If your 16 ton Light Fighter had enough room for 2 or 3 people for a boarding party / prize crew, they could do pretty well for themselves capturing mining boats and taking them back to Shakleton to be stripped for sellable/usable parts, and the mined ores smuggled back into the economy
That's the problem.
A 16 ton small craft
doesn't have room for all of those things on a longer term basis.
Yes, acceleration couches only cost 0.5 tons per person, but they have limited life support ... 12-24 hours (combat vs non-combat). If you've got a "mothership" of some kind to dock and replenish/swap crews at, you can make things work in such a small form factor (16 tons), but even then you're going to struggle to make things fit.
For any type of USEFUL loitering endurance (in excess of 24 hours) you've got 2 options ... small craft staterooms (2 tons each) OR low berths (0.5 tons each) and acceleration couches (0.5 tons each). The "live" crew are going to need small craft staterooms to extend their life support endurance beyond 24 hours, and if you've got low berths with a "frozen watch" of prize crew for boarding actions (keep them "on ice" until you need them) plus acceleration couches to sustain them after the "frozen watch" has been resuscitated and are standing by to board another craft. Of course, if you're using the "frozen watch" option (low berths+acceleration couches) then you're going to need to keep a medic on the "live crew" roster in addition to the pilot and gunner, which will increase the number of small craft staterooms needed.
In other words, you'll need to pay 4-6 tons for small craft staterooms (2-3) before adding "frozen watch" boarding party prize crew at a cost of 1 ton per each member of the prize crew.
Even for a "modest" operation with a prize crew of 4 ... you're looking at spending 8-10 tons on crew accommodation
... which doesn't exactly "fit" into a 16 ton form factor that ALSO needs to be a fighter (high G maneuver, max agility, fuel, model/2 computer, 4 tons minimum bridge, 1 ton of fire control for a turret armed with missiles).
Alternatively, a "double crew of 2" (pilot, gunner) (pilot, gunner) enabling 24 hour watch rotations (12 hours on, 12 hours off) would, in commercial service, require 4 small craft staterooms for LONG endurance operations (measured in weeks) ... but would be sufficient for a boarding party/prize crew of 2 when operating as a pirate. However, in a 16 ton form factor, you're still looking at a craft that needs to be 50% crew accommodations (8 tons) ... which means you can't have everything.
Using LBB5.80, a TL=9 small craft of 20 tons could have:
- 3.4 tons for Maneuver-6 (Agility=6 requires 1.2 EP)
- 3.6 tons for Power Plant-6 (1.2 EP)
- 1 ton for fuel (16d 6h 41m endurance)
- 4 tons for bridge (includes 2 acceleration couches for pilot, gunner)
- 2 tons for model/2 computer (EP: 0)
- 1 ton for mixed turret: missile, mining pulse laser, missile (codes: 1/1/1, EP: 1) (laser not intended for use in combat)
- 4 tons for 2 double occupancy small craft staterooms (pilot, gunner) (pilot, gunner)
- 1 ton for cargo hold
Using LBB2.81, a TL=9 Ship's Boat of 30 tons could have:
- 1 ton for Maneuver-A drive (Agility=6 requires 1.8 EP)
- 4 tons for Power Plant-A drive (2 EP)
- 1.3 tons for fuel (14d 02h 36m endurance at 1.8 EP output continuous, 606d 16h endurance at minimal basic power)
- 6 tons for bridge (includes 2 acceleration couches for pilot, gunner)
- 2 tons for model/2 computer (EP: 0)
- 1 ton for mixed turret: missile, mining pulse laser, missile (codes: 1/1/1, EP: 1) (laser not intended for use in combat)
- 4 tons for 2 single occupancy small craft staterooms (pilot, gunner) (pilot, gunner)
- 0.7 ton cargo hold (contains 105 person/weeks of life support, 4 crew=26w 1d 18h operational endurance before needing to return to base for replenishment)
- 10 tons for cargo hold (10 tons allocated for ore processing, as per CT Beltstrike p3)
Using LBB2.81, a TL=9 Pinnace of 40 tons could have:
- 1 ton for Maneuver-A drive (code: 5) (Agility=5 requires 2 EP)
- 4 tons for Power Plant-A drive (2 EP)
- 1.3 tons for fuel (12d 15h 20m endurance at 2 EP output continuous, 455d endurance at minimal basic power)
- 8 tons for bridge (includes 2 acceleration couches for pilot, gunner)
- 2 tons for model/2 computer (EP: 0)
- 1 ton for mixed turret: missile, mining pulse laser, missile (codes: 1/1/1, EP: 1) (laser not intended for use in combat)
- 8 tons for 4 single occupancy small craft staterooms (pilot, gunner) (pilot, gunner)
- 4 tons for prospecting buggy vehicle berth (CT Beltstrike, p9)
- 0.7 ton cargo hold (contains 105 person/weeks of life support, 4 crew=26w 1d 18h operational endurance before needing to return to base for replenishment)
- 10 tons for cargo hold (10 tons allocated for ore processing, as per CT Beltstrike p3)
In other words, I would consider a 40 ton Pinnace to be the "minimum required" for a small craft that is primarily a "working belter" which is
capable of piracy and boarding actions (when circumstances are favorable) which can be operated in a
"reliably sustainable" manner with regards to crew endurance and mental health.
As you can see from the above "napkin analysis" ... even a 30 ton Ship's Boat is going to "struggle" as a "working belter" because the 2 crews are hot bunking in the small craft staterooms, meaning that crews are "living in each other's pockets" for up to ~26 weeks before needing to return to base for replenishment, which can result in some pretty severe mental stress (and you don't want people "going crazy" on you when you're working as a belter
).
For both the Ship's Boat and the Pinnace designs, the life support endurance is "long enough" for these small craft to spend up to 1/2 a year(!) prospecting before needing to return to base for replenishment of life support reserves. Both designs will typically need to refuel during a prospecting cycle, but with such high acceleration available, that shouldn't be a problem under most nominal circumstances (barring accidents, of course).
Anyone who is interested in how I calculated the fuel consumption rate, I used CT Beltstrike and "refactored the formula" into something more "useful" in a
Traveller paradigm where EPs are used.
- Basic Power: Hull tonnage / 2000 = fuel tons consumed per week
- EP Production: EP * 0.35 = fuel tons consumed per week
So for the 30 ton Ship's Boat, the fuel consumption is:
- 30/2000+1.8*0.35=0.645 tons of fuel per week @ 1.8 EP produced continuously
- 30/2000=0.015 tons of fuel per week @ Basic Power only
For the 40 ton Pinnace the fuel consumption is:
- 40/2000+2*0.35=0.72 tons of fuel per week @ 2 EP produced continuously
- 40/2000=0.02 tons of fuel per week @ Basic Power only
After that, it's just a simple matter of determining how long 1.3 tons of fuel will last at those rates of consumption.
