I just did an experiment, and even when sitting at radar depth in thick fog with rain, with visibility less than 500 yards, the ships were able to "see" my shears, and inflict damage with some cannon hits. Of course, they were alerted by an escort... I'll have to process some of the pix, and post something for you Mios 4Me to illustrate what I'm getting at with the auto-targeting not needing the "lock".