A century? So within living memory of the Vulcan elders then? Within living memory of Admiral Archer too apparently.
Absolutely. Which doesn't change the fact that the Vulcans have no logical reason to expect to be attacked by Romulans any time in the near future. Once again, it's sort of like how you don't see a huge impenetrable wall of surface to air missiles around Hanoi anymore, despite the fact that the Vietnam-American war is still very much in the living memory of
their leaders.
The USA doesn't need missiles around Hanoi as they have better missiles that can so the same job from further away
Three things:
1) Why the hell would the
U.S. have missiles around Hanoi?
2) This totally underscores my point, as VIETNAM does not have missiles that can do the same job from further away. Signifigantly, they did not have them during the Vietnam-American War, which necessitated that massive air defense perimeter around their capitol city. Since they are no longer at war with America and haven't been for forty years, they no longer need those defenses, and therefore, those defenses are no longer deployed.
3) This also underscores my point since the Federation, also, has weapons that could do the same job (I assume you're talking about stronghold defense) from further away. They're called "starships."
In TNG the Romulans retreated to their territory for over fifty years? Did the Federation dismantle its outposts along the Neutral Zone during this time? Quite the opposite, and the Enterprise is dispatched to investigate the destruction of listening posts because attack is always a possibility.
Indeed. The outposts along the neutral zone ARE their defense against possible Romulan invasion. That's the whole point of their being, you know, ON THE NEUTRAL ZONE. Those outposts are kind of useless if you have them sitting right next to your core planets so you won't know you're being invaded until the instant your enemies show up in orbit.
No doubt that whatever defenses Vulcan may or may not have could be rapidly deployed in the event of war (the U.S. Patriot system has this feature, as do the S-300s currently used by Vietnam). The neutral zone outposts would give them advanced warning of an on-rushing Romulan armada coming to invade them and they'd have at least a couple of days to trot out any orbital defenses they might need to fight a desperate holding action. A smaller threat--that of a single warbird on a suicide mission--is likely to be intercepted by a starship named Enterprise that just happens to be the only ship within range (cue theme music).
But the idea that these defenses would just be sitting around on hot standby for two hundred years simply on the POSSIBILITY of someone attacking them is just plain illogical. Again, even the U.S. at this very moment doesn't have anti-aircraft missiles deployed around its major population centers, despite the fact that we are nominally at war with not one but two different countries.
Also TMP and TWok and that's just missions involving the Enterprise for plot purposes. Also in the Galileo 7 the Enterprise was busy doing something else while the shuttle crew was in danger and they survived by the skin of their teeth. Space is big; far too big to always have Starships on hand to cover every emergency.
And yet for every emergency there always IS a starship on hand. I think it's safe to assume Starfleet has properly allocated its resources to keep all its bases properly covered. Vulcan, certainly so.
But this is an illogical assumption. Why do they have to maintain a 'vast' orbital defence network? ANY defence network is better than none.
Quantify in what way it is better. A defense network consisting of two guys with a hand phaser is NOT better than none if those two guys with a hand phaser will never ever be needed. This is such, because it is a waste of expenses to pay those two guys and buy them a hand phaser AND the act of calling them into service becomes futile since the two of them combined will never be able to counter a sudden unexpected threat (Nero would simply run them over and laugh).
Though you obviously didn't get the reference, I once again point out that there are no anti-aircraft missiles around Hanoi right now. Forty years ago they had air coverage thick enough to walk on, yet now in peace time those defenses are absent, most of them in storage or safely stashed away in local military bases and training centers. "Any air defense" just won't do; a token missile battery at the edge of town has zero chance of shooting down a dedicated strike of attack fighters that manage to infiltrate that deep into the country, and the cost of maintaining that one missile site makes it a useless gesture anyway.
If you're going to fortify a planet against invasion, you're basically gonna turn it into the Death Star (anything less is a waste of material). THAT is a proposition so expensive that the Federation dare not bother trying it unless they really really need to. And the fact is, in either Trek timeline, they don't need to.
It would be ineffective against the power of Nero but it WOULD have tipped the Vulcans off about his hostile intent before he reached their planet thus giving them time to send a distress signal. This isn't sensible and logical?
Only if the Vulcans knew ahead of time that Nero was coming, and they didn't.
It's the basis of listening posts in our current era.
Which is exactly why Starfleet established the
neutral zone outposts.
I think you might be confusing TNG era tech with TOS era. The Federation didn't have much information on Romulan cloaking technology in this era
Assuming this is the ENT timeline, Starfleet has encountered Romulan cloaking technology on two seperate occasions (I know, the "Babel One" thing was holographic disguises, but I fully believe they operate on the same principle). Archer himself already had experience in defeating Suliban cloaking devices and Enterprise' quantum beacons were effective against older model Romulan cloaks of the 22nd century. If this is the same timeline, then they've already had a hundred years to think about the problem and devise a counter.
We already know Starfleet has gravitic sensors. The use of them to detect cloaked ships follows from their deployment in TNG; ergo, Starfleet would almost certainly use them in the 23rd century.
The probability of attack was never zero nor will it ever be zero.
Statistically speaking, when something never occurs in a multitude of iterations, the probability is zero. As it stands, Vulcan has never been attacked by any
outside force in its entire history, and this apparently includes the Romulans.
Nor is cost an issue in the 23rd century.
Yes it is. It's just not an issue for
consumers.
ANY defence network is better than none.
And I'll repeat what
I said: it is better to not have one than it is to pay for a useless one that won't defend you. Sort of like how you wouldn't pay two hundred dollars for a bullet proof vest that won't stop anything bigger than an airsoft pellet. Even if you're rich and can easily afford it, it's an illogical use of your money.
It would be ineffective against the power of Nero but it WOULD have tipped the Vulcans off about his hostile intent before he reached their planet
So would the neutral zone outposts. That is, once again, precisely what they're FOR. And it is, once again, precisely because nobody was expecting Nero that he was able to get to Vulcan unmolested. If the NZ outposts didn't raise an alarm, than neither would Vulcan's defense grid (and even if it had, "Enemy ship is now in orbit" is WAY too late to start mounting a defense).
These defence stations are for advance warning purposes precisely because you want to maximise your readiness in the unlikely event of a disaster or attack.
Which is precisely why they wouldn't be anywhere NEAR Vulcan. They would, in fact, be at least a day's travel at maximum warp from anything the Vulcans cared about.
Hence the outposts along the neutral zone.
