Fleet Doctrine for the Ivy League Navy
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Ivy League Philosophy
In operational terms, the Eve University Fleet operates under a "Combined Arms" philosophy, with an emphasis on Electronic Warfare. This means that we combine ship classes to give us broader capabilities than a single or few classes alone might. And our emphasis upon EW is first a means at negating our enemies' advantages of high skill points and high-end ships and modules. It also provides for a significant potential for damage prevention, thereby reducing our ship losses. All fleets practice this to a degree, but very few use EW as heavily or consistently as Eve University. Because the majority of our pilots are low skill point pilots, our reliance on EW provides them with an effective way of fighting and defeating highly skilled opponents. Numbers alone can win battles, but only at a higher cost, and this cost is contrary to our philosophy and goals.
Standard Squadrons
A squadron under our doctrine should consist of:
- 1 Battleship
- 1 Cruiser/Battlecruiser (Damage)
- 4 EW (Cruisers)
- 4 Tacklers (Frigates)
The battleship is the foundation of the squadron. By default, this is likely to be the most highly experienced and highest skill point players in the squadron. For the EW cruisers, the ideal mix would be a Blackbird fittted with ECM racial jammers, a Celestis with sensor dampeners, a Bellicose with target painters, and an Arbitrator with tracking disruptors.
A squadron with the above make up would in fact be considered a miniature fleet and could very easily operate as a separate unit or hunting group. It has enough electronic warfare to handle 3 separate targets, and the ability to pin and kill each of them in turn.
Fleet Operations
By using a standard squadron setup, a fleet commander has several self-contained fighting units based on our typical fleet numbers. But it's also important for us to explore how we take these units and use them together, as a large group. Standard practice in fleet combat is to call a primary and secondary target. Everyone within range of the primary target is supposed to put all their damage dealing weapons onto that target.
Damage Dealers – These are the heavy hitters; they should have use all of their weapons and damage capability on the primary target. If the target is beyond the range of their secondary weapons (drones, neut, etc) then they should be set on whatever enemy is closest to them.
EW – If in range, their weapons should be used on the primary target. ECM and Damps should be spread around all targets. Target Painters should always be on the primary. Tracking Disruptors should be spread around ships that primarily use turrets to deal damage. EW pilots will need proper training and guidelines on the application of their jammers, so that they can control the targets in the area, with as little overlap as possible. This can be difficult to coordinate, so if unprepared an FC can simply tell them to use their best judgment on which targets to jam, or delegate this task to an EW coordinator, or individual SCs.
Tacklers – Naturally, tacklers are the ones that pin down an enemy, but with a squadron designated to hold down the primary, and another to the secondary, that can leave a few others if the fleet is large enough. As a result, the squadron commander should call a new target for his unit's tacklers, so that it cannot escape until its turn as primary arrives. This target could also be given attention by the unit's jamming ships, to ensure that it cannot harm the tacklers as they keep it locked down.
Tactical Doctrine
The goal of our fleet philosophy is the utilization of our strengths; greater numbers and electronic warfare, to engage, pin and kill our enemies with minimal losses on our side. Eve University does not fly for glory, kill-mails or pew pew. We fly to engage our foes, destroy them utterly and achieve victory; primarily in ISK destroyed, but hopefully numbers as well. This is one reason why it is necessary for our fleets to follow the Ship Requirements and Restrictions.
