Starfighter Surface Features

On the 2300AD facebook group pictures of Starships for Mongoose Traveller:2300 (MGT 2k3) are being produced. This brings me to the subject of the starship artwork. Specifically where are the guns and sensors?

The problem is most acute with starfighters, because the things physically can't carry the systems. Look at the Mistral:

Figure 1: "French" Mistral class fighter (ignore British roundel)

I need to find 20 m2 for the nav array, 30 m2 for the laser (w/ UTES), 30m 2 for a passive array, 8 m2 for the cockpit and 17 m2 for the slung Ritage-2 missile. Total required hull 105 m2, which is more than the entire hull area, ignoring the need for lift surfaces etc. The designer has taken the whole surface (about 100 m2 from the hull hit value) and covered it with stuff (hence the lack of masking). However, this means the main systems must be either pointing "up" or "down" not forward. Great, the sensor (say) points in one direction and the gun it directs points 180 degrees the other way.....

This is essentially the same for all fighters (bar the Donovan, which has the surface features, but as I not the implied size stops it being a "fighter").

Also compare the Riche and Bufer:

Figure 2: French Riche class fighter

Figure 3: French Bufer class fighter

The Riche is clearly a missile carrier, with a Ritage-2 under one wing. If we assume the 6 port thing is a submunition launcher then she has 2 submunitions launchers and 3 slung Ritage-2's in the picture. By way of comparison this probably makes the three pods carried by the Bufer Big Clip equivalents.

Again, the surface area requirement for these ships is huge. Neither have guns or a TTA (how do then target their launched ordnance?), but still need 63 m2 each, exclusive of slung ordnance. The Bufer's size is known (16m long, 10 m wingspan) and hence we can tell the dish for the passive array is wider than the hull.

Lets look at the two remaining French fighters, both well armoured submunitions carriers rather than missile carriers:

Figure 4: French Bonaparte "System Defence Boat" (fighter).

The placement of the weapons is dealt with by the author. The laser is in a jack turret in the belly (meaning its arcs are "down") and the submunition launcher in the roof in a pop-up mount. The 60 m2 of sensors, 30 m2 of guns, 25 m2 of submunition launcher, 24 m2 of masking and 12 m2 of cockpit = 157 m2, exclusive of lift bodies, etc.

The Martel was the subject of an etranger article, but for completeness:

Figure 5: French Martel class fighter

The extremely heavily armed Martel requires no less than 192 m2 of hull. In this case the weapons are obviously on towers, and I have doubts they have 20-40 cm of advanced composite in their hull (NAM typo'd the armour multiplier of advanced composite from x2 to x1, ships with ad comp hull should generally have their hull armour halved).

At least they're better than the German fighters....

 Figure 6: German Gustav class fighter

 Figure 7: "German" Udet class fighter (ignore French tricolor)

Figure 8: German Wespe class fighter

The Gustav had the problem that it was never designed with a fuel tank. That aside, and the fact that it couldn't power both guns and the drive (4 MW MHD turbine, 4 MW gun turret - before the errata all guns used 1 MW regardless of type), and would essentially never fire up the active array the ships surface features consume 153 m2 of area.

The Udet and Wespe suffer from having no armament on the picture, and the Udet has the same choice of move or shoot the Gustav has (German fighter pilots must have very short lives). The Udet requires 118 m2 (the only difference to the Gustav is the lack of the submunitions launcher) and apparently has a superb sensor array whilst German capital ships are carrying crud (well done German ship designers). The true hero though is the Wespe needing 212 m2 of surface area for the tactical systems.

For completeness, the other known fighters, Wellington and FS-17A:

Figure 9: "English" Wellington class fighter

Now, in typical American style the British are now the English. If you're not Scots or Irish though you probably don't care. She needs 122 m2.

The FS-17A picture is online here, but the airplane nature is obvious. The 182 m2 required for the surface fixtures is rather too much.

All these starfighters are carrying far more equipment on their hull than will actually fit, well it fits but the radar dish pointing inside the ship is rather pointless. Plus the idea (obvious in the Gustav) is that the pilots are visually scanning is absurd.

The problem is the ships simply need bigger hulls for the equipment provided, and to actually carry it (which usually spoils lines, any warship entering the atmosphere is unlikely as all those pesky weapons and forests of sensors are difficult to heatproof). Thus I suggest something like this for a space only fighter:

German "Gustav" class Fighter

Streamlining: None

Original Design Date: 2284

First Example Laid Down: 2284

First Example Completed: 2285

Fleets in Service: Federal Republic of Germany ("Bavaria"), Fourth German Empire, Third French Empire 

 

The Gustav is a typical starfighter designed as a near disposable screening/ strike unit. The original design was drawn up during the Central Asian War when the Federal Republic of Germany committed itself to the United Nations against Manchuria. The requirement was for a short ranged craft (12 hours) carrying a nuclear munitions launcher with significant sensor capability. The result is a rather cramped 9 man vessel carrying 4 shaped nuclear warheads.

 

The crew is divided into 3 sections. In the command section the three starship operators sit. The commander also pilots the ship. A navigator/ computer operator controls secondary systems and navigation radar. Finally each ship carries a single communicator operator, without whom the ships would be deaf and dumb. In the combat section each operator uses a different sensor, the active, passive and targeting arrays respectively. The guns and nukes are fired by the targeting operator. In engineering there is a stardrive operator, MHD turbine operator and general systems operator. With such a small crew their quality degrades by 1 for every 12 hours spent onboard. The ship has fuel for 12 hours at full power, but usually cruises at a fraction of this, and can be on mission for several days.

There are typically another 3 members of the crew involved in general maintenance at base or onboard the carrier, making the crew overhead per fighter 12 men. A flotilla of 4 ships (such as is based on a carrier) consists of 60 officers and men. In addition to the 48 ship crew there are 4 staff who man the communications systems on the mothership, 6 stewards and 2 medics.

 

Performance

Warp efficiency: 3.00

Power Plant: 4 MW MHD

Turbine Fuel: 28.8 tons (12 hours full power)

Range: 7.7 ly

Mass: 225.8 tons (full fuel and armament)

Cargo Capacity: none

Crew: 9 (Pilot, Navigator, Communications, Active Operator, Passive Operator, Gunner, 3x Engineers)

Passengers: none

Comfort: 0

Emergency Power: 48 hours

Total Life Support: Upto a week

Cost: MLv6.405 , without ordnance

Ship Status Sheet

Move: 6

Screens: 0

Radiated Signature: 3(4)

Radial Reflected: 4

Lateral Reflected: 4

Target Computer:0

Radial Profile: -3

Lateral Profile: -2

Armour: 1

Hull hits: 4

Power Plant Hits: 8/2

Active: 7

Passive: 3

Other:

 

Weapons x1dbl lasers in external turret with UTES (1238)

Ordnance Load LHH-637 (4 shots, 4x2 Warhead, launch all in single turn)

Sensors and Electronics Phased Active-7Spherical Passive-3Navigation Radar

Bridge Hits: Pilot, Navigator, Communcator 

TAC Hits: Active Operator, Passive Operator, Gunner

Damage Control: 0

For an interface fighter things are trickier. You need a much bigger hull so you have lifting bodies in addition to the tac systems. The fuel tanks will be ridiculously empty on getting to orbit.