No inside knowledge here, but in tracking moving objects it would be easy to build in an O(n^2) algorithm when predicting interactions or intersections between

No inside knowledge here, but in tracking moving objects it would be easy to build in an O(n^2) algorithm when predicting interactions or intersections between ships. Combine this with the sort of logic used in real time displays (or video games) and as the number of ships increases, the processing time required for the analysis goes up rapidly until you miss a critical time deadline and get your analysis ignored. At which point the system is classified as broken.