Binary Thrusters

"Binary Thrusters are designed especially for fast, evasive ships. They combine the advantages of rear and strafe thrusters."

General
"Binary Thrusters further enhance your ship's maneuverability, combining rear and strafe thrusters."

- Sybil

Binary Thrusters are a combination of Rear Thrusters and Strafe Thrusters, improving the forward and strafe speeds of your ships.

Advantages
Binary Thrusters are particularly useful on frigates and cruisers. They already have a relatively high turning speed, so they do not really need the extra rotation provided by Fusion Thrusters. The increase in strafe speed enables them to change directions quickly, which vastly improves their ability to dodge incoming projectiles. As a result, people often use this thruster in sniper fleets, destroyers included.

Frigates equipped with this thruster can easily kite lesser-ranged enemies without the need to turn away from them to gain distance, resulting in constant damage output over time.

Disadvantages
Binary Thrusters perform poorly on ships that turn slowly by default such as battleships because enemies can stay in their blind spot, rendering them helpless.

Binary Thrusters are not suitable for carriers either even though they do not have a blind spot, the reason being that it takes way too long for them to fully turn around and reach their maximum linear speed.

Note that Binary Thrusters take up significantly more mass than Fusion Thrusters, which is another reason why they are seldom used.