Ofcourse something I should add.
Even if the fighters are spamming size 1 box launchers, after they take the shot you can know that you have a 7.5min(450s) grace period at minimum before the next salvo, And usually quite a bit more than that (cause the fighters have to return). Size 3 or 4 launchers which are probably more realistic... 20-30mins.
Also, will the fighters be armed with the same range missiles as ASM Warships? Can't put the same size MFC on a fighter as on your Warships, and even then you generally don't need to because a 500t fighter can get pretty damn close to a lot of ships.
Adding a fighter resolution active scout to trawl around with my fleet shouldn't be too problematic... But what about light fighters? Will the NPR always shoot for 450t/500t fighter designs?
Assuming you're packing 500t resolution sensors, to pick up a 250t light fighter (2 size 1 engines, MFC, fuel, 4 size 4 box launchers), will get picked up at only 1/4th the range.
Thats an awful lot of space that they've closed on you/ moved to different vectors.
Then theres another... will the enemy deploy fighters in straight intercept paths? Or will they vector them off at angles on their approach and return to mask their carrier? (who is probably sitting, engines turned down to a very very low speed, relying on a fighter with an active sensor itself to detect you, so you don't wipe the carrier. (after all, with a single tiny fuel tank, I can usually get my fighters out over .5billion km
Will enemy fighters have passives and actives of their own, or will they rely solely on support from other ships?
You could use your own fighters/FACs as fleet screens with passives? At Ion tech, even with .35% thermal output on engines, a fighter still can probably be picked up form over a couple mil km, from a size 4 detector on one of your own fighters. (unless they are using only 1-2 engines/running slow, which runs into the same problem when considering they could also be using 200-250t fighters)
Space ~8 of them out at 1.5mil-2mil increments between yourself and your presumed threat vector. Make a line of them, with a couple active fighter spotters (shut down until needed), And have them keep at range from your fleet, a bit longer than your antifighter missile range (or keep some of your own beam fighters out there)
But this in turn will put a lot of wear and tear on your scout fighters, which are already fairly high maintenance.
And against the same fighter, a big ole size 50 sensor would only pick them up about 20m.
Perhaps and EM based fighter screen to try and pick up the carrier's possibly large actives?
I dunno, I dunno. Theres so many ways that it could work out, both good and bad for the player, so much uncertainty in the fighters themselves, because for the most part, they're an untested power. Not going to know until the patch drops, and I throw myself into a tiny solar system with nothing but me and a few NPRs and get 1 that likes their fighters. Then will come the experimenting.