Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
Flare Sci-Fi Forums
»
Star Trek
»
Starships & Technology
»
How would you use fighters?
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message:
HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [QB] I'm not sure I'd go with the idea that small craft can go interstellar in pre-TOS, warp or no warp. The three shuttles we saw in arguable warp and supposed interstellar transit were exceptions of sort: In "The Menagerie", the shuttle was only trying to catch a recently departed starship, not travel to another star. In "Let That Be...", the shuttle was operated by a very long-lived and obsessed individual who could have planned to spend several centuries in interstellar transit. And in "Metamorphosis", the shuttle was negotiating an asteroid field, not a likely interstellar phenomenon. Enough of that rant. But I do think endurance would be a big issue for pre-TOS fightercraft. There would have to be dedicated "auxiliary carriers" in the convoy to tend to the fighters (didn't we hear that designation in "The Maquis"?). Or at the very least something like the makeshift air defence ships of WWII convoys, merchant ships which launched Seafires or Hurricanes from catapults and then recovered the pilot from the sea after the one-off mission... And I do think even a mere fighter could make a difference in escort duty, since any armed vessel would help deter the "look what we ran into" kind of pirates operating a single vessel and only attacking completely defenceless targets. If, OTOH, the convoy was ambushed by a determined and informed enemy, then this enemy would know the defensive strength and scale its forces accordingly - so even a big starship escort wouldn't help. And in escort duty, it would be an advantage to have a distributed defence, so that 1/10 of your force is between the enemy and the convoy all the time, and the 9/10 can arrive in an emergency. With a single ship, no matter how powerful, you can't guard the convoy from every direction, nor chase the attacker. Starfleet might try to strike a balance and use a couple of corvettes instead of the numerous fighters or the one big ship, though. Perhaps pre-TOS Starfleet would have a bifurcated fighter force: sub-impulse assault craft for planetary forays, and impulse- or possibly warp-capable escort craft for "auxiliary defence" of big formations and primary defence of low-priority shipments. No sense wasting any impulse or warp engines in planetary assaults where they aren't needed. Timo Saloniemi [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
© 1999-2024 Charles Capps
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3