Tactics and strategy of space combat
Despite the seeming simplicity and linearity of a potential battle in space, this is completely wrong!
The vast majority of battles will take place in battlespace, and this space is somewhat different from ours. At first, it flows much slower. Secondly, it is filled with natural objects, anomalies, and sometimes ... which in turn can serve as shelters or make other changes in the nature of combat and the construction of tactical decisions.
The vast variety of ships generates a huge number of tactics. Bring forward the slowest and most heavily armored ship to catch all the enemy's fire, or play cat-and-mouse using stealth advantages of your fleet, overwhelm the enemy with a massive volley of homing missiles or send a flock of drones from the flank? The choice depends on you and the situation.
The first thing you need for a successful battle is to know the composition of your fleet, the strengths and weaknesses of your ships. What is the significance of your ships? If it is low, it will be difficult for the enemy to detect you with passive guidance means. Shouldn't he be hiding? Send your drones or fighter jets aside? Separate them into groups? If you have a heavily armored ship, it may be worth pulling it a little to the side and turning on all its active detection means, thus detecting the enemy and indirectly causing all enemy fire on your tank. There is a good chance that you will lose this ship, but the enemy fleet will use up most of its ammunition. Can your ships fire with low visibility?
These “ifs” are a huge number. To understand the full range of factors, you need to read the following paragraphs.
Okay. The ship is in battle. Each ship has a certain background, and in different sectors different, which exists because of the fact of the operation of the ship. This reflected optical range, infrared radiation, electromagnetic from non-directional antennas, thermal electromagnetic, neutron and several other positions. If the ship is painted white and brightly lit by starlight, then from a distance of 500 meters, it will be visible even to a person with visual impairments. Accordingly, and passive sighting systems operating in the optical range, if ... If they are available to the enemy. Maybe not. Stuffing all the variety of systems is possible only in a very specialized ship. However, it is most likely due to its relative simplicity. You were seen, the distance was measured with a pulse of a laser rangefinder or an angular measurements, which is generally a passive old-fashioned method. There is data on the target, there is a fire solution for weapons of destruction. Fire! And you start getting hits out of nowhere. Change the input. It's the same, but it's 200 kilometers away. Will an optical passive guidance system detect you? If your ship is a hundred or more meters in size, no doubt. But not immediately. You're a bright star to him. We see the ISS with the naked eye in an orbit of 360 kilometers. And the exact range to measure the angular measurements will not come out. There is a decision on shooting, but already with a spread. Should I turn on the laser rangefinder? The enemy decides not to unmask and opens fire on unspecified 100% data. You're being whistled by shells and you're all gone. The first factor is guidance error, the second factor is the increased natural spread of projectiles from a low-quality, resource-rich gun. Your actions in such a scenario can be anything. Start maneuvering, in order to evade the fired shells, resemble the firing distance of 200 kilometers and if the projectile flies at a speed of 1 km / s, the enemy aims at the point where you, according to his assumption, will be in 200 seconds. If your shunting thrusters and fuel supply allow you to completely move the projection of the ship from the initial aiming point in 200 seconds, you are almost guaranteed to avoid hitting, because the projectile will fly where you should be, but you are no longer there. But fuel is not unlimited. So are the enemy's shells.
With shots, the enemy unmasks himself in the infrared and optical range. However, your passive means do not see it. Either the strength of your detectors is not enough, or external factors influence, or the enemy uses special technological solutions. It is only clear that you are seen and you are not. But they don't see you well. Otherwise, active systems would have already been hit or turned on. The enemy may be weaker than you if he tries to avoid contact. Maybe not. Your active systems are off as well. You decide not to unmask additionally and hoping not to catch a stray projectile release drones. 2 reconnaissance drones and 6 combat ones. Divide them into 2 groups, one reconnaissance and 3 combat. Spread them in different directions. Activate them. After a few or 10 seconds, the drones detect the target. However, the target jumps, which suggests that the enemy has turned on the electronic warfare system. But you can see the projectiles flying, you have the approximate position of the enemy. There's no range information, but there's an azimuth stain. The adversary ignores the drones, although it probably received the signal and direction of the radar radiation. Perhaps he hopes to disable a large ship first and deal with the drones later.
Both ships are in a similar situation. There's no 100% firing solution. Fire at the wrong, hoping for luck, or take other actions? The reserve of fuel for maneuvering is rapidly melting. We do not know what the enemy’s ammunition is. However, based on the tactical decisions of the enemy and the situation, we can assume that our enemy is the “Martians”, because they prefer stealth tactics, electronic warfare and install cryogenic masking of guns and flame arresters on all ships. It's cumbersome, expensive, complicated, but like that. It is also known that they operate mainly in small ships. Which in turn means low ammunition, lack or very weak defensive weapons. We release 4 self-guided missiles to the target area, and also send drones to approach, simulating an attack. Activation of missile seekers is set at 30 km from the target. The type of shot is a narrow fan. The launch is hidden, which means that the rockets activate their engines after moving away from the ship at a specified distance. Mistake. We're safe. The enemy already sees us. Temporary brightening will not change anything. Our ship is getting hit. No penetration. Has the firearm improved or the enemy improved the firearm? A minute passes, the missiles approach the point of activation. Time to help them. Activate our main target detection station. After a few seconds, we get a clear mark with a 100% fire solution. After 5 seconds, the decision falls again. The enemy has also suppressed our radar, but may not be able to suppress the heads of our missiles. Two outbreaks and the termination of the enemy's electronic warfare indicates a successful hit. We see the target clearly now, our drones are approaching it. However, there is still no information on optical channels. We can see that the target is moving at a distance of 173 kilometers at a speed of 35 meters per second on a course to approach, the speed does not change. We can shoot. However. Perhaps the ship has already been destroyed and you can try to take it as a trophy for subsequent disassembly. Maybe he's faking it. It may be heavily damaged, but the crew is ready to resist or use weapons. The choice is ours.
I will conclude with this description of this imaginary fight. The main thing to pay attention to is the number of decisions made and the number of “ifs”. What if our ship was not glittering white, but charcoal black? What if the star didn’t light up everything? And if the fuel for maneuvering ran out, if hit and damage, if there were no drones, if there were 2 ships at the enemy.
All these moments make ship fighting an exciting game of chess, even in bare space. Add an asteroid, add a fleet that already has dozens and hundreds of players, add tasks, missions, logistics, struggle for survivability, repairs, training crew and leaders, artifacts, new designs.
That's the point. It's not difficult, though. Paradox? The fact is that the ship will fight without you, following the left settings while maintaining some flexibility. Not as intuitive as the player himself. However, good ships, and even more so a balanced fleet, can be almost unafraid of attacks by small groups controlled only by players. There will be no slaughter. And if the fight is equal, then most likely the players will win, but will suffer significant losses. Of course it depends on the players. They could lose dry.