Attacking Darius:

Michael Everett wrote:Sounds a lot like the "Clearing the Wedge" maneuver that lets the ship using it sweep the more sensitive Broadside arrays over the areas usually covered by the dorsal/ventral arrays (which are massively degraded by the ship's Impeller Wedge).
In the short story Miss Midshipwoman Harrington, the then-in-charge Assistant Tactical Officer orders such a maneuver despite the protests of the senior NCO on the bridge. The resulting course-change-and-roll alerts the incoming hostile to the fact that their target is not a merchantman since only a military vessel would perform that move. It also leads to the ATO being effectively kicked off the ship for being a self-righteous moron.

Fox2! wrote:

Michael Everett wrote:Sounds a lot like the "Clearing the Wedge" maneuver that lets the ship using it sweep the more sensitive Broadside arrays over the areas usually covered by the dorsal/ventral arrays (which are massively degraded by the ship's Impeller Wedge).
In the short story Miss Midshipwoman Harrington, the then-in-charge Assistant Tactical Officer orders such a maneuver despite the protests of the senior NCO on the bridge. The resulting course-change-and-roll alerts the incoming hostile to the fact that their target is not a merchantman since only a military vessel would perform that move. It also leads to the ATO being effectively kicked off the ship for being a self-righteous moron.

He also got his entire picket killed when he performed a bone-headed attack on the invading Peeps as part of their Operation Bagration. And kicked his ops officer out in disgrace because she told him to abandon the station in the face of insurmountable odds.

Jonathan_S wrote:Well Clancy's case the submarines had a single blind spot, to the rear, where their prop blocks their sonar. So the Crazy Ivan just let the sub check that blind spot by making a hard turn to swing the most sensitive sonar through that direction.


The "tactic" is pointless if you have all around sensor coverage; like Honorverse ships do.

Also it wasn't necessarily that a single foe might have been hiding there. It was that anything might be back there - multiple subs (unlikely since NATO subs rarely work in concert like that), multiple anti-submarine helicopters or marine patrol craft dropping sonobuoys or using dipping sonar, anti-submarine surface forces or escorts; or even targets you might like to track or attack.

The turning around is just to sweep the sensors through that otherwise blind zone. The random timing of it is to try to keep any foes from going silent (dropping into stealth) just before you turn around and scan for them.

cthia wrote:I am stilled miffed about you questioning MAlign loyalty. Name one instance where they've had a problem with loyalty outside of Simoes?

ZVar wrote:

cthia wrote:I am stilled miffed about you questioning MAlign loyalty. Name one instance where they've had a problem with loyalty outside of Simoes?

I forget their names, but there is also that couple that killed their handler during Houdini. They were starting to ask questions like what really happened and are the people I love ok.
A few of those questions will do a lot to overthrow the Deitweilers from the inside.

ZVar wrote:

cthia wrote:I am stilled miffed about you questioning MAlign loyalty. Name one instance where they've had a problem with loyalty outside of Simoes?

I forget their names, but there is also that couple that killed their handler during Houdini. They were starting to ask questions like what really happened and are the people I love ok.
A few of those questions will do a lot to overthrow the Deitweilers from the inside.

phillies wrote:Of course, there is the constraint that the galaxy, most of it, is flatter than a pancake, perhaps 100 LY thick (lots of stars beyond, but not most of them, so one of your coordinates is sort of known.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

phillies wrote:Of course, there is the constraint that the galaxy, most of it, is flatter than a pancake, perhaps 100 LY thick (lots of stars beyond, but not most of them, so one of your coordinates is sort of known.

It's actually about 1000 light-years thick and even past that it's not a sharp edge (there's definitely no energy barrier there that gives ESP powers to people who cross it). There are stars past that, it's just that the density drops off. There are stars out 200,000 light-years in the diffuse halo, though those are also older Population II stars and unlikely to have habitable planets.

Another thing is that they don't need a planet. With sufficient technology -- which everyone definitely has-- they can set up shop in space habitats and therefore by in any of millions of stars.

Theemile wrote:
That's the 3rd reference to 3 days I've seen to that horrible og STtS episode. What gives?