Film evidence of FTL sensors

[Srelex]

Yeah, but point five what beyond lightspeed? It obviously doesn't mean lightspeed times 0.5.

[LionElJonson]

Of course they have FTL sensors. Obi-Wan was able to sense something "as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced", after all.

[Knife]

Nobody says anything to that effect. Their first thought when the Falcon vanishes is 'cloaking device'. Nobody mentions that they might have jumped to lightspeed.

PIETT
Lord Vader, our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing. If the Millennium Falcon went into light-
speed, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now.

Doesn't necessarily mean it can't detect them in FTL, just that it didn't, and they didn't because the MF was in a blind spot on the Avenger. Piett said they finished their scan, by the time Han detached from the Avenger, they probably had the search hyperspace radar thingie in STANDBY mode. You generally don't have your search and tracking radar on all the time, just when you want to search for something and track it.

VADER
Alert all commands. Calculate every possible destination along their last know trajectory.

This just implies that since radar didn't find them, Vader was using an alternate approach and trying to figure out where to go to pick them back up, probably using sensors.

Ships can't be tracked if they make the jump to lightspeed. Otherwise the Imp fleet would have known the Falcon had made the jump into hyperspace.

So..yeah, pretty much doesn't mean that. They didn't track the MF in lightspeed because it wasn't in lightspeed. The figured Han sneaked through some how and did the next logical step. Spread out to logical destinations and increase your sensor range with multiple ships in multiple spots to reacquire the MF.

[Darth Hoth]

I don't think there are any on screen instances of ships being detected while in hyperspace, and I think the EU is consistent on this point also.

Assuming that I recall the source correctly, a hyper-spatial missile from the Galaxy Gun was detected minutes in advance of reverting in Empire's End.

[NRS Guardian]

Also, in the Black Fleet Crisis an Imperial patrol tracks and pursues the Teljkon Vagabond through hyperspace, lending credence that Solo in ANH had to shake the Imperial pursuit off the Millennium Falcon, between Tatooine and Alderaan.

[Cykeisme]

There might also be a limited range to FTL sensors, and if ships routinely jump away at 10 million times the speed of light, the ratio between sensor range and ship speed may be limited. If you want to give chase, you may have a very limited time to do something about it before they leave your tracking range.

Thus, to follow a ship through hyperspace, you may need to quickly figure out what direction it's headed in, and then follow it in a jump on the same trajectory while continuing to track it (or hope to reacquire it), hyperspace-to-hyperspace.
Also, would I be wrong in saying that if ships are tachyonic matter when in hyperspace, it sort of implies that a completely different set of sensors will be used to detect them?


Addressing Alderaan's absence earlier in the thread, Han had no reason to expect the planet to be missing; the Death Star's feat of destruction was unprecedented in SW history. Meanwhile, he had no reason to be warily scanning for threats, as he was confident that he had lost those slugs that were trying to chase him.