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This is for anyone that has seen Rogue One, so read the spoilers at your own risks :)

When

the Rebel fleet attacks the planet hosting the Imperial archive, they have to deal with the protective force field and its gate.

We see them using

bombs against the entry force field, but I don't remember seeing them using bombs for the gate itself.

Why not use

one of the EMP bombs on the gate itself, as it seems to be pretty effective against the Destroyer, and prove beforehand that it is not useful?

The imperial engineers may certainly have thought of that, and made the gate sturdy in that scenario, but I truly don't remember any of my suggestions above occurring in the movie.

Is there perhaps another reason that eluded me?

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    I'm pretty sure I saw Y-Wings drop bombs on the gate.
    – Fatalize
    Dec 14, 2016 at 22:39
  • They did attack it but didn't do much damage to it and considering what it took to take it down in the end those little bombs were useless
    – Bosc
    Dec 15, 2016 at 17:43
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    The battle scene definitely shows them bombing the gate as well. Looks like they tried a bit of everything until they came up with their eventual and rather spectacular approach.
    – Renegade Princess
    Dec 16, 2016 at 2:31

4 Answers 4

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The Imperials answered this for you in Alexander Freed's official novelization:

“Do it!” Krennic roared, and Ramda and his men scurried to act. When the orders had been given, Krennic lowered his voice but still heard himself quivering with fury. “Is there any way,” he asked, “that the rebel fleet can break through the shield? Think before you answer.”

“The shield gate itself,” Ramda said with deliberate care, “is the only weak point. With massive amounts of firepower, an enemy could conceivably punch through the field contained by the ring. But Admiral Gorin is positioning his ships to prevent even that unlikely occurrence.”

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    That would actually explain why they were so focused on the gate. The movie never really dealt with this directly. Good find
    – Machavity
    Dec 17, 2016 at 3:31
  • I didn't know the novelization was out so soon :) That's the answer what I was looking for.
    – Tjafaas
    Dec 17, 2016 at 10:19
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    Does this really answer the question about the frame? Ramda talks about the field contained by the frame, implying that the "massive firepower" is applied directly to the field. Nothing is said about the gate frame (which Ramda calles "ring" itself). So we still wonder if not as massive firepower is required to break the frame itself.
    – Asu
    Jan 8, 2017 at 2:11
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The X-Wings tried to attack the structure as well, when they did their run. The Y-wings also used their bombs both against the structure and the field.

They tried both to overload the shield generators (by attacking the shield) and destroing the gate itself. But without the proper intelligence (the gate plans), preparation and coordination, they couldn't execute a succesful attack so they tried a bit of everything, hoping it will work.

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I think that the technology used by the shield make it so that you either have to destroy the generator (like in episode VI) or hit the shield itself with enough power. The station creates an opening in the shield, but if you destroy it the shield would fill the hole.

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A door tends to be weaker/thinner than its frame, so it makes sense attacking it. If you can't break the door, your attempts may also succeed in breaking its hinges (if any, they probably used sliding doors of course, much more sci-fi-y).

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