[Spaceships] Under what tech assumptions Space Fighters make sense?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Oh. I thought we were still talking about space fighters in the classical sense. What you call a snark is probably closer to a 'space mine version of the AKV'.

What THS calls a snark, actually. My point is that not having any life-support (not even a spacesuit) is an advantage.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

Inspired, by two other current threads (one very close, the other only vaguely related), I wanted to fine-tune the question:

Under what tech assumptions are Space Fighters actually useful? Nonexistent AI seems like an early prerequisite. Reactionless drives seem like a close second. But what else? Is there more than one setup under which fighters make sense?

Yes, I know under most assumptions they're useless - I always proposes to replace them with AKVs if they sound better. But it's not about proving them useless. I'm sure most of you know what the topic is about.

Thanks in advance to those who are willing to discuss it!

It depends slightly on semantics, exactly what it meant by 'space fighter'. And yes, I know what it usually means.

The classic version, the STL manned short-range fighter carried aboard a larger ship, a space-going version of an aircraft carrier, almost never makes any sense under any remotely plausible tech assumptions. A possible limited exception would be fighters designed primarily for atmospheric work, launched from an orbiting platform and desending from and returning to it.

But some of the other things we see 'space fighters' do in SF might make sense under some tech assumptions, if we define 'space fighter' as a 'small armed FTL starship with a crew of one'.

For ex, if your FTL drive has a speed-to-mass ratio that makes a small ship a great deal faster than a big one, and the range of FTL sensing and communications is limited, then sending 'scouting missions' in little ships ahead of a large, slow vessel could make perfect sense, i.e. the old BSG classic model, where a Viper or 3 gets sent ahead of the Galactica to scout out the path ahead. Putting men aboard these small ships makes sense if there is no AI suitable for the task and the ships will be beyond comm range of the big vehicle for a while. Arming them also makes sense in a wartime situation.

(Granted, a 'space dogfight' is still radically unlikely, but if the weapons on th small ship are of modest range (which is not improbable) then such a scouting mission could very well indulge in some modest-range combat if they encounter scouts from the other fleet).