Command Bursts are on-field force multipliers that allow a pilot to increase various aspects of ships in the same fleet that are within the area of effect of the burst.
When activated, the Command Burst will apply bonuses to all members of the same fleet within range of the ship using the burst, with the visual area of effect of the burst indicating its range. All ships affected by a Command Burst will show a visible effect as well, which will stay on the ship until the effect expires. As such, both the boosting ship as well as the boosted fleet mates are easily recognizable during a fight. The command burst effect persists through warps within a system but will be lost when docking and undocking or when changing systems. Ships that are tethered to a structure will not receive the command burst bonuses, even if they are within range of a command burst.
Command Bursts come in 5 unique types (Armor, Shield, Information, Skirmish and Mining), with their respective charges determining the exact kind of bonus provided as well as its duration.
A single ship may receive command burst effects from different burst charges. However, several bursts of the same charge type will not stack, only the strongest effect will be active at any time. If the burst effects an attribute of the ship that is also modified by ship modules, it will be subject to Stacking Penalties.
More detailed information can be found in the dev blog announcing the Command Bursts.