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Fighter Guide/Tactical Spacecraft Generally (view source)
Revision as of 05:37, 29 March 2005
, 29 March 2005Footnotes
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While the earlier part of the 21st century did not see a significant jump in airframe performance for tactical aircraft, this changed during the middle part of the century, just before WWIII. | While the earlier part of the 21st century did not see a significant jump in airframe performance for tactical aircraft, this changed during the middle part of the century, just before WWIII. | ||
As Terra's nation states squabbled over increasingly diminishing fossil fuel reserves and living space , warfare in ''and above'' Terra's skies once more became common. The 'triumph' of pre-holocaust tactical aviation was the Bergmen-Hsang Conglomerate's IE-5 'Indo-Exo' Atmospheric Attack Plane ('Avenger'). Using hydrogen cells to provide maneuvering thrust in ultra-thin air and in near space, the IE-5 saw heavy action in anti-satellite (ASAT) operations. | As Terra's nation states squabbled over increasingly diminishing fossil fuel reserves and living space{{fn|1}}, warfare in ''and above'' Terra's skies once more became common. The 'triumph' of pre-holocaust tactical aviation was the Bergmen-Hsang Conglomerate's IE-5 'Indo-Exo' Atmospheric Attack Plane ('Avenger'). Using hydrogen cells to provide maneuvering thrust in ultra-thin air and in near space, the IE-5 saw heavy action in anti-satellite (ASAT) operations{{fn|2}}. | ||
By the time other nations had craft to fight off the IE-5 and her variants | By the time other nations had craft to fight off the IE-5 and her variants{{fn|3}} in order to protect the few satellite networks remaining, it was too late. An advance in tactical craft had altered the course of world events because that advance was an advantage that first one, and then all, nations exploited, to their mutual regret{{fn|4}}. | ||
After the reconstruction and the advent of the Warp era, tactical spacecraft development, at least on and by Terra (and then eventually by her growing circle of allies) stagnated. The principal reason for this was the character of early Starfleet contacts and policy. Not much more need be said of this than that the Romulan Wars were fought with capital ships almost exclusively; armor, shields and energy weapons were still primitive, heavy and costly (from every angle: space required, resource, energy, logistics, etc), and could not be effectively utilized on tactical craft. When it was realized that capital ships could not enter atmosphere, ''but troops and landing craft could'', the dedicated planetary defense tactical craft created were not terribly evolved from the IE-5 design. | After the reconstruction and the advent of the Warp era, tactical spacecraft development, at least on and by Terra (and then eventually by her growing circle of allies) stagnated. The principal reason for this was the character of early Starfleet contacts and policy. Not much more need be said of this than that the Romulan Wars were fought with capital ships almost exclusively; armor, shields and energy weapons were still primitive, heavy and costly (from every angle: space required, resource, energy, logistics, etc), and could not be effectively utilized on tactical craft. When it was realized that capital ships could not enter atmosphere, ''but troops and landing craft could'', the dedicated planetary defense tactical craft created were not terribly evolved from the IE-5{{fn|5}} design. | ||
During the latter part of the 22nd century (after the birth of the Federation) and the early part of the 23rd, tactical spacecraft were still essentially weakly armed variants of shuttles. Although they were called by various and sometimes ambitious names , the issue was still that the things that made a ship capable in a battle (armor, shields, weapons) were still too 'bulky,' costly and just plain 'big' to fit on small ships. Nonetheless, just as the advent of the transistor (and then the microchip) had revolutionized Terran technology in one bold jump, tactical spacecraft were to see their true Renaissance in the 24th century as a result of a similar technological epiphany. | During the latter part of the 22nd century (after the birth of the Federation) and the early part of the 23rd, tactical spacecraft were still essentially weakly armed variants of shuttles. Although they were called by various and sometimes ambitious names{{fn|6}}, the issue was still that the things that made a ship capable in a battle (armor, shields, weapons) were still too 'bulky,' costly and just plain 'big' to fit on small ships. Nonetheless, just as the advent of the transistor (and then the microchip) had revolutionized Terran technology in one bold jump, tactical spacecraft were to see their true Renaissance in the 24th century as a result of a similar technological epiphany. | ||
The same advances that made the 'next generation' of shield generators, phaser power cells and armor tiling possible in capital ships after 2355 also made it possible for Federation R&D personnel to begin to 'think small' once more. | The same advances that made the 'next generation' of shield generators, phaser power cells and armor tiling possible in capital ships after 2355 also made it possible for Federation R&D personnel to begin to 'think small' once more. | ||
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* '''Stretching''': Going to warp. | * '''Stretching''': Going to warp. | ||
* '''Watch-stopping''': Extended operations at high impulse, which carries time dilation effects (since full impulse is .2c, extended operations will make you younger; read Einstein). | * '''Watch-stopping''': Extended operations at high impulse, which carries time dilation effects (since full impulse is .2c, extended operations will make you younger; read Einstein). | ||
==Notes== | |||
* {{fnb|1}} The conversion to hydrogen fuel cells was unequal from nation to nation and the global environmental collapse of 2033 served to significantly reduce the arable land for a geometrically increasing world population. | |||
* {{fnb|2}} The dependence of all weapon systems and military units on GPS for position and function was so complete by 2015 that destroying such GPS networks effectively blinded not only the military and their weapons but the enemy nation state as well. This was far easier than attacking the enemy units themselves. | |||
* {{fnb|3}} Some of those variants and copies included: The French Bloc 'Russard-75,' the European Centrist 'Union-Cavalier,' the Russian Federation 'Mig-99,' the South Asian Union 'Typhoon-5,' the Indian Union 'S-84' and the New Median Confederation 'Persia-636.' | |||
* {{fnb|4}} It is interesting to note the irony attendant to the relationship between the deployment of the IE-5 and her competitors and the start of WWIII itself. The nations of the world had become utterly dependent on satellite networks of every kind had every nation state become (not only for the guidance of its weapons and military units but also for all official and private communication, entertainment, etc). Very quickly, every nation had IE-5's or something like them. The destruction of these systems had the very real effect of thrusting the suffering nations into the position of having no alternative but to fall back on the very weapons they had all tried so hard to ban. The lesson: the effectiveness of the IE-5 in dictating the terms of battle on the 'high frontier' (as space was then called) neutralized what every nation had come to think of as it's divine right. The rule of tactical improvement, therefore, discussed in section 2.1 and embodied by the IE-5, was a significant factor in the first resort to nuclear weapons. | |||
* {{fnb|5}} Though it was hastily updated with improved systems and composites the craft was, in most respects, the same 'plane' it had been a hundred years before. | |||
* {{fnb|6}} The 'Dragon' atmospheric defense craft, for example, was essentially 99% Galileo class shuttle and 1% bells and whistles. | |||
[[Category:The Fighter Guide]] | [[Category:The Fighter Guide]] | ||