Why do admirals go into battle on flagships?

[Stofsk]

SW888, the reason why Admirals go onto flagships rather than delegate on-site C&C to a junior officer while doing their job from a planet is answered in the first reply to this thread by Stark. In addition, there is a good example in the EU just why this was a bad idea: in the book 'Star by Star' the New Republic General in charge of the defence of Coruscant found that a lot of his orders were being overseen by Senators who were trying to micromanage him.

[CDiehl]

OK. Now, we all know what a flagship is. I think we can shut the hell up about it and deal with the question he asked.

Someone has to command the fleet on the scene. That's why they put admirals in charge of fleets, so someone with the authority to command the fleet is there, seeing what's going on and reacting to it. I assume we're talking about a fleet of ships all in one location. If the fleet is split up, conducting different operations in different locations, I can understand having an admiral stay in his headquarters directing the fleet from a distance. Even then, an officer has to command each group of ships from the scene, and the admiral might choose to command one group personally.

[Imperial528]

Ignoring the (terminally stupid) thread title...

Given Star Wars communication technology, why can't they be stationed on a planet somewhere safe from danger?

Well, if I were an Admiral commanding a fleet in any navy, I'd go into battle on a ship whenever possible, unless the base I am at happens to be under attack. The reasoning for this seems, at least to me, quite obvious: Even with the most advanced communication equipment ever created, there will be a time lag, if not in the system of communication than in the system of command. Say I am commanding a fleet of four Star Destroyers and about a dozen corvette-sized escorts against a rebel fleet which is attempting to strike at the installation my fleet is assigned to. Here's the scenario:

My ISDs and corvette escorts initially form up a line against the incoming rebels, hoping to catch any bombers, fighters, or corvettes in the crossfire and still be able to engage larger vessels. The rebel fleet comes in, and is about three quarters of my fleet in tonnage, but has a few larger vessels rather than corvettes. Say that they get into a denser formation and attempt to penetrate the line head-on. If I am on board one of the ISDs or observing from the installation, I can order ship captains and crews directly. If I were on planet what's-its-name in the who-gives-a-damn system a-fucking-long-way-away I would have to give out orders based on the sensor data I receive from the battle, which is not as reliable as being there to act on the data as the sensors give it to me. Even if I receive the data at the same time the ships sensors register it, sensors are notorious for being jammed. And even if we assume they cannot be jammed, if I see something in the situation at hand which the officer I am relaying orders to does not, the confusion generated would be a disaster, especially if the officer doesn't understand the plan I am concocting in my head as I tell it to him, or even worse, forgets part of it while he then orders the crew around. And no crewman on any ship ever wants to here his CO give out orders in a confused or baffled tone, or heaven forbid-even forget the order he was supposed to give out.

In short, long-distance command adds in another "step in the ladder", which increases the chance of it going wrong. Real war isn't an RTS.

Actually, in order to get a good feel of what I mean to communicate, boot up an RTS game with a minimap, and try playing through only looking at the minimap and never at the main screen. Or a game of chess where the opponent takes his move, and an observer tells it to you, and then you tell him your move. Danger to a flag officer is definitely worth winning a fleet battle, since an Admiral is useless without a fleet.

[Serafina]

The most reasonable reason is simple:
Jamming.

We know that Star Wars has good jamming technology. If your fleet ever meets a large enemy fleet (and given that an admiral commands a large fleet, that's kinda it's purpose) it's likely that they can jam your long-range communications. But in order to actually command a battle (in space, no less) you need a lot of information, you need it fast and it has to be clear. Even if communications are not completely disrupted, they will still be impeded - enough to make commanding your fleet hard or impossible.
That doesn't happen if you actually command your fleet from a ship in that fleet.

The second reason is also simple: Know your subordinates.
You just want to know which captain you can entrust with which task, and their other strenghts and weaknesses. That's far easier if you meet them face to face. The same goes for receiving input for them - an actual meeting is just better than video communication.

[Star Wars 888]

So possible reasons brought up:

Jamming
Being hands on
Time lag

The first two are probably the best explanations. Based on what we know about space battles in Star Wars a small time lag for Admirals wouldn't be that big of a deal, since Admirals seem to make more strategic, operational or large scale operational decisions, and not small micromanagement.

[Lord Revan]

The most reasonable reason is simple:
Jamming.

We know that Star Wars has good jamming technology. If your fleet ever meets a large enemy fleet (and given that an admiral commands a large fleet, that's kinda it's purpose) it's likely that they can jam your long-range communications. But in order to actually command a battle (in space, no less) you need a lot of information, you need it fast and it has to be clear. Even if communications are not completely disrupted, they will still be impeded - enough to make commanding your fleet hard or impossible.
That doesn't happen if you actually command your fleet from a ship in that fleet.

The second reason is also simple: Know your subordinates.
You just want to know which captain you can entrust with which task, and their other strenghts and weaknesses. That's far easier if you meet them face to face. The same goes for receiving input for them - an actual meeting is just better than video communication.

I'd like to add a third thing to note to this, possibility of communication hijack, after all if you're commanding a battle from a "safe" location you'll like get all your combat informantion via a transmission, now think if your opposition is able to breach your communication protocols and send false information to you, your fleet or both, if you're commanding from a remote location you might not notice anything is wrong until everything goes to hell in hand basket (if even then), but if you're in the thick of it, it's much easier to notice if a ship is going forward when it was told to hold position or vise verse.

[recon20011]

I'd like to add a third thing to note to this, possibility of communication hijack, after all if you're commanding a battle from a "safe" location you'll like get all your combat informantion via a transmission, now think if your opposition is able to breach your communication protocols and send false information to you, your fleet or both, if you're commanding from a remote location you might not notice anything is wrong until everything goes to hell in hand basket (if even then), but if you're in the thick of it, it's much easier to notice if a ship is going forward when it was told to hold position or vise verse.

I'm going to toss on the concept of aiming tightly controlled beams of radio waves (or microwaves or whatever wave you want to use to communicate) which could probably be jammed, but would be hard to intercept. So at the very least if the communications medium is a constant 2-way stream (voice commands and responses perhaps?) then the fleet commander knows his subordinates are receiving their orders in a secure manner and if that line is broken then old-fashioned techniques can be utilized (morse code/semaphore). That cannot be done if the admiral is 200,000 lightyears away.

[Lord Pounder]

Other than jamming there are other factors to consider when commanding a fleet. I'm actually re-reading the Thrawn Trilogy at the moment and in the first book after the attack on Bpfassh and 2 other systems Han mentioned that the Imperials must have a new communications system which punches through interference from combat shields and battle debris. Such co-ordinated attack was considered impossible, and was at the time as the Imperials where using a Dark Jedi to co-ordinate rather than technology.

[Abacus]

You are also forgetting about the other sometimes more vital role that officers play, besides giving orders. As a former Lt. in the US Army, I can assure you that your most important job is moral. A shitty officer is one who sits on his ass and does nothing while his men have to wade into shit by themselves or without proper leadership. A good officer leads from the front and by example, letting the men under his command know that he/she is sharing in their danger. It's been the most basic understanding for officers in the field to do this since before Sun Tzu.

Examples: Generals George S. Patton, Julius Ceaser, Erwin Rommel, Hannibal Barca, Heinz Guderian, Alexander of Macedonia, Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, etc. Most ranking generals (for a modern day comparison) of brigadier and major general rank will stay very close to the front lines for the reasons explained above.

[MKSheppard]

Also, flagships usually have large specialized facilities for communications, housing the admiral's staff, etc.

In real life, the USS Iowa was completed as a force flagship and had an enlarged conning tower, compared to the other Iowas; so that the Admiral's Flag could be accomodated in the armored CT during a battle.

[JointStrikeFighter]

So possible reasons brought up:

Jamming
Being hands on
Time lag

The first two are probably the best explanations. Based on what we know about space battles in Star Wars a small time lag for Admirals wouldn't be that big of a deal, since Admirals seem to make more strategic, operational or large scale operational decisions, and not small micromanagement.

Do you ahve any evidence for that statement or are you just saying what you THINK an admiral does.

[Azron_Stoma]

We've seen people communicating from across the galaxy in real time, so I doubt time lag is much of an issue.

[Purple]

But those people did not have to contend with the possibility of military grade jamming and other efforts to disturb them.