Unable to target ship right in front of you?

[Starbucknaked]

Is this a known bug? I was in a HRES and NPC ship was maybe 100m away with nothing in between us, but pressing the "target whatever in front" key did nothing. It was attacking another NPC ship.

Shortly after that strange occurrence I got comm message saying my Federation reputation had increased to cordial though in the panel and on the mission board it was still neutral.[blah]

 

[tafkabb]

Sometimes NPCs will use a heat sink to counter the heat from shield cell banks or whatever, reducing their heat signature and dropping them off the radar temporarily. As far as I know, NPCs don't use silent running

 

[CMDRvenerian]

what he said, if they get cool, your sensors wont resolve beyond 500m.

 

[Ildryn]

Use some A rated long range sensors and this problem won't happen as often.