I suppose the fighter will be better for fighting off an actual invasion
attempt, or making sorties against a blockade or similiar.
The boat would be more usefull for other missions, such as showing the
flag operations ( like keeping all thoose out of your territory, who would
not want to risk an actual military confrontation but would be inclined to
violate your borders for smuggling, stealing your resources, taking
shortcuts or similar). It would also work better as customs or rescue
vessel. Or it could be used as escort vessel against minor threats.
So i would say the fighter is likely the better wartime craft, while the
boat is the better for peace or cold war.
On Thu, 11 Sep 2014, Onno Meyer wrote:
I've written a planet-based starfighter, coming soon to a mailing list near
you. It has a pilot and a backseater in roomy crew stations, and no way to
move about for maintenance in flight. The engines are in widely spaced pods
for survivability. The endurance should be similar to a modern jet fighter,
even if the power and life support last much longer.
Roughly the same weapons load gets carried by an orbit-based missile boat.
There are six roomy crew stations in the bridge, four bunks, and ten folding,
cramped seats. It has long-term access space for in-flight maintenance.
My idea was to give it eight crew -- the captain, a gunner, a sensor
operator, and a mechanic for the first shift, the XO, another gunner, another
sensor operator, and another mechanic for the second shift. Off-shift crews
will have to help with the maintenance part of the time. Cooking is left to
the microwave and an automed replaces the medic. At battle stations, the six
bridge people are at the workstations and the two mechanics do damage
control.
By the rules, I could bring the crew up to 12 with hot bunking. Would more
crew improve performance or just lead to overcrowding and crew stress?
The boat could carry a boarding party for a short time, hence the jump seats.
If they rescue the crew of another missile boat or "evacuate MacArthur from
Corregidor", they're effectively out of the fight.
And the key question: The missile boat is 50% more expensive than the
starfighter, and much less maneuverable in an atmosphere. In turn it gets
slightly better sensors and much longer time on station. Are both viable
designs? Parking the missile boat in orbit makes it a sitting duck, it would
have to maneuver all the time to be survivable.
Regards,
Onno
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