Combat Maneuvers
Detection Phase
The first rule of space combat is do not get seen first. The pilot who sees the enemy first usually ends up the victor. The pilot who is seen first usually ends up space debris. Always be alert. Scan both visually and with your electronic sensors. Relying only on one will give you a chance to breathe vacuum for the rest of your existence.
In space there are 4 dimensions but only 3 which you can do anything about. Keep track of all objects in the 3 main axes no matter what the appearance and trajectory. This is especially true when on scout assignment. Check your sensor readings with ident beacons. Do a visual fly by to double check your sensors.
Flight leaders stay sharp and scan ahead and cover the space ahead and above. Wingmen are assigned coverage of the rear and below.
Closure
The time you take to get into firing position and begin to put weapons on the target is known as approaching the prey or closing on the target. The longer you take to achieve closure the more time you give your opponent to determine a way to make you the target. The key is to close on the target fast enough to prevent them from outmaneuvering acquiring you but slow enough to allow compensatory adjustments in heading depending on when or if the target sees your closure approach. Waiting for the ideal target to fire upon is not your goal. The best approach is to put as much energy beams/projectiles on the enemy while maneuvering to avoid the same from them.
Attack
This is the actual firing of weapons on the target and trying to keep as much of the target in front and in range of your weapons to inflict the most damage. Depending on the skill of the enemy this may result in destruction of their craft or even destruction of both your and their ships. Much of the success and failure in this stage is due to experience or lack thereof. The one who puts the most critical hits on the enemy's ship gets a decoration and the other becomes a painted symbol on a ship.
Maneuver
There are some who say you cannot have a separate phase of combat which entails maneuver without attack and thus both phases are merged into the attack phase. In this instance maneuvering will stand for the point if and when the enemy has enough of their ship left and enough of their intelligence and skill left to begin turning the tables on the attacker. Alteration of speed, barrel rolling and severe changes in vector of direction can all contribute to this stage. Once it starts to happen the alert attacker goes into countermeasures which takes us to the next phase.
Disengagement
Simply this is when the attacker or attacked manages to get the weapons off the original defender. It is however much more difficult to pull this off with the sophistication and extraordinary maneuvering available to most attack spacecraft of this age. A good defender can make an attacker disengage while a brilliant one can become the attacker. For our purposes here the disengagement phase is when the original attacker is no longer able to keep their weapons on the original defender.
