Just a suggestion for those that think fighters are useful...
New maneuver for fighters (like the Scorpion)
CONCENTRATE FIRE (Command TN protection+3/fighter)
Prerequisites: Close, Lock on (only fighters with lock on can combine).
Effect: The squadron leader (or captain of tle wing/lead ship) calls fire from the group and makes his command test vs. the target ship's protection. Can be done as a combined test with other fighter pilots (or in a two-seater, the gunner or pilot), each success adding as per the combined test rules to the leader's result.
The number of fighters that combine fire is variable -- if the squadron/combat leader gets a high enough result to combine 3 of 6 fighters, he gets to add the ofensive penetration of 3 fighters together (not an all or nothing test).
Example: a Scorpion squadron of 6 fighters all all closing to attack USS Bullseye. All of the fighters have successfully closed, two have gotten lock-ons this round, two more have lock ons from last round. That's four fighters that can combine fire. The Quadron commander orders combined fire on Bullseye (Protection of 15); he needs a 15+ (3x4 fighters)=27. He rolls a 22. Two fighters can combine fire. One of the pilots makes a combine fire test, but only got a 16 -- no addition to the commander's roll. Another gets a bunch of sixes and winds up with a 34. He adds +2 to the commander's roll. That gives the commander a 24 total. Three fighters synch fire for a total penetration of 6 versus the Bulseye's 3. Three points get through.
Could be used by capital ships, as well (a la First Contact when they whack the Borg...)
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill