Kenobi Offensive

The Kenobi Offensive, or Kenobi offensive, was a series of starship maneuvers devised by General Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars. It was a flexible attack plan intended for use by a small maneuverable force against a larger and better-armed blockading force. The scheme called for a series of sniping attacks, drawing a portion of a larger force out of formation. To keep the attacking force out of the enemy's firing arcs, vessels had to be reoriented constantly, but if done so successfully, at least one defending ship could typically be destroyed. This gap in the enemy defenses could then be exploited by the attacking force to destroy the enemy from inside their own formation, relying on the defending force to have difficulty returning fire at the risk of hitting their own vessels in such close quarters.

Kenobi's attack plan was successful enough to be well known during the Imperial Era and was studied by Admiral Gial Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance Fleet. Ackbar found the Kenobi Offensive masterful and sought to modify the maneuver for use by the Alliance against the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War. Ackbar included discussion and refinements of the Kenobi Offensive in his military guidebook Fleet Tactics and and Combat Methodology, which was intended for reading by Alliance naval officers.

In this document, Ackbar noted how Rebel military doctrine was already basically the same as the general premise of the Kenobi Offensive: to draw the enemy out of position by moving where they least expect it and then attacking them from within. Ackbar contended that in order to minimize the Imperial fleet's communications advantage, that Alliance forces should seek to use natural or artificial means to achieve near total communications blackout for both sides during a battle, relying on an instituted code and line-of-sight system to take a lead in communications ability and speed over the enemy. As the Imperial Navy did not use such a system, having heretofore little need for one, Ackbar believed that the number of close Alliance victories could be appreciably increased.

In 4 ABY, Jedi Knight and Alliance pilot Commander Luke Skywalker informed Ackbar that General Kenobi's Force ghost had insisted that Skywalker be allowed to accompany the Alliance strike force being sent to the aid of the planet Bakura. Ackbar mentioned his admiration for the Kenobi offensive while stating his trust in Kenobi's military knowledge and Luke's word. He explained that it was that trust that made him willing to acquiesce to the request.

Text and facts from the “Kenobi Offensive” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.