Formation Flying

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  • #3478
    Xavier
    Keymaster

    I was discussing with senior officer a month or so ago about re-introducing formation flying. Now we are travelling longer distances and using higher warp factors, we could really see these put to use. It would take training of helm officers (I want to run advanced helm training sessions when I am set up again properly) but it is something we can look at and expand.

    I have added some notes on the use of formations in the document. At the moment though, many are just different ways of travelling and for show. Any ideas on why we might use them would be good. We have used these in the past and it made the fleet look really good when out flying.

    Fleet and Battlegroup Formations

    • This topic was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Xavier.
    #3487
    Gabriel Wade
    Participant

    The primary purpose for formation flying, aside from keeping vessels at safe and even distances from one another and maintaining an orderly coordination of movement, is to evenly distribute defense and firepower. Specifically for our Division, I would say formation flying would be advantageous for coordinating Fleet Orders. For instance, in a Foxtrot 2 the primary support vessel would be at the lead of the formation and fire the Omega 3 on the enemy fleet. The secondary support and lead vessels in their placed in formation should ideally be in optimum position to proceed with their echo runs. There wouldn’t be any worry about which way each vessel would be approaching from as formation would have everyone facing the same direction. The would also help with the timing of each vessel’s echo runs or perhaps even allow simultaneous echo runs (though that would be more risky.

    Also for Charlie maneuvers the concentration of firepower would be much more effective: essentially cutting through the enemy fleet to divide it and conquer it, or even keeping all ships in position to concentrate fire on the heavier vessels, such as the Torgoth Leviathans.

    For defensive purposes it could allow the defense of allies to be concentrated and allow vessels to break off for interception as needed while allowing the bulk of the fleet to stay near the priority.

    I think formation flying would be great to exercise not only for professional appearance, but also for multiple practical purposes.

    #3518
    Quinn
    Participant

    As a helm officer I am all for flying in tight formation. Without any extra training, we could execute this by simply increasing communication from the lead ship. If all ships form up on the Raven, for instance, their CO (or XO even) would announce to all ships, “prepare to execute warp one on my mark,” so all helm officers can be prepared. That way we don’t lose formation as soon as we go to warp, as we always seem to. Increasing warp factor would be executed in similar fashion, so we don’t end up with the lead ship leaving the rest behind *coughAllardcough* 🙂

    It’s somewhat difficult now that we have ships with such different speeds, but I still think it’s doable to match speeds. On the Hydra, for instance we’ve noticed that if Engineering increases warp power to 130%, we can match the rest of the fleet. I’d imagine the Lancer has also figured out what percentage they need to reduce to to match as well.

    Also, I am super excited to hear about advanced helm training, for the record!

    #3598
    Graybeard
    Participant

    I am picturing us travelling thru potentially hostile space in a “Lead+Diamond” formation. Posted in the lead would be Scout/Lancer element. Maybe 5-10 k ahead of main formation. Following would be the rest of the division. I’m picturing a Diamond {Sierra-2} formation. Or maybe a 3 ship Echelon if less ships present. And I am picturing this with Hydra as lead ship. Hydra is our mobile artillery and having them as lead would allow them to deploy heavy munitions more quickly and SAFELY. {I hope!}
    If situation dictates a separate scout run, lead element could be deployed to execute. If backup requested the tail of the diamond or echelon could be detached for this task.
    Ever hear of a Forlorn Hope?

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