Smallcraft in Space
Small craft in space are an idea that is more recent than one might think.
in space, since space is vast and the simple fact that a bigger ship can be more heavily armed, it was common practice to invest in larger and larger vessels that could cover as much space as possible. fighters were deemed inefficient. while potentially cheap, the fact that they required a pilot, suffered from g-forces and could easily be just drone controlled instead, or if no continuous firepower is needed just sending a missile, small craft of most kind were largely not even entertained as a possibility.
all of this changed however, with the advent of more sophisticated inertial dampening and gravitational manipulation technology. now, while still difficult pilots could theoretically keep up with missiles in the g-force war. That still makes them not all that interesting, but this meant that a few lines of force projection projects around the idea of small, single or double seated craft sprang up. until this point most navies had what was called ambush craft. These craft had around 5crew members, had energy-based weaponry that was far larger than reasonable and practically flying guns. used for solar warfare by some spacefaring nations, they were incredibly cheap in comparison of going down the gigantism route and used as much obfuscation and misdirection to get cheap shots on enemies with large vessels. loss rates of these vessels were high but in the cold calculus of war, able to easily inflict 10 times or 100times their cost in damages on the enemy side.
Engineers seeing how these weapons worked, either as quick jump hit and run boats or disguised as some sort of rock or space debris to catch ships out of position off guard were the first targets. As they focused on bringing as much firepower as possible, sacrificing everything else in the process, they were a legitimate threat that wasn't easily detectable and could be strategic stumbling blocks.
The first few prototypes were themselves, smaller guns with strong sensors and themselves either the ammo or worked of the smallest possible type of storage like capacitors. rarely did actual projectiles get used. The engineers of this, while they floated the idea of using living pilots, dismissed the idea as still more a hinderance then any boon. These prototype drones went into testing and quickly showed great success in finding and destroying the traps without any strong resistance.
Soon the first ships were retrofitted to house these anti-ambush drones and were having to prove themselves in the field. and just like the lab results in testing, they efficiently and quickly found and destroyed their intended targets. AAD's started to become more common, and the ambushes became less and less, until suddenly something changed. in 2503 a fleet of Maiq directorate forces were sent on a patrol in a contested and rebellious system. they deployed the AAD's as usual to ensure that their approach to the asteroid field and the highest populated planet goes smoothly. MDF forces were not too shocked when they lost contact with their drones as the shadow of planets and other bigger objects can cause that. but they were confused that after their usual refueling time, they would not return. the MDS Salaforan and a few other vessels pushed forward and found their drones on their sensors seemingly intact, just offline. they sent the commands to turn on over and over, but nothing happened, getting a little closer to manually retrieve them they got shot by their own drones first and then by hidden guns in the asteroid belt and lead to the complete loss of all vessels that day.
The Drone Betrayal Incident as it would become to be known as, was first seen as an isolated event. but quickly reports of drones being turned or disabled became more and more common. It turned out that drones are, regardless of who made them susceptible to EWar. Not ever attack was the same, some drones reacted differently than others, but it became a cat and mouse game of who would find what vulnerability and how to trick who into showing their cards first.
it wasn't long before the Ketting' would announce in the galactic community a shift in their naval doctrine to manned fighters.
soon after some sort of manned vessel to do this job would become more common. While still vulnerable to EWar, the operators inside could react to the interferences when having no direct connection to any other ship or network to support their readings or intrusions.
URE navy academies started to toy with integrating these two ways more directly. While the war is still being won by big ships, these small craft could be used for more than just taking out ambushes and potential hidden threats. their concept was a distributed network all-aspect assault or dna3. broken down, using the same tricks as some of the ambush vessels used with the upcoming technologies to obfuscate signatures, the drones would be acting as decoy and counter-pd while the controllership would launch torpedoes. While a single angle would still be easily defeatable, the all-aspect part meant that at least from 3 angles, preferably as far apart and inconvenient as possible, would be launched to cause maximum effect.
As this tactic grew in scale and effectiveness the drones slowly morphed from flying guns into shielded guns, then armored. and by around 2550, nearly 50 years after the initial event, what started as a simple counter to ambushes, slowly morphed into bombers and fighters supported by drones. Additionally, hybrid models for atmospheric use became used. a wide array of smaller craft for various jobs outside of the realm of larger craft.
in space, since space is vast and the simple fact that a bigger ship can be more heavily armed, it was common practice to invest in larger and larger vessels that could cover as much space as possible. fighters were deemed inefficient. while potentially cheap, the fact that they required a pilot, suffered from g-forces and could easily be just drone controlled instead, or if no continuous firepower is needed just sending a missile, small craft of most kind were largely not even entertained as a possibility.
all of this changed however, with the advent of more sophisticated inertial dampening and gravitational manipulation technology. now, while still difficult pilots could theoretically keep up with missiles in the g-force war. That still makes them not all that interesting, but this meant that a few lines of force projection projects around the idea of small, single or double seated craft sprang up. until this point most navies had what was called ambush craft. These craft had around 5crew members, had energy-based weaponry that was far larger than reasonable and practically flying guns. used for solar warfare by some spacefaring nations, they were incredibly cheap in comparison of going down the gigantism route and used as much obfuscation and misdirection to get cheap shots on enemies with large vessels. loss rates of these vessels were high but in the cold calculus of war, able to easily inflict 10 times or 100times their cost in damages on the enemy side.
Engineers seeing how these weapons worked, either as quick jump hit and run boats or disguised as some sort of rock or space debris to catch ships out of position off guard were the first targets. As they focused on bringing as much firepower as possible, sacrificing everything else in the process, they were a legitimate threat that wasn't easily detectable and could be strategic stumbling blocks.
The first few prototypes were themselves, smaller guns with strong sensors and themselves either the ammo or worked of the smallest possible type of storage like capacitors. rarely did actual projectiles get used. The engineers of this, while they floated the idea of using living pilots, dismissed the idea as still more a hinderance then any boon. These prototype drones went into testing and quickly showed great success in finding and destroying the traps without any strong resistance.
Soon the first ships were retrofitted to house these anti-ambush drones and were having to prove themselves in the field. and just like the lab results in testing, they efficiently and quickly found and destroyed their intended targets. AAD's started to become more common, and the ambushes became less and less, until suddenly something changed. in 2503 a fleet of Maiq directorate forces were sent on a patrol in a contested and rebellious system. they deployed the AAD's as usual to ensure that their approach to the asteroid field and the highest populated planet goes smoothly. MDF forces were not too shocked when they lost contact with their drones as the shadow of planets and other bigger objects can cause that. but they were confused that after their usual refueling time, they would not return. the MDS Salaforan and a few other vessels pushed forward and found their drones on their sensors seemingly intact, just offline. they sent the commands to turn on over and over, but nothing happened, getting a little closer to manually retrieve them they got shot by their own drones first and then by hidden guns in the asteroid belt and lead to the complete loss of all vessels that day.
The Drone Betrayal Incident as it would become to be known as, was first seen as an isolated event. but quickly reports of drones being turned or disabled became more and more common. It turned out that drones are, regardless of who made them susceptible to EWar. Not ever attack was the same, some drones reacted differently than others, but it became a cat and mouse game of who would find what vulnerability and how to trick who into showing their cards first.
it wasn't long before the Ketting' would announce in the galactic community a shift in their naval doctrine to manned fighters.
soon after some sort of manned vessel to do this job would become more common. While still vulnerable to EWar, the operators inside could react to the interferences when having no direct connection to any other ship or network to support their readings or intrusions.
URE navy academies started to toy with integrating these two ways more directly. While the war is still being won by big ships, these small craft could be used for more than just taking out ambushes and potential hidden threats. their concept was a distributed network all-aspect assault or dna3. broken down, using the same tricks as some of the ambush vessels used with the upcoming technologies to obfuscate signatures, the drones would be acting as decoy and counter-pd while the controllership would launch torpedoes. While a single angle would still be easily defeatable, the all-aspect part meant that at least from 3 angles, preferably as far apart and inconvenient as possible, would be launched to cause maximum effect.
As this tactic grew in scale and effectiveness the drones slowly morphed from flying guns into shielded guns, then armored. and by around 2550, nearly 50 years after the initial event, what started as a simple counter to ambushes, slowly morphed into bombers and fighters supported by drones. Additionally, hybrid models for atmospheric use became used. a wide array of smaller craft for various jobs outside of the realm of larger craft.
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