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.
I wonder if the Jem'Hadar attack ships were supported by tenders. If so, that could be exploited by characters in a DW campaign. Can anybody think of any canon evidence that the Dominion used tenders?
I know, I know, the DWSB will be out "real soon now".
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LUGTrek isn't really dead. Not as long as we remember it.
Cochran, Georgia, USA, Sol III, Alpha Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy
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I don't remember seeing them ever using anything like a carrier or tender. They didn't seem to think their ships would last that long anyway. The Founders saw the Jem' Hadar as tool to be used until they were broken and then replaced by new tools. It's like they thought, "Why service their ships, they won't last more than three years." The only finite supply Jem' Hadar need anyway is "white", they don't need food or other supplies. They don't even need ammo unless their ship is one of those outfitted with torp launchers.
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"Retreat?! Hell, we just got here!"
carriers or tenders
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