CT fighters

As Lee pointed out, High Guard fighters with a small computer are easy prey
for anything better. In fact, my fighters were at the wrong side of that
equation from his fighters at the beginning of Steve's TCS campaign, before
the Alliance.

And now, the War Channel presents, "Wings of the Neubayern Federation." :-)

FA-2B Asp  FH-0606C51-000000-00003-0 MCr74.42  45 tons
bearing                          1   Crew=1
batteries                        1   TL=12(13)
Fuel=6. EP=6. Agility=6.

Has fuel scoops, bridge, and small craft stateroom.

The Asp was the mainstay of the NFN fighter force when the TCS campaign
ended, although it was being phased out of service. Over 2000 were also in
service with the Alliance Navy. The Asp was actually only marginally better
than Sansterre's Barracuda fighter, but it was more than capable against the
fighters the Alliance faced early on. Since the Alliance couldn't count on
the rest of the Cluster keeping their junk fighters, several heavy fighter
designs were built.

FA-5 Krait  FH-0606G81-000000-00004-0 MCr175.25  90 tons
bearing                           1   Crew=1
batteries                         1   TL=12(14)
Cargo=.41. Fuel=7.49. EP=14.4. Agility=6

Has fuel scoops, bridge, and stateroom. The Krait uses some non-standard
technology that was developed by the more technologically advanced members of
the Alliance, specifically an NH3 fuel system and a dual missile turret
system.

The Krait was slowly being phased in as the new standard NFN fighter when the
game ended, a process made slow by the great expense of refitting carriers
that were built for 50-ton fighters. Although it normally carried only the
pilot, it could also carry a gunner who would guide in extended-range
missiles (a Sansterrean invention), which could be launched from ships well
outside normal weapon range. It's capabilities are very similar to
Sansterre's Pike fighters, which carried two missile gunners instead of the
second turret. The Krait, and the other fighters like it, were so superior to
non-Alliance fighters that they could be expected to go up against ten times
their number or more and come out victorious with no losses. However, they
were not the end of Alliance fighter development.

FA-5B Streak Krait  FH-0606(C)N81-000000-00004-0 MCr185.45  90 tons
bearing                                      1   Crew=1
batteries                                    1   TL=12(15)
Fuel=19.96. EP=19.8. Agility=6(12).

The Streak Krait is outwardly identical to the Krait, but with the additon of
a TL15 enhanced output maneuver drive and afterburning power
plant--technology that was still in the prototype stage on St. Hilaire when
the game ended. When using afterburners (that is, using the power plant as a
fusion rocket), it could reach 12G acceleration and Agility 12. In practice,
it wouldn't need to go above 10G/agility 10 to be essentially unhittable with
conventional weapons. It carries 9.66 tons of fuel dedicated to the
afterburners, enough for almost 16 hours at 10G. St. Hilaire's Shark fighter
program was working on a similar fighter.

The NFN Fighter Design Bureau had designed the Streak Krait fighter knowing
that the TL15 drive systems would not be available for a year or more, and
went ahead with production of the Krait in the meantime. Krait fighters were
to be converted into Streak Kraits as soon as enough replacement engines
became available. Afterburning fighters would doubtless become the standard
during the Cluster Liberation War against the Imperium.

Although afterburning craft (there were plans for cruisers and battlecruisers
as well) seem invincible by virtue of their high agility, there are
apparently some weapons that were being developed at the end of the TCS game
that could hit them. What those weapons were exactly remain a mystery.

                        Kenneth G. Hagler
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