A large issue with naval combat is that boarders end fights pre-emptively. This is done by climbing on ships and attempting to jump to the bridge, which discourages intricate bridge design or replica craft as it often leads to a PvPer waiting for an AA gun to destroy tinted glass end kill you there and then.

A naval periscope would bypass this issue, the Periscope itself shouldn't be killable and have a render distance of 12 chunks.
The Periscope too would not need to be a singular straight line (like tanks), as long as the iron bars are connected it would still function and determine the top via which block is heights on the Y level allowing wire-like connections to give freedom to designers.

In addition to this however a multiblock consisting of an Observer and 2 stairs (that must be exposed) would act as a range-finder (would have to be placed above a specific Y level), range finders would add 2 Chunks ( 14 total) chunks of render distance to 12-inch dreadnoughts and 4 for 14-inch (16 total). A ship can have a minimum of 2 (to gain the effect) and a maximum of 4. if half the Range finders go out of commission, the render distance will decrease by 1 chunk, if all go out of commission, it will reduce the render distance by 2 (allowing some leeway for 14inch). This multiblock would have its own HP that could be tweaked over time for balance.

Q: Won't this lead to there being no bridge designs?
A: As long as there is a rule necessitating a bridge (there is), and with players wanting a mix between a High and Medium aiming position, this is likely a non-issue. Its miles better than the Sahara-tinted boxes of glass suspended on iron bars.

Q: Will the extended render cause lag?
A: Given its now possible to clip the render also, It balances out.. there is likely another issue causing the amount of movecraft lag we've seen recently.

Here we create a dynamic system of Combat, where you have secondary objectives to aim for different multiblocks strategically, it also means pilots no longer have to worry about borders so they can focus on enjoying Combat.
If successful on dreadnoughts, we could implement on the smaller crafts.