Stargates make rapid diplomacy and small-team movement possible, but they channel every mission through one predictable access point. A ship supplies the heavy firepower, alternate extraction route, and freedom of maneuver needed when that portal is blocked or defended. It can also approach a planet without announcing itself through the local gate and support a mission from an unexpected direction. The comparison turns strategic mobility into an access problem: the fastest route is not always the safest or most operationally useful one.
Chapter · 8:12-11:02
A warship gets around the Stargate bottleneck
The BC-304 provides fire support, extraction, and independent access when a defended or blocked Stargate becomes a single point of failure.