General Targeting:
The majority of combat will be conducted using lasers.  Lasers require a greater proficiency on the part of the pilot as they can not track a target on their own.  In situations where a target is unable to fire at you, you may simply match the speed of the target and fire at it, unobstructed.  While this is an ideal situation, it will rarely present itself to you.  This may be because the target is in motion and capable of returning fire or that there are other hostile craft which prevent you from leisurely engaging the target. 

You will quite often have to fire on a moving target while you yourself are moving.  This will require that you compensate for the movement of the target craft.  To compensate, you have to fire where the craft will be.  When doing this, you need to take into account the range between you and your target.  As the range increases, so does the amount of time required by your lasers to hit your target.  This requires that you fire further in advance of your target.  When executed properly, a pilot compensates for both the movement of his target and the range to his target.  This process of tracking the movement of your target's predicted flight path with your targeting reticule is referred to as "leading the target".  When you fire on a target in this situation, it is called a deflection shot.

Deflection shots are what will make a pilot lethal.  The better the pilot is at making deflection shots, the less data he needs on the movement of his target to successfully hit his target.  The less data a pilot needs, the quicker he can neutralize it.  The less time the pilot requires to obtain a “lock” on his target, the less time the target has to become aware that it is targeted and take evasive actions.  This allows the pilot to engage targets quicker and at a greater rate.  Deflection shots from a skilled pilot offer little to no warning, making them highly dangerous.

Deflection shots are the most difficult shots to make, as they occur when both the shooting platform and the target are in motion.  This means that the pilot has little time to obtain a confirmation of a “solid” lock from his craft’s targeting computer.  When the pilot is engaged in split-second deflection shots, the targeting computer will not be able to assist the pilot.  The pilot must be able to gauge the angular movement of the target relative to his craft.  Because the distance and angular velocity between the target and the firing platform will vary from situation to situation, there is not a simple method for executing a deflection shot.

This manual, will however offer a method which you can use to practice deflection shots and increase your proficiency at them.  One method is to fly a combat skirmish (via the simulator) against an array of unarmed and slow craft such as freighters.  You can configure the engagement such that you engage however many targets you wish to.  You will need to set the timer to an amount that will allow you to get enough experience to make the run beneficial.

When you move to engage them, fly erratic maneuvers or a random flight path which might be reflective of a combat engagement against other fighters and practice taking shots as the targets enter your field of view and firing path.

Once you feel content with your ability to do the above, you can create replace the freighters with smaller targets such as astromech droids.  You would then execute the practice sortie in the same manner.  When you feel content with this scenario you may want to consider engaging targets in a minefield.  The primary objective would be to practice neutralizing the mines.  This allows you practice in making deflection shots against a target with a small cross-sectional profile as well as a target which can fire at you, forcing you to fire on the “fly”.

.: Chapter 4: Warheads :.