A Lockheed Martin garantiu um contrato de desenvolvimento para fornecer avançadas capacidades de vigilância e contramedida de guerra eletrônica para a frota de helicópteros Navyrsquos MH-60 dos EUA contra ameaças de mísseis anti-ship (ASM). O sistema avançado ANALQ-248 da carga ativa da missão (AOEW) do sistema avançado avançado da guerra eletrônica fora-borda é um pod auto-contido da guerra eletrônica (EW), hospedado em um helicóptero MH-60R ou MH-60S. O novo sistema de solução de guerra eletrônica foi projetado para melhorar a capacidade de detecção e resposta de US Navyrsquos ASM. O diretor de programa de guerra eletrônica de Lockheed Martin, Joe Ottaviano, disse: Todos os navios de dia em todo o mundo estão enfrentando uma variedade de ameaças em evolução. LdquoO nosso sistema avançado de guerra eletrônica off-line AMP ANALQ-248 ajudará a criar um ataque coordenado contra essas ameaças, para manter nossos warfighters seguros, controlando o espectro eletromagnético e perturbando os adversários. rdquo Nos termos do contrato, a Lockheed Martin fornecerá até 18 unidades de AOEW AMP ANALQ-248 pods para a Marinha dos EUA, se todas as opções do contrato são exercidas. A produção dos sistemas ocorrerá em Syracuse, em Nova Iorque, EUA, e está programado para começar no início de 2019. O novo sistema de solução de guerra eletrônica é projetado para melhorar a capacidade de detecção e resposta de navyrsquos US navyrsquos. quot Uma equipe da instalação da empresa em A Owego, de Nova York, irá realizar a integração do novo sistema a bordo dos helicópteros MH-60, que são desenvolvidos pelo fabricante de aviões Sikorsky, sediada nos Estados Unidos. A solução de guerra AOEW AMP ANALQ-248 pode funcionar de forma independente ou com o sensor de bordo de bordo embarcado, SEWIP Block 2 ANSLQ-32 (V) 6. O sistema ajuda a detectar um míssil de entrada e avaliar o seu destino, com AOEW, em seguida, usando técnicas de contramedida de rádio freqüência para deter o míssil. Image: O sistema de Lockheed Martinrsquos AOEW AMP ANALQ-248 melhorará a maneira que a marinha de EU detecta e responde às ameaças do míssil do anti-navio. Foto: cortesia de Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space warfare Um exemplo de guerra no espaço. Guerra espacial ou combate espacial foi o uso de naves espaciais armadas e outras naves espaciais para os propósitos de ações militares através dos sistemas estelares e da galáxia. Junto com a guerra terrestre e combate de caça. Por 0 BBY a guerra espacial era um de três ramos os mais significativos de warfighting. Evoluindo de acoplamentos da marinha de água e por sua vez as primeiras batalhas orbitais, a guerra espacial transformou-se um caso da alta tecnologia que definisse frequentemente o resultado dos conflitos os mais importantes do galaxys. Tecnologia Turbolasers foi a forma primária de armamento de navio capital por milhares de anos. A inovação tecnológica determinou o design dos navios de guerra e da doutrina naval e o resultado das batalhas. Embora os tamanhos e as capacidades das naves estivessem variadas, quatro tecnologias principais dirigiram e foram avançadas pela guerra espacial: sistemas de armas, tecnologia de escudos, propulsão de sublinhado e tecnologia de hiperdrive. Armas Editar Há dois tipos básicos de armamento espacial: energia e convencional. As armas de energia começaram com lasers de microondas para ofensa e eram tipicamente secundárias a armas físicas convencionais. A partir de 4000 ABY no entanto, as armas de energia foram a forma dominante de armamento no combate espacial, dominado pelo turbolaser eo canhão a laser. Desenvolvimentos da tecnologia blaster que tinham amadurecido ao mesmo tempo. 1 Em navios de capitais, as armas de energia eram normalmente agrupadas em baterias com base no tipo de arma e sua colocação sobre o casco. Por exemplo, em um Destruidor Estelar de Classe Imperial, os turbolásers pesados na superfície dorsal dos cascos seriam agrupados em uma bateria, enquanto que os da superfície dorsal de estibordo seriam agrupados em uma segunda bateria. A segmentação de computadores em navios capitais era geralmente compartilhada entre as armas de cada bateria, permitindo que os artilheiros concentrassem seu fogo em alvos específicos. Outros projetos da arma da energia incluíram o charric. Um avanço Chiss de lasers de microondas cedo o canhão de íons. Uma arma eletromagnética usada para destruição não-destrutiva de sistemas eletrônicos eo superláser. Um desenvolvimento de Clone Wars que era um projeto imensamente mais poderoso de laser que poderia causar danos em escala planetária. As armas convencionais foram as primeiras armas usadas no combate espacial. Embora o primeiro armamento espacial convencional incluísse projéteis como as balas, a tecnologia progrediu ainda mais e chegou a englobar mísseis guiados e lançadores de torpedos. Armas convencionais poderiam ser guiadas, como no caso de mísseis, ou não guiadas, como no caso de bombas. As armas convencionais incluíram a bomba nuclear. A bomba de prótons. Torpedo de protões. E o míssil de concussão. Tecnologia de blindagem Editar Defletor escudos foram um componente crítico no design estelar e foram usados para mitigar danos por impactos. Eles incluíram protetores de raios. Que protege contra armas de energia, e escudos de partículas. Que repeliam objetos físicos. Ambos os tipos consumiram grandes quantidades de energia e durante um longo período na história galáctica, foram reservados apenas para os maiores navios de guerra com a maior capacidade de geração de energia. Os primeiros capitães dos navios de guerra pensavam, portanto, em termos de armadura para defesa. Outras defesas iniciais incluíram nuvens de partícula carregada para difundir armas de energia e cascos tratados com quírites para refletir vigas. 3 Um refinamento do processo do squintpipe nos 7500s BBY produziu os protetores que eram mais fortes e mais rápidos regenerar-se, e igualmente reduziram o tamanho eficaz dos geradores do protetor deflector. A partir de então, defletor confiável escudos poderia ser montado para navios de todos os tamanhos. 4 Outras defesas incluíram canhões de defesa de ponto. Que foram projetados destruir ameaças entrantes como torpedos antes que pudessem bater o navio. Apesar dos elementos necessários de defletores em projetos de nave estelar, nem todos os navios os incorporam. Um exemplo notável de navios sem escudos defletores são os caças-estrela da série TIE, em particular o caça-estrela TIELN, que não foi incluído ao lado de sistemas de suporte de vida porque a doutrina Imperial ditava que seu uso entre pilotos de caça era um sinal de covardia. 5 Propulsão tecnologia Editar Sublight drives propeliram navios abaixo da velocidade da luz e foram melhor representados por íon drives. Alimentado por geradores de fusão. Estes motores expulsaram partículas a uma velocidade muito alta para proporcionar força de propulsão. Os motores Sublight determinaram a velocidade e a manobrabilidade e podiam ser decisivos: o starplighter Galactic Empires TIELN usou um design de motor de íons gêmeos extremamente eficiente e um espaço espacial desmontado para melhorar sua mobilidade. A Aliança para Restaurar a República contrariou isso com o interceptor de asa A RZ-1, mais rápido e mais manobrável. Que o Império contraria, por sua vez, com o interceptor TIEIN ainda mais rápido. A tecnologia Hyperdrive foi uma enorme influência na estratégia da guerra espacial: as frotas que viajavam mais rapidamente do que a luz no hiperespaço tiveram de atravessar hiperlanos conhecidos para evitar sombras de massa perigosas. Durante grande parte da história galáctica, as naves espaciais careceram do poder de computação para calcular rotas seguras entre sistemas e foram confinadas a saltos dentro de redes de balizas de salto. Na guerra, isso permitia que as marinhas efetivamente pintas navios em um determinado ponto por desativar sua baliza. Até 4100 ABY. Os computadores de navegação avançaram até o ponto em que os faróis de salto não eram mais necessários, tornando o controle das rotas mais difícil, pois o bloqueio de uma rota simplesmente empurrava os navios para um de muitos outros. No entanto, estatisticamente falando, apenas algumas dessas rotas poderiam ser percorridas rapidamente, e uma força militar que controlava as rotas rápidas poderia rapidamente redistribuir para interceptar um adversário usando as lentas. Hyperlanes determinou assim a geografia estratégica da guerra espacial, e as frotas repetidamente lutaram sobre os mesmos planetas em rotas hiperespaciais significativas, como Chazwa. Ou planetas em junções hiperlane tais como YagDhul ou Brentaal IV. Militares também podem manter hiperlanos secretos para obter a queda em seus inimigos: durante as Guerras Clônicas. O general Grievous usou uma rota secreta através do Núcleo Profundo para atacar diretamente Coruscant. Enquanto a República Galáctica ea CIS negociaram com os Hutts o controle da Rota do Nexo conectando cada um dos outros territórios centrais. A Aliança Rebelde também fez uso de segredo Claatuvac Guild rotas fornecidas a eles por Chewbacca para hit-e-hype invasão contra o Império. 6 7 Classes de navio Editar Destruidores Estelares, fragatas, corvetas e caças estelares se envolvem em combate. Os navios projetados para a guerra eram divididos tipicamente em duas classes largas: starfighters e navios capitais. Starfighters Editar Starfighters eram pequenas embarcações tipicamente pilotadas por um ou dois seres. Suas operações e seu papel abrangiam toda uma doutrina e forma de guerra por direito próprio, conhecido como combate de caça-estrelas. Os tipos incluíam lutadores de superioridade espacial. Bombardeiros E snubfighters. Os combatentes de superioridade espacial eram navios despojados, geralmente armados e armados minimamente, e eram usados para combater bombardeiros inimigos, mas normalmente não podiam atacar navios capitais. Os bombardeiros eram guerreiros mais pesadamente armados e normalmente eram equipados com bombas, torpedos e mísseis para que pudessem fazer bombardeios em navios de guerra inimigos. Eles eram tipicamente menos manobráveis do que os combatentes de superioridade espacial e geralmente exigiam sua própria escolta de caça para evitar serem abatidos. 8 Snubfighters sentou-se entre os lutadores de superioridade espacial e bombardeiros em tamanho e armamento e foram projetados para combates com outros caças e navios de capital de ataque. Embora os snubfighters como o Rebel X-wing eo Y-wing se tornassem famosos, para a maioria da história galactic os snubfighters não eram pesadamente usados no combate do deep-space: os comandantes consideraram melhor operar snubfighters dos aeródromos de superfície baseados no planeta para golpear através da cobertura de nuvem E lançar torpedo greves e strafing corre contra navios de ataque e transporte de tropas. No entanto, as vantagens dos snubfighters tendiam a desaparecer nas grandes faixas entre frotas opostas e suas cargas não eram tão grandes como bombardeiros dedicados. Foi somente após o sucesso de N-1 starfighters contra navios de batalha da Federação de Comércio na Batalha de Naboo em 32 ABY. Uma experiência confirmada pelo papel de Y-wings contra o Malevolence na Batalha da Nebulosa Kaliida durante as Guerras Clônicas. Que o snubfighter começou a ser levado a sério como um assassino de navio de guerra de espaço-profundo. 9 Starfighters pode ou não ter tido um hyperdrive se não, eles foram lançados frequentemente de um portador ou outro ofício maior. Alguns, como os lutadores da estrela imperial TIELN. Estavam armados apenas para combates de caça e combate mais versáteis, como o Rebel X-wing e Y-wing snubfighters, também eram capazes de ataques anti-navio e anti-superfície. Bombardeiros como o bombardeiro TIEsa e os astros ASF-01 de asa B eram tipicamente cães de caça pobres e confiavam em escudos pesados ou escoltas para empurrar as telas de combate e atacar navios de guerra. 10 Por natureza, um caça-estrela foi projetado para ser pequeno, rápido e ágil, projetado para operar por conta própria ou como parte de um esquadrão ou uma ala de caça em uma variedade de perfis de missão, que vão desde dever de escolta até missões de reconhecimento e full - Escala assalto. Devido ao seu tamanho, os caças de estrelas não poderiam realizar operações auto-suficientes por um longo período de tempo, precisando de uma base de operações para fornecer combustível, reparos e suprimentos para o piloto. Dado que estes não podem ser transportados em grande quantidade. Navios de capitais Editar Uma variedade vertiginosa de classificações de navios capitais existiu ao longo da história galáctica. No entanto, todos concordaram que um navio capital era uma nave militar que tinha pelo menos cem metros de comprimento. Depois das Guerras Clônicas, o sistema de classificação mais comum foi o Sistema de Colégio de Guerra Anaxes. Que substituiu o sistema instituído após a Reforma de Ruusan. A maior classe reconhecida por esse sistema era o cruzador. Refletindo a restrição de Ruusan Reformations em navios de guerra transgalácticos maiores do que seiscentos metros. No momento em que as Guerras Clônicas estouraram, muitos setores ricos encomendaram navios de guerra muito maiores com hiperdrives de alcance local para sua defesa, com comprimentos de vários quilômetros e tornando o cruzador uma classe cada vez mais sem sentido. 11 No sistema Anaxes War College, navios menores de cem metros foram classificados como caças-estrelas. Ou se estavam desarmados, transportes espaciais. Tendo em conta o que tinha acontecido com a classe dos cruzadores, os arquitectos Anaxes alargaram o seu sistema de classificação para dar conta da possibilidade de navios de guerra verdadeiramente gigantescos. Corvetas eram navios de ataque rápidos e leves, que eram usados em uma variedade de papéis, incluindo o bloqueio em execução, missões anti-estrela-caça ou escolta e apoio para navios maiores. As fragatas ficavam entre duzentos e quatrocentos metros e serviam para eliminar navios menores de uma frota inimiga e muitas vezes carregavam seus próprios esquadrões de caça-estrela. Cruzadores eram de quatrocentos a seiscentos metros de comprimento e eram fortemente armados em relação ao seu tamanho e muitas vezes poderia trocar golpes com navios muito maiores. Cruzadores pesados eram de seiscentos a mil metros de comprimento e eram tipicamente a espinha dorsal de qualquer engajamento de frota. Destruidores Estelares estavam entre um e dois quilômetros de comprimento e eram tipicamente a maior nave espacial, especializada em combate pesado navio-a-navio. Os cruzadores de batalha tinham de dois a cinco quilômetros de comprimento e eram fortemente armados, projetados para operações de longo alcance e independentes que caçavam outros navios capitais. Finalmente, os dreadnoughts eram navios com mais de cinco quilômetros de extensão e tão poderosos que a mera ameaça de sua implantação poderia pacificar vários setores. 12 13 Embora não fosse uma classe oficial, havia também uma designação conhecida como superdreadnaught. Que incluiu a estrela de Coruscant eo olho de Palpatine durante a grande guerra galáctica ea guerra civil galáctica. Respectivamente, com a implicação de que os navios eram muito maiores em tamanho e mais poderosos do que um dreadnought ordinário. 15 15 Além disso, o sistema Anaxes War College usou uma abreviação para uso durante os compromissos, um que agrupava navios de guerra de diferentes classes com base em seu tamanho e capacidade. Corvetas, transportes espaciais e naves que atuam como navios de guerra no teatro foram designados como helicópteros. Navios pequenos, rápidos e fortemente armados que se especializavam em destruir o número máximo de pequenos navios inimigos em uma batalha espacial e confiaram na evasão muito mais do que seus escudos para escapar de danos. Fragatas e cruzadores mais leves - os cavalos de batalha da maioria dos compromissos militares - foram identificados como cruzadores. Grandes navios da linha cuja mera presença poderia mudar o curso de uma batalha foram referidos como navios de guerra. 16 Além disso, alguns navios capitais foram desenvolvidos especificamente para revolucionar a guerra espacial, bem como para garantir a dominância por um longo período de tempo. Um exemplo notável desses navios foram o dreadnought da Classe Eclipse e os Super Destruidores Estelares da Classe Soberana desenvolvidos pelo Império Galáctico. E mais especificamente pela Marinha Imperial. 17 História Editar As primeiras batalhas espaciais Editar Muita informação sobre as primeiras guerras no espaço foi perdida pela era da Guerra Civil Galáctica. Mas as lendas das mais antigas civilizações espaciais contaram uma história intrigantemente semelhante de uma guerra terrível travada com armas inimagináveis. Tais conflitos iniciais incluíram a guerra genocida entre os Celestiais e os Rakata. Seguido pelas conquistas selvagens do Império Infinito. 19 Na história registrada, as naves foram inicialmente armadas como uma resposta aos perigos naturais: escudos defletores eram necessários para protegidos tripulações e passageiros de radiação ou micrometeoróides, enquanto navio montado armas laser e mísseis foram desenvolvidos em resposta a asteróides desonesto ou espacial destruído criaturas. Inevitavelmente, essa proliferação de armas trouxe a guerra espacial junto com as viagens espaciais. 20 As primeiras guerras bem documentadas foram as dos tioneses e os hutts. Os navios de guerra tioneses usavam mísseis guiados, lançadores de torpedos e lasers de microondas para ofensa. A proteção era fornecida por mísseis de defesa ponta, nuvens de partículas carregadas para difundir armas de energia e revestimento de blindagem fino revestido com liga de kiirium supercondutor, brilhante de espelho para refletir ataques a laser. 21 Nesta época, navios maiores que cruzadores leves eram raros: o carro-chefe de Xim, o Despot. O Eibon Scimitar. Era considerado gigantesco em seu tempo, mas os historiadores militares durante o período imperial concordaram geralmente que seria considerado um cruzador pesado no melhor sob o sistema da faculdade da guerra de Anaxes. 22 As guerras nesta era foram travadas através de redes de balizas de salto. Os conflitos significativos desta era adiantada da guerra do espaço incluíram as varreduras Cronese. As Guerras Expansionistas do império Xims. Xims guerra final com o Império Hutt. E as Guerras de Unificação que fundaram a República Galáctica. A Guerra Tionese não viu uma mudança para grandes navios de guerra: tais navios eram caros de construir e de pouco uso estratégico contra frotas de embarcações mais baratas e mais ágeis. Alsakans Atgeir - battlecruisers da classe renowned para seus protetores suposta impregnable eram exceções à régua. Durante os primeiros Conflitos de Alsakan. Navios como estes battlecruisers e Coruscants Gilagimar foram usados principalmente para defesa doméstica enquanto frotas de cruzadores rápidos lançaram raids e colônias protegidas na Região de Exploração. O melhor exemplo disso foi a campanha das Dependências do Norte do Almirante Hirken durante o Quinto Conflito de Alsakan. 24 Balizas de salto ainda eram essenciais para viagens de hiperespaço, o que permitiu ao Escritório de Navios e Serviços deter o Primeiro Conflito de Alsakan de 17.018 -16.700 ABY, ameaçando reter dados de navegação de Coruscant e Alsakan. 25 Em 10.966 ABY. BoSS também pôde terminar a guerra civil de Pius Dea contaminando os navios do Pius Dea Faithful com os códigos navicomputer do rogue que dispersaram sua frota e deixaram o que remanesceu para ser oprimidos fàcilmente por uma frota combinada Jedi-Renunciante na batalha de Uquine. 26 Após a Duinuogwuin Contenção de 15.500 ABY. A República encontrou poucos oponentes com grandes navios de guerra e assim teve pouco uso para grandes navios capitais. A Marinha da República preferia navios de guerra rápidos que podiam escoltar transportes mercantis e navios de colônias. 27 As cruzadas de Pius Dea de 12.000-11.000 BBY viram o uso de navios da catedral e grandes, homens-o-guerra blindados optimized para o combate do broadside. Mas o próximo uso generalizado de grandes navios capitais surgiu por volta de 10.000 ABY quando a República foi brevemente provocada pela ascensão do Império Kumauri. 28 29 Os acorazados maciços de Vall Kumauri estavam armados com canhões de mísseis capazes de acelerar asteróides para velocidades de rachaduras planetárias (semelhante ao antigo planechanga Hutt). A República reagiu com uma frota idêntica, que intimidou ou destruiu várias civilizações hostis durante a expansão das Repúblicas e até serviu como armas de terror durante o Mundicídio Osara do Décimo Conflito Alsákano. Os avanços nos escudos planetários eliminaram largamente a ameaça de bombardeio, mas a inovação mais duradoura do Império de Kumauri foi o uso de madilon sintético para fazer hyperdrives menores, mais eficientes que permitiram saltos mais longos através da rede de galaxys de balizas de salto. 30 A tempestade Waymancy. Um confronto furioso entre a República Galáctica e Waymancy Hollow em 7811 ABY. Provocou a próxima grande onda de inovação naval. Nas primeiras batalhas, os navios da República foram rasgados por fuselagens rápidas de laserfire: as irmãs de Waymancy do Machinesmith desenvolveram o processo de Sif-Alulan e produziram os geradores de poder extremamente eficientes que permitiram para as armas da energia distante mais poderosas e com taxas muito mais rápidas do que qualquer coisa A República poderia trazer para suportar. Waymancy foi derrotado depois que o processo de Sif-Alulan foi projetado reversamente, permitindo que a República criasse seus próprios canhões de onda de pulso e protetores defletores. O processo foi ainda melhorado por pelo Verpine crafter Lyns Skutroo. Que criou o processo squintpipe no 7700s ABY. Isto criou um período breve em que os turbolásers do fogo-rápido outclassed todas as defesas disponíveis. Isso fez com que os estrategistas navais desprezassem os navios capitais em favor de enxames de helicópteros que poderiam dominar os oponentes. Como os escudos defletores eram agora inúteis, isso levou a uma busca por uma armadura de casco mais forte, com vacierite substituindo kiirium. No 7500s BBY, aperfeiçoamentos adicionais do processo do squintpipe produziram os protetores que eram mais fortes e mais rápidos regenerar-se, e os geradores do protetor tornaram-se pequenos bastante para ser cabidos às starships de qualquer tamanho. 31 A idade de ouro dos navios de guerra Editar O processo refinado squintpipe despertou uma idade de ouro de construção de navio de guerra. Navios de capitais ressurgiram como os navios de guerra primários da República Militar. Suas Forças de Segurança Planetária. E seus inimigos, os piores dos quais eram os Sith. Na Grande Guerra Hiperespacial de 5000 ABY. A República enfrentou uma frota de Sith Derriphan massivo - class navios de guerra liderado por Naga Sadow s Corsair. A Marinha da República reagiu com navios de capital cada vez maiores, incluindo navios de comando. Navios de guerra. E o cruzador da classe de Hammerhead (um dos projetos os mais duradouros do navio de guerra na história galáctica, que remanesceu no serviço militar com atualizações por quase 3.000 anos). 32 As duplas ameaças dos Sith e dos Mandalorianos no que se tornou conhecido como as Velhas Guerras Sith levaram a República a construir navios cada vez maiores e mais poderosos, culminando em conflitos titânicos entre os maiores navios de guerra ainda vistos na galáxia. Estes incluíam o navio de comando tático de 3,100 metros Inexpugnable - class. O battlecruiser de 1.200 metros de classe Centurion. E o cruzador de classe Interdictor de 600 metros. Este projeto do cruzador projetou uma gravidade simulada bem no realspace. Criando uma sombra de massa no hiperespaço que impedia o salto de hiperespaço ou arrastou navios de volta para o espaço real. No entanto, esta inovação seria em breve tornada ineficaz por melhores conjuntos de sensores hiperespaciais e unidades de campo nulo multiphase. E não foi até a Guerra Civil Galáctica que os projetores de gravidade tornaram-se armas decisivas novamente. 33 34 A Grande Guerra Galáctica. Guerra Fria e Guerra Galáctica viu Republic Valor - class cruisers e até mesmo o superdreadnaught Estrela de Coruscant lutando contra os destruidores de classe Terminus e Harrower - class dreadnoughts da Marinha Imperial do Império Sith restaurado. 15 Até 4100 ABY. A era do farol de salto estava chegando ao fim como computadores de navegação mais eficazes e poderosos foram desenvolvidos. Desconfiado de rumores além da fronteira da República, a Marinha da República conduziu pesquisas de acidentes para garantir que seus navios pudessem atravessar a galáxia rapidamente e com segurança, sem ter que confiar em balizas. Este foi um movimento presciente: durante a Grande Guerra Sith e as Guerras Mandalorianas. A marinha da república destruiu muitos faróis do salto em um esforço para negar a sua passagem fácil dos inimigos no espaço da república. 35 A inovação tecnológica obsoleto lentamente navios de guerra, no entanto: a Décima sétima e final Conflito Alsakan foi causada por Alsakan manutenção e expansão da sua frota, apesar da conclusão das Guerras Galácticas. A República respondeu com a construção de uma frota de navios de guerra rápidos de classe Invencível de dois quilômetros de comprimento. Alsakan e a resposta do Eixo foram esquadrões em série de corvetas de mísseis subliminares. Que defenderam com sucesso seus sistemas contra ataques da República. No entanto, Corellia reagiu com uma frota de fragatas de longo alcance. Os avanços tecnológicos permitiram que eles fossem equipados com motores rápidos, escudos fortes e turboláseres pesados, permitindo que o Príncipe-Almirante Jonash e Solo pudesse ultrapassar rapidamente os navios de batalha Coruscanti e Alsakani e forçar um tratado de paz em ambos. 36 As Reformações de Ruusan A era do navio de guerra terminou no 2500s ABY devido às preocupações econômicas. Os táticos voltaram a preferir as frotas de cruzeiros menores. Mais notavelmente a frota impressionante de helicópteros de madeira wroshyr-moldado liderado pelo Lord Jedi Valenthyne Farfalla a bordo do Fairwind nas novas guerras Sith. A Reforma de Ruusan de 1000 ABY interrompeu uma grande construção de navio de guerra: não só a Marinha da República foi desmantelada e a responsabilidade pela defesa dada às Forças de Segurança Planetária e às Forças Judiciais. Mas o tamanho dos navios foi tampado no cruzador de 600 metros. Navios maiores que seiscentos metros tiveram seus hyperdrives limitados e seus navicomputers restrito a cartas locais. Durante séculos depois de Ruusan, os navios capitais maiores que os cruzadores leves eram raros e eram vistos como extravagantes. 37 38 Cruisers emergiu como os workhorses dos PSFs e os Judicials igualmente, e serviu bem nas campanhas da unificação após as novas guerras de Sith. Contudo, à medida que a autoridade das Repúblicas nos Territórios do Arco Exterior se desintegrou lentamente nos séculos finais da Grande Paz da República. Setores industriais ricos começaram a construir novos navios de capitais para as frotas setoriais, enquanto megacorps como a Federação de Comércio aproveitaram as lacunas da lei para desenvolver suas próprias frotas de defesa comercial. Estes desenvolvimentos culminaram em cruzadores gigantes em uma escala não vista por milênio, com planetas ricos como Kuat e Rendili que procuram criar defesas inexpugnáveis e impressionar seus vizinhos. Adicionalmente, os shipwrights foram concedidos isenções para permitir-lhes perseguir inovações tecnológicas e mostrar projetos do protótipo. Isso resultou em frotas de demonstração corporativa composta de variações sobre o projeto de navio de guerra, que muitas vezes foram alugadas a setores que poderiam pagá-los. Até os anos 30 ABY. Os setores ricos estavam inundados com navios de guerra maciços, com seu número de frotas inchado por empréstimos de fabricantes de starship. Enquanto isso, os limites de defesa das Reformas de Ruusan significavam que os setores da Rim pobres lutavam para policiar seus mundos e derrotar contrabandistas e piratas com frotas de navios de guerra subestimados. 39 A experiência das Guerras Clônicas Editar As Guerras Clônicas de 22 a 19 ABY. Um produto da Ordem dos Senhores Senhores Plano Grande para assumir o controle da galáxia, fundamentalmente mudou a conduta da guerra espacial. Mais significativamente, resultou na propagação de três novas variações enormes de navio de capital: o Destruidor Estelar. O Battlecruiser. E o Star Dreadnought. Mesmo antes da Reforma de Ruusan, os navios maiores que dois quilômetros de comprimento tinham sido raros, ea maioria de navios de guerra tendeu a ser abaixo da marca de um quilômetro. No entanto, a Clone Wars viu o rápido desenvolvimento e uso generalizado de Star Destroyers. Enquanto o nome tinha sido originalmente uma marca corporativa de Kuat Drive Yards. Chegou a se referir a um navio com mais de um quilômetro de comprimento, com um armamento suficientemente poderoso para depositar resíduos em sistemas estelares inteiros. Destruidores Estelares, exemplificados pelo Venator -. Vitória -. E finalmente a classe Imperial. Se tornaria a espinha dorsal das frotas de batalha durante e depois das Guerras Clônicas. A resposta dos Separatistas ao Destruidor Estelar foi a Providência - portadora de classe destruidora. Mas embora a classe ficasse famosa pelo General Grievous Invisible Hand. Havia relativamente poucos deles. Um desenvolvimento ainda maior do navio de capitais foi o cruzador de batalha, navios de guerra maciços e fortemente blindados, projetados para caçar e destruir outros navios capitais em operações independentes e de longo alcance. O primeiro navio de guerra que ganhou reconhecimento formal como um cruzador de batalha foi KDYs 2,5 km Procurador. Que serviu como um modelo para uma série de navios de guerra KDY cada vez maiores. Na época das Guerras Clônicas, dezenas de combatentes defenderam os setores Core e Colonies, entre os Procuradores refinados, a classe Praetor de quatro mil metros. A maioria destes enormes navios entrou em serviço da República durante as Guerras Clônicas, com a maioria servindo como defesa local contra as incursões Separatistas. Outros eram uparmored, cabido com hyperdrives transgalactic-capazes e transformaram-se os spearpoints das forças de tarefa emitidas de encontro aos mundos Separatista chaves, o mais notàvelmente e tragicamente o Questor em Pammant. A Confederação de Sistemas Independentes manteve alguns navios que poderiam ser chamados battlecruisers, mais notavelmente a classe Subjugator. Melhor representada pela malevolência. Mas eles preferiam frotas de fragatas menores e destruidores leves. O Império Galáctico encomendaria relativamente poucos cruzadores de batalha, relegando-os à defesa do núcleo, e os considerava menos versáteis do que os Destruidores Estelares, mas não incutiam o mesmo terror dos dreadnoughts. Os star-dreadnoughts eram a maior classe de navio de capitais já construída e eram navios de guerra enormes projetados para ser tão poderosos que a mera ameaça de sua implantação iria pacificar vários setores. O primeiro navio de guerra considerado um dreadnought foi KDYs oito quilômetros Mandator. Construído vinte anos antes das Guerras Clônicas. Ele desencadeou uma corrida entre os setores ricos para navios de guerra semelhantes, e durante as Guerras Clone, KDY desenvolveu o design Mandator II melhorado. O Império Galáctico continuou desenvolvimento estrela dreadnought, culminando no Projeto Sarlacc eo Executor-classe estrela dreadnought. Um navio de guerra de 19 quilômetros de comprimento tão grande e poderoso que era quase invencível em combate de frota. Muitos na Marinha Imperial. Entretanto, chegou a desprezar os dreadnoughts das estrelas como ineficientes em comparação com frotas de cruzeiros menores para patrulhar a galáxia, e derisively referiu-se a eles como Super Star Destroyers. 42 A marinha da república foi opor pela marinha confederada. Que compensou a fragilidade relativa de seus destroyers leves da classe de Recusant e de fragatas estreias da classe de Munificent com números enormes dos navios afiados de droid, as. well. as enormes enxames de starfighters. 43 Além de interceptores tradicionais como o Belbullab-22 e o droide tri-fighter. E bombardeiros como a Classe Hyena e Belbullab-24. Os separatistas também operavam um grande número de inimigos. Em uma partida da doutrina tradicional, a marinha confederada desdobraria frequentemente esquadrões de snubfighters como o abutre - classe droid starfighter em um dogfighting um um papel anti-ship. Os desenvolvimentos na tecnologia snubfighter tinham uma doutrina ultracedente. O desempenho de N-1 starfighters na batalha de Naboo tinha mostrado os separatistas que snubfighters capaz de hiperespaço poderia de fato destruir acorazados. A experiência foi confirmada com a destruição da super-arma Separatist Malevolence na Batalha da Nebulosa de Kaliida. Ajudado em nenhuma parte pequena por ele sendo aleijado por Y-asa starfighters. A Marinha da República não demorou a notar isso. Suas principais transportadoras de guerra da estrela, a Venator - e a Vitória - classe Destruidores Estelares. Foram originalmente projetados com a doutrina tradicional em mente e para operar bombardeiros torpedo NTB-630 em um papel de navio anti-capital, ao lado de curto alcance A-6 Interceptors para escolta e lidar com caças starfighter inimigo. Até o final das Guerras Clônicas, a capacidade do portador foi largamente dada a snubfighters como o ARC-170. and designers like Vors Voorhorian and Walex Blissex spent the war years designing a new generation of snubfighters that could dogfight on equal terms with any starfighter in space. 45 The Confederacy of Independent Systems fought the Republic with a stateless strategy. making surgical strikes and terror raids designed to deny the Republic key invasion corridors, undermine support for the war, and sever key fleets supply lines. The sheer size of Republic territory meant that it was impossible for the Republic Navy to repel all the raids, and if it tried to take the offensive against the Separatists, it might leave key worlds vulnerable. 46 The Republic never found a solution to this strategy. Instead, it outgrew it, conscripting vast numbers of new crews and cloning huge numbers of new clone troopers. and by the third year of the war, had committed a substantial portion of its much larger industrial base to produce a fleet so large it could both defend its territories and take the fight to the Separatists. The Separatists Outer Rim holdings were ground down in an attritional campaign known as the Outer Rim Sieges. 47 After the Separatist Droid Army was finally deactivated. the new Galactic Empire inherited the immense Republic Military and both the Republic and the Confederacys military-industrial complexes, allowing Emperor Palpatine to consolidate control over the galaxy with a new navy larger than anything ever seen before. 48 The Galactic Civil War Edit A clash between Rebel and Imperial task forces. The Galactic Civil War of 2 BBY -19 ABY cemented the role of the Star Destroyer as the central warship of navies. Under Emperor Palpatine, the Planetary Security Forces were nationalized and merged into the Sector Groups. massive concentrations of fleet power at the sector level. Distrusting local loyalties, these fleets were rapidly filled with new ships loyal to Imperial Center (decommissioned PSF equipment and ships would later become a major source of resources for the Rebellion ) 49 50 The Imperial Navy ultimately expanded to become the largest military starfleet the galaxy had ever seen, peaking at 25,000 Star Destroyers and millions more smaller ships. 51 The Imperial Navys doctrine emphasised maximizing capital ship firepower rather than achieving starfighter superiority, and it subordinated its starfighters to this role. 52 As such, the Republic Starfighter Corps, when reorganized into the Starfighter Corps of the Galactic Empire, was reduced to being dependent on the Imperial Navy. The large carrier capacity of the Venator - class Star Destroyer was done away with in future designs in favor of smaller fighter complements. This made room for bigger, more powerful reactors, allowing them to be more heavily armored and carry stronger shields and more powerful weapons, all of which would make starfighters less effective. The new Imperial - class Star Destroyer became the backbone of the Imperial Starfleet and was heavily optimised for fleet combat, carrying only a single wing of 72 starfighters, relatively small in comparison to the Venator - class 420 fighters. 53 54 55 The Imperial Navys general strategies and functions included blockading ports in order to prevent supplies from reaching a planet to cripple its ability to fight bombarding planets in order to annihilate its infrastructure and transporting other branches of the Imperial military to their destination as well as supplying them with space and aerial support after disembarking. 17 Seeing it as a legacy of the Separatists, the Imperial Navy abandoned snubfighters in favor of more traditional starfighters: the TIE Series. exemplifying traditional starfighter doctrine with the TIELN Line Starfighter and the TIEsa Bomber. was a series of barebones fighter designs built around a ball-shaped cockpit and the revolutionary twin ion engine design. Seen as complements to Star Destroyers, they served as escorts, scouts, hit-and-fade raiders, and bombers supporting ground troops. As such, they lacked hyperdrives. deflector shields. or even life support systems, reducing their mass and giving them great speed and maneuverability, but also limiting their survivability and their range. 56 The Imperials also chose to eliminate shielding and life-support systems specifically because they viewed the use of such by their TIE pilots as cowardice. 5 In addition, as a holdover towards the Galactic Republics use of cloned soldiers and pilots during the Clone Wars and their treatment of the clones as living droids, the TIE pilots were also given a notoriously low amount of protection during battle and even during training exercises, even when Imperial officers requested that they make accommodations for the growing amount of human pilots that graduated from the Imperial Academy system, which resulted in the TIE fighter being a symbol for the Empires callous disregard of its own troops. 57 The Clone Wars had stimulated aggressive new research into interdiction field technology, and the Empire built on the Republics developments. New designs of gravity well projector were powerful enough to pull any ship out of hyperspace or to pin it in realspace. However, only large capital ship had the spaceframe and drive systems to carry the large, bulbous generators, and Immobilizer 418 cruisers became common sights in Imperial fleets. They were decisive in preventing the immediate escape of the Alliance Fleet into hyperspace at the Battle of Endor. Owing to their role, however, these cruisers were underpowered for their size, and only large battleships like the Sovereign - class and Eclipse - class dreadnoughts were big enough to carry effective interdictor systems without serious penalties in weaponry. 58 The Galactic Empire was opposed by the Alliance to Restore the Republic. which operated on an entirely different military philosophy. Since it lacked large numbers of capital ships, the Rebel Alliance made heavy use of snubfighters as part of its stateless strategy. Powerful starfighters like the T-65 X-wing conducted hit-and-hype raids against prominent Imperial targets and supply convoys, using their superior shielding, armament, and hyperdrives to inflict disproportionate damage on Imperial targets. Meanwhile, the Alliance Fleet would roam the galaxy, challenging Imperial authority merely by existing, and waiting for the chance of a decisive battle with the Galactic Empire. 59 The Galactic Empire made belated moves to develop their own snubfighters like the TIE Advanced x1 and the TIED Defender after the Rebels inflicted humiliating defeats on them with X-wings, but the most numerous new development was the TIEIN. a non-hyperspace capable traditional interceptor that though capable of outracing Rebel fighters, was not equipped with deflector shields. Only declining numbers of TIE pilots in the years after Emperor Palpatines death as the Empire lost ground to the New Republic spurred warlords such as Grand Admiral Thrawn to retrofit TIE Interceptors with shields. 60 A fourth Imperial influence on space warfare was its increasing resort to superweapons to counteract the Rebels stateless strategy. The Empires initial response was a policy of reprisal, a system of state terror that was institutionalised in the Tarkin Doctrine. 61 However, the policy of overwhelming force in an effort to deny the Rebels safe haven did more to foment resistance than eliminate it. The creation of superweapons like the Death Stars. the Eclipse - class dreadnoughts. the Galaxy Gun. and the Sun Crusher. was intended to reverse this state of affairs by introducing the possibility of a reprisal so terrifying - namely, the destruction of entire planets, or even entire star systems - that no world would risk aiding the Rebellion. 62 All these superweapons consumed enormous amounts of resources and more often than not were destroyed early in their lives by concentrated Rebel raids, most notably the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Endor. by the very snubfighters the Empire had disdained. 63 64 The risks of using superweapons were such that, at least regarding the Death Stars, their mere usage required both an Imperial Intelligence report as well as explicit authorization from the Emperor and his office to those with oversector authority. 17 After the destruction of the Second Death Star at the Battle of Endor and the subsequent collapse of Imperial authority, the New Republic moved away from the development of battlecruisers and dreadnoughts: its strategists saw them as obsolete, narrowly-focused on fleet combat, and vulnerable to trench run disease - starfighters hugging close to their hulls and using surface trenches for cover to launch strafing runs. Ship design in the Defender and New Class Modernization Programs instead focused on smaller, more versatile, modular ships, as well as a focus on fleet carriers for large starfighter complements. However, the poor performance of the New Republic Defense Fleet against fleets of dreadnoughts in Operation Shadow Hand. and the experience of the Lusankya s duel with the Reaper during the Orinda campaign. forced a change in design philosophy. The Mon Calamari Shipyards subsequently created the 8.5-kilometer Mediator - class battle cruiser and the two massive, 17-kilometer Viscount - class Star Defenders. Bounty and Krakana . intended as the centerpiece of the New Republics Outer Rim defenses in the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War. 65 66 The Yuuzhan Vong War Edit The New Republic adopted a military system that was wholly different to that of the Galactic Empire. Unlike the Imperial Navy. which had been focused on invasion and occupation, the New Republic Defense Fleet was focused on peacekeeping, patrolling, and rapid crisis response, working with and alongside Planetary Security Forces rather than absorbing them. To this end, rather than the Imperial Navys immense number of ships and Sector Groups used to hold down an entire galaxy, the New Republic Navy was smaller and divided into four (later five) large fleets of some five hundred ships each (each roughly the size of an augmented Imperial Sector Group). 67 68 The four fleets later became permanent regional commands based at Coruscant. Bothawui. Elom. and Kashyyyk. The emphasis was on flexibility, with one battle group in each fleet serving as a mobile reserve which could be reinforced with multi-role task forces to temporarily become a powerful battle fleet. 69 This system served the Republic well after 12 ABY. blockading and neutralizing the last Imperial holdouts. However, it meant that the New Republic was woefully unprepared for a totally unexpected threat when the Yuuzhan Vong War began in 25 ABY. Extra-galactic alien invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong operated bizarre organic starships and weapons far more powerful than their New Republic equivalents. A single Yaret-Kor plasma cannon (the primary armament of most Yuuzhan Vong ships) aboard a yorik-et (the primary Yuuzhan Vong starfighter analog, nicknamed the coralskipper by New Republic pilots) was noted to have greater firepower than all four laser cannons aboard an X-wing starfighter. 70 Nearly all Yuuzhan Vong ships were more heavily armed than their galactic counterparts, though their ability to defend themselves was typically inferior. 71 Regardless, the New Republics fleet organization led to it adopting a strategy of husbanding its fleets, guarding the key hyperspace approaches to the Core and Colonies while it built up its forces in preparation for a decisive fleet battle on ground of its own choosing. The strategy was fundamentally based on a perception of what had allowed the Rebel Alliance to decisively defeat the Empire at the Battle of Endor. but it neglected other tactics that had also served the Rebellion, including commerce raiding, pinpoint strikes, and local defense. This made the New Republic appear weak in the early stages of the war, and the obsession with ceding ground in the hopes of luring the Yuuzhan Vong into a decisive engagement meant that great swathes of the galaxy and billions of people were abandoned to the invaders: The Yuuzhan Vong would capture the majority of the territory they would hold during the war in its first year. 72 73 Despite a disastrous first two years of the war which culminated in the loss of Coruscant to the Yuuzhan Vong and the near-destruction of Galactic City. the New Republic, reorganized into the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. at last achieved technological parity with the Yuuzhan Vong. Innovations such as stutter fire laser cannons to confuse and overwhelm dovin basal defensive shields and jamming yammosk war coordinators allowed the Galactic Alliance to win more victories, culminating in the Battle of Yuuzhantar. where a massive Alliance, Imperial Remnant. Hapan. Chiss and Jedi force descended on occupied Coruscant, killed Supreme Overlord Shimrra and ended the Yuuzhan Vong War. 74 After the Vong Edit The immense taxes required for reconstruction in the aftermath of the Yuuzhan Vong War soon provoked resentment across the sectors, while others, mindful of the New Republics failure to defend them during the war, began building up their Planetary Security Forces to levels that soon caused concern on Coruscant. The Sector Defense Limits of 37 ABY put ceilings on military forces and capabilities, but provoked even more resentment, nowhere more so than on Corellia. a system with a history of prickly independence. 75 Corellian defiance of GA military limits and withholding its reconstruction contributions provoked the Second Galactic Civil War of 40 ABY. After the Galactic Alliance Defense Force continued its efforts to centralize military resources, systems with important shipyards, munitions factories and defense fleets began declaring their independence as well. Led by Corellia, Bothawui and Commenor. they formed a breakaway independent Confederation. 76 With the loss of many of the largest battleships during the Yuuzhan Vong War, neither side made particularly great use of large capital ships. Star Destroyer - sized ships like the Anakin Solo and the new Galactic - class battle carrier predominated on the Alliance side, while the Confederation made use of the somewhat smaller Strident - class Star Defender and the powerful, versatile 850-meter Bothan Assault Cruiser. The Imperial Remnant, meanwhile, began moving away from the traditional design of Star Destroyers with the Turbulent - class Pocket Star Destroyer. which was smaller and possessed a greater capacity for maneuverability while retaining an impressive armament. 77 A surprising development during the war was a resurgence in Hutt militarism in their deployment of batils . tarradas and chelandions - gunship. frigate and cruiser analogs - from Hutt Space in support of the Confederation. The Hutt warships proved capable in battle, with powerful turbolasers and missiles. They had weaker shields than might be expected of ships of their size, but surprisingly strong hull armor. 78 A technological development during the war was the long-range turbolaser. which could engage enemy craft from a distance at which the enemy could not respond. Such weapons caused heavy losses among the Galactic Alliance Fourth Fleet at the Battle of Balmorra despite the eventual GA victory. 79 As in the Yuuzhan Vong War, attempts to force a decisive battle by either side were essays in futility. An attempt by the Confederation to invade the Core was halted at Balmorra with heavy losses on both sides. The week-long battle at Kuat ended after the Galactic Alliance Fifth Fleet attacked Kashyyyk to force the Wookiees to commit their fleet to the Alliance. In the ensuing engagement, the Fifth Fleet was almost completely destroyed after it was surrounded by Confederation forces. The Galactic Alliance Second Fleet would later be completely wiped out as well by a deep-space ambush using the Centerpoint superweapon. The Battle of Fondor split the galaxy even further when a third of the Galactic Alliance fleet presented defected under Admiral Cha Niathal out of a refusal to support an orbital bombardment of civilian population centers. A confused civil war ended sometime later with the Battle of Uroro Station at Shedu Maad in the Hapes Cluster. 80 81 A Pellaeon - class Star Destroyer fighting with a Scythe - class battle cruiser . In the aftermath of the war, the Galactic Alliance increased centralized funding of the Defense Force and reduced its reliance on member worlds for defense. In return for increased taxation, restrictions on member worlds military forces were loosened. For nearly a hundred years, this bargain kept the galaxy largely peaceful. The numbered fleets gave way to larger named fleets assigned to regions of the galaxy, for example, the Galactic Alliance Colonies Fleet. Military philosophy would continue to evolve: in the years leading up to the SithImperial War. the Alliance worked to re-establish Sector Fleets to keep member worlds warships close to their homeworlds. 82 Shipbuilding philosophy developed as well. By the start of the SithImperial War in 128 ABY. which saw the resurgence of the Galactic Empire under the Fel Dynasty as the main galactic power at the expense of the Galactic Alliance, both sides had abandoned battleships almost entirely, largely owing to the enormous cost of operating them. 83 The Galactic Alliances primary warship was now the Scythe - class main battle cruiser. a compact warship only a third of the size of a Star Destroyer that was built for defeating warships in a head-on attack, making repeated attack runs on opponents with an almost-entirely forward-facing armament. Essentially a giant starfighter, its introduction in 92 ABY represented a decisive rejection of fleet carriers and all-purpose battleships in favor of smaller warships focused on specific roles. The Galactic Alliance also retained its focus on the snubfighter with the CF9 Crossfire starfighter. The Fel Empire. meanwhile, continued to prefer the ancient combination of interceptors and bombers. with the heavily-shielded Predator - class fighter and the Neutralizer - class bomber filling its starfighter forces. The Imperial Navy still favoured the Star Destroyer with the Pellaeon - class. though it did not build any larger warships beyond the prototype Imperious - class Star Destroyer. Smaller, lighter warships like the Ardent - class fast frigate were also more common in its fleets than in the Imperial Period. 84 Strategy Edit Types of strategy Edit Military goals are reached through a combination of originality and brutality. 8213Grand Admiral Thrawn 91src93 Rebellion starfighters attack Imperial forces including TIE fighters and Imperial - class Star Destroyers. The multidimensional battlefield made space warfare operations complex and difficult to master. In addition to the complexities of space combat itself, related operations like logistics and support were equally complex. Strategies in space warfare mirrored those applied on the ground, and included asymmetric, attritional, conventional and psychological strategies. Asymmetric strategies, for example, the stateless strategy. were often used by belligerents with a numerical disadvantage to their opponents, The various Sith Empires in their endless wars against the Galactic Republic. the Confederacy of Independent Systems. and the Rebel Alliance in its war against the Galactic Empire all used asymmetric strategies. Such strategies relied on decentralization and the sheer vastness of space to allow a smaller belligerent to beat a larger one. A decentralized power without a clearly-defined homeworld or territory would have to be overcome everywhere it existed before it could be defeated. The vastness of space meant that throughout history, even the largest militaries found controlling space impossible. 85 This gave an advantage to the decentralized belligerent: since the larger opponent could not defend everywhere, the smaller power could choose its battles and strike where its opponent was not. This would force the larger power into making the choice between heavily-defending a handful of key fortress worlds , thus allowing the enemy a free hand elsewhere, or dispersing their forces and so risking the loss of a key planet through defeat in detail. Economic considerations and public pressure tended to force states to adopt the fortress world strategy. 86 Attritional strategies made use of superior numbers to grind the enemy down, often with large numbers of casualties. Such a strategy was used by the Republic during the Outer Rim Sieges of the Clone Wars. since it possessed territories in its own right, the Confederacy of Independent Systems was vulnerable to being attacked conventionally, and once the Republics superior industrial base had produced enough warships to both defend their territories and take the offensive, the CIS was slowly ground down to defeat. 87 Conventional strategies were used by and against belligerents with defined homeworlds and colonies, and involved identifying and attacking significant military objectives to reduce the enemys territory and military forces. It involved organized military forces seeking to engage each other in formal battles, as opposed to, say, targeting civilian populations. After the Battle of Endor. the Galactic Empire and the New Republic typically fought each other in a conventional fashion. 88 Psychological strategies involved boosting the morale of ones own forces while degrading that of the enemys, or that of their civilians, typically through terror tactics. General Grievous saw inducing terror in civilian populations to be the very essence of war, and during the Clone Wars committed atrocities like the release of the Brainrot Plague in the Weemell sector and the orbital bombardment and utter depopulation of Humbarine. which reduced the planets crust to so much slag. 89 Terror operations could be a response to the stateless strategy, namely the use of reprisal to scare civilians into denying the enemy safe haven. However, this could do more to foment resentment and resistance than it could to combat it. The Galactic Empires creation of the Death Stars and other superweapons was intended to reverse such a state of affairs by introducing the possibility of a reprisal so terrifying - namely, the destruction of entire planets - that no world would risk aiding the Rebellion. 90 Grand Admiral Thrawn. meanwhile, was a master of a more subtle form of psychological warfare: at the Battle of Ukio in 9 ABY. he made use of cloaked Star Destroyers, slipped below the planets shields while they were down and coordinated with the rest of his fleet by the Jedi Master Joruus Cbaoth. to make it appear that he could shoot through planetary shields. which terrorized the Ukians into surrendering. Later, at Coruscant, he deployed two dozen cloaked asteroids while dry-firing his tractor beams to fake the launch of three hundred more. These asteroids blockaded the planet, and by threatening the possibility of an asteroid impact or a collision with shipping, Thrawn effectively knocked Coruscant out of the war and put it into a permanent state of siege while dedicating hardly any material to the effort. 91 Astrography and warfare Edit Astrography affected the conduct of space warfare more than any other factor. Statistically speaking, the universe is empty. But at faster-than-light speeds, it fills up very quickly. 8213Admiral Pers Pradeux 91src93 Just as roads and the shape and going of the ground determined where armies marched on the surface of planets, so too did hyperlanes and stellar phenomena like nebulae determined the movements of fleets. This defined what routes they could take, and what star systems they would have to traverse before reaching those of value. Additionally, while there might be a great many hyperspace routes to and from a target, but statistically speaking, only a few of these route could be traversed quickly, and a military force that controlled the fast routes could rapidly redeploy to intercept an adversary using the slow ones. Hyperspace routes also determined the angle at which an attacking fleet might invade a planetary system, and a defenders options for retreat: the Battle of Hoth was a costly battle for the Rebel Alliance because the Hoth system was located on the decaying Ison Corridor. which was difficult to navigate Rimward and had only two exits, making it easy for the Empire to trap the Rebels in-system, and 17 of 30 evacuating transports were lost to the Imperial blockade. 92 93 Additionally, control of a point along a hyperspace route enormously influenced military operations in space warfare. If a force controlled a system along a route, then its enemy was separated from the rest of its forces beyond that point. During their advance to the Core Worlds from 4 -6 ABY. the New Republic sought to capture several such points. Admiral Firmus Nantz and Lando Calrissians victory at the Battle of Abraxas kept Warlord Utoxx Prentioch fixed within his territories around Bomis Koori IV and separated him from Sander Delvardus Eriadu Authority. Later, Nantz capture of Moorja isolated Delvardus and Prentioch from support from the Core while Tyr Taskeen s victory at the Battle of Glova prevented Delvardus from linking up with Imperial forces in the Elrood and Minos sectors. Isolated from the rest of the galaxy. the two warlords were dealt with at the Republics leisure. 94 95 Control of junctions of hyperspace routes, like YagDhul or the Mirgoshir hyperspace crossroads. could be enormously decisive. Control of it would allow a force to continue operations along every hyperspace route emanating from it, and so they were often heavily contested. The Galactic Empire withdrew from the Moddell sector to YagDhul in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor to defend against a Rebel drive into the Core from there. After the system was captured by Firmus Nantz in 5 ABY. the entire Southern Core was effectively at his mercy: he was able to capture the strategic bacta - producing world of Thyferra. liberate Cilpar and Mrlsst. and open negotiations with Herglic Space. 96 97 The most significant hyperspace junction in the galaxy was Brentaal IV. the crossroads of the Perlemian Trade Route and the Hydian Way. which therefore controlled access from the Core Worlds to the northern and eastern quadrants. The system was captured by the Brotherhood of Darkness during the New Sith Wars. and the Sith were only stopped in their march to Coruscant by the Army of Light s desperate counterattack on their supply lines at Ruusan under Lord Hoth. It was captured by the New Republics Rogue Squadron in 4 ABY six months after Emperor Palpatine s death in a celebrated battle, and its capture effectively separated the Empire from its Outer Rim possessions on the Hydian and the Perlemian, leaving the New Republic free to contemplate the conquest of Coruscant. 98 99 The source of a fleets ships, a shipyard. was very valuable, and made an important target for an opposing force. As they required ships to defend themselves, shipwrights were also very vulnerable and the attacking fleet would often have to destroy heavy opposition before it could damage the docks. The New Republic Second Fleets campaign in the northern quadrant after 4 ABY was delayed for nearly two years after Imperial forces destroyed the secret shipyards at Hast. destroying or damaging nearly thirty New Republic capital ships and derailing the Second Fleets planned assault on Warlords Zsinj and Teradoc. 100 Planets providing strategic material for the war effort were also of paramount importance, because without adequate supplies, after a certain period, any combat starship loses the ability to engage the enemy, either through lack of fuel, lack of munitions, battle damage that cannot be repaired, or the starvation of the crew. Consequently, campaigns could often depend upon cutting the enemys supply lines, either by attacking its supply ships, or preventing the enemy from reaching their supply ships. If a planet could not be held against an attacking force, then the defender might judge it to be too valuable to be left to the enemy and destroy it. The Imperial Navy codenamed such actions Base Delta Zero , defined as the systematic complete destruction of all assets of production, including factories, arable land, mines, fisheries, and all sentient beings and droids, and was achieved through an orbital bombardment that would reduce the upper crust of a planet to slag. 101 Tactics Edit Capital ship tactics Edit The strategy adopted by a space navy defined what tactics were used in battle. Some tactics were universal: the most basic tactical principle was to maximize the damage ones fleet did to the enemy while minimizing ones own. Other tactics were more suited to certain strategies: space denial. space-sniping and hit-and-hype raiding were generally best suited for a force pursuing an asymmetric strategy, while beambaiting might be adopted by an enemy trying to combat that force. In general capital ships fought other capital ships, and starfighters fought other starfighters. Exceptions included starfighters equipped with proton torpedoes or other warheads, and capital ships, like the Lancer - class frigate. which were designed to fight starfighters. However, most capital ships were equipped with anti-starfighter cannons to aid their fighter escorts or to serve as the primary defense against fighters in the absence of an escort. A universal tactic in space battles was maneuvering warships so that they brought more weapons to bear on the enemy than vice-versa, as well as presenting a narrower profile for the enemy to shoot at. 102 Thus, battle formations typically took the form of long lines of ships, hence why capital ships could also be called ships of the line , to exchange fire with the enemy. A fundamental choice all commanders had to make was whether to engage at long - or close-range. The Galactic Empire typically preferred engagements at range, and the angled, arrowhead design of the Star Destroyer was designed to focus all its weapons forward to accommodate this. This design also made Star Destroyers ideal for launching Alpha Strikes - firing all the ships weapons at a single spot on a target simultaneously to cause maximum damage. 103 The Star Destroyers design meant that it was poorly-optimised for close-range battles, however. Close-range engagements typically resulted in broadside battles - two ships flying past each other and firing their side guns into each others flanks. Mon Calamari Star Cruisers were typically better in broadside battles than their Imperial counterparts, since though they did not have as much total firepower as Star Destroyers, they had a much better all-round firing arc. 104 Ships optimised for broadside battles might attempt to cap the enemys T. namely, engage them while they were in a line-ahead formation so that only the lead ship in the enemy formation could respond. They might even rush straight into the enemys line in the hopes of breaking it, which typically resulted in a chaotic, close-range brawl with ships engaging each other in groups of two or three at most. 105 The late stages of the Battle of Coruscant during the Clone Wars descended into a close-range brawl between Republic and Separatist ships engaging individually in broadside battles after the Open Circle Fleet arrived and trapped the Separatist invasion force in Coruscants orbit. 106 However, by 4 ABY and the Battle of Endor. brawls were sufficiently rare as to be almost unheard-of in space warfare, and it came as a great surprise to Death Squadron at Endor when Admiral Ackbar closed the Alliance Fleet to within a few hundred meters of them to avoid the superlaser of the Second Death Star. 107. The New Republic Defense Fleet later codified such tactics as the Ackbar Slash. 108 Long-range and close-range tactics might be combined: the Kenobi Offensive was such a tactic developed by High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars, which involved a series of sniping attacks at range to draw a portion of a larger enemy force out of its formation. Once a defending vessel was destroyed, attacking ships could flood through the gap and attack the enemy force from within. 109 The Imperial Navy Captain Kendal Ozzel identified three principles in Imperial naval tactics, which he recorded in Innovations in Imperial Naval Tactics . The first was Surprise, which involved emerging from hyperspace right on top of the enemy. According to Ozzel, the Imperial navigators were capable of pinpoint calculations, which would eliminate the risk of overshooting the target, and thus leave the enemy unable to counter Imperial offensive moves. The second principle was Pursue, where Imperials were to chase the enemy, largely due to the Star Destroyers great sublight speed. The third was Overwhelm, which involved the entire Imperial force available being used at once, ensuring that the combined firepower would make up for loss of maneuverability. However, Han Solo implied when reviewing these innovations that they were extremely poorly thought out and hardly innovations at all by stating simply, I cant make fun of this. Its just too easy. 17 This was confirmed when one of Ozzels innovations, Surprise, resulted in the Rebel-occupied Echo Base on Hoth bunkering down and generating a deflector shield and buying time for an evacuation, thus forcing the Imperials to enter a costly ground campaign. an action that resulted in then-Admiral Ozzels death at the hands of Darth Vader. 110 Interdictors could also play a decisive tactical role in space battles. Since their interdiction fields could either prevent the enemy from escaping or pull them out of hyperspace. they could pin an enemy fleet where a commander wanted them. Imperial Immobilizer 418 cruisers prevented a Rebel retreat at Endor, and Grand Admiral Thrawn pioneered revolutionary new uses of interdictors during his final campaign. The Thrawn Pincer was used by him at the Battle of Bilbringi. and called for interdictor cruisers to create a gravity well. which denied the enemy an easy escape. Then, reinforcements could jump through hyperspace into the general area and be pulled out into realspace by the interdiction field behind the enemy with accuracy and surprise which would otherwise be very difficult to achieve. 111 Admiral Ackbar used this same tactic to help defeat the Ciutric Hegemony. 112 In addition, there was an intelligence element to space warfare, with each side in larger engagements attempting to intercept and decrypt enemy communications as part of a larger effort to predict what the enemy will do next, with the intention of either preventing them from achieving their intentions or minimizing the damage that can be caused by their plans. The Squill Sifters were a group of Galactic Republic spies. slicers and codebreakers active during the Waymancy Storm conflict, and their role in intercepting, deciphering and interpreting Waymancy communications was considered decisive in ending the conflict in a Republic victory. 113 Starfighter tactics Edit A Venator - class Star Destroyer executes a Marg Sabl maneuver during the Clone Wars . Starfighter combat had a huge variety of tactics in its own right, though broadly speaking they could be divided into two groups: those tactics designed to be used against capital ships, and those tactics used to defend capital ships. Historically, the former role had generally been taken by bombers. large, complex and heavy craft built around powerful sensor arrays, large missile payloads, and days-long mission profiles, designed to track down enemy fleets and launch surprise attacks. Naval wisdom held for centuries that this was the only scenario in which torpedo runs could penetrate defensive fighter screens and flak defenses. 114 The latter role was typically taken by interceptors. extremely light, fast and maneuverable starfighters that were minimally armed and were designed to shoot down attacking bombers, or to escort bombers to their targets and defend them from enemy interceptors. 115 In battle, fleets would typically deploy their interceptor escorts in front of them in a starfighter screen , where they could engage enemy fighter squadrons before they could close in on the larger vessel. 116 Alternatively they might move aggressively with their starfighters in a tactic like the Marg Sabl closure maneuver. Here, the superstructure of the starfighter-carrying vessel would turn to face the oncoming enemys vessels, allowing the starfighters to launch without risking attack. The starfighters would then launch attacks over each side of their ships hulls on to the flanks of the attacking squadrons, who had become pinned against the defending ships. Grand Admiral Thrawn used this tactic against an Elomin commander quite effectively at the Battle of Obroa-skai. 117 The snubfighter lay between the interceptor and the bomber in terms of armament and speed, and the Alliance Starfighter Corps pioneered their use as shipkillers during the Galactic Civil War. developing a wide variety of tactics that allowed them to destroy much larger capital ships. 118 These included the nova flare. which involved massed barrages of proton torpedoes fired from starfighters and aimed at specific points along the shields of a capital ship. 119 Another such tactic was the Tallon split. a maneuver developed by the Alliance tactician Adar Tallon. The tactic called for two starfighters to fly extremely close together as they approached a capital ship, so close that the larger ships targeting computer would detect the two fighters as one approaching ship. At very close range, the two fighters would split apart: one fighter would continue on a strafing run of the capital ship, while the second would draw fire away from the first. The attacking fighter would have about five seconds to cause damage on the capital ship before it was clearly identified as a second ship. Even so, those five seconds would allow enough time to cause serious damage to the larger vessel. 120 Garm Bel Iblis A-wing Slash involved a number of large starfighters masking the approach of smaller starfighters with missile weapons behind them, then moving out in what appeared at first glance to be a flanking attack, wrong-footing the gunners of enemy point defense weapons to allow the force approaching behind the large starfighters to slip through the enemys defenses, often allowing the smaller fighters missiles to inflict critical damage to the enemy. 121 Such tactics suited the Rebel doctrine of space denial. which used hit-and-hype raids against Imperial convoys to deny the Galactic Empire freedom of movement and forced them to commit more forces to convoy defense, thus diluting Imperial naval strength as a whole. 122 A comparable tactic was space-sniping. used by forces defending a star system against a planetary assault. The strategy consisted of hiding starfighter bases in gas giants. within asteroid fields. on planets with large oceans, or on planets with thick cloud cover within or around the planetary system to be defended. Starfighter groups would operate in tandem from these bases, attacking isolated ships during the orbit phase of a planetary invasion. 123 Starfighter tactics could also extend to smaller capital ships light corvettes or gunships attacking larger ones. Slashing the deck was a tactical maneuver used against enemy capital ships developed by the Dark Lord Kaan at the First Battle of Ruusan during the New Sith Wars. The technique involved any number of smaller ships, usually ranging from snubfighters to corvettes, that would fire all their guns while cutting in along a vector that minimized the amount of guns the enemy capital ship could bring to bear against them. When the enemy capital ship tried to change direction to bring more guns about, the smaller ships would pivot and double back for another pass along a different vector to inflict even more damage. However, the tactic focused heavily on speed and the element of surprise and was almost useless if the enemy could call upon the support of other ships. 124 Planetary assault tactics Edit Space navies were inherently hugely important in making planetary assaults. since they were the only forces that could clear the surrounding space and transport large surface armies. Inevitably, planets also deployed significant defenses, including planetary shields to resist bombardment, and planetary turbolasers. ion cannons. mines. and space defense platforms to fight back against invading fleets. 125 The Imperial strategist Michael Unther identified four phases of a planetary assault. The approach was the initial advance on the system, and included decisions like at what point to drop the fleet out of hyperspace. A distant approach would allow plenty of time for reconnaissance and might allow the attacking force to approach under stealth, but equally it raised the risk of detection. Alternatively, a close approach might surprise the enemy, but would also leave the fleet exposed with minimal intelligence. During the Battle of Hoth. Admiral Kendal Ozzel brought Death Squadron out of hyperspace too close to the Hoth system in the hope of achieving surprise, but it allowed the Rebels to detect the bursts of Cronau radiation from his ships and rapidly raise a theater shield around Echo Base. Consequently the Empire was committed to a costly ground assault. 126 The second phase, orbit. involved the placement of warships around the planet, where they might execute bombardments from an Objective Orbit, or blockade the planet to force it to surrender from a Siege Orbit. The Galactic Empire invested heavily in Dedicated Siege Platforms like the Torpedo Spheres. aimed at blasting down planetary shields with large barrages of proton torpedoes so as to avoid prolonged sieges. 127 The third phase, invasion. involved the deployment of ground troops to capture the planet. The fleet might be tasked with clearing landing zones, providing precision bombardments in support of the army, or deploying bombers as air support. The fourth phase, control. involved consolidating control of the planet after capitulation. This was typically an army operation, though the navy could be called upon if the aim was to terrify the civilian population into submission, for example, through the use of punitive orbital bombardments. 128 Notable naval commanders Edit Galactic RepublicJedi Order Edit Confederacy of Independent Systems EditSpada 2000 Air Defence Missile System, Italy The Spada 2000 is an all-weather, day and night, highly automated, air defence system developed by MBDA (formerly Alenia Marconi Systems). The system has quick reaction time and requires very few operators to man the system. The unit can operate independently or can be integrated with national air defence centres. Spada 2000 is in production and in service with Spanish Air Forces. The Spada 2000 is an upgraded version of the Spada air defence system providing significant operational and technological improvements, including increased firepower and range, and the capability of coordinating additional anti-air weapons. In March 2007, Kuwait ordered the upgrade of its Aspide missile systems to Aspide 2000 Spada 2000 configuration. quotThe Spada 2000 is an all-weather, day and night, highly automated, advanced air defence system. quot The system provides air defence missile coverage of 2,000km. Target detection and tracking range is up to 60km and the missiles can intercept crossing and approaching targets to a range of 25km. The kill probability is high, even against highly agile crossing targets. The system can engage up to four targets simultaneously with Aspide missiles. Spada 2000 is modularised and integrated into sheltered units, which provides a high tactical and strategic mobility. The system consists of a detection centre and either two or four firing sections, each section equipped with two missile launchers. Each missile launcher has six ready-to-fire Aspide 2000 missiles. Aspide 2000 missile The Aspide 2000 missile is an upgraded version of the Aspide surface-to-air missile. The missile is capable of engaging hostile attack aircraft before the aircraft can release airborne standoff weapons. The Aspide 2000 is also capable of intercepting air-launched missiles once launched. The upgraded missile uses an enhanced single-stage rocket motor which provides increased missile speed, higher lateral acceleration and effective range. The missile is also in service with the Italian Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force as part of the Oerlikon Contraves Skyguard air defence system. The high-thrust single-stage solid-propellant rocket motor provides high supersonic speed and high agility to intercept manoeuvring targets. The guidance system is semi-active radar homing. Spada 2000 missile detection centre The detection centre contains mission planning capability allowing fast and precise effective deployment of the weapons. The centre is fitted in a hardened shelter with an RAC-3D radar installed on a hydraulically operated mast on the roof of the shelter. The shelter houses the systems operating centre, including the voice and data communications suite. Auxiliary equipment in the centre includes a global positioning system, a north finder, air conditioning and power supplies. RAC-3D radar Aspide 2000s radar is the Selex Sistemi Integrati (formerly Alenia Marconi Systems) RAC-3D, which gives three-dimensional volumetric air surveillance, detection and tracking. The system has the capacity to track 100 targets simultaneously within a range of 60km. The radar is capable of operating in hostile electronic warfare environments and is robust against clutter interference and electronic countermeasures. The radar features emission control, jamming location, random frequency agility and coded waveforms. The radars erectable antenna is up to 13m in height. Operations centre The operations centre is manned by two operators for mission planning, system deployment and management during combat operations. The computer displays the air threat data in 3D coordinates. The system tracks, identifies and prioritises the targets and assigns the firing sections to the priority targets. The targets can also be assigned to other anti-air weapon systems. The system is able to coordinate up to ten small anti-air weapons deployed within a 10km radius. The operations centre can be connected to a remote upper level air defence command centre. quotSpada 2000 is modularised and integrated into sheltered units, which provides a high tactical and strategic mobility. quot Firing section The firing section consists of the tracking and illumination radar, the control unit and the missile launchers each with six ready-to-fire missiles. The radar carries out target acquisition, tracking and illumination functions for missile guidance. The control unit is managed by a single operator. The unit controls all the functions from target designation to missile launch and target intercept and operates in manual or automatic mode. Communications The communications suite includes the data links between the detection centre and the firing sections and also internal and external secure voice communications.
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