Dune ... Interplanetary combat.

[CultureCitizen]

I saw the re-make of Dune last year. When Harkonens invade Dune I saw something was off: there were no planetary defense platforms, and I don't recall any being mentioned on the book either.
Having orbital platforms seems the most obvious way to defend from an invasion, even if all combat has to be done with conventional weapons.
Or did I miss something in the book?

 

[hitmouse]

I don't think you missed anything.

 

[Vince W]

The Spacing Guild controls all space-based platforms. The book mentions that the Spacing Guild told House Atreides that regardless of how much wealth they acquired they would never have enough to allow them to put any type of platform in orbit. In the book, this is weather control satellites, but the same could be said for weapons platforms.

That said, I don't think Frank imagined such things when he wrote Dune, so the film didn't need to mention them.

Also, the Guild controls all space travel so they would never allow anything that might damage a Heighliner in orbit.

 

[CultureCitizen]

The Spacing Guild controls all space-based platforms. The book mentions that the Spacing Guild told House Atreides that regardless of how much wealth they acquired they would never have enough to allow them to put any type of platform in orbit. In the book, this is weather control satellites, but the same could be said for weapons platforms.

That said, I don't think Frank imagined such things when he wrote Dune, so the film didn't need to mention them.

Also, the Guild controls all space travel so they would never allow anything that might damage a Heighliner in orbit.

I do recall the part about the weather control satellite, but arguably , that could halt spice production and stop all trade... which means the end of the guild.
On the other hand all ships are capable of reaching the orbit, so simply leaving a couple of ships with weapons parked in low orbit seems the obvious choice.