On the one hand, things in space tend to be really far away from each other (hundreds of thousands if not millions of kilometers of distance). It would seem that at that distance, the only weapons that would be able to reliably hit would be lasers, which would be distinctly lacking in the power necessary to inflict noteworthy damage on a heavily armored, kilometer long warship.

On the other hand, at short range (the kind of stuff you usually see in Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and other Space Operas) the speeds involved in space travel would give gunners miniscule periods of time to acquire and hit their target (even less if you're trying to hit a 20 meter fighter instead of a massive warship).

About the only thing that occurs is to treat it like a dogfight: once the battle gets to close range, everyone slows down a lot to avoid running into something else.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Maybe they'd have to resurrect old maritime-style tactics where one boat comes into close contact with another and sends off bombs towards the enemy?

Maybe VR?

Then you have the anime approach with mecha suits...

Also, maybe you could have some fun and try for a new approach. Some type of medium for warfare as yet unseen in sci-fi.

--dreamshell--

One idea I've been considering is that their FTL technology and their propulsion technology work on the same principle, just different scales (eg, instead of using your handwavium powered engine to jump 10 light years, you jump a micrometer forward billions of times a second. This also eliminates the problem of inertia, and there is something entertaining about two kilometer long warships that are more maneuverable than an F-22. And tactical use of the FTL drive gives me a flimsy excuse as to why space combat takes place at relatively short ranges (2000 km).

So not so much realistic as follows from the phlebotinum.

Sounds cool.

Nice use of TV Tropes terminology, btw. ;)

--dreamshell--

Here's a page that may provide some interesting information: http://www.orionsarm.com/topics/space_warfare.html

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