Steven Den Beste has a nice artcle up that gives a brief introduction to historical navy tactics and promises to lead to a discussion of future space navy tactics. He writes:
There are a lot of battles in this series. Ship battles are sometimes one-on-one, sometimes between small groups, occasionally one-on-many, and sometimes between large groups of ships. It got me thinking about the entire idea of how fleet actions between space navies might actually be fought, or if such a thing actually even made sense.As SDB notes with respect to modern navies, the prominence of carriers and aircraft have made most forms manuvering and tactics pointless. It doesn't really matter what formation your ships are in when you're fighting against an enemy fleet that's over the horizon and your primary weapons are cruise missiles and fighter-bombers. There are some tactics involved with submarine warfare, but subs don't operate in groups and basically just need to stay silent.I was always very dissatisfied with ST:TNG ship-to-ship battles. With the ship capabilities and weapons capabilities they had, all the emphasis on maneuver and on closing with the enemy made no sense at all. And if anything, the Star Wars battles were even worse. (So far as I can tell, no one in that galaxy a long time ago, far far away, ever invented the missile.)
As for futuristic space combat, there haven't been any popular TV shows, movies, or video games that have given a realistic depiction of what such battles will be like. Weapon ranges will only increase, and space has very little "terrain" -- not even a horizon to hide behind. Further, absent the ability to bypass energy conservation laws, weapons will get more powerful relative to ship hull integrity, and nuclear weapons will probably be commonly used. (There will be no atmosphere to pollute, and opposing fleets will be far apart.)
Futuristic space combat will probably be quite boring. Whichever fleet sees the other first will unleash their full arsenal and then beat a hasty retreat. No ship will be able to dodge a missile, and no ship will survive an impact with a megaton nuke. Incoming missiles may be shot down, but that won't be easy to do since missiles will be unimpeded by atmosphere and able to travel at very high velocity. In fact, it seems likely that in most circumstances both fleets would be destroyed.
The optimal combat ship, then, would be packed with the absolute most number of nuclear warheads possible and have a minimal human crew (zero, probably). Arsenal ships would guard a fleet of non-combat ships armed with chaff and defensive guns (like the Phalanx), and when the fleet is engaged the non-combat ships will flee and the arsenal ships will be destroyed covering their retreat. Whichever side still has missiles left at the end will be the winner.
Update:
SDB has more on weapons, and assumes that no nuclear missiles will be used. He says the threat of escalation would prevent their use, but I'm not so sure, considering that the physical side effects would be much less than when nuclear weapons are used on earth.
- Another problem I had with Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. is that in 3-D space without gravity, every time two opposing ships face each other they are always positioned the same way relative to each other.
- A good view of 3D maneuvering tactics along with a great scifi story can be found in the book "Ender's Game"
DM: I'd forgotten about Ender's Game. Although I don't really remember much of the tactical discussions in the book.
Been years since I read it but I am pretty sure The Mote In God's Eye discussed space battles as Den Beste envisions--and why not, it was written by Niven and Pournelle.
I think David Drake is probably closer. Hyper-velocity slugs. Take a missile that is just a motor and a casing, and then smash it into the other ship. Fire it on a balistic course. SDB seems to downplay the ability to hit the other ship with unguided missiles, but I think that it would probably be very possible at the tech level he is talking about.
You can assume that the enemy will have near perfect intelligence on you -- course, speed, weight, etc. That is going to let them make very exact calculations about the cone of movement that you will be able to make to avoid the shot, and make a firing solution that involves several missiles to saturate that cone. If you are moving very fast, then it is going to take a lot of energy to change that course. If you are moving slowly, it is going to take a lot of energy to get moving at a speed that will take out of that spread. I think that unguided missiles are a very real threat in this situation. The real arms race may be for how many tubes a ship has, enabling it to fire larger spreads at once.
P: True, and dumb projectiles won't need engines and fuel, they can just be bullets.
Those are interesting scenerios indeed. I imagine in addition to missiles, that laser technology will continue to advance, with more power packed into smaller and smaller devices. It is even a good bet that laser beams themselves will be surpassed by more energetic weapons until the point of a 'cosmic ray energy beam'. How could you defend a ship or incoming missile against this? Chances of dodging are slim, if you can't conceal your location from the start. Surviving the hit would be the only option. I guess you would make all surfaces of your ships super-reflective to dissipate the incoming energy, or even ablative like a heat shield to protect the inner workings of the vessel and its potential crew as the outer surface is burned away. Missile casings would require the same sort of protection, because it would be hard to imagine a missile at this stage that could dodge a light-speed beam of energy directed at it. Imagine: Two opposing forces sparkling with mirrored surfaces engaged in a long range energy shoot-out, simultaneously firing spreads of mirrored projectiles and missiles at each other. Yeah, maneuver would be irrelevant here too, unless simply to turn your most reflective surface towards the opponent. Nowhere to run... nowhere to hide. I'd certainly rather watch an exchange like that, than be a participant!