Alliance Starfighter Tactics - Combat Tactics

The following is excerpted from Alliance Strategy and Tactics Lecture 137 - Combat Starfighters, one of a series of a holo-lectures created by the Alliance Ministry of Education for distribution to mid-level Alliance political and military leaders.

Phase One covers a general Overview of starfighter concepts, with Phase Two addressing Starfighter Combat Tactics.

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Starfighter Combat Tactics

According to Adar Tallon's Treatise on Starfighter Tactics, starfighter combat can be broken up into five stages:

• Detection: The first stage is detection (and its opposite, avoidance of detection). Starfighters can be detected by two methods — visual and electronic. These are the keys to identification — the main objective in detection.
• Closing: The second phase of Starfighter combat is called closing. The objective during this stage is to reach an advantageous position from which to attack the enemy.
• Attack: The third, and most decisive stage is attack.
• Maneuver: This is the fourth and most glamorous stage of starfighter combat. Its importance is often overrated, however. A successful attack stage renders maneuver academic.
• Disengagement: Finally, there is the fifth and most underrated stage, disengagement. New pilots often take this stage for granted — usually to their dismay.

Stage One: Detection and Identification

Starfighter combat begins thousands of kilo-meters before the ships are within weapons range, a silent, deadly battle of machine versus machine. Given the tremendous speed which starfighters are able to attain, early and accurate detection is vital if a threat is to be met in time.

Sensors

Successful interception of an enemy fighter is dependent on early detection and positive identification. Individual Alliance ships are generally better equipped for long-range scanning than their Imperial counterparts; a lone X-wing is very likely to spot a lone TIE fighter well before it spots him. However, according to Imperial tactical doctrine, TIES are supposed to stay well within sensor range of their base or capital ship — and a starfighter's sensors cannot match those aboard larger vessels or bases.

After a target is detected, it must be positively identified. For Rebels, this is handled by the starfighter's data-sorting computers directly linked to the sensor suite. After examining pro-file, heat and electromagnetic signature, these identify all craft within range, assigning threat levels to each and displaying the information on the starfighter's video display.

The Empire's starfighters tend to rely on flight controllers for this information. After the craft have been identified by the ground or ship-based sensors and computers, the flight controllers assign targets to individual TIES, relaying the information about the target's course and speed directly to the TIE's combat computer.

This system is generally as effective as the flight controller; a good, imaginative controller can judge the ebb and flow of a battle and send the TIE fighters to the appropriate sectors be-fore the enemy can react; a mediocre controller who does everything "by the numbers" can severely hamper the fighters' ability to respond quickly and intelligently to events.

Recently, the Alliance has experimented with flight controllers, as well. In the early stages of the battle of Yavin, General Dodonna acted as flight controller for the starfighters' first run at the Death Star; however, once battle was joined, most tactical decisions were left up to the wing commanders.

Visual Scanners

If a fighter's electronic sensors are jammed, the pilot must rely on visual scanners. This is a short-range sensor resembling a video camera with a telescopic lense, giving the pilot visual contact with the enemy craft long before it can be seen by the naked eye. These sensors are almost impossible to jam, though cloaking de-vices are effective against them.

Visual Contact

The last, and most reliable, means of identification is actual visual contact. Despite their sophisticated array of long-range detection de-vices, Rebel pilots depend the most on their own eyes. Eyes cannot easily be jammed, altered or otherwise interfered with.

Surprise

A detailed analysis of recordings that have been registered during starfighter victories reveals that four out of every five starfighters shot down in dogfights never saw their assailant. In battle, the key to a quick victory is to surprise the enemy. The key to avoiding a quick defeat is to avoid being surprised.

The perfect way to achieve surprise would be to render your vessel completely invisible — not only to the naked eye, but to highly-sophisticated sensors as well. A very small number of larger ships are equipped with quite effective cloaking devices; however, the equipment required for cloaking is simply too massive and expensive to fit into a starfighter.

Rendering your ship "invisible" by keeping out of close sensor range and using long-range weapons is generally an ineffective battle tactic. Lasers lose coherency and thus "punch" over long range; concussion missiles and other extreme range weapons are easily tracked by star-fighters' sensor equipment, allowing an excel-lent chance of evasion. It is for these reasons that starfighter combat most often takes place within visual range.

The most effective method of achieving surprise is to drop in close to your enemy from hyperspace. This tactic is commonly employed by Alliance pilots, and it is both extremely re-warding and extremely dangerous.

Sensors cannot operate from out of hyper-space to scan the intended target. Therefore, when Rebel ships employ this tactic they are attacking "blind," relying on intelligence reports of the enemy's position, course and composition. If intelligence reports are accurate, and the attacking Rebel squadron achieves the desired surprise, the raid can be devastating. But, if the Imperials are prepared for such an attack or have changed course or position, the result could be disastrous for the Rebels.

Scanning in Formation

There was an age old saying among pilots of the Clone Wars: "The first to spot the enemy wins." While this may be a slight exaggeration, spotting the enemy first does give a pilot the initiative. In battle, initiative is everything.

To improve their chances of first detection and thus winning the initiative, starfighters fly in formations which allow their sensors to work together in the most efficient manner possible. In formation, the pilot has two tasks. The first is to monitor his own detection systems, and the second is to keep a visual lookout for any enemy ships which may have evaded the formation's detection net.

===Combat Targeting Computer===

The advanced tactical targeting computer employed by Alliance starships is designed to augment the pilot's firing skill. It takes only a small fraction of a second for a skilled pilot to center his sights upon his target and pull the trigger and an equally short time for his weapons to energize and fire, but, given the high speeds of modern starfighters, his target could have moved right out of his sights. Targeting computers compensate for the delay, charting the speed and course of the target and firing just slightly ahead of the point at which the pilot aims.

When firing manually, the pilot must judge these things for himself. This is an extremely difficult skill to master, particularly with high-speed, quick-turning tar-gets such as the Imperial TIE Interceptor. A pilot who can judge the angle of deflection by eye without the aid of a targeting computer is a skilled flyer, indeed.

Deciding to Attack

When a formation of fighters is detected, a decision must be made whether or not to attack. Ideally, this decision is made by a flight controller, who should have a better overall picture of the battle's tactical situation than the pilots.

For a controller, the battle is a game of probabilities: he knows the tactical situation; he knows his ships' capabilities and can make good guesses about his opponents'. He judges the odds of success and the price of failure; if the odds are in his favor and the price of failure acceptable, he sets up his ships in the most advantageous position he can and lets them go.

For the pilot or wing commander without a flight controller and therefore without a clear picture of the battle, the decision is not so clear-cut. When his sensors pick up an enemy, he has to answer some difficult questions very quickly: Does the contact pose an immediate threat? What are his squadron's chances of surviving an engagement with the contact? What support is available? Getting any of these questions wrong can mean not only the pilot's personal death, but also make him the cause the deaths of his comrades.

Stage Two: Closing

If the decision to engage is made, the pilot must attempt to attain an advantageous position for his attack run. This stage of battle is known as "closing."

Speed and Concealment

The two essential elements to a successful closing are speed and concealment. Both aid in limiting the amount of time the opponent has to react to the attack. High speed is useful for another reason, as well. It increases the energy available to the fighter for maneuver combat or disengagement, should either become necessary.

Because of the sophistication of Imperial sensor equipment, concealment is very difficult to achieve. Sensor jamming is usually attempted, but it screws up the jamming starfighter's equipment even more than its target, and the pilot has no idea how effective it is. Further, while it inay blur the starfighter's exact location, it will alert everyone within a light year that there is an unfriendly starfighter somewhere in that area.

Deception

Assuming that, as usual, concealment fails, there are other ways to surprise your opposition and maintain the initiative. Of these, deception is the most important.

Essentially, the pilots have to fool their opponents into believing that the attacker's objectives are different than what they really are, that there are more or fewer attackers than there really are, that the main assault is really a feint, that a feint is really the main assault, and so forth. The attackers must do the unexpected. For instance:

• The starfighters make their approach in a dangerously tight formation, which, for a while at least, appears as a single blip on an enemy's sensor screen. The formation stays together until the last possible moment — until they reach visual scanning range of the targets. Only then does the formation break up into individual ships. If carried off well (and no ship blunders into its wingmate) the enemy finds themselves facing much larger numbers of star-fighters than they are prepared for.

• Attack in two wings, forcing the opposition to split up to meet both threats. When the enemy gets in range of one of the wings, they discover that it consists entirely of drone starfighters — completely harmless. The other wing has all the real ships in it, and the opposition suddenly finds itself for a short time very badly outnumbered.

• Send in one very large attack force to engage the enemy's starfighters. Once the ships arelocked in battle and all of the enemy's reserve ships thrown in, send in a small force at top speed to make a run against the undefended battle control ship.

• Break your attack into three separate components. The first begins jamming the enemy's transmissions as soon as they are within range, drawing a great deal of attention to themselves by doing so. The second component goes in quietly, attacking from the other direction, using visual scanners only. The third waits.

The enemy must decide which threat is more dangerous, and split his forces accordingly. The attackers he chooses to concentrate upon turn tail and run, and the third attacking component joins the other force, once more hopefully gaining local superiority.

The possibilities are literally endless, particularly when you realize that the enemy can and will also be simultaneously attempting to deceive you.

Stage Three: Attack

The attack stage accounts for four out of every five starfighter kills. It is thus the single most decisive stage of starfighter combat.

Two factors affect the attack: the tactical situation and the capabilities of the vessels involved. Taking both of these into account, the attack must be launched from the best possible position at the best possible moment. If the attack is launched correctly, the attacker has a tremendous advantage. If not, he is in grave peril.

The head-on attack will result in a quick, decisive victory — for one pilot or the other, usually the one with the best ship and steadiest nerves. There is no subtlety in this attack, no finesse: both starships can fire at each other, both are relatively easy targets, and the one who gets in the first telling shot wins.

The best place from which to attack is astern (behind) your opponent. Your opponent can-not return fire, and, as there is little lateral movement, he is an easytarget. This is adifficult posture to attain during the attack stage, unless the attacker has achieved a high level of tactical surprise during his closing run.

Deception in Attack

It is essential to the success of any attack to positively identify the type of enemy formation a pilot has encountered. If a lone ship is spotted, where is his wingman? A favorite Imperial ploy is to have one fighter trail some distance behind his wingman, waiting for an enthusiastic young Alliance pilot to jump in behind the front TIE to attack it from the rear. If he does so, the Rebel has unknowingly lined himself up for a devastating attack by the trailing fighter.

Alliance pilots often use a somewhat more complicated strategy of deception, known as the "feint and backstab." In this technique, a decoy formation attacks in order to distract the enemy from the true attack.

For example: one flight of starfighters forms up for a head-on run in full view of enemy sensor surveillance, while a second flight skirts around behind the enemy, remaining outside sensor range. The first flight closes as if to attack, but breaks away before close range is reached. At the same time, the other flight closes from an advantageous position, ready to take advantage of the enemy's confusion. The diversionary flight stands by, ready to re-enter the fight if needed.

If they survive their first battle, pilots quickly learn never to take anything for granted.

Stage Four: Maneuver

The maneuver stage of combat occurs only when an attack fails and the starfighters beginjockeying for position. During maneuver combat, the experienced pilot will strive to deny his adversary the initiative. He knows that dog-fights are more often lost than they are won; that is, the first pilot who makes a mistake loses. The pilot who holds the initiative can keep his opponent under constant pressure. The longer the pressure continues, the greater the stress on the defending pilot. Stress breeds mistakes.

The maneuver stage begins as soon as a pilot realizes that he is about to come, or is already under attack. His first priority is simple survival; turning the tables is secondary. The opening moves of the maneuver are defensive, with the attacker attempting to defeat the defender's evasive actions. If the defender is able to "shake" his attacker, he can then either break off the engagement or attempt to turn the tables; if the attacker can hang on, it is merely a matter of time until fie destroys his opponent.

Most successful attacks during maneuver combat are made from astern. The closer an attacker angles in to the intended target's stern, the better shot he will get. Adar Tallon refers to this vulnerable target area as the "prime target cone."

Each maneuver has a counter-maneuver. It is the execution of the maneuver which is most important, not necessarily the quality of the starfighter itself. The most technically advanced fighter in the galaxy is only as good as its pilot.

The Break

This maneuver is used when an attacker is first detected as attempting to close in, or is already in the defender's prime target cone. Its purpose is to spoil the attacker's aiin and cause his fighter to "overshoot" (move out in front of you, thus allowing you to move in behind him and into his prime target cone). To execute the break, the pilot turns his starfighter and cuts in his reverse thrusters.

The break is always made toward the direction of attack. Both the turn itself and the loss of speed forces the attacker to either overshoot or compensate by turning inside, which takes him out of the prime target cone.

The break does present the attacker with an opportunity to fire just as the defender sweeps across his sights, but this is a difficult shot and allows no sustained fire.

The Scissors

This is a series of sharp turn reversals per-formed in an attempt to get the attacker out in front of the defender and into a position of disadvantage.

The initial turn reversal is made after the attacker has overshot (perhaps after a successful break). Timing is critical when performing a scissors maneuver. If one fighter turns too quickly, the other ship may drift wide more slowly and come up behind him.

This maneuver may become a stalemate, with neither fighter ending up behind the other. The winner in a scissors contest is usually the fighter which can reduce its forward velocity the most while making the sharp turn reversals, thus ending up behind his opponent.

Jinking

This is a defensive strategy designed to throw off the aim of an attacker who has achieved an excellent attack position (in the prime target cone). It is aseries of random turns, slips, waggles and dives which will hopefully prevent the at-tacker from getting a target lock.

While the attacker is still able to retain his excellent advantage, the longer he is forced to concentrate on shooting at the opponent, the less aware he will become of what is going on around him, making him a prime target for other defending starfighters in the area.

The Reverse Throttle Hop

This maneuver is a way of retaining the ad-vantage when the target breaks. As the defender goes into his break, the attacker pulls up above his opponent and decelerates. As the defender finishes his break, the attacker drops back down behind the defender, having performed a sort-of exaggerated "hop."

This is a very difficult maneuver to perform well. It requires split-second timing, precise execution, and a bit of intuition. If it is started too early, the defender will simply loop back and follow the attacker up, giving himself the advantage. If it is started too late, the attacker is in danger of overshooting and once again ending up in front of his opponent.

The Tallon Roll

This difficult maneuver is performed when the attacker becomes aware that he is going to overshoot a breaking defender. He comes level, pulls his nose hard up, then rolls away from the direction of the turn. This three-dimensional maneuver is completed by sliding in astern of the target. Effectively, this maneuver alters the angle of approach to the target without losing speed or distance. It is difficult for a defender to counter the roll, as it takes place entirely behind him and in his blind spot.

The difficulty of the maneuver is the roll itself. It is easy to become disoriented while in a roll and an unskilled attacker can easily overshoot, taking himself out of the fight completely and possibly putting himself at the mercy of the defender.

Maneuvering in Pairs

A single starfighter in a hostile environment is extremely vulnerable. Alliance starfighters operate in elements of two. "Battle spread" is the most commonly used pairs formation. In it, the two fighters fly side by side with a minimal distance between them.

A pair, working as a team, has the potential to be far more effective than two single starfighters each operating on its own. They guard each others' blind spots and hunt together as a coordinated unit.

Following are two of the more effective maneuvers for starfighters operating in pairs.

The Trap

The trap is the oldest, simplest, and still most effective trick in the book. If either fighter is attacked from behind, he turns hard in either direction. If the attacker follows, he is trapped by the second man.

The most effective defense against this maneuver is for the attacker to feint, pretending to follow the first man. As the second man slots in behind the attacker, he performs a full-throttle hop or a Tallon roll, forcing the second man to overshoot him. This leaves both defending fighters in front of the attacker.

The Under Split

This maneuver involves some danger for the lead man, and should only be attempted if the lead starfighter can take a bit of punishment. In it, the lead man shoots out ahead of his wingman in full view of a pair of enemy fighters. As the enemy ships turn toward the lead man, his wingman crosses under unobserved and pulls up hard for a belly shot.

Trainee pilots are always taught to keep a sharp lookout for this type of decoy move. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, the chance of a quick kill against an outnumbered opponent often drives out this training, leaving the star-fighters at deadly peril.

Stage Five: Disengagement

This is the final stage in starfighter combat. Adar Tallon's comments on the subject are rather strong: "It is rarely given adequate attention. The inexperienced pilot frequently believes that following an attack pass, particularly a successful one, the engagement is over and he can relax. This is dangerous nonsense."

Diminished vigilance at this final stage of combat is a recipe for disaster — particularly for Alliance pilots. This is because we almost always find ourselves outnumbered. In a typical quick-strike attack, the pilots cannot afford to dally, for fear of giving the Imperials too much time to regroup or gather reinforcements. If a pilot cannot disengage, he cannot make a clean jump into hyperspace. The longer he stays in the combat area, the more vulnerable he is to being swarmed by superior numbers of Imperial fighters.

The ideal way to disengage is, of course, to destroy all the enemy. This is not always possible. A plan for disengagement should be con¬sidered before an attack is commenced. Angling-off at full-throttle following a full-throttle attack is the simplest method, and is effective if the attacker has not become engaged in a dogfight.

Getting free from a dogfight is much more difficult because the timing must be perfect. The best moment to break off from maneuver combat is when the situation is neutral, with neither starfighter having the positional advantage.

The words of Adar Tallon once again: "If a pilot is under enemy attack and manages to recover to a neutral position and disengage, he has won the engagement. If he is the assailant and his target manages to attain a neutral position, he should immediately disengage and look for easier prey. If he remains engaged, he risks becoming disadvantaged himself."

Lifesaving Techniques

There are several crucial elements to any disengagement. First and foremost, the pilot must have speed. It is far easier for a pilot to disengage when travelling at full-throttle, particularly when the combatants are not on parallel courses. Full-throttle puts a great deal of distance between a pilot and an adversary at-tempting to turn and catch him.

To make sure that the disengagement is clean, a pilot must attempt to maintain visual contact with his opponent. Attempting to disengage while unsure of an opponent's position could easily result in the opponent gaining a position of advantage.

If a pilot loses sight of his opponent while in a turning contest (such as the scissors), he should continue turning until he regains contact. If seeking to disengage while under attack, the pilot should always turn toward the enemy. In this way, he can meet his assailant with the best chance of angling-off and escaping after the attacker has taken his shots. If the pilot flies away from his opponent, he risks allowing the opponent to get on his tail. This is doom.

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The above lecture has been transcribed from the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, by Paul Murphy & Peter Schweighofer (Ed.), copyright April 1994, from West End Games