ships into a solar system to attack a UNSC force, while the UNSC can drop ships out of slipspace right on top of them with virtually no warning).
If there is a lack of orbital support, it would probably be due to the fact that the Cardassians had already managed to establish a ground base to support their troops.
I think trek consistently overstates the effectiveness of biological weaponry by a fair margin, and even if might turn the war into a MAD situation it's still probably the UNSC's best shot.
No, it most certainly would not. And it would likely harden the Union, not put them at a disadvantage where they feel they must talk. I think you are trying to use what would have worked on the Covenant and applying it to the UNSC.