In the post-war period, the development of jet-powered strategic bombers made this role difficult to fill; aircraft with performance to protect the bombers had very short range, and those with the range were propeller designs that could not keep up. An ability to send large numbers of small unmanned air systems (UAS) with coordinated, distributed capabilities could provide U.S. forces with improved operational flexibility at much lower cost than is possible with today’s expensive, all-in-one platforms—especially if those unmanned systems could be retrieved for reuse while airborne.  As Rick Robinson points out, there are only three missions for space fighters: To seriously look at this, we first need to establish one principle of spaceflight. In 1965 NASA tried to keep the X-15 program going by proposing a version with delta wings instead of those ridiculous little stubs sported by the stock X-15. The Conquering Sun was no longer lasing for her; all the PLAs had been re-tasked! Primary delivery aircraft for a modern strategic bombing mission need not always necessarily be a heavy bomber type, and any modern aircraft capable of nuclear strikes at long range is equally able to carry out tactical missions with conventional weapons. However, these missions were risky; during this same period, they lost 55 of their intruder aircraft. Several different munitions would be available to enforce a no-drive zone. Knock out their comsats, and they are deaf. The fighter can have One has to learn how to walk before one can run, after all. FP: How do these different space warfare models differ from their oceanic counterparts? (about how human beings have mystical powers that computers will never ever duplicate, trust the Force Luke!  During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, the Russians converted several vessels to carry torpedo boats, and a torpedo boat operating from the tender Veliky Knyaz Konstantin became the first vessel to sink another with a self-propelled torpedo. The project was called SAtellite INTerceptor or SAINT. Zandy climbed into a storage capsule, plugged a data line into the back of her neck, and strapped herself in. Daemon pilots allowed interceptors to fight like heedless kamikazes, but without the certain loss of skilled pilots and without the need to indoctrinate skilled pilots to become suicidal. Note that concept-wise it is quite close to Stine's Space Scout. Eventually, ALPHA aims to lessen the likelihood of mistakes since its operations already occur significantly faster than do those of other language-based consumer product programming. If it is used in a fusion reactor it means the smallest tramp freighter in Traveller in one jump burns 20 tons of hydrogen producing 380,000 megawatt-years of power, or about 160% of the energy the US produces in a single year. They also launch IABMs to add to the STRIKE mission, number of missiles limited to number of undestroyed launch silos. Pure combat starships can concentrate on the battle at hand, they do not have to always be simultaneously trying to protect their jump tender. See paragraph 9 (not counting the bulleted list) under United States Nuclear Artillery. The Redding spaceplane is the same. astronomical threats (e.g., meteorites, etc.) Later, when we get more powerful lasers or more They may explosively delaminate, shooting turbine blades at everything in line with the turbine plane. It knew how to defeat the shot I was taking. With aerodynamic help we might  In such a scenario, human casualties from space battles would be almost unheard of.  In this respect, drones in space are no different than drones used by the military today. It will take (and redirect for fighting) a we have some means for radiating waste heat away Lastly, the length required for the coilguns made me think they would have to be stationary mounts, making them somewhat less useful than the ship's missile and laser retinues, so they'd likely more often be used for accelerating missiles than as weapons in their own right. There will be lulls in the battle where you can sleep, eat, play video games, read, as long as you stay inside and are ready to fight at a moments notice. Since the orbital taxi version was meant to be orbital, the military version would have a global range at the very least. Presuming that a fleet of the toroidal battle craft sets out on an interplanetary mission, the fleet might start out as a group of parasite ships attached to a mother ship. But regardless of her ungainliness, she remained an effective fighting unit, equal and in some ways more than equal to the darting black war craft of the Satarii. Figure XV-l is a schematic diagram of a beamed-energy network for a And small delta wings, and it becomes highly maneuverable. aren't necessarily confined to high ranks. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight of a torpedo, and remained an important aircraft type until they were rendered obsolete by anti-ship missiles. It's limited because they're the only kind of craft designed for dogfight tactics. What a powerful engine does give you is higher acceleration — so you can achieve any given delta v more quickly. Likewise, if drop pods are carried, access to those (for pre-deployment boarding, say) is only possible through EVA. Decision-making is based upon the theory that light lag is a significant factor in the effectiveness of a drone, and that putting humans onboard will therefore increase combat effectiveness significantly. Instead, though, what does he do? Then the next time an aggressor commits an act of war against us or a country we are pledged to defend, instead of impotently threatening to limit its tourist visas, we can respond by taking out its satellites, effectively informing it in advance the certainty of defeat should it persist. Also having dramatic dialogue with the enemy. We'll give it reactor-powered rockets, fed with pellets of solid fuel which is exhausted as vapor. This is self-evident, but naval combat is defined by these simple truths. It periodically appears in breathless aerospace articles. Larger versions of the interdictor concept are generally referred to as penetrators. There are many ways to do it, from the simple defensive high-speed yo-yo to the more complex vertical and rolling scissors. Most of the information in this section is from that study.  Fuel and (to a lesser extent) ordinance are likely to be the killers here. The only situation in which a fighter-like vessel would be useful as a major combat craft is during planetary defense. Whilst previous projects had always referred to this type of mission as Boost-Glide, ARDC now developed the term Dynamic-Soaring (hence the name Dyna-Soar). An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber, is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pressing the attack. For interstellar travel, you have to use a faster-than-light "jump drive". Due to the way the Traveller game mechanics treat spinal mounts, the side with the larger number of spinal mounts tend to win the battles. Is it possible? Thus kinetic weapons, as described in this snippet back in April. A prologned solar storm cuts both asteroids off from Terra, so the asteroids have a private little nuclear war to capture the other asteroid. Then there was Blue SAINT, using a manned vehicle. Propulsion  “The exhausts of the gunboats were bright and yellow: solid fuel rockets.” —from Footfall, pg. Some of the analysis suggests that it is more cost effective to have each jump tender only carry a single battle rider, to avoid stranding six to eight battle riders with the destruction of one jump tender.