With Omega 5 released, and a more comprehensive list of fighters made available to the Federal Republic, perhaps there could be room for a heavy fighter type or two which the Auroran Navy can call upon - perhaps akin to the Iridani Skiff-H.

Assuming that an appropriate carrier could be developed to fly them, of course...


So far, the most prominent heavy fighter in Omega is actually from the Iridani Cluster, being the aforementioned Skiff-H.

If one assumes that the FRA decides to develop its own heavy fighter programme prior to Y214 (when they make contact with the Federation) then perhaps they could be inspired by what they see in Iridani service - even with a YIS of Y200, that is still time enough for such craft to potentially be part of a Crusading fleet operating in or near Auroran space (or perhaps even in the fleet which defeated an Andromedan force set to assault the FRA in that same year).

Indeed, perhaps they could even purchase a sample (or be offered one, due to some suitably-convenient Quest) and reverse-engineer it for their own needs - or at least follow the example in their own work.


So, in place of the PW-1, 2 PW-3s, TI and 2 FEBs of a Skiff-H, perhaps an Auroran havy fighter might have, for example, a ph-1, 2 ph-3s, a light photon and two SRCs (or perhaps two variants, one armed with SRCs and the other with light photons)?


If an Auroran heavy fighter would, for whatever reason, be unsuitable for operations within a regular launch bay, one could go with the use of external links (akin to those being operated by the FRA's Maesron allies for gunboats) - but without the experience earned by Star Fleet in Alpha, perhaps there could be two stages of such a development.

Stage 1 is a less effective method, which would simply rely on links, but not have a dedicated external deck for the craft (I can't recall where I read it in, but I think the Feds had a similar problem with their earliest attempt to fly F-111s off of a starship).

Stage 2 could be post-Y214, where the data acquired from the UFP would lead to a refit which would add the kind of structures seen on Star Fleet SCSs for heavy fighters, and thus increasing the effectiveness of Auroran carriers with heavy fighters.


(Perhaps the deployment of such craft reflected this - maybe prior to Y214, there was a preference among the Navy for CVAs, with the heavy fighters only really coming into their own once the operational issues concerning the external mounting was resolved.)


Of course, this is just one interpretation - and not a very good one, I'll admit - but is there a better way of developing FRA heavy fighters, and the kind of carriers needed to fly them?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, June 06, 2017 - 01:44 pm: Edit

I should note that, according to (OK1.0), an Auroran heavy fighter was being used for weapons testing in Y192, when it (or rather, its size limitations) inadvertently sparked the process which eventually led to the first "volatile warp" engines, and the first Interceptor prototypes to use them.

According to (OJ3.5), the Aurorans would develop the first warp booster packs in the Omega Octant in Y195, ironically as an off-shoot of their development of "volatile warp" technology.

So, whenever the first FRA heavy fighters entered service, the latest this must have happened would have been in Y192 itself.

(Which, of course, would oblige me to ditch the concept presented in the above post...)


By and large, those few size-2 Omega fighters in print thus far (the Hiver Barb-H, Iridani Skiff-H and Admiral's Gig, Bolosco Sorceror, and Ryn Render) tend to have only one option apiece - not counting the phaser option mounts on the Sorceror - in keeping with Omega's tendency (from a design standpoint) to downplay the power and variety of attrition units relative to those in the Alpha Octant.

It would stand to reason that other Omega empires might have similar limitations, though the Worb (with the ongoing feud between the High and Broad castes to consider) and Zosmans (which may need to offer some degree of phaser and weapon options for their various attack shuttles) may stand as possible exceptions.

So, much as it may be tempting to suggest a number of weapon variants for a would-be Auroran heavy fighter, it may perhaps be best to concentrate on a single design for now, whatever that may be. Only then, if there proved to be some sort of justification for a further variant, ought one be considered.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, June 10, 2017 - 04:42 pm: Edit

In light of the review being posted over here (where I came to the viewpoint that one size-2 fighter per role per empire might be a reasonable limit to consider), I took a fresh look at what this might mean for the Auroran Navy:


FRA: Size-1 Auroran fighters are deployed in squadrons of 12: eight Doberman ("superiority") fighters, four Rottweiler ("assault") fighters, and the option of swapping one or more of the Rottweilers for Ballistic ("missile") fighters. So it may be reasonable to give the FRA squadrons of 6 size-2 fighters, with 4 "superiority" and 2 "assault" fighters per squadron, plus the option of swapping one or both "assault" fighters for "missile" fighters.

It is noted in (OR17.F3) that standard photon torpedoes did not appear on fighters in FRA service until heavy fighters were deployed. So it may be that, rather than use light photons on a size-2 "assault" fighter, it may be as well to go with standard photons for these purposes. (Perhaps the Zosmans might consider using light photons on their heavy fighters regardless.)

As noted above, the FRA CVS is well positioned to handle a mixed squadron of size-2 fighters. While the current SCS is conjectural, perhaps a CVA could be made out of the "base" DN hull, at least if it were to be built (or converted) prior to the Aurorans' turning away from attrition units in the Y190s. However, the pocket battlestation is another matter, as its 6 fighter boxes are divided into two groups of 3; in any case, the PBT would be able to support "superiority" fighters only. FRA ground bases could handle size-2 squadrons of 4 "superiority" and 2 "assault" (and/or "missile") fighters.