The Modern Spectra of Warfare: Interstellar

War never changes, one might say. And for the most part, that person would be right.

In terms of general principles and doctrine, at least. But the execution may change at times, depending on circumstances. That's a given, however. But, what isn't a given, is when entirely new fields of warfare erupt onto the scene.

Ancient Humanity never had to fight an interstellar war. In their uplifting into the Hive, they were spared such. And in return, they were given their fill of experience on it, whilst seeing all the truths of land, sea, and terrestrial air warfare remained.

Many ascribe interstellar warfare's role  as being identical to that of a terrestrial navy. And while it can largely be summarized as such, and even maintained in a same logistical manner, its execution. Just as the other fields of military dominance have remained separate, so too is interstellar warfare its own separate animal.

The primary reason for this are the limitations of naval warfare. Interstellar warfare has full three-dimensional capabilities at all times. Any craft can be built to accomplish this, whilst maintaining necessary rates of offense and defense. While individual forces will have preferences and doctrine of their own, chief in interstellar warfare is maneuverability. Second among them, is the intelligence and sophistication of maneuvers that can be carried out in zero-gravity, zero-friction environments.

Maneuvers of Masses of Interstellar vessels often use highly sophisticated mathematical shapes to minimize surface area while covering distance. Complex 3D planes that twist, turn, reorientate, and so forth to reduce the exposure of individual units to excessive fire at any given time. In theory, this might make interstellar warfare a battle between computers, as they compute rigorous mathematics as fast as possible. To offset this, the human element of picking apart weaknesses in the enemy formation, or noticing a pattern to the algorithm that the machine doesn't, can aid in the turning of battle.

Even moreso though, are when a force of dogfighters take the significantly risky role of interrupting the two patterns. Functioning almost like terrestrial cavalry, they ride in a line, or another shape, and attempt to lay fire on the enemy formation to keep it from completing a maneuver, and upsetting the balance. Such actions put individuals at extreme risk, but such also put individuals ever more in control of their own vessels than ever, which make some more comfortable in the heat of battle.

Smaller skirmishes may tend to devolve into 'spheres of death', where ships lurch into a certain proximity of one another, and fight in a compact environment of debris, other ships, friendly fire, and so forth. A method of fighting where far more people will result to the dogfighting mentality than others.