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Fighter Guide/Tactical Spacecraft Generally: Difference between revisions
Fighter Guide/Tactical Spacecraft Generally (view source)
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==The 'Real' History== | ==The 'Real' History== | ||
From the earliest days of manned flight, it quickly became clear that armed conflict had gone from two dimensions to three. He who controlled the 'high ground' had a gradually more significant advantage over an adversary who did not. | From the earliest days of manned flight, it quickly became clear that armed conflict had gone from two dimensions to three. He who controlled the 'high ground' had a gradually more significant advantage over an adversary who did not. | ||
Air balloons used primarily for spotting enemy formations were particularly vulnerable to attack, as they were slow, when maneuverable at all. Biplanes, used for the same purpose, were shot at by other such planes with guns, necessitating that planes dedicated to fighting escort the spotter planes. Small improvements in speed, climbing, gunnery and fuselage durability became significant, and as the twentieth century came to a close, tactical aircraft were critical to control of any battle environment. | Air balloons used primarily for spotting enemy formations were particularly vulnerable to attack, as they were slow, when maneuverable at all. Biplanes, used for the same purpose, were shot at by other such planes with guns, necessitating that planes dedicated to fighting escort the spotter planes. Small improvements in speed, climbing, gunnery and fuselage durability became significant, and as the twentieth century came to a close, tactical aircraft were critical to control of any battle environment. | ||
The first salient point conveyed by the above is that as the ''pace of technological improvement accelerates, small changes become significant''. A slight edge in speed, armor or weapon range will mean ''something'' to the people whose job it is to ''plan doctrine for the exploitation of those ''advantages''. Only a fool would fail to make use of a longer weapon range for ship A when engaging ship B. If the pilot of A is doing her job, she should be flying her craft to continually open the range between she and her enemy. | The first salient point conveyed by the above is that as the ''pace of technological improvement accelerates, small changes become significant''. A slight edge in speed, armor or weapon range will mean ''something'' to the people whose job it is to ''plan doctrine for the exploitation of those ''advantages''. Only a fool would fail to make use of a longer weapon range for ship A when engaging ship B. If the pilot of A is doing her job, she should be flying her craft to continually open the range between she and her enemy. | ||
In Terra's WWI, for example, the moment that German engineers managed to develop a better drive to weight ratio for their aircraft than allied biplanes (the drive to weight ratio determines how fast a plane can pull its weight in a climb), the German tactics ''changed to take advantage''. German pilots would continually seek to drive their enemy into diving contests, the better to bleed away the Allied plane's altitude. Then the Germans would climb above the enemy | In Terra's WWI, for example, the moment that German engineers managed to develop a better drive to weight ratio for their aircraft than allied biplanes (the drive to weight ratio determines how fast a plane can pull its weight in a climb), the German tactics ''changed to take advantage''. German pilots would continually seek to drive their enemy into diving contests, the better to bleed away the Allied plane's altitude. Then the Germans would climb above the enemy and, well, it was pretty grim there, for a while. | ||
The second important lesson conveyed by the first paragraph is that, resources being generally equal, developers and deployers of tactical craft will ''immediately begin to find counters to any advantage''. | The second important lesson conveyed by the first paragraph is that, resources being generally equal, developers and deployers of tactical craft will ''immediately begin to find counters to any advantage''. | ||
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As everyone knows, physics is a harsh mistress, even in the age of warp speed. Without the inertial dampening systems (IDS) every impulse (and certainly warp) capable ship carries, it would be ''impossible'' to accelerate to anything remotely approaching luminal velocity without allowing weeks for the effort. | As everyone knows, physics is a harsh mistress, even in the age of warp speed. Without the inertial dampening systems (IDS) every impulse (and certainly warp) capable ship carries, it would be ''impossible'' to accelerate to anything remotely approaching luminal velocity without allowing weeks for the effort. | ||
Yes, we said ''weeks''. Unless, of course, you want to end up a red stain on the bulkhead when the ship jumps to high impulse all at once. And warp? Forget it. You'd | Yes, we said ''weeks''. Unless, of course, you want to end up a red stain on the bulkhead when the ship jumps to high impulse all at once. And warp? Forget it. You'd be, well, we don't know, but it'd be ugly. | ||
So we have the IDS. Now, since these tactical craft have at least high impulse capability and many have warp, they all have to have IDS's also. The "toughie" part is figuring out just how effective the IDS is compensating for ''all'' inertia. From every indication (in other words, from watching every ST, STNG, DS9, VOY and ENT episode and every movie), it's pretty clear that ''never'' has an IDS system done anything ''other'' than eliminate all inertia. It does that literally with not even a delay of nanoseconds between the g-force of inertia when the ship accelerates and when the IDS kicks in. Have ''you'' ever seen Picard, Kirk or Janeway lean back when their ships jump to warp? Yeah, we didn't either. | So we have the IDS. Now, since these tactical craft have at least high impulse capability and many have warp, they all have to have IDS's also. The "toughie" part is figuring out just how effective the IDS is compensating for ''all'' inertia. From every indication (in other words, from watching every ST, STNG, DS9, VOY and ENT episode and every movie), it's pretty clear that ''never'' has an IDS system done anything ''other'' than eliminate all inertia. It does that literally with not even a delay of nanoseconds between the g-force of inertia when the ship accelerates and when the IDS kicks in. Have ''you'' ever seen Picard, Kirk or Janeway lean back when their ships jump to warp? Yeah, we didn't either. | ||