I have to admit that for space I'm personally keen on a multi-pronged approach.  The first prong is the fighter-borne radar systems to assist in dogfighting (because in these games it's really easy to lose track of a target that was just in front of you simply because you cannot "turn your head" to follow them).

The second prong would be larger capital-ship sensors that provide an area of scan around the capital ship.  These would be quite large but could be made destroyable (I believe) in 2142, so if you take out the sensor tower you'd effectively blind the capital ship and reduce it to visual sightings only.

The third prong would be more optional, and that'd be sensor probes that the capital ships could launch (and/or special recon ships could deploy).  These would allow the captains of the cap ships to scan certain areas of the map by literally launching a radar probe in that direction.  It's an idea we can do if we're interested.

That said, I best move on to part II of this discussion though (and I regret not seeing this post sooner)
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I have to say that we are more fond of radar than the average mod.  We like it, we luv it, we want more of it!   I can't give any specifics at this time but I will say that extended use of radar is a small part of a larger gameplay ideals we're going for.  With any luck you chaps will learn more about it, how it fits in, and what we're planning within the next few weeks.  Needless to say, it isn't just a nifty perk that the commander occasionally throws out onto the battlefield, but something which has become one of many foundation stones that we've used to build the gameplay of the mod.

Fear the Woodzilla