Orbital bombardment, also known as an orbital strike, was a military strategy, where capital ships (such as Star Destroyers) would fire their main cannons from orbit to the surface of a planet, causing heavy damage to the designated target and its surrounding area. This strategy was used mostly to wipe targets that were in close proximity, like regular ground troops, or was used to easily deal with large heavy targets. However, the tactic was imprecise, especially if the target was moving.
While orbital bombardment could be used to devastate a planet, like Base Delta Zero, it was more commonly used for military strikes to decimate a target area, and not an entire planet. Base Gamma One was a code in the Imperial Navy for a bombardment.
The Separatists bombard the Shadow Collective on Ord Mantell.
During the Clone Wars, General Grievous ordered his Providence-class Dreadnought to destroy the Jedi Temple on Ledeve with a bombardment. Grievous also used the tactic against Maul and the Shadow Collective by bombarding the Black Sun base of Ord Mantell before landing his troops on the planet. However, the Shadow Collective managed to capture both Grievous and Count Dooku.
After the causalities its forces endured in its failed assaults on the planet Xorrn, the Galactic Republic elected to deploy the 9th Engineering Battalion and Ferra sector fleet to simply bombard its surface.
It was standard procedure for the Galactic Empire to conduct an orbital bombardment of a planet first before launching an invasion, barring exceptions when this was not possible such as in the Mimban Campaign. Imperial Star Destroyers were often used to carry out orbital bombardments, as each ship was capable of reducing cities to steaming craters and laying waste to entire continents on their own. Bombardments could also be carried out for non-military purposes: the planets Samovar and Wadi Raffa were devastated by orbital strikes in preparation for their being strip-mined to support the construction of the Death Star.
The Eclipse implementing an orbital strike.
In the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars, an insurrection on Haruun Kal broke out which required Imperial intervention. After heavy fighting, the Imperial Navy conducted a Base Gamma One bombardment to claim victory. While the victory helped to grow the fledgling Navy's reputation, the bombardment had been fired when there were still ground troops on the planet. Likewise at some point shortly after the Clone Wars ended, the empire attacked Dooku's homeworld of Serenno, where they bombarded at least one of its major cities.
Sometime in 18 BBY, the Empire conducted a Base Delta Zero on the Imperial medical laboratory on the planet Setron after their scientists lost control of their slither vines experiment. The bombardment destroyed the Imperial facility but failed to fully exterminate the slither vines.
When a group of insurgents overran Scrim Island on Batonn, Thrawn was able to overcome its defenses by having the Chimaera conduct an orbital bombardment with its turbolasers on the surrounding ocean. The resulting tsunamis swamped the island's defenses and led to its recapture.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Empire conducted many orbital bombardments against the Rebel Alliance and other enemy combatants. When Agent Kallus found the Ghost crew on the planet Seelos, Admiral Kassius Konstantine proposed to kill all the rebels with an orbital strike. Agent Kallus however preferred to operate a ground attack, using All Terrain Armored Transports. During the Battle of Atollon, Grand Admiral Thrawn deployed an orbital strike against Chopper Base.
Later during the war both Rebels and Imperials ordered orbital strikes against each other's forces on planets like Hoth, Tatooine, Sullust, Endor, and Jakku.
This tactic was to be used during the Battle of Hoth by the Imperial Navy. Lord Vader had planned to surprise attack the Rebel Alliance by jumping in to the Hoth system from hyperspace secretly and destroying the base via orbital bombardment, but failed to do so when Admiral Kendal Ozzel jumped too close to the system. This alerted the Rebels, who in return activated their shield generator, causing the anger of Vader, who blamed Ozzel for stupidity and Force choked him upon General Maximilian Veers reporting the blunder. Afterwards he promoted Firmus Piett to the rank of Admiral. Due to the failed attempt of bombing the rebel base, Veers landed AT-ATs, AT-STs, and other ground troops to take care of the shield generator from inside it.
Operation: Cinder decimated many worlds via orbital bombardment
After the death of Emperor Sheev Palpatine, Messenger droids were sent to numerous Imperial officers bearing a hologram of the late Emperor, who commanded them to execute his final command, Operation: Cinder, an orbital bombardment campaign that ordered the purging and destruction of multiple targeted worlds.
During the Liberation of Kashyyyk, Grand Moff Lozen Tolruck ordered three Imperial-class Star Destroyers to bombard the surface of the planet and wipe out all life on it once he realized the planet's Wookiee rebellion had gotten out of hand. While they caused some damage to the planet's surface, they were ultimately stopped by the Rebels before the order could be completed.
The Fulminatrix opens fire on the Resistance base.
During the outbreak of the First Order-Resistance War, the First Order launched an attack on the Resistance base on D'Qar. A Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought, the Fulminatrix, opened fire on the evacuated base from orbit with its orbital autocannons, completely destroying it.
Sometime later, the First Order deployed a fleet consisting of several Resurgent-class Star Destroyers and one Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought to Tah'Nuhna after following the remnants of the Resistance there. While the Resistance had already left the planet, General Armitage Hux nonetheless ordered the fleet to bombard the planet to set an example. Likewise, while the First Order was in pursuit of the supertanker Colossus, a fleet of fourteen Resurgent-class Star Destroyers initiated a bombardment of the planet Aeos Prime as a punishment for providing refuge for the Colossus and her crew.
The Derriphan opens fire on Kijimi.
During 35 ABY, shortly after Allegiant General Enric Pryde pledged the First Order's allegiance to the revived Darth Sidious and his Sith Eternal, the Xyston-class Star Destroyer Derriphan was sent to Kijimi as a show of force. There it opened fire on the planet with its axial superlaser until the planet was ripped apart by the magnitude of the weapon.
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