I am playing with fighter based operations lately and one of the things I would really like to see at some point in the future is some kind of countermeasure system for light crafts.
The main reason I suggest this is the extreme vulnerability of fighters to AMM. Don't get me wrong, AMM should be a deadly threat to fighters, but at the moment they are basically certain death even in modest quantities. Even missiles designed to kill capital ships are fairly effective at killing fighters which I think is a bit counter intuitive. One can design crafts to stay out of missile/sensor range, and indeed that is kind of the only real build that work against a sizeable force for strike fighters.
The way I would imagine it is basically a personal range only amm that use lightweight ammo. The System itself is a comparable to a mini size 1 launcher. The amount of countermeasure launcher would determine how many evade attempts can be made per salvo increments(probably more than 5sec at start depending on tech level). The system can only be mounted on fighters(500 ton and <) since it rely on maneuverability and sensor overload. Technically it would be cool to separate the countermeasure in chaff/flares and the likes, but I fear this would make it quite a bit of a management hell, not to mention much harder to implement. I would just assume the countermeasure are designed to deal with thermal/grav/EM guidances at the same time.
The countermeasure launch would be automatic when the closest targeting missile get within a certain configurable range. The countermeasure affect all missiles currently targeting the craft within a range defined by tech level(about 200 k I would say at low tech level). At that point a roll is made and the affected missiles have a certain % chance to get misdirected, effectively destroying it. To keep it simple I would use a flat % dependent on tech(50%, 60%, 70% or something to that effect).
I am thinking fighters could carry 5 countermeasure per dedicated storage ton, but that might be too much. Keep in mind the system can launch multiples countermeasure per increment with more than one launcher, making more evade rolls. The countermeasure are replenished with MSP when landed at a carrier(not from on board MSP).
For an example scenario, a fighter is currently targeted by 20 missiles from 4 different waves of 5 each. The closest wave is within the configured 50k countermeasure activation range, causing the fighter to automatically launch a salvo. The second wave is within the 200k max effect range so it will also be affected, but the 3rd and 4th waves are out of range so entirely unaffected. The fighter has 2 launcher with a flat 60% chance to misdirect. So for each of the 10 affected missiles 2 rolls are made and any successful roll will (effectively)destroy the missile. Surviving missiles will then continue on their way or try and hit if they would reach this increment.
So with a squadron equipped with this system, there is now a meaningful choice when a wave of missiles show up on scanner. You can push on into firing range or try and get out of reach. You will still probably lose the squad if you ventured too far but this get you a fighting chance.
I realize that fighters are already strong, but this would exchange firepower for some measure of protection. The "strong" fighter design in the current version never get into missile range anyway, this would make a larger array of fighter roles viable.
Thanks for listening to my TED talk.