Ship: 10t Escort Fighter SRA
Type: Short-range Armored Escort Fighter
Tech Level: 10
USP QFE-0604411-900000-00002-0 MCr 19.825 10 Tons
Bat Bear................................1 Crew: 1
Bat.......................................1 TL: 10
Cargo: 0.200 Crew Sections: 1 of 1 Fuel: 1 EP: 0.400 Agility: 4
Fuel Treatment: Fuel Scoops
Architects Fee: MCr 0.198 Cost in Quantity: MCr 15.860
Detailed Description
(High Guard Design)
HULL
10.000 tons standard, 140.000 cubic meters, Flattened Sphere Configuration
CREW
1 pilot
ENGINEERING
Jump-0, 4G Manuever, Power plant-4, 0.400 EP, Agility 4
AVIONICS
No Bridge Installed, Model/2 Computer
HARDPOINTS
1 Hardpoint
ARMAMENT
1 Triple Missile Turret organised into 1 Battery (Factor-2)
DEFENCES
Armoured Hull (Factor-9)
CRAFT
None
FUEL
1.0 Tons Fuel (0 parsecs jump and 28+ days endurance)
On Board Fuel Scoops, No Fuel Purification Plant
MISCELLANEOUS
1 Acceleration Couch (limiting endurance to ~12 hours in combat), 0.200 Ton Cargo
USER DEFINED COMPONENTS
None
COST
MCr 20.023 Singly (incl. Architects fees of MCr 0.198), MCr 15.860 in Quantity
CONSTRUCTION TIME
5 Weeks Singly, 4 Weeks in Quantity
COMMENTS
The first Terran visit to another star brought the discovery that humans were not alone in space. In fact, Earth's nearest neighbor was a large star-spanning empire with a powerful space navy.
The spacefaring nations of Terran responded by building large numbers of small space fighters. These could be built quickly at reasonable cost. With their nuclear missiles, it was hoped they would give a potentially hostile opponent pause, encouraging the Vilani Imperium to treat diplomatically with the Terrans rather than militarily. They could be moved quickly between worlds on transports, allowing future colonies to be reinforced by transport rather than building infrastructure to support larger warships. The fighters were short-ranged, lacking on-board facilities to serve the crew for more than a half day or so, but as they were based planetside and intended to defend a world's orbital space, this was not considered a handicap. Other craft were designed and constructed, but the core of Terran defenses remained the short-range fighter until the First Interstellar War.
The two decades between first contact and the first shots of the First Interstellar War were characterized by intense research and development on Earth. Advances in armor design led to stronger, more efficient armor able to withstand intense laser fire or shaped charge missile warheads with reasonable weight and thickness. These advances had a strong influence on fighter design
The first fighters to see battle were the U.S. FS-134 Paladin and the essentially identical J120 Youxia fighter of China, 10 dTon short-range armored escort fighters. These fighters were small, reasonably agile and heavily armored, with armor thick enough that only nuclear missiles were considered a serious threat to the craft. Design philosophy emphasized small size and low cost to allow large numbers of fighters to be fielded to offset their vulnerability to anticipated nuclear missile attack. These fighters routed controls through the craft's computer to minimize size. Unfortunately, the fighter's computer proved to be its Achilles heel.
The incident finally triggering war was a skirmish between Vilani merchant vessels and Paladin fighters supporting the U.S. base at Barnard. The Vilani merchant ships, coming in from jump, ignored orders to remain within a designated corridor while approaching the Vilani mining outpost on the planet. Responding fighters attempted to crowd the merchants into compliance: the merchants ignored the little fighter and a minor collision occurred, doing no damage to the fighter involved and minor damage to the merchant. The Vilani captain involved in the collision, angered at the damage to his ship, responded with a burst of laser fire at the offending fighter, but the convoy maintained course.
The fighter took no damage, but with the Vilani ships continuing to flout Terran warnings and one ship firing on a Terran vessel, the Terran base commander felt he had no choice but to respond or see the Vilani take control of the planet's orbital space by fiat, a result that over the long term could jeopardize the safety of the base and see the dominance of the world by the Vilani. He therefore authorized his fighters to fire on the convoy.
In the subsequent exchange, the Paladin performed well. No Paladin suffered significant damage and the convoy took heavy damage, with two ships suffering crippling maneuver drive hits. Unfortunately, since the convoy had been headed planetward and ignoring the fighters at the moment of the first salvo, both ships were destroyed with all hands when they impacted the planet's surface at meteoric speeds. The remaining convoy ships landed safely at the colony, refueled and jury-rigged repairs, and after some heated negotiation between the two sides, were permitted to leave with the cargo collected from the mining outpost, being very careful to remain within the corridor imposed by the Terrans. They reported what had happened to Vilani authorities on their return, setting the stage for what would come.
The Paladin's performance was considered a vindication of its design. It was not until weeks later, when a Vilani reprisal squadron arrived, that the true weaknesses of the Paladin/Youxia design were revealed. Vilani destroyers jumped into the system and engaged the Paladin and Youxia fighters that rose to challenge them. With superior computers and concentrated battery fire, the destroyers were able to consistently hit the fighters. The little fighter's dense armor proved to be of little value: intense barrages of missiles and lasers found weak points in the armor, crippling key systems or punching through the crew cabin to kill the crew, or in some cases triggering a cataclysmic ammunition explosion. The little fighters meanwhile found they were unable to hit the destroyers, whose surprising agility and advanced EW systems defeated the Paladins' missile attacks. Hundreds of fighters went up to oppose the Vilani destroyers; by the end of the battle, all had been crippled or destroyed and the base destroyed by bombardment from orbit.
Subsequent analysis of the battle results revealed the Paladin/Youxia flaws in detail. The Vilani warships had proven far more agile than anticipated, and they had more powerful ECM systems than the Terrans had before encountered. The little fighters' computers were simply not up to the task of targeting these ships. The paradoxical failure of the fighter's heavy armor was also explained: though the armor absorbed most fire with little effect, the intensity of fire resulted in chance multiple strikes in a short interval over the same small areas of armor, triggering small armor fractures. In most cases the breaches were inconsequential, admitting small amounts of deadly energies to parts of the craft that were not vital to combat performance. However, the dense volume of fire wrought by tens of laser hits or scores of missile impacts on a craft as small as the fighter meant there were several such failures, with a 74% chance on any given salvo that one of those would be over a key element of the maneuver drive, power plant, or fire control or would occur over the crew compartment or munitions storage in such a manner as to kill the crew or set off the munitions.
The battle led to a radical revision in both fighter design and fleet composition. Newer, larger and more expensive fighter designs were rushed out, eschewing armor in favor of more powerful drives and more extensive electronic warfare systems. A crash program of ship construction was started to focus more on large warboats that could give and take punishment as well as a destroyer (the precursors to system defense boats). The few carriers among the various Terran national forces were converted to carry the new fighters or gutted and converted into tenders for the new warboats, and new destroyers emphasizing agility over armor protection were constructed. The various spacefaring nations agreed to work cooperatively under a joint coordinating command ostensibly operating under United Nations control, but they retained practical authority and control over their own ships and forces.
When Terrans returned to settle Barnard anew, it was with a stronger and better balanced fleet. When the Vilani arrived with a fleet to drive them out again, the two fleets fought to a draw, the Terrans benefitting from their new ships but handicapped by command coordination problems between the national forces. Rather than continuing to spend ships and resources on an isolated mining outpost, the Vilani withdrew the outpost and ceded the system to the Terrans on the agreement that the Terrans recognize and not intrude in Vilani-claimed space.
Type: Short-range Armored Escort Fighter
Tech Level: 10
USP QFE-0604411-900000-00002-0 MCr 19.825 10 Tons
Bat Bear................................1 Crew: 1
Bat.......................................1 TL: 10
Cargo: 0.200 Crew Sections: 1 of 1 Fuel: 1 EP: 0.400 Agility: 4
Fuel Treatment: Fuel Scoops
Architects Fee: MCr 0.198 Cost in Quantity: MCr 15.860
Detailed Description
(High Guard Design)
HULL
10.000 tons standard, 140.000 cubic meters, Flattened Sphere Configuration
CREW
1 pilot
ENGINEERING
Jump-0, 4G Manuever, Power plant-4, 0.400 EP, Agility 4
AVIONICS
No Bridge Installed, Model/2 Computer
HARDPOINTS
1 Hardpoint
ARMAMENT
1 Triple Missile Turret organised into 1 Battery (Factor-2)
DEFENCES
Armoured Hull (Factor-9)
CRAFT
None
FUEL
1.0 Tons Fuel (0 parsecs jump and 28+ days endurance)
On Board Fuel Scoops, No Fuel Purification Plant
MISCELLANEOUS
1 Acceleration Couch (limiting endurance to ~12 hours in combat), 0.200 Ton Cargo
USER DEFINED COMPONENTS
None
COST
MCr 20.023 Singly (incl. Architects fees of MCr 0.198), MCr 15.860 in Quantity
CONSTRUCTION TIME
5 Weeks Singly, 4 Weeks in Quantity
COMMENTS
The first Terran visit to another star brought the discovery that humans were not alone in space. In fact, Earth's nearest neighbor was a large star-spanning empire with a powerful space navy.
The spacefaring nations of Terran responded by building large numbers of small space fighters. These could be built quickly at reasonable cost. With their nuclear missiles, it was hoped they would give a potentially hostile opponent pause, encouraging the Vilani Imperium to treat diplomatically with the Terrans rather than militarily. They could be moved quickly between worlds on transports, allowing future colonies to be reinforced by transport rather than building infrastructure to support larger warships. The fighters were short-ranged, lacking on-board facilities to serve the crew for more than a half day or so, but as they were based planetside and intended to defend a world's orbital space, this was not considered a handicap. Other craft were designed and constructed, but the core of Terran defenses remained the short-range fighter until the First Interstellar War.
The two decades between first contact and the first shots of the First Interstellar War were characterized by intense research and development on Earth. Advances in armor design led to stronger, more efficient armor able to withstand intense laser fire or shaped charge missile warheads with reasonable weight and thickness. These advances had a strong influence on fighter design
The first fighters to see battle were the U.S. FS-134 Paladin and the essentially identical J120 Youxia fighter of China, 10 dTon short-range armored escort fighters. These fighters were small, reasonably agile and heavily armored, with armor thick enough that only nuclear missiles were considered a serious threat to the craft. Design philosophy emphasized small size and low cost to allow large numbers of fighters to be fielded to offset their vulnerability to anticipated nuclear missile attack. These fighters routed controls through the craft's computer to minimize size. Unfortunately, the fighter's computer proved to be its Achilles heel.
The incident finally triggering war was a skirmish between Vilani merchant vessels and Paladin fighters supporting the U.S. base at Barnard. The Vilani merchant ships, coming in from jump, ignored orders to remain within a designated corridor while approaching the Vilani mining outpost on the planet. Responding fighters attempted to crowd the merchants into compliance: the merchants ignored the little fighter and a minor collision occurred, doing no damage to the fighter involved and minor damage to the merchant. The Vilani captain involved in the collision, angered at the damage to his ship, responded with a burst of laser fire at the offending fighter, but the convoy maintained course.
The fighter took no damage, but with the Vilani ships continuing to flout Terran warnings and one ship firing on a Terran vessel, the Terran base commander felt he had no choice but to respond or see the Vilani take control of the planet's orbital space by fiat, a result that over the long term could jeopardize the safety of the base and see the dominance of the world by the Vilani. He therefore authorized his fighters to fire on the convoy.
In the subsequent exchange, the Paladin performed well. No Paladin suffered significant damage and the convoy took heavy damage, with two ships suffering crippling maneuver drive hits. Unfortunately, since the convoy had been headed planetward and ignoring the fighters at the moment of the first salvo, both ships were destroyed with all hands when they impacted the planet's surface at meteoric speeds. The remaining convoy ships landed safely at the colony, refueled and jury-rigged repairs, and after some heated negotiation between the two sides, were permitted to leave with the cargo collected from the mining outpost, being very careful to remain within the corridor imposed by the Terrans. They reported what had happened to Vilani authorities on their return, setting the stage for what would come.
The Paladin's performance was considered a vindication of its design. It was not until weeks later, when a Vilani reprisal squadron arrived, that the true weaknesses of the Paladin/Youxia design were revealed. Vilani destroyers jumped into the system and engaged the Paladin and Youxia fighters that rose to challenge them. With superior computers and concentrated battery fire, the destroyers were able to consistently hit the fighters. The little fighter's dense armor proved to be of little value: intense barrages of missiles and lasers found weak points in the armor, crippling key systems or punching through the crew cabin to kill the crew, or in some cases triggering a cataclysmic ammunition explosion. The little fighters meanwhile found they were unable to hit the destroyers, whose surprising agility and advanced EW systems defeated the Paladins' missile attacks. Hundreds of fighters went up to oppose the Vilani destroyers; by the end of the battle, all had been crippled or destroyed and the base destroyed by bombardment from orbit.
Subsequent analysis of the battle results revealed the Paladin/Youxia flaws in detail. The Vilani warships had proven far more agile than anticipated, and they had more powerful ECM systems than the Terrans had before encountered. The little fighters' computers were simply not up to the task of targeting these ships. The paradoxical failure of the fighter's heavy armor was also explained: though the armor absorbed most fire with little effect, the intensity of fire resulted in chance multiple strikes in a short interval over the same small areas of armor, triggering small armor fractures. In most cases the breaches were inconsequential, admitting small amounts of deadly energies to parts of the craft that were not vital to combat performance. However, the dense volume of fire wrought by tens of laser hits or scores of missile impacts on a craft as small as the fighter meant there were several such failures, with a 74% chance on any given salvo that one of those would be over a key element of the maneuver drive, power plant, or fire control or would occur over the crew compartment or munitions storage in such a manner as to kill the crew or set off the munitions.
The battle led to a radical revision in both fighter design and fleet composition. Newer, larger and more expensive fighter designs were rushed out, eschewing armor in favor of more powerful drives and more extensive electronic warfare systems. A crash program of ship construction was started to focus more on large warboats that could give and take punishment as well as a destroyer (the precursors to system defense boats). The few carriers among the various Terran national forces were converted to carry the new fighters or gutted and converted into tenders for the new warboats, and new destroyers emphasizing agility over armor protection were constructed. The various spacefaring nations agreed to work cooperatively under a joint coordinating command ostensibly operating under United Nations control, but they retained practical authority and control over their own ships and forces.
When Terrans returned to settle Barnard anew, it was with a stronger and better balanced fleet. When the Vilani arrived with a fleet to drive them out again, the two fleets fought to a draw, the Terrans benefitting from their new ships but handicapped by command coordination problems between the national forces. Rather than continuing to spend ships and resources on an isolated mining outpost, the Vilani withdrew the outpost and ceded the system to the Terrans on the agreement that the Terrans recognize and not intrude in Vilani-claimed space.
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