Starfleet Fighter Planes?

[Anwar]

Or, just use fighters mainly for planetary battles and/or recon missions from larger starships. Of course the space based fighters would have to be bigger and tougher than the planetary fighters in order to deal with space environment.

 

[The Badger]

^ The obvious solution to that is that like other small vessels their strength isn't individual its in them functioning as a group. Also the fighters are armed with photon and quantum torpedoes and given that we've seen the Defiant destroy Jem'Hadar fighters with as little as six torpedoes these group of fighters would be dangerous in combat.

This was pretty much my thinking as well. At the start of the Dominion War, Star Fleet doesn't seem to have any small combat craft apart from the Defiant class, which at that time is available in very limited numbers. I'd speculate that, faced with the threat posed by the Jem'Hadar ships, the fleet took a leaf from the Marquis book. Small, manoeuvrable craft were adapted for military purposes.

Perhaps this was only intended as a stopgap measure, a short term solution intended not to solve a problem, but to keep it at bay until something more permanent could be developed. Now we know, from 'Preemptive Strike', that the Marquis attacking Gul Evek's ship carried type 8 phasers and photon torpedoes.

Personally, I'd speculate (and this is just speculation, I freely admit it) that these ships could be adapted to operate at far above their usual specifications at the cost of significantly reducing operational lifespan. Also, unlike the Marquis ships, the Star Fleet ones would have the advantage of the latest technology. With the development of the Danube class runabout, the Fleet has access to new systems designed specifically for small ships.

It is worth noting that, post Dominion War, the Romulans had developed their own fighter, the Scorpion class. This suggests that the concept at least was considered favourably at this time.

 

[apenpaap]

The problem with fighters is that due to their small size, they would necesarily only generate small amounts of power, and have weak shields. And, being so small, a single shot would vapourize them if their shields fell. IMO the closest thing to it should've remained Defiants.

 

[FlapJoy]

The problem with fighters is that due to their small size, they would necesarily only generate small amounts of power, and have weak shields. And, being so small, a single shot would vapourize them if their shields fell. IMO the closest thing to it should've remained Defiants.

But as other posters have noted... these limitations could be upgraded. New tech reasearch and invention, developed and implimented into practical use. Starfleet engineers could come up with feasible solutions if priorty was given to the project based on it's need.

 

[kv1at3485]

The critical shift is not to fighters, but to much larger numbers of small warships (amongst other things) and the realization that sending anything larger into combat is not only undesirable but wasteful.

A few of the polities have conceptually grasped the concept of the "smallest viable interstellar warship", but the implementations leave much to be desired.

 

[Jono]

Or, just use fighters mainly for planetary battles and/or recon missions from larger starships. Of course the space based fighters would have to be bigger and tougher than the planetary fighters in order to deal with space environment.

I'm not sure a fighter would be a good platform for a recon vessel. In Trek these small craft are never shown to be able to match the warp speeds of "starships" (unlike they have uncommon tech such as slipstream, transwarp or coaxial warp drives). Recon ships need to be fast and also have good sensors.

This was pretty much my thinking as well. At the start of the Dominion War, Star Fleet doesn't seem to have any small combat craft apart from the Defiant class, which at that time is available in very limited numbers. I'd speculate that, faced with the threat posed by the Jem'Hadar ships, the fleet took a leaf from the Marquis book. Small, manoeuvrable craft were adapted for military purposes.

The Saber class is a smallish craft. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the visual effects people scaled them around the 190m mark.

It is worth noting that, post Dominion War, the Romulans had developed their own fighter, the Scorpion class. This suggests that the concept at least was considered favourably at this time.

Well, we don't know that the Romulan fighter in Nemesis is post-Dominion War. For the most part the Romulan war effort (such as liberating Benzar) happened offscreen so it is possible they were in service during the war.

Think they should have been unmanned as well, but if they are specifically for Remans I doubt the Romulans care about how many get killed flying them.

The problem with fighters is that due to their small size, they would necesarily only generate small amounts of power, and have weak shields. And, being so small, a single shot would vapourize them if their shields fell. IMO the closest thing to it should've remained Defiants.

That's very true, which is why I think that these vessels should be unmanned. The space you size by removing the cockpit and any life support systems can be used for other things, it might not make them more durable but their destruction doesn't waste personnel, which out of all Starfleet's resource is the hardest to maintain and replace.

The critical shift is not to fighters, but to much larger numbers of small warships (amongst other things) and the realization that sending anything larger into combat is not only undesirable but wasteful.

A few of the polities have conceptually grasped the concept of the "smallest viable interstellar warship", but the implementations leave much to be desired.

The good thing with fighters are they would be simple and quick to make, which would be very attractive when you are quickly building up your forces for an upcoming war and then replacing losses due to another war and a Borg incursion.

Really until the Defiant the Trek ship motto was "bigger is better". Also it has to be remembered that Starfleet fancies itself an exploratory organisation as well and its vessels often are required to take multiple roles.

 

[kv1at3485]

The good thing with fighters are they would be simple and quick to make, which would be very attractive when you are quickly building up your forces for an upcoming war and then replacing losses due to another war and a Borg incursion.

I'm not seeing the value of "ease of production" if the product is of dubious utility. Tactical warp, aggressive missile use, and point defence don't bode well for fighters.

Even in DS9 fighters didn't provide capabilities more aggressive missile use couldn't. Sure, the Maquis used them, but only because they had nothing better. Planning a space warfare force for the likes of the UFP is not the same as planning the same for a group of sidelined malcontents.

Really until the Defiant the Trek ship motto was "bigger is better". Also it has to be remembered that Starfleet fancies itself an exploratory organisation as well and its vessels often are required to take multiple roles.

Even a small Starfleet warship is likely to have superior "multirole" capabilities than fighters. Of course, those additional capabilities had better be distant considerations. The whole point is that when a crisis and war does erupt Starfleet doesn't have to sacrifice its purpose-built multi-role ships. At least the newer ones, the ones in mothballs are perfectly acceptable cannon fodder during a crisis.

 

[Star Wolf]

Maybe Klingons would, but where do we get the ideal that Federation races would go on forlorn hope type missions? Accepting a casualty rate of X so one fighter can get a torpedo thru?