Where are the Starfighters???

[Freedom]

It says the Akira has Starfighters........the only one i know of is the valkeryie. Please Tell me of others! or give me an idea of stats.
Thanks!

[IceGiant]

KillerWhale's Starships supplement has stats for the starfleet fighter. They are used aboard the Akira (Depending on which source you use of course )

[Yuber Okami]

But those fighters, are they ever shown on the films??? in TNG episode "best of both worlds",as the Borg cube enters the solar sistem, you can see three tiny starships confronting it... were they starfighters? (and if not, what starship class were them?)

[aelius]

Fighters were used in many eps of DS9, most promenantly in the giant fleet battle in "Sacrifice of Angels".

[Tobian]

Fighters have never realy been seen in any form on the show. Even the Peregrine class vessels seen in some of the bigger scrapes in TNG are no what I would call 'fighters' really as they are fairly large. I think they were used more in the context as smaller ships because that's all they could get their hands on!

I'm not sure what those things on BOBW were exactly, but from the text it implies it was just part of the defense perimiter; probably either automated probes, or extra long range missile weapons (on a macro scale).

Yes, I think a few instances of the Akira class being refered to as carrying fighters, but it couldn't cary too many, from the looks of the exterior shots, and certainly points wise fighters in most startrek oriented space combat systems have to be quite large to be able to be effective at all. Either peregrine class sized, or the size of the Dominion bugs, which are quite substantive (4 decks). A large capitol ship taking on even a small fleet of fighters generally fares better as it has much better shields weapons and is bigger. it's not terribly hard to make a capitol ship that doesn't take damage from puny beam weapons and can fry a figher per hit!

[toadmage]

The starfigher are all over the screen in DS 9 , they are just cloaked .

My thoughts that "Starfighter" are size 2 or 3 ships build for combat . Starfleet prehaps not to warships so runabouts would be the closest thing fielded by the Feds .

[Cmdr Powers]

This must be some sort of cycle we go through here at TrekRPG.net. At least once every other month we hash out the viability of fighters in the Trek universe. Next month it'll be Marines again.

Freedom, if you'll do a search for Fighters, you'll find a ton of threads exhaustively discussing their utility and practicality.

I interpret the 'Peregine' as a small (14 meters or so) fightercraft of which an Akira can carry 30-50 (but only handle about 14 or so at any one time). Owen Oulten has put together a very nice set of plans for the Peregrine, based on many of the screen pics available indicating that it carries 1 or 2 persons.

Do a search, check it out. Find out what's already been posted- several times already!

Then decide for yourself how you wish to use fighters in your game- if at all.

[Owen E Oulton]

"I interpret the 'Peregine' as a small (14 meters or so) fightercraft of which an Akira can carry 30-50 (but only handle about 14 or so at any one time). Owen Oulten has put together a very nice set of plans for the Peregrine, based on many of the screen pics available indicating that it carries 1 or 2 persons."

The shot in question, upon which I based my version, is an FX shot which clearly shows two crewmen through the forward window, establishing that the cockpit module was the same as that of the Type i5 Shuttlepod (thus allowing them to use the same interior set-piece with minimal re-dressing).

The wing on the studio model has a detail which seems quite clearly to be a hinge joint, which coincidentally is exactly even with the belly of the vessel, which indicates to me that the wings fold for that naval fighter plane feel.
Here's my version: <a href="http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/game/startrek/universe/ships/fighter.htm">here</a>

[aelius]

Originally posted by Tobian
Fighters have never realy been seen in any form on the show.

Funny, I must have been imagining Capt. Sisko ordering the Fighter Wings to attack the Dominion fleet at the beginning of "A Sacrifice of Angels". Then swarms of little two man ships descended on the Cardassian ships firing all the way and making explosions on them rather than being useless. The ships were seen extensivly in part two of "The Maquis", even from the inside. They were definitely small, little more than half the size of a runabout.
Much as some people prefer to think that fighters are not practical in Star Trek, the screen says otherwise. In my campaign if it's on the screen it's canon. Everyone is free to run they're own game the way they prefer, but saying there are no fighters in Star Trek is ludicrous.
You can rationalize about power sources and screens of heavy ships all you like, but on screen the small fighters(or converted couriers as they were referred to in "The Maquis") were very effective. Watch the prolog of "A Sacrifice of Angels".