History Main / SeeTheWhitesOfTheirEyes

* ''Webcomic/DarthsandDroids'' pokes fun at this in [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0964.html one strip]], where the transports are ordered to fly DIRECTLY at the Star Destroyers, because their weapons are calibrated to aim at targets at "ultra long range," not right next to the ship. Before they can readjust their weapons, the transport is gone.

* Justified in SOME Franchise/{{Gundam}} series, where the use of [[MinovskyPhysics Minovsky Particle]] makes using radar difficult to impossible. Indeed, they interfere with ''all'' electro-magnetic phenomenon, and at extreme ranges, even interfered with visual light. Note that this didn't exactly mean the Federation and Zeon fleets were fighting at knife-point -- "Visual range" is a ''long'' ways in empty space. It was mostly the [[HumonousMecha Mobile Suits]] that got in everyone's faces.

* Averting this trope probably isn't much [[RuleOfCool fun]] to watch, as a battle between starships where the enemy ship isn't blown up right before your eyes can be a bit dull. In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Wounded", two ships fire at each other at a range of over 100,000 kilometers. The characters watch the exchange on a screen with little symbols representing the ships and the shots. The fight is, needless to say, quite boring. ''Andromeda'' uses this and gets around it somewhat by showing the eventual collision of the missiles with the ship (sometimes. Other times, the dot representing the other ship just disappears), or just showing the battle if they're close enough for Anti-Proton blasts (less than 5 light seconds away, usually).

* Completely averted in Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' novel "Protector", in which Elroy Truesdale and the Brennan-Monster fight a battle against a small fleet of Pak scout ships, and the distances are so great that Truesdale and Brennan don't find out they've won for close to a month.

* During [[WorldWarII The Battle Off Samar]] (the most famous DavidVersusGoliath battle in the history of the United States Navy or any other navy for that matter), a [[CannonFodder Destroyer Escort]] by the name of ''Samuel B. Roberts'', managed to maneuver in close enough to the Japanese heavy cruiser ''Chōkai'' so that the Japanese gunners couldn't shoot back because their guns were unable to aim so low, while the Americans fired into them with 5 inch guns and AntiAir cannons. ''Samuel B. Roberts'' managed to cripple two Heavy Cruisers before being fatally wounded by the Japanese battleship ''Kōngo'' and would go on to be known as "[[PintsizedPowerhouse The Destroyer Escort that fought like a Battleship.]]"

* During TheVietnamWar, American jets carries carried the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-7_Sparrow Sparrow missile]] which was designed to shoot down Russian bombers ''beyond visual range''. Unfortunately, due to [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct rules of engagement]], commanders instructed fighter pilots to only fire on a hostile aircraft after ''visual'' identification , completely negating the technological advantage of the long range missile. The missiles were completely ill suited for tracking maneuvering targets in a dogfight and achieved a kill rate of under 10%.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', even the biggest artillery units have a maximum range which is, to scale, ''several hundred meters''. By contrast, in ''Battlefleet Gothic'', a space combat game set in the same universe, the main batteries of larger ships have ranges of several Earth diameters (although depictions in [[FlavorText the text]] have them fighting at much smaller ranges).

* Largely averted in the ''Lensman'' series, where "beams" are used for long-range combat and ships have "tractor beams" to pull the enemy in close so that physical missiles don't take forever to get there (even so, it's still described as taking quite a while for the missiles to cross the gap, and only the fact that the other ship ''can't move'' allow them to actually hit it). Smith was also fully aware that space has three dimensions. Fairly early on, the enemy develops "tractor shears" that allow them to cut a tractor beam and get away from heavier and more powerful but slower ships; the response is a technique called "englobement", where you surround them in three dimensions and use ''pressor'' beams from multiple ships to hold them in the center while you temporarily turn said center into the heart of a star.

* Played straight in all [[StargateVerse Stargate series]].

* Averted in ''Star Fleet Battles'', the tactical tabletop adaptation of ship-to-ship combat in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' universe. Hexes represent an area of space 10,000 kilometers wide, and most combat takes place with several hexes separating the two forces.

* ''Homeworld'', the computer game, where your capital ships, whilst equipped with point defense weaponry, cannot target an enemy ship visible on radar tracking, which is out of visual range.

* ''SwordOfTheStars'' can go from BVR combat where the enemies are only visible through the sensor display to close-in fighting where ships maneuver around each other. According to WordOfGod, though, this is merely an abstraction for the players' convenience. Everything actually takes place at stellar ranges and even "knife fights" with small mount weapons don't actually take place in WVR. The sequel will further avert this as weapon ranges will now exceed sensor ranges, requiring the use of battle riders as scouts/spotters.

* The longest-ranged anticapital gun in the later ''[[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games [[ArbitraryMaximumRange fades out]] at 6.62 km. Factor in, that's only two to three times longer than the ''ship'' is, and that the effective range is often a kilometer or so shorter. Averted with missile frigates, however, whose MacrossMissileMassacre can blow away targets from nearly 80 kilometers away (though effective range is closer to 30 km because of sensor range limitations, unless you have another ship [[TargetSpotter acting as a spotter]]). Weapon ranges remain equally pathetic in ''Videogame/XRebirth'', where the Plasma/JET LR DeathRay on the Olmekron has a range shorter than ship it's mounted on
* In ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'', highly-advanced ships must close to within spitting distance of one another to fight. This is further enforced by the fact that ships can only fight within the same gravity well, which doesn't go very far beyond planetary orbit. The only weapons that can go beyond that are considered superweapons and can only target planets.

* Justified in SOME Franchise/{{Gundam}} series, where the use of [[MinovskyPhysics Minovsky Particle]] makes using radar difficult to impossible.
** At the same time, it's still a rather blatant anachronism. WorldWarII tanks were often able to hit targets multiple kilometers away in combat just relying on their primitive gun sights. And most modern gun sights aren't radar based.
*** [[MinovskyPhysics Minovsky Particles]] interfere with ''all'' electro-magnetic phenomenon. In MS Igloo it was finally demonstrated that even visual sensors are impaired at great range.

** Also, in ''Empire Strikes Back'', Darth Vader's apparent tactic was to attack the Rebels from outside their sensor range, so they couldn't raise the shield (which is [[YouHaveFailedMe why he was pissed when Ozzel came out of hyperspace too close]]). They also display incredible accuracy in the EU, where a Super Star Destroyer fires on a worldship from outside the solar system.

* In ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', the absolute largest (mass-produced) direct-fire weapon that the building-sized [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]] can mount has a range well under 1 kilometer. Artillery can hit further out but is incredibly inaccurate. The writers of the wargame have stated that they made engagement ranges so small to prevent every battle from turning into a boring sniper battle, and to allow melee combat to coexist with laser cannons and cruise missiles. Optional rules exist for advanced players with too much time to kill and a football field to play on, allowing [=BattleMechs=] to blast each other from a dozen miles away with a few upgrades and a steadied arm. However, like ''Warhammer'', the space-combat game ''[=AeroTech=]'' has ranges measured in hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

* Justified in the Literature/VorkosiganSaga. The ever-escalating race between space weapons and the defenses to stop them has resulted in extremely short ranged weaponry. This is explained in a brief narrative Infodump towards the end of "The Warrior's Apprentice" and more or less never comes up again; despite being ostensibly military sci-fi, the books usually focus on people, not pulse lasers.

* The longest-ranged anticapital gun in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}3'' trilogy [[ArbitraryMaximumRange fades out]] at 6.62 km. Factor in, that's only two to three times longer than the ''ship'' is, and that the effective range is often a kilometer or so shorter. Averted with missile frigates, however, whose MacrossMissileMassacre can blow away targets from nearly 80 kilometers away (though effective range is closer to 30 km because of sensor range limitations, unless you have another ship acting as a spotter).

* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series of space simulators, capital ships have a maximum cannon range of 7 kilometers, which is even more pathetic when one considers that capital ships are [[MileLongShip at least 2 kilometers long]]. Missiles from the dedicated missile frigates and bombers have a much more forgiving range of 80 kilometers, long enough for them to require a TargetSpotter satellite or scout ship. Weapon ranges are just as comically pathetic in ''Videogame/XRebirth'', where the Plasma/JET LR DeathRay on the Olmekron has a range shorter than the length of the ship it's mounted on

* Averted for the most part in ''TowardTheTerra''. Several space battles are shown to be taking place at such distances that the opposing sides can't even see each other; at one point when preparing to attack a planet, the attacking force parks its superweapon behind a gas giant in the same solar system to keep it from being detected, and simply fires it from there when they're ready. The real reason close mobile suit battle happens is because most mobile suits seem at least somewhat capable of [[DodgeTheBullet dodging cannon fire]].

* During TheVietnamWar, American jets carries carried the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-7_Sparrow Sparrow missile]] which was designed to shoot down Russian bombers ''beyond visual range''. Unfortunately, due to a fear of friendly fire, commanders instructed fighter pilots to only fire on a hostile aircraft after ''visual'' identification , completely negating the technological advantage of the long range missile. The missiles were completely ill suited for tracking maneuvering targets in a dogfight and achieved a kill rate of under 10%.

* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars''. Despite the incredible range of Martian rifles everyone still carries and uses swords/spears. An honor code exists that specifies that a Martian must, when challenged, use an equivalent or inferior weapon (if someone charges you with a long sword you can fight him with your short sword, but you can't go the IndianaJones route and just shoot him.) It's also considered unsporting to kill an unsuspecting target without issuing a challenge first... the Green Martians near the start of the series ''do'' fire upon Red Martians from ambush, but as the Red Martians they're firing at are in a ''flying battleship'' it's not as unfair as it sounds.

** May be somewhat {{justified|Trope}} in that Cylon ECM is usually enough to make any kind of guided Colonial munition worthless, necessitating a close-in gun battle.
** Also Justified by the presence of FTL that cannot be jammed or traced. As demonstrated by the Colonial fleet surviving multiple Cylon attacks by the simple but effective tactic of jumping away every time the Cylons show up. In such a situation the only realistic option for an attacker is to jump in practically on top of their target, so they can hit them before they jump away. Since both sides rely heavily (but not exclusively) on fighters which must be launched and then get close to the target (presumably since their own guns have unspectacular muzzle velocity) this means positioning your capital ships very close indeed. Of course all of this assumes your target will want to run away (and you want to prevent him), but if he thinks he can fight back you may want to reconsider your attack anyway.

* Averted in Joe Haldeman's ''TheForeverWar''. The battles take place across entire star-systems at good fractions of light-speed (and even then it can take days or weeks for a single battle to finish), and while ships do have lasers for last-ditch defense, most of the action uses drones (big missiles), with a backup of 'fighters' (though these are probably closer to motor-torpedo boats in that they require 3 crew, and can fit up to 12).

* Averted in ''TheLordsOfCreation'' series where it's pointed out that such as system as above wouldn't work, as "the cheaters would win too often."

* Played for laughs in ''WhoseLineIsItAnyway'', where Ryan's suggestion for an "uninspiring battlecry" was "Don't shoot till you see the whites!" [[CrossesTheLineTwice Then Wayne enters the scene as a soldier presumably under Ryan's command.]] Admittedly, [[FridgeBrilliance you'd need to be at close range to discern the enemy's race...]]

* In ''EveOnline'' the range of ship weapons varies depending on the size and type of the weapon. Small ships usually have a max weapon range of few dozen kilometers for long range weapons and a few kilometers for short range ones. Large battleships can potentially hit targets from several hundred kilometers away (although their close range weapons still require getting very close, especially for such slow and hard to maneuver ships). Large scale space battles tend to consist out of two large groups of ships about 100 kilometers from each other, blowing up the other group by focusing fire to one ship at a time.
* ''StarControl 2'' has some spaceships that can hit enemies from the other side of the map (Earthling, Druuge), and a few who can only hit at what's effectively ''melee'' range (Zot-Dot-Pik, Ilwrath).

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', where it seems impossible to target a Star Destroyer with a superstructure one ''mile'' long unless you are able to see it out the window. Missiles are restricted to fighter-sized starships, are deployed only at visual range, and tend to operate in a CoolButInefficient manner. Advanced missile weapons (such as proton torpedoes) have insufficient targeting accuracy to hit anything more agile than a freighter ([[TheForce unaided]]).

There are [[JustifiedTrope four discernible reasons]] for this phenomenon:

* ''Film/PacificRim'' plays this painfully straight; in a world where the antagonists are Kaiju (skyscraper-sized monsters), all the attacks we see against them are within visual range; the opening prologue shows fighter jets doing a strafing run and crashing into the first beast that makes landfall. But even after the technology is invented allowing the construction of Jaegers (giant human-driven robots with WaveMotionGuns designed to fight kaiju),

* The trope is often a function of practical visual cheats by filmmakers rather than a mistake. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' often refers to a vessel being "300,000 kilometers away and gaining" but still presenting a real threat to the ''Enterprise''. A representation of this actual distance is near impossible without some sort of visual trickery. Television is also a visual medium that emphasizes "ShowDontTell". In order to get a sense of the size of the two or more spacecraft they need to somehow be next to each other. The cheat may be required to get around logistical problems in portraying a situation accurately: in the case of ''Film/StarWars'', special effect technological innovations during the time of the original trilogy hadn't reached the point where one could plausibly represent the flight path of missiles through a vacuum other than in the most rudimentary way.

* The trope may also have a tactical justification as follows, as drawn from ''Franchise/MassEffect'': most ships aren't going to start shooting each other in deep space for no reason; they'll start shooting at each other because one ship stands between the other ship and something it wants. For the ship on defense to actually ''defend'' its charge, it can't go anywhere. By contrast, space battles where the combating ships are the only factors will usually take place at extreme ranges. Some examples on this page fit this situation; notice that in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' instance of aversion, the objective of the aggressors is to destroy the ''ships''. Of course, this is still an imperfect explanation when the setting features FTL independent of fixed nodes, which ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has in the form of [[PortalNetwork Mass Relays]]. The example of aversion in ''Film/StarWars'' regarding the ion cannon below illustrates this problem, where the Star Destroyer comes out of lightspeed anywhere it damn-well pleased, but the Star Destroyers or other ships in freeform-FTL settings still approach the target very closely instead of firing on the defending ships from afar. Similarly, because space ''is'' so huge, no weapons that don't approach the speed of light would actually hit the enemy within a reasonable amount of time, ''assuming'' there isn't any countermeasures that can be deployed in the 15 minutes between being fired upon by a sublight missile and actually being hit. And even at the speed of light it is still about 8 minutes to get to the sun and several hours to exit the solar system. Space is big.

* ''Film/StarWars'', where it seems impossible to target a Star Destroyer with a superstructure one ''mile'' long unless you are able to see it out the window. Missiles are restricted to fighter-sized starships, are deployed only at visual range, and tend to operate in a CoolButInefficient manner. Advanced missile weapons (such as proton torpedoes) have insufficient targeting accuracy to hit anything more agile than a freighter ([[TheForce unaided]]).