Guide:Arrow/Gaillant/Dagger: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
|||
| (2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 63: | Line 63: | ||
Popularly called "cochranes", the sustainer-engined fighters were deathtraps if stranded away from their independently warp-capable protégés or if hit by any sort of enemy fire. The incredible maneuverability of the lightweight craft allowed a skilled pilot to remain within the warp envelope of the convoy, however, so that a running battle could be fought. Slowing down to sublight would almost invariably spell doom for the convoy, but a careful cooperation would make possible counterattacks where the cochranes dropped out of warp ''en masse'', dispatched the enemy, and picked up speed again with the help of a nimbler-than-average freighter hanging behind for this very purpose. All in all, though, climbing into the cockpit of a cochrane took a very special kind of character. Even when not engaged in combat, a "cochrane jockey" would face untold hardships as the cramped craft would have to remain at warp for at least a week or two at a stretch—slowing down for rest and replenishment any more often would delay the shipments intolerably and often also invite a [[Romulan]] raid. | Popularly called "cochranes", the sustainer-engined fighters were deathtraps if stranded away from their independently warp-capable protégés or if hit by any sort of enemy fire. The incredible maneuverability of the lightweight craft allowed a skilled pilot to remain within the warp envelope of the convoy, however, so that a running battle could be fought. Slowing down to sublight would almost invariably spell doom for the convoy, but a careful cooperation would make possible counterattacks where the cochranes dropped out of warp ''en masse'', dispatched the enemy, and picked up speed again with the help of a nimbler-than-average freighter hanging behind for this very purpose. All in all, though, climbing into the cockpit of a cochrane took a very special kind of character. Even when not engaged in combat, a "cochrane jockey" would face untold hardships as the cramped craft would have to remain at warp for at least a week or two at a stretch—slowing down for rest and replenishment any more often would delay the shipments intolerably and often also invite a [[Romulan]] raid. | ||
In practice, the sustainer-engined craft were often crewed by [[ECS]] pilots or former Human mercenaries. Prior to the Romulan conflict, they had amassed the most experience on escort operations. After the war, input from these veterans was used in formulating [[UFP Star Fleet]] tactics and technologies. Yet only a single generation of postwar cochranes emerged, as described | In practice, the sustainer-engined craft were often crewed by [[ECS]] pilots or former Human mercenaries. Prior to the Romulan conflict, they had amassed the most experience on escort operations. After the war, input from these veterans was used in formulating [[UFP Star Fleet]] tactics and technologies. Yet only a single generation of postwar cochranes emerged, as described in [[Guide: Normandy/Port Stanley]]. Expansion of [[Earth]]’s naval forces and consolidation with alien defense organizations soon made possible the construction of dedicated warp-capable motherships for fightercraft and the art of carrier warfare was reborn for the latter half of the [[22nd century]]. | ||
==Gallery== | ==Gallery== | ||
| Line 71: | Line 71: | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
* As the DD-verse will not have the ''Franklin'' transport class (from ''Star Trek: Beyond''), the reference has been modified. | * As the DD-verse will not have the ''Franklin'' transport class (from ''Star Trek: Beyond''), the reference has been modified. | ||
* These certainly served post-war in the [[UFP Star Fleet]], as supported by their replacement by the [[Guide:Normandy/Port Stanley|''Normandies'' & ''Port Stanlies'']]. However, these will be addressed as something akin to shuttlecraft, with a non-NCC registration. | |||
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
Latest revision as of 10:39, 12 July 2023
| |
| Arrow / Gaillant / Dagger | |
|---|---|
| Class Overview | |
| Category | escort fightercraft |
| Operational | 2147 - 2169 |
| Constructed | 430 total:
|
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 30.0 m (Arrow, Galliant) 34.1 m (Dagger) |
| Beam | 19.2 m |
| Height | 15.0 m |
| Mass | 142 tons (Arrow) 170 tons (Galliant) |
| Performance | |
| Max Speed | w 2.3 (Arrow, sustainer only) w 2.4 (Galliant, sustainer only) |
| Endurance | 1-2 weeks |
| Complement | |
| Crew | 1 (Arrow) 2 (Galliant, Dagger)
|
| Tactical Systems | |
| Beam Weapons | Arrow
|
| Shields | Light polarizable armor |
| Canonicity | |
| Design | SFC, MJ Friedman “Starfleet: Year 1" |
| Name | SFC |
| History | SFC, MJ Friedman “Starfleet: Year 1”
|
Background: Hobbyist's Guide
The 20-lightyear radius sphere around Sol where the UESF and UESPA explorers operated in the beginning of the 22nd century was but a fraction of the space actually visited by Humans. Entrepreneurs ventured far into the stellar neighborhood in search of trade contacts; adventurers went farther to find fame. Yet the fifty to sixty lightyears from Sol where the farthest "boomers" traveled aboard their slow freighters were the hunting grounds of dozens of predatory species. Pirates ranging from self-sufficient Nausicaans to rebellious Andorian factions to government-sponsored Klingons took their toll on all traffic. Yet these deliberate and business-savvy operators often were downright civilized compared with the chance encounters with conquistadors or adventurers from empires just outside the Vulcan sphere of influence.
Human counter-reactions to piracy were twofold. Most cargo operators simply accepted the roughly 40% losses of shipments as part of the business, as long as the crews weren’t harmed. Others equipped their ships (illegally) with plasma weaponry or chartered escort services, either from Earth security companies or from better equipped—yet perhaps less trustworthy—alien mercenaries. Were a freighter to run into Orion slavers or Breen raiders, though, neither graceful yielding nor feeble armed resistance would offer much protection. The demand for more potent armaments in the 2100s-2130s was huge.
Yet it would only be in the 2140s that Human cargo operators would get access to an escort vessel with sufficient endurance and agility to be of practical use. The first step in boosting the warp endurance of the escort craft was to remove her warp core altogether.
The Arrow deep space escort fighter of USF Industries relied on a Zhilkovski S-230 warp sustainer, essentially a set of warp coils energized by induction from an external warp field. The bulbous assembly massed mere one hundred tons, less than a single set of coils sans power systems, yet allowed the Arrow to maintain speeds up to warp 2.3 virtually indefinitely, as long as a nearby warp core was feeding the external field. Onto the sustainer was added a dartlike hull some 23 meters long, with a pressure compartment for a single pilot and with four laser cannon outriggered on spindly pylons.
A preproduction run of 20 Arrows was delivered to the UESF 23rd and 25th Advance Scout Fleets for operational testing in 2147, mainly for use in outer base defense. A squadron of fighters riding on the warp field of a scout or a corvette provided a force multiplier for perimeter defenses. However, by 2150, the fighters were being distributed to transport fleets as well, in face of ever-increasing pirate activity. It would soon become obvious that much of this piracy was in fact privateering, being orchestrated by a hostile foreign power. Ships unescorted by UESF units did not survive to tell of the attackers, a drastic and telling change from the grab-and-grab-again modus operandi of most pirates.
Full production of Arrows and improved two-crew, plasma-armed Galliant fighters was begun by 2150, and continued beyond the transcendence of the conflict from privateering to open interstellar warfare. By the time the UESF knew it was facing the Romulan Star Empire, some 220 Arrows had been built and the production run of Galliants was extended to 180 units. A heavier variant with two light phase cannon instead of plasma cannon was also introduced, under the name Dagger class. These craft offered a fighting chance for Terran shipments to reach their destinations, when virtually no other vessels could be spared for escort duty. And fight they did: combat losses by the end of the Romulan war were calculated at 298 fightercraft, out of 430 built.
Popularly called "cochranes", the sustainer-engined fighters were deathtraps if stranded away from their independently warp-capable protégés or if hit by any sort of enemy fire. The incredible maneuverability of the lightweight craft allowed a skilled pilot to remain within the warp envelope of the convoy, however, so that a running battle could be fought. Slowing down to sublight would almost invariably spell doom for the convoy, but a careful cooperation would make possible counterattacks where the cochranes dropped out of warp en masse, dispatched the enemy, and picked up speed again with the help of a nimbler-than-average freighter hanging behind for this very purpose. All in all, though, climbing into the cockpit of a cochrane took a very special kind of character. Even when not engaged in combat, a "cochrane jockey" would face untold hardships as the cramped craft would have to remain at warp for at least a week or two at a stretch—slowing down for rest and replenishment any more often would delay the shipments intolerably and often also invite a Romulan raid.
In practice, the sustainer-engined craft were often crewed by ECS pilots or former Human mercenaries. Prior to the Romulan conflict, they had amassed the most experience on escort operations. After the war, input from these veterans was used in formulating UFP Star Fleet tactics and technologies. Yet only a single generation of postwar cochranes emerged, as described in Guide: Normandy/Port Stanley. Expansion of Earth’s naval forces and consolidation with alien defense organizations soon made possible the construction of dedicated warp-capable motherships for fightercraft and the art of carrier warfare was reborn for the latter half of the 22nd century.
Gallery
Notes
- As the DD-verse will not have the Franklin transport class (from Star Trek: Beyond), the reference has been modified.
- These certainly served post-war in the UFP Star Fleet, as supported by their replacement by the Normandies & Port Stanlies. However, these will be addressed as something akin to shuttlecraft, with a non-NCC registration.