Space Superiority Fighter

[SSWarlock]

This forum's threads on High Burn Thrusters and placement of barbettes on small craft got me wondering what the Imperium could come up with for a space fighter when it pulls out all the stops. So...

Here's a "space superiority" fighter I've thrown together. Mission statement: Be as fast as possible for its size and being mostly survivable in combat against other fighters yet able to dish out some potentially serious damage even to armored targets, which it should be able to find without mothership guidance, and be able to provide customs duty and ground attack support.

In other words, be everything to everyone and do a decent job at it. (Typical military requirement, right?) Fortunately, the civilian requirement of "..and at no cost" doesn't apply.

Assumptions for this design are as follows:
1) Design TL is 15 unless otherwise stated,
2) design rules from all published MongTrav books, including PDFs, are in effect, and
3) cost is not a limiting factor but let's not spend credits when it gains no advantage. Gotta give the bean-counters something.

Apologies for the use of periods (or full stops for those of you across the Pond) for spacing. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up a table in this forum's posts without them.

Regardless, let's dig into what I call the:

"Wolverine"-class Space Superiority Fighter

Item (TL 15 standard)...........................Rating.............Tonnage........Cost (MCr).......Notes

Hull..........................................................................30..................1.3.............Built at TL12 to reduce cost. Hull 0/Structure 1
Streamlining....................................................................................0.13
Armor.......................................Bonded Superdense........2.739.............1.1869.........Hull Armor Factor = 11
Self-Sealing.....................................................................................0.3
Stealth..........................................................................................3
Reflec...........................................................................................3
Heat Shielding.................................................................................3
Radiation Shielding...........................................................................7.5
Maneuver Drive sW.................................14 Gs...............12................64...............Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
Double Turret for Single Plasma Gun.......2D6+4 Damage..........0.6...............1...............Advanced construction (60% std. tonnage)
Turret Fire Control........................................................1..................0
Power Plant sW............................................................7.875............52
Fuel (12 hours duration).................................................0.175..............................12 hours = 120 combat turns, Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
Cockpit......................................................................1.5................0.015
- Specialised Navigation Computer..........Computer/5...............................0.1551........Intelligent Interface, Intellect/2, Expert Navigation/3
- Main Computer..................................Model 6.................................20...............Program Rating: 30
- Holographic Controls.......................................................................0.00375.......Cockpit counts as "optimized".
- Basic Military Sensor Suite............................................2..................1
- Enhanced Signal Processing...........................................2..................8...............+4 DM all Sensor rolls; +2 to Full & Limited range bands
Luxuries......................................................................0.111............0.111..........Consists of easy-to-use zero-g sanitary facilities and limited-function meal dispenser.
SubTotal:....................................................................................165.59075

Software
Maneuver/0....................................................................................0
Intellect/10....................................................................................1
Evade 1/10.....................................................................................1
Evade 2/15.....................................................................................2
Evade 3/25.....................................................................................3
Fire Control 1/5...............................................................................2
Fire Control 2/10..............................................................................4
Fire Control 3/15..............................................................................6
Fire Control 4/20..............................................................................8
Translator/1....................................................................................0.003
Library/0........................................................................................0
Expert Pilot/3 (skill: Pilot 2)................................................................0.1

Total..........................................................................................192.69375

There you have it. The large amount of software is to allow the pilot to adapt to changing combat conditions. Maybe he wants to pilot the craft in combat while the computer handles fire control or vice versa. Or maybe he wants the computer to handle both so he doesn't get surprised while taking a nap between patrol waypoints; twelve hours can be a stressful time when you're stuck in a cockpit without a toilet. The translation software is to provide effective communications during customs assignments. Interestingly, I couldn't figure out how to shoehorn in either the High Burn Thrusters or a barbette without taking in a serious hit to armor and acceleration capability.

Now..where are the issues/mistakes?

 

[Old timer]

If you want a HBT in this design, drop the reflec and heat shielding, maybe also the rad shielding. That would give you the space for better weapons and the high burn thrusters.
Its a nice design as is though

 

[AndrewW]

Just the highest level is needed on the software. If you have Evade/3 there's no need for Evade/1 for example.

Turrets take 1 ton for fire control. No additional tonnage is needed for a turret, though space may be allocated to ammunition such as for missiles or sandcasters.

 

[AndrewW]

If you want a HBT in this design, drop the reflec and heat shielding, maybe also the rad shielding. That would give you the space for better weapons and the high burn thrusters.

Alas, reflec, heat shielding, radiation shielding don't take up any tonnage, only save on credits.

 

[SSWarlock]

If you want a HBT in this design, drop the reflec and heat shielding, maybe also the rad shielding. That would give you the space for better weapons and the high burn thrusters.
Its a nice design as is though

Thank you for the compliment and feedback!

High Guard defines the reflec, heat shielding, and rad shielding as armor add-on options that only require additional cost, not additional tonnage, so removing them wouldn't recover any usable space but would reduce the craft's defenses and COAC (close orbit and air combat) capability.

It seems to me the real limitation on maintaining a long-term (more than an hour), sustained 16G acceleration on any fighter is the inclusion of armor and military sensors. Even at TL 15, armor is a tonnage hog but a fighter becomes incredibly fragile (i.e. dead) without it. And a dead fighter is a useless fighter. As is one with myopic civilian-level sensors when everyone else is using military sensors that can not only spot the fighter from further away but can also jam its civvy eyes.

I'm starting to think that this may be the most efficient design that satisfies the Mission Statement. Which would be surprising, given that I slapped it together in about 10 minutes and most of that time was flipping back and forth between the pages in the books/PDFs. I can remember taking hours for some of my MegaTraveller designs. Yay, Mongoose!

By the by, I didn't see any Weapon Range Modifiers in Trillion Credit Squadron for the plasma gun so I'm going with those in the Core Book which are assigned to the Fusion Gun. Also, I believe taking what I've allocated to Cargo and using it for Luxuries, even as a fractional, could be construed as resolving the "Toilets..In..Spaaaace!" issue. Even if said Luxuries are nothing more than a TL 15 port-a-pottie next to the cockpit couch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_toilet), it's got to be better than wearing a vacc suit over an adult diaper/nappy for 12 solid hours which is how the ISS crew deal with the problem during their multi-hour EVAs (ewww..and you thought your job was crappy).

Any more thoughts?

 

[SSWarlock]

If you want a HBT in this design, drop the reflec and heat shielding, maybe also the rad shielding. That would give you the space for better weapons and the high burn thrusters.

Alas, reflec, heat shielding, radiation shielding don't take up any tonnage, only save on credits.

Ha! You beat me to it. I was typing up my reply as you were submitting yours.

 

[AndrewW]

Ha! You beat me to it. I was typing up my reply as you were submitting yours.

Don't you hate it when that happens¿

 

[SSWarlock]

Don't you hate it when that happens¿

LOL. Not really. I'm always happy to receive outside confirmation that I'm still mostly mentally acute. Mostly. :wink:

 

[SSWarlock]

Also, I believe taking what I've allocated to Cargo and using it for Luxuries, even as a fractional, could be construed as resolving the "Toilets..In..Spaaaace!" issue.

Done. The original design above has been modified to include this.

 

[phavoc]

From a cost perspective, removing your passive defenses such as reflec, heat, and rad shielding doesn't significantly reduce the cost of the fighter. It's got good armor, and since it's designed for superiority, you might as well keep those to give it just a little more edge. Think of it like an F-15 vs. an F-16. The F-16 was designed with a lower cost in mind (as well as a few other things!), but the F-15 got a lot more bells and whistles. If you were looking at it from a pure cost perspective, make a variation where you downrate some of the other pieces and create a "low-cost" space superiority fighter. For those navies who are on a smaller budget.

The range/duration it has with it's fuel supply is pretty small, so it will be limited to how far from it's base or carrier craft it can travel. Again, not a huge issue, but it would be a limitation and it would essentially be deployed right before combat in many instances. I was looking at your design and there weren't that many things that could be altered to give you more fuel.

I noticed you had a double turret installed for .6 tons. Since you've got a fighter here, wouldn't you just put the weapon in a fixed mount? That would save you the tonnage that you could allocate to something else.

The luxuries may be unnecessary. Essentially you've got a ship that's expected to be in space no more than 12hrs, and if there is combat going on then probably less than that before one side or the other has won. Fighter pilots today spend 12hrs in their cockpits, so that tonnage could also potentially be freed up for something else. Maybe with longer 'legs' you would want to keep them?

 

[SSWarlock]

The range/duration it has with it's fuel supply is pretty small, so it will be limited to how far from it's base or carrier craft it can travel. Again, not a huge issue, but it would be a limitation and it would essentially be deployed right before combat in many instances.

Exactly. I was thinking the 12 hours would give it an acceptable endurance if launched just before/during combat. Also, the 12 hours would give it time to deorbit, carry out some ground strikes, then return to a mothership in orbit or, if planet-based, give it quite a range with a constant acceleration of 14Gs.

I noticed you had a double turret installed for .6 tons. Since you've got a fighter here, wouldn't you just put the weapon in a fixed mount? That would save you the tonnage that you could allocate to something else.

I thought about it then realized that a fixed gun installation may require a Pilot(small craft) skill roll to line up for a shot. If it does, then having a turret would negate the need for the skill roll and remove a chance of failure. But if the skill roll isn't necessary, then freeing up that 0.6 ton for additional fuel would be significant. Hmm. I really need to look into whether or not a "line up" skill roll is necessary for small craft. It may be limited only to spinal mounts.

The luxuries may be unnecessary. Essentially you've got a ship that's expected to be in space no more than 12hrs, and if there is combat going on then probably less than that before one side or the other has won. Fighter pilots today spend 12hrs in their cockpits, so that tonnage could also potentially be freed up for something else. Maybe with longer 'legs' you would want to keep them?

Thank you for your thoughts on this. I was wondering whether or not a 12-hour mission was really all that difficult. I do remember reading that some of the B-2 stealth bomber missions during the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan conflicts took off from bases in Wisconsin, flew to the Middle East, performed their missions, then flew back to the U.S. for a mission time greatly in excess of 12 hours (like 25-42 hours). But then the B-2 has a cot and food coolers on board inside what Traveller would consider to be a crew cabin, not a one-person cockpit.

A bit more research on my part seems to be required. Good.

 

[phavoc]

For missions, a closer analogy would be fighter support flown out of bases in Saudi towards Iraq and Afghanistan. The fighter pilots would be in flight about 12-14hrs, refueling to/from, then taking up station over their target area. Because of the length of the flights they would sometimes put the plane on autopilot and take a nap. They were supplied with sleeping pills especially designed to quickly leave your system so you weren't groggy.

The other aspect of being "on station" is that your fighter guys might be stooging around for hours waiting for something/someone to happen by. Since Traveller small craft don't mount external storage tanks, it could be helpful!

While the rules don't strictly address it, in theory there should be no reason why your fighter craft couldn't have stubbly little winglets to mount external ordnance on, like a couple of standard missiles. That could be a nice addition to their firepower in the initial phases of a fight.

 

[SSWarlock]

Well, well! Apparently, small craft pilots do not need to roll for weapon line-up. Converting the turret to a fixed mount opened all sorts of possibilities. Thank you for that, phavoc! Alas, one of the possibilities was not the use of additional weapons on winglets. High Guard is pretty adamant that a 30-ton small craft is limited to one, and only one, anti-ship weapon. I could add up to three anti-personnel weapons to the craft so that's an option for ground support attacks but it just can't improve its space combat capabilities that way.

However..

What did become available was the ability to:
1) upgrade the plasma gun to a Very High Yield version (yeesh!), and
2) add in a 2G-capable High Burn Thruster with enough fuel for five 1-hour-long burns.

And so F33D gets his 16G-capable fighter..well, kind of.

After running the thing through a few combat simulations, I also added in the Fire Control 5 software for those really long-ranged shots. The only loss for all this added capability was a reduction of some space from the Cargo/Luxuries allocation. Looks like Star Ranger Eneri of the Imperial Spaceways will keep his porta-pottie but will have to settle for ham sandwiches and an apple for his on-mission cuisine.

Here's what the redesign looks like; the changes have been highlighted with a blue font.

"Wolverine"-class Space Superiority Fighter, Block B

Item (TL 15 standard)...........................Rating.............Tonnage........Cost (MCr).......Notes

Hull..........................................................................30..................1.3.............Built at TL12 to reduce cost. Hull 0/Structure 1
Streamlining....................................................................................0.13
Armor.......................................Bonded Superdense........2.739.............1.1869.........Hull Armor Factor = 11
Self-Sealing.....................................................................................0.3
Stealth..........................................................................................3
Reflec...........................................................................................3
Heat Shielding.................................................................................3
Radiation Shielding...........................................................................7.5
Maneuver Drive sW.................................14 Gs...............12................64...............Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
High Burn Thruster sC...............................2 Gs................0.3................0.6
HBT Fuel.......................................Five 1-hour Burns........0.375.............0.00375
Fixed Mount for Single Plasma Gun.........2D6+4 Damage.........0..................0.275...........Advanced construction (Very High Yield)
Power Plant sW............................................................7.875............52
Fuel (12 hours duration).................................................0.175..............................12 hours = 120 combat turns, Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
Cockpit......................................................................1.5................0.015
- Specialised Navigation Computer..........Computer/5...............................0.1551........Intelligent Interface, Intellect/2, Expert Navigation/3
- Main Computer..................................Model 6.................................20...............Program Rating: 30
- Holographic Controls.......................................................................0.00375.......Cockpit counts as "optimized".
- Basic Military Sensor Suite............................................2..................1
- Enhanced Signal Processing...........................................2..................8...............+4 DM all Sensor rolls; +2 to Full & Limited range bands
Luxuries.....................................................................0.036.............0.0036.........Consists of easy-to-use zero-g sanitary facilities
SubTotal:....................................................................................165.4695

Software
Maneuver/0....................................................................................0
Intellect/10....................................................................................1
Evade 1/10.....................................................................................1
Evade 2/15.....................................................................................2
Evade 3/25.....................................................................................3
Fire Control 1/5...............................................................................2
Fire Control 2/10..............................................................................4
Fire Control 3/15..............................................................................6
Fire Control 4/20..............................................................................8
Fire Control 5/25.............................................................................10
Translator/1....................................................................................0.003
Library/0........................................................................................0
Expert Pilot/3 (skill: Pilot 2)................................................................0.1

Total..........................................................................................202.5725

Using advanced tech to miniaturize the HBT may allow fuel for one more HBT burn but it's likely it'll just provide our heroic fighter pilot with a small cooler for his food. But that's reserved for the Block C build. *grin*

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. This has been fun! If anyone has any additional ideas, please post away.

 

[SSWarlock]

The other aspect of being "on station" is that your fighter guys might be stooging around for hours waiting for something/someone to happen by. Since Traveller small craft don't mount external storage tanks, it could be helpful!

This brings up a good point. High Guard specifically states, "A small craft may have any of the components allowed to larger vessels." So while the standard small craft don't mount drop tanks, small craft can be designed to use them. Just scale the tanks down in size. Since drop tanks require 2 tons of fuel-transfer equipment for every 50 tons of fuel contained, this would scale down to 0.04 ton of equipment for every 1 ton of contained fuel or 0.004 ton of equipment for every 0.1 ton of contained fuel. And the Wolverine requires 0.175 ton of fuel for a 12-hour mission.

I'm starting to think the Block C build had better mount drop tanks for power plant and HBT fuel in lieu of external anti-personnel weaponry. Being able to rip along at 14 Gs with an hour-long 2G boost every other hour and do it for almost 20 hours provides one heck of a lot of loiter time, not to mention a dramatic increase in combat effectiveness range.

Yeah, ol' Star Ranger Eneri will definitely need a TL 15 hot plate installed.

 

[GamingGlen]

Yeah, ol' Star Ranger Eneri will definitely need a TL 15 hot plate installed.

Isn't that what the HBT is used for?

What? HBT doesn't stand for Hot Browning Toaster?

:wink:

 

[phavoc]

I think you could drop the Fire control /1 - 4 and just leave the /5. The rules don't say anything about it being cumulative, so having just the highest should be sufficient.

My comment about the missiles being added is, in my opinion, a shortfall of the rules. They don't take into account externally-mounted ordnance. In reality a fighter can be armed with external tanks and missiles and choose to use them or jettison them when getting into a dogfight. Having them degrades its performance, but that's considered a fair trade off if you get to use them prior to getting into a dogfight. Maybe one day Traveller will actually upgrade the rules to accommodate them...

 

[SSWarlock]

What? HBT doesn't stand for Hot Browning Toaster?

:wink:

LOL. Not quite. Standing behind a HBT when it fires up will toast a bit more than the meal being held..it'll toast the meal holder as well!

Fortunately, that won't be necessary. I've completed the Block C design, which incorporates the advanced tech miniaturization of the High Burn Thruster. Surprisingly, doing so recovered quite a bit more space than I had thought it would. So much so that the design's power plant endurance has been doubled to 24 hours, a built-in mount for a drop tank doubling the endurance of both the power plant and the High Burn Thruster has been added, and our faithful pilot now not only has a loo but also a Smart Kitchen(tm) from the Scouts book. So up to 12 meals will be available for a mission though any Scout may debate the edibility of those meals. The only adjustment I needed to make that negatively affected performance was to reduce the on-board fuel storage for the HBT from 5 hours to just 3 hours but the drop tank makes up for that by bringing the total HBT fuel available up to 6 hours of burn time.

Without further ado, here's the Block C build. As in the Block B build, modifications made since the last build are highlighted in a blue font.

"Wolverine"-class Space Superiority Fighter, Block C

Item (TL 15 standard)...........................Rating.............Tonnage........Cost (MCr).......Notes

Hull..........................................................................30..................1.3.............Built at TL12 to reduce cost. Hull 0/Structure 1
Streamlining....................................................................................0.13
Armor.......................................Bonded Superdense........2.739.............1.1869.........Hull Armor Factor = 11
Self-Sealing.....................................................................................0.3
Stealth..........................................................................................3
Reflec...........................................................................................3
Heat Shielding.................................................................................3
Radiation Shielding...........................................................................7.5
Maneuver Drive sW.................................14 Gs...............12................64...............Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
High Burn Thruster sC...............................2 Gs................0.225.............1.2............Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
HBT Fuel......................................Three 1-hour Burns......0.225.............0.00225
Fixed Mount for Single Plasma Gun.........2D6+4 Damage.........0..................0.275..........Advanced construction (Very High Yield)
Fire Control for Fixed Mount............................................1.................0
Power Plant sW............................................................7.875............52..............Advanced construction (75% std. tonnage)
Fuel (24 hours duration).................................................0.35...............................24 hours = 240 combat turns
Cockpit......................................................................1.5................0.015
- Specialised Navigation Computer..........Computer/5...............................0.1551........Intelligent Interface, Intellect/2, Expert Navigation/3
- Main Computer..................................Model 6.................................20...............Program Rating: 30
- Holographic Controls.......................................................................0.00375.......Cockpit counts as "optimized".
- Basic Military Sensor Suite............................................2..................1
- Enhanced Signal Processing...........................................2..................8...............+4 DM all Sensor rolls; +2 to Full & Limited range bands
Drop Tank Mounts........................................................0.023.............0.0115.........Allows drop tanks totaling 0.575 ton of power plant and High Burn Thruster fuel to double power plant and HBT endurance
Luxuries....................................................................0.063.............0.0063.........Consists of easy-to-use zero-g sanitary facilities and Smart Kitchen (see Scouts book)
SubTotal:....................................................................................166.0858

Software
Maneuver/0....................................................................................0
Intellect/10....................................................................................1
Evade 1/10.....................................................................................1
Evade 2/15.....................................................................................2
Evade 3/25.....................................................................................3
Fire Control 1/5...............................................................................2
Fire Control 2/10..............................................................................4
Fire Control 3/15..............................................................................6
Fire Control 4/20..............................................................................8
Fire Control 5/25.............................................................................10
Translator/1....................................................................................0.003
Library/0........................................................................................0
Expert Pilot/3 (skill: Pilot 2)................................................................0.1

Total..........................................................................................203.1888

And that is that.

Now I'm starting to wonder what this thing looks like. Pity I'm not an artist.

 

[SSWarlock]

I think you could drop the Fire control /1 - 4 and just leave the /5. The rules don't say anything about it being cumulative, so having just the highest should be sufficient.

I thought about that but having all the different versions available, with their various computer space requirements, allows a pilot to mix and match their effects. For example, he may want to have Intellect, Evade 1, FC 1, and Expert Pilot running as his default configuration while on patrol to minimize the amount of work he has to do and switch to Fire Control 5 with nothing else running in order to guarantee he'll succeed in a very long range shot. Or change over to Evade 3 and FC 1 when a battle turns very dicey for him and he's a better gunner than a pilot. Going with only FC/5 as his fire control software would limit his options.

My comment about the missiles being added is, in my opinion, a shortfall of the rules. They don't take into account externally-mounted ordnance. In reality a fighter can be armed with external tanks and missiles and choose to use them or jettison them when getting into a dogfight. Having them degrades its performance, but that's considered a fair trade off if you get to use them prior to getting into a dogfight. Maybe one day Traveller will actually upgrade the rules to accommodate them...

I'm right there with you on this. If they can have drop tanks, why not make external ordinance disposable in the same manner? Ah, well.

 

[phavoc]

I think you could drop the Fire control /1 - 4 and just leave the /5. The rules don't say anything about it being cumulative, so having just the highest should be sufficient.

I thought about that but having all the different versions available, with their various computer space requirements, allows a pilot to mix and match their effects. For example, he may want to have Inteillect, Evade 1, FC 1, and Expert Pilot running as his default configuration while on patrol to minimize the amount of work he has to do and switch to Fire Control 5 with nothing else running in order to guarantee he'll succeed in a very long range shot. Or change over to Evade 3 and FC 1 when a battle turns very dicey for him and he's a better gunner than a pilot. Going with only FC/5 as his fire control software would limit his options.

There's nothing in the rules that says you can't downgrade or choose a specific level of fire control. So you purchase Fire Control/5, but you run it as Fire Control/1 and get the same results but you save 20MCr.

 

[locarno24]

Now this is something that I've had arguments on myself, but I've been told (possibly incorrectly) that the 1 dTon internal space for a turret was the fire control - i.e. you're doing yourself out of 0.6 dTons. Only matters for the block A.

My comment about the missiles being added is, in my opinion, a shortfall of the rules. They don't take into account externally-mounted ordnance. In reality a fighter can be armed with external tanks and missiles and choose to use them or jettison them when getting into a dogfight. Having them degrades its performance, but that's considered a fair trade off if you get to use them prior to getting into a dogfight. Maybe one day Traveller will actually upgrade the rules to accommodate them...

They do. Since you're using Plasma Cannons, you must have access to Trillion Credit Squadron. Check out Missile Packs. One or two slung underwing make for quite the lethal alpha strike, especially if they're packs of flak missiles.