Hello everybody,
I have been thinking about the effectiveness of reasonably heavy
starfighters and smallish patrol boats.
* The starfighters would be in the 30-ton range, two crew or one crew
and a robot.
* The patrol boats would be in the 100-ton range, 8 crew, with
facilities for crew rest and maintenance.
* In any comparison, the fighters get superior numbers, either scaled by
price or scaled by crew.
Will the patrol boats benefit from efficiency of scale or will they get
swarmed? To make the comparison, first I have to define the technology.
GURPS 3E, TL11 or higher with superscience like reactionless thrusters
and FTL engines.
Warp drives are problematic in 3E because of the limited FTL weapons.
Jump drives would probably mean that the fighters are not FTL-capable,
which distorts the picture. That leaves my old standby, hyperdrives.
Just how well do they work in a short-ranged, tactical mode? Will
spacecraft 'microjump' every couple of seconds? How about missiles?
If the FTL drive does not work on a tactical scale, the longer-ranged
sensors and beam weapons of the patrol boat should swat any number of
fighters, but by the same reasoning a cruiser would defeat patrol boats.
The light stuff is just for patrol and 'tripwires'. Unless I can make
missiles effective, then the higher number of platforms should let the
fighters prevail.
Any predictions before I get to the nuts and bolts?
Regards,
Onno
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