Possible Roles For Fighters

[Captain Seafort]

What about Tri Coblat devices? Wouldn't that be a more effective idea for fighters?

What makes you say that? All we know about them is that they're a form of subspace weapon and they're apparently more powerful than PTs. We've no evidence one way or the other about their other characteristics, and the general lack of them suggests that PT/QTs are superior for some reason.

[Sionnach Glic]

Anyway, the question still stands - we saw them use fighters plenty of times. If fitting them with big-boy torps was so easy, how come they didn't?

If making helmets was so easy, why does no Starfleet security guard have one?

Because they're idiots.

[Mark]

What about Tri Coblat devices? Wouldn't that be a more effective idea for fighters?

What makes you say that? All we know about them is that they're a form of subspace weapon and they're apparently more powerful than PTs. We've no evidence one way or the other about their other characteristics, and the general lack of them suggests that PT/QTs are superior for some reason.

From the brief visual we saw, they SEEMED to move slower than a torp and be bulker. If fighters are going to carry two of something, wouldn't that make more sense?

And apparently they are WAY more powerful that PTs. Why else would they have used two tricobalt devices to destroy the Caretakers array rather than standard weapons?

[Deepcrush]

I would vote strongly against TC weapons. The blast range on them would easily wreck the fighters and maybe even damage the capital ship they are escorting.

Also, all you really need on a warhead for the fighters is a couple of short ranged thrusters. The warhead its self could just be largely the same as that of one off of a capital ship.

[Mark]

Yeah, but if the cap ship is moving at any decent rate of speed, it's going to outrun the thruster powered torp

[Deepcrush]

Not really. Speed in space isn't just the thrust of the weapon but also the speed of the craft launching the weapon.

Also, that would require that the target ship A, can dodge the incoming fire and B, is moving at a speed while in close combat that allows them to out pace the attacking fighters and their warheads.

[Mark]

But in order for said fighter to get off a reliable shot, it would have to get in close. Well within range of the cap ships weapons and withstand withering fire.

[SomosFuga]

I see no reason that they couldn't do so rather simply.

I beg your pardon, do you have the link to the wiki on photon torpedo engineering?

Anyway, the question still stands - we saw them use fighters plenty of times. If fitting them with big-boy torps was so easy, how come they didn't?

Doesn't have to be a Photon Torpedo in the full meaning of the word, might be another, probably similar, weapon equally powerful but designed to be deployed from a fighter.

We are going backwards.

[SomosFuga]

What about Tri Coblat devices? Wouldn't that be a more effective idea for fighters?

What makes you say that? All we know about them is that they're a form of subspace weapon and they're apparently more powerful than PTs. We've no evidence one way or the other about their other characteristics, and the general lack of them suggests that PT/QTs are superior for some reason.

Isn't subspace weaponry forbidden by Khitomer Accords???

[USSEnterprise]

What about Tri Coblat devices? Wouldn't that be a more effective idea for fighters?

What makes you say that? All we know about them is that they're a form of subspace weapon and they're apparently more powerful than PTs. We've no evidence one way or the other about their other characteristics, and the general lack of them suggests that PT/QTs are superior for some reason.

Isn't subspace weaponry forbidden by Khitomer Accords???

That didn't stop Voyager from carrying a couple.

[Deepcrush]

But in order for said fighter to get off a reliable shot, it would have to get in close. Well within range of the cap ships weapons and withstand withering fire.

No matter what you do, thats going to happen. Any cap ship will out range the fire power of a fighter. Thats just fact. So, you might as well do it with something that can hurt the cap ship back. Plus, the fighters shouldn't be attacking until they're at point blank range. They should use their mother ship for cover or spread out and swarm the enemy ship. Filling the sky with small targets.

People here are still trying to find a bloodless way to make them uber weapons. That will never happen. The fighters are always going to take heavy losses in exchange for being effective in battle. That's all there is too it.

[Reliant121]

From the way I see it, I'd probably have fighters carrying some form of modified torpedo weapon shadowing a Frigate, or a destroyer; something with high speed like a Defiant or a New Orleans. These ships knife into the enemy feet with the fighters hanging so close, they are inside the parent ship's shield bubble. At the last minute, the break away and fire everything they have, and then try and hug the hull of the enemy ships close enough to avoid fire. As one of the frigates makes a pass, the fighters re-enter the shield bubble.

[Sionnach Glic]

But in order for said fighter to get off a reliable shot, it would have to get in close. Well within range of the cap ships weapons and withstand withering fire.

Which is why fighters would be deployed to use allied capships for cover, allowing them to get in close.

As I said, fighters would only realy be uesful in battles, where there's ample cover and confusion for them.

[Tsukiyumi]

...Doesn't have to be a Photon Torpedo in the full meaning of the word, might be another, probably similar, weapon equally powerful but designed to be deployed from a fighter...

Like the "photonic missile" fired from the Delta Flyer? It seemed pretty powerful.

[Mikey]

Janeway using something doesn't mean it bears any relationship to common sense. I wouldn't have been surprised to see Janeway drop a box of anthrax somewhere. However, as to the ban - I believe that the Khitomer Accords specifically banned isolytic (Yeah, I know, their word not mine) subspace weapons.

Because of the lack of separation between pilot and gunner in a one-man fighter, any missile system would have to largely be fire-and-forget, moreso than cap shp versions which can be controlled to a degree from the ship. I'd say the current torp size is close to the largest size that could be used for hardpoint launches from a fighter; adding extra guidance and propulsion (which has been theorized to use the warhead reactants as fuel) all mean less boom.

Thus, the idea of the micro-torp is invented by our Mr. Kennedy. It may, in fact be equivalent to a full-sized PT launched from a hardpoint, but the effect against a target by such a weapon will be considerably less than that of a real cap ship torp.