For the types of "fighters" we've seen so far on ST - do we really need a carrier?(I understand they are neat, and can create a whole myriad of stories for a RPG - just trying a different tack)
It seems a warp capable fighter, even if only as fast as a runabout, would be capable of the sort of patrol, system control, and interdiction duties being proposed for them. What would be needed is less a place for them to "land" and be carried as a place for them to be resupplied, refuel, and (perhaps) recrewed. In a word a "tender" used in modern (or not so modern) navies to supply vessels of limited endurance (small destroyers, subs, patrol craft, even seaplanes).
To my mind a carrier supplies vessels with endurances of hourse, a tender supplies those with days of supplies or more. Those fighters in DS9 looked pretty big, maybe as big as a modern day patrol boat?
Advantages
- less internal volume, you don't carry the fighters so you don't have as many aboard at one time.
- less vunerable, the tender stays back well out of the fight. If the fighters are such low endurance they need to be "carried" then the mother ship must stay close.
- more "trek" like, (IMHO) keeps more in line with the Horatio Hornblower ideal or large ship slugging it out and small craft being auxilliaries.
Possible example - the warbird. Though never seen (obviously) the seemingly wasted gap between the hulls would be a great place for smaller craft to snuggle up to be "tended" and perhaps even carried within the warp bubble, but that's probally a diffent thread.
Cochran, Georgia, USA, Sol III, Alpha Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy
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Carriers can still be of use. Especially if you're patrolling a barren system, one without planets to be bases for fighters. The carrier provides a place for crews to relax. Fighters are small shuttles with inordinate amounts of firepower. The crew would be 1-4 crewmen. You could design your own fighters in different classes; interceptors, space superiority, assault, and bombers. Carriers also have a respectable amount of firepower. A tender is vulnerable, they are slow and underarmed. A carrier can keep up with the fleet and defend itself long enough to launch defense fighters. Fighters were used in the Starfleet Battles game. Give them rapid fire phasers and microtorpedoes. Bombers could carry Photon IIs or Quantum torps. Give fighters enough firepower to make them a threat to capitol ships. Fighters would get bonuses for attacking in "wings" because they are coordinating their attack on one target.
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"Retreat?! Hell, we just got here!"
carriers or tenders
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