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05-19-2011, 07:51 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
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The first qualifier is that a small ship can destroy a big ship. Nukes or KE weapons launched at very high speeds will do this. The second is that you need big ships for some reason but do not wish to risk their destruction. So you keep the big ships out of engagement range. They never appear on the battle map. They just send out the small ships to fight. This also is possible and for multiple reasons. If those small ships are SM+4 or +5 you might well call them "fighters" even if they do not engage in dogfights. Now you might ask about long range smart missiles that can be launched from beyond the tactical battle map or unmanned missile carriers but you'll be building those as small ships under the Spaceships rules rather than shooting them out of standard missile tubes.
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Fred Brackin |
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05-19-2011, 07:58 AM | #12 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
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05-19-2011, 08:02 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Athens of America
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
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For sourcing on these types of encounters take a look at most of the Major Battles in the Pacific in WWII... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_coral_sea First major battle where the ships of the opposing fleet never SAW each other also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Philippine_Sea For a fictional treatment I always liked Babylon 5 and its take... Capital Ships were expensive but had the ability to form jump points (or warp or hyperdrive or or) fighters fought well but needed the Capital ship to go anywhere...You MIGHT risk the Capital Ship in a Major Assault...otherwise use the fighters and if you have to withdraw while they hold off the enemy...well hard decisions like that come with an Admiral's Stars...
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My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.-Foch America is not perfect, but I will hold her hand until she gets well.-unk Tuskegee Airman |
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05-19-2011, 08:35 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
Just getting around to reading this thread....
Realistically, the CAG of a space-opera carrier (like those mentioned in the OP) is more likely to have points in Strategy (Space) for planning the operation and spend time in the Control Room of the ship (assuming the Control Room of SM >10 ships includes a CIC [Combat Information Center]) than he would be in-flight among the other pilots with Piloting, Gunner, Artillery, etc. He'd be in contact with the carrier's squadron leaders - no sense in him being in contact with the individual pilots during combat unless he had specific orders for that particular flight of fighters. In short, the chain of command goes Admiralty -> Task Force Commander (usually a Commodore in rank) -> Ship Captain -> CAG -> Squadron Leaders -> Flight Leader (4 birds from a squadron) -> Individual Pilots. Skipping over the chain are usually in the form of the Task Force Commander talking to the CAGs, the CAGs talking to Flight Leaders, and Squadron Leaders talking to Individual Pilots; these rarely earn contempt from those skipped, as the fast pace of combat often means the skips are necessary to save lives on your side. Of course, in a Suitably Heroic Moment the CAG is well within his rights to board a fighter - I seem to recall a few times after he was promoted to General that Wedge Antilles did just that.
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05-19-2011, 08:48 AM | #15 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
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05-19-2011, 09:08 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Athens of America
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
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Particularly Teaching as CAG's come up from Squadron Leaders and will usually be grooming one or more of their Squadron Leaders to take CAG slots someday. The same way that the Squadron Leaders will be grooming a couple of pilots to take their place...
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My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.-Foch America is not perfect, but I will hold her hand until she gets well.-unk Tuskegee Airman |
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05-19-2011, 10:37 AM | #17 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
The only person who would be performing actual command tasks for a fighter wing would be sitting back on the carrier in a combat operations centre. It isn't the job of anyone actually flying a fighter, because they already have more than enough to do...unless of course they have compartmentalized mind.
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05-19-2011, 10:51 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Jan 2011
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
In that case you probably wouldn't have a CAG, but only a squadron leader who doubles as such. Everything else should remain the same. The other question is why that would make sense. In the games you quoted it limits management and power of the units, but in a tabletop setting that would hardly matter.
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I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers. -Khalil Gibran |
05-19-2011, 10:59 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Athens of America
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
Most likely the Flight Leader would report like the other department heads (Navigation/Engineering/Weapons/Marine) on the vessel, heck I think some of the larger Wet Navy non-carriers still have a Flight Department...even if they only have 1 Helicopter...
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My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.-Foch America is not perfect, but I will hold her hand until she gets well.-unk Tuskegee Airman |
05-19-2011, 01:58 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] The hard, ungrateful life of a CAG (fighter squadron leader)
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One of those pilots is going to be senior to the others and have a job title similar to Squadron Leader. With 24 vehicles (even if of the same type) you get 2 squadrons but one of the Squadron Leaders will be senior to the other. That one will have overall command of the fighters with the other squadron leader second. The senior squadron leader may get a brevet to "CAG" even if his total "command" doesn't really add up to an "Air Group". Whether or not the senior fighter officer flies or stays in the CIC is highly dependant on time and place and either is possible.
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Fred Brackin |
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Tags |
cag, fighters, leadership, space fighters, spaceships |
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