Carrier + Escort

[Sleepymoon (OP)]

So I was exploring a new system when I ran into 4 contacts.  3 720TH craft and a larger 1440TH travelling at 4773km/s.  My geo survey ship was destroyed instantly by 7 strength 10 beam weapons from one of the smaller ships.  I'm not sure what the larger ship is.  The grav survey ship on the opposite side of the system picked up two active sensors, both with a resolution of 70, one 7350 the other 4410.
I have 2 15000 tons naval shipyards with 2 slipways each.
With this in mind I developed the following ships.

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Vanguard class Jump Destroyer Escort    15,000 tons     1196 Crew     2764.6 BP      TCS 300  TH 1440  EM 0
4800 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 5-54     Shields 0-0     Sensors 110/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 12     PPV 12
Maint Life 2.3 Years     MSP 1382    AFR 150%    IFR 2.1%    1YR 354    5YR 5313    Max Repair 900 MSP
Magazine 768   

Military Jump Drive 15000     Max Ship Size 15000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Military Fusion Engine (18)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 100.0 billion km   (241 days at full power)

CIWS Mk 1 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Size 1 Missile Launcher (12)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Anti-Missile Fire Control 6.93 (2)     Range 6.9m km    Resolution 1
Stinger A1 (882)  Speed: 39,000 km/s   End: 0.3m    Range: 0.8m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 494 / 296 / 148

Active Missile Sensor 6.93 (1)     GPS 63     Range 6.9m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor 110 (1)     Sensitivity 110     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  110m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Dame class Light Carrier    15,000 tons     794 Crew     2039.6 BP      TCS 300  TH 1440  EM 0
4800 km/s     Armour 5-54     Shields 0-0     Sensors 110/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 5     PPV 0
Maint Life 1.54 Years     MSP 425    AFR 360%    IFR 5%    1YR 204    5YR 3053    Max Repair 110 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 4000 tons     Magazine 648   

Military Fusion Engine (18)    Power 80    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 80    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres    Range 140.0 billion km   (337 days at full power)

CIWS Mk 1 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Harpoon A6 (108)  Speed: 57,800 km/s   End: 2.4m    Range: 8.3m km   WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 192 / 115 / 57

Active Ship Sensor 84.87 (1)     GPS 9450     Range 84.9m km    Resolution 150
Thermal Sensor 110 (1)     Sensitivity 110     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  110m km

Strike Group
9x Viper Fighter-bomber   Speed: 6000 km/s    Size: 8
1x Viper X Fighter-Scout   Speed: 6000 km/s    Size: 8

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Viper class Fighter-bomber    400 tons     3 Crew     77.9 BP      TCS 8  TH 48  EM 0
6000 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 5.4
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 4    5YR 63    Max Repair 8.1 MSP
Magazine 36   

Fighter Fusion Engine (1)    Power 48    Fuel Use 6000%    Signature 48    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 40,000 Litres    Range 3.0 billion km   (5 days at full power)

Size 6 Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 6    Hangar Reload 45 minutes    MF Reload 7.5 hours
Fighter Fire Control 8.46 (1)     Range 8.5m km    Resolution 150
Harpoon A6 (6)  Speed: 57,800 km/s   End: 2.4m    Range: 8.3m km   WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 192 / 115 / 57

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

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Viper X class Fighter-Scout    400 tons     8 Crew     113.3 BP      TCS 8  TH 48  EM 0
6000 km/s     Armour 1-4     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 18    5YR 265    Max Repair 63 MSP

Fighter Fusion Engine (1)    Power 48    Fuel Use 6000%    Signature 48    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 165,000 Litres    Range 12.4 billion km   (23 days at full power)

Active Ship Sensor 84.87 (1)     GPS 9450     Range 84.9m km    Resolution 150

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

[HaliRyan]

Looks pretty good. Only three things really jump out at me that I'd change.

1 - The thermal sensor on the carriers is redundant, since the jump cruiser has it. Unless you're just using the jump cruiser as a tender and not an escort there's not a lot of point to the carrier having it.

2 - The carrier needs more fuel. Fighters are going to suck your tanks dry really fast. A single attack out to 1.5 billion km with your current fighters will use up 400,000 liters of fuel if I'm not mistaken, which is a huge chunk of your carrier's supply. Unless you have a fast tanker to literally fly with your fleet, you won't be able to launch multiple long-range strikes.

3 - The fighters are really heavy, and thus really slow. I'd say try to keep them to 300 tons or less, and even 300 tons is pretty hefty for a fighter. Remember that they don't just need to get to your enemy and shoot him, they need to be able to outrun him back to the carrier if they fail to kill him. And they have to do that fast enough that they have time to reload and hit him again.

[Brian Neumann]

A couple of other points that I noticed on the fighters.  Not only are they slow, but they have really short range fire control.  You need a much longer ranged fire control or there is a good chance that the fighters will be destroyed long before they get into range.  Also check what size your targets are.  If they are much below that 150 hull size of your fire control your range is going to be even shorter.  You probably want a minimum range of 40-50 million km on those fighter missiles and fire control.  I would try for more like 70,000km range on the fire control so that enemy ecm does not reduce your range to much.

I would also recommend going to size 4 missiles if you can manage this with a 4 point damage warhead.  The extra numbers of missiles will probably get more damage through their point defense even though they are weaker missiles individually.

Good Luck
Brian

[Sleepymoon (OP)]

Removing the sensors from the carrier gives me enough fuel for the fighters.

I could play around for days trying to balance speed, range and firepower of my fighters and missiles.  I'll go with what I've got for now.  Worst case I lose a few fighters for valuable information on the enemy capabilities.

[Sleepymoon (OP)]

Well my ships worked.  The big ship turned out to be a missile ship which shot 12 salvoes of 12 size 5 missiles at my carriers.  The two Vanguards I sent were able to take care of them easily.  It turned around and headed for the inner system but my fighters ran it down and easily destroyed it.  Another squadron was able to intercept the smaller ships long before they came too close and destroyed them too.