Terminology:Electronic Counter Measures

Terminology

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Electronic Counter Measures or short ECM

Usage in Vegastrike

What does it do

Electronic Counter Measures are designed to foil missile and torpedo attacks on the craft to which they are installed. Activation of ECM lets loose a barrage of electromagnetic noise, focused false radar/lidar images, Infrared beams, and altered signatures intended to confuse missile targeting systems into misjudging the size, location, and direction of the ECM user. While not necessarily 100% successful, such measures do reduce the number of successful attacks with such weapons. ECM foils an opponent’s attempts to reduce shields and armor on your ship, let alone suffering the effects of more sophisticated attack methods.

Activation

ECM can be activated and de-activated using the key. It is also self-activating on detection of an approaching missile or torpedo.
FIXME Is this last sentence true?

Energy consumption

The use of ECM is draining on your ship's reactor; therefore you will note that weapon and jump energy may reduce while ECM is activated. Provided your ship's reactor has spare capacity, de-activating your ECM will restore those energy levels.

See also

• Manual:Combat:Counter measures
• Terminology:Missile
• Terminology:Torpedo
• FIXME Link to the various targeting systems like image recognicion/head/etc...
• WikiPedia:Electronic_counter-measures