As an alternative to box launchers, a design idea I have seen mentioned a few times is a fast fighter which launches missiles of the same speed. The idea is that all the missiles arrive at the same time, each in their own volley, overwhelming point defense.
At what tech level does it become practical? At what tech level are the fighters going to have enough of a speed edge over equal tech opponents that missiles at their speed would be effective?
Does this design concept allow you to make effective missile fighters before developing box launchers?
Lets see:
10 HS fighter budget
5 HS boosted engine
.5 HS fuel (might need to skimp here)
1 HS Missile launcher, at reload rate 3, that is 1 missile every 10 seconds, can shoot through a magazine in 200 seconds.
3 HS some combination of missile fire control and magazine. Shorter range fire control and larger magazine could work, but longer range, smaller magazine, would allow more survivability, more missions. And use up a lot more fuel.
.5 HS armor, crew quarters
Reducing the size of the engine slightly gives a lot more payload room, but reduces the effectiveness of the attack because it reduces the speed of the missiles that match the design.
I contemplated a reduced size 2 launcher design. At reload 4, it would fire every 30 seconds, take 300 seconds to shoot through a magazine. The range and performance of size 2 missiles might be worth it, even with the reduced payload.
Part of my dilemma in designing this is the difficulty of getting a long enough ranged missile fire control on the fighter without taking up so much HS that there isn't enough magazine room to make it practical. So I am thinking the best way to design the fighter for a particular tech level is assume 1 HS for the fire control, and design everything, missile, fighter speed, around that.