There is some real-life precedent for this notably, there have been actual cases where militaries have claimed the ability to bring down sophisticated remote-controlled and AI-equipped spy drones with nothing but radio signals and hacking. Human pilots may prove more resilient against such threats. There is significant electronic warfare in the setting.Retaining human pilots for Space Fighters can provide survivability in works with significant electronic and information warfare - a robotic drone is of little use if the enemy can control it with a software hack, and missiles can be led off-course with decoys of one sort or another. Still, some critics of space fighters do occasionally argue that larger ships have no disadvantage at all when compared to space fighters in a realistic setting, and this is one plausible counter-argument.Ī5. The main question is whether this added maneuverability would be enough of an advantage to make space fighters sensible - missiles and robotic drones would have the same strength, after all, and likely even more when you take out the mass of the pilot or life-support gear. In this case, rather than being a space version of an aircraft fighter, the space fighter would be more analogous to a patrol torpedo boat or other "fast attack craft". The larger a spacecraft is, the harder it is for its structure to handle the stress of rapid acceleration during maneuvers - see this web-page for more on this. The maneuverability of space fighters versus larger ships makes them worthwhile.Space is not an ocean, but space fighters would still be more maneuverable than larger spacecraft thanks to the Square-Cube Law. space fighters) can use smaller versions to shorten the distance and use solid projectile weapons, or simply move to another angle to attack.Ī4. By firing a specially designed projectile which will be inflated and/or spread out small particles that are magnetically attracted to a centre zone, one can form an area that can block incoming directed energy weapon for a short while (similar to whats being used in Starship Operators). This would also be contingent on the projectiles not being too fast, else the interceptors would have difficulty running them down.Īn easy way to make this happen is to create something like a smoke screen yourself. Obviously, you can't do the same with energy weapons. If the dominant weapons are solid projectiles, interceptors would be useful as a complement to the point defense screen, thinning out incoming fire so the point defense on capitals would have an easier job. Weapons are projectile-based and slow/ungainly. In a setting with such a tech level, it is possible for one large warship to be more economical than an equivalent squadron of fighters.Ī3. On the other hand, if the tech level is a bit higher - high enough to allow for a Space Elevator or other comparatively low-cost means of getting into orbit, for example, and to allow manufacturing and resource gathering to take place directly in space - then the construction of larger ships becomes much more feasible.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |