Carrier Strike Group

[macks (OP)]

Hey y'all. This is here if y'all want to take a look at my designs or give me inspiration. So far in my playthrough, I let the 1st Navy, a beam ship fleet, get demolished by a missile emplacement at one of the worlds my NPR has taken over. The 2nd Navy blew them up and after retrofitting the beam ships with the current engine tech I began designing a carrier fleet to mitigate losses in that manner in the future.

Introducing the fleet carrier:

Intrepid class Carrier      30 000 tons       527 Crew       5 964.6 BP       TCS 600    TH 4 950    EM 0
8250 km/s      Armour 7-86       Shields 0-0       HTK 153      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 36      PPV 17.96
Maint Life 2.93 Years     MSP 8 973    AFR 444%    IFR 6.2%    1YR 1 548    5YR 23 224    Max Repair 1237.5 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 10 000 tons     Magazine 143   
Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   ENG   PFC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 200    Morale Check Required   

Central Engineworks MFD  EP2475.00 (2)    Power 4950    Fuel Use 32.18%    Signature 2475    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 000 Litres    Range 93.2 billion km (130 days at full power)

Twin Rheinmetall GC Turret Block II (4x10)    Range 50 000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Optics Division SRBFC Block II (1)     Max Range: 120 000 km   TS: 25 000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17

Harpoon ASM (40)    Speed: 42 857 km/s    End: 2m     Range: 5.2m km    WH: 14    Size: 3.5    TH: 414/248/124

Raytheon ASAS142-R20 (50%) Block II (1)     GPS 9600     Range 142.4m km    Resolution 20
Raytheon AMMS16-R1 Block II (1)     GPS 48     Range 16.6m km    MCR 1.8m km    Resolution 1

Strike Group
12x Firestarter Fighter   Speed: 25022 km/s    Size: 5
1x Agressor FAC Transport   Speed: 18753 km/s    Size: 20
14x Pincher Fighter   Speed: 24732 km/s    Size: 7.58
2x Adder Fighter-Scout   Speed: 34801 km/s    Size: 5.39

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

And a few of her fighters:

Firestarter class Fighter      250 tons       6 Crew       82.3 BP       TCS 5    TH 125    EM 0
25022 km/s      Armour 1-3       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 10
Maint Life 17.79 Years     MSP 140    AFR 5%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 1    5YR 13    Max Repair 62.5 MSP
Magazine 10.5   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Black Division MFD EP125.00 (1)    Power 125    Fuel Use 339.41%    Signature 125    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 8 000 Litres    Range 1.7 billion km (18 hours at full power)

Black Division Size 3.5 Box Launcher (3)     Missile Size: 3.5    Hangar Reload 93 minutes    MF Reload 15 hours
Black Division MFC Block I (1)     Range 28.5m km    Resolution 20
Harpoon ASM (3)    Speed: 42 857 km/s    End: 2m     Range: 5.2m km    WH: 14    Size: 3.5    TH: 414/248/124

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 planetary interaction

The missile the Firestarter carries: (note, I don't know how to design missiles)

Missile Size: 3.50 MSP  (8.750 Tons)     Warhead: 14    Radiation Damage: 14    Manoeuvre Rating: 29
Speed: 42 857 km/s     Fuel: 475     Flight Time: 2 minutes     Range: 5.22m km
Cost Per Missile: 8.6556     Development Cost: 866
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1242.9%   3k km/s 414.3%   5k km/s 248.6%   10k km/s 124.3%

Materials Required
Tritanium  3.6
Gallicite  5.0556
Fuel:  475

Pincher class Fighter      380 tons       21 Crew       257.7 BP       TCS 8    TH 188    EM 0
24732 km/s      Armour 1-4       Shields 0-0       HTK 2      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 3
Maint Life 6.63 Years     MSP 122    AFR 11%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 72    Max Repair 93.75 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Black Division MFD  EP187.50 (1)    Power 187.5    Fuel Use 935.31%    Signature 187.5    Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 13 000 Litres    Range 0.7 billion km (7 hours at full power)

Black Division 100mm C6XR Laser (1)    Range 120 000km     TS: 24 732 km/s     Power 3-6     RM 70 000 km    ROF 5       
Black Division FBFC Block I (1)     Max Range: 120 000 km   TS: 10 000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Black Division MCFR R6-PB100 (1)     Total Power Output 6    Exp 50%

Black Division FAMMS5-R1 (1)     GPS 5     Range 5.2m km    MCR 571.1k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

The Intrepid carries a boarding FAC as well with power armor space marines. The Adders are a giant 1000t resolution active sensor strapped to an engine. I split the strike groups into 2 or 4 squadrons, depending on if I want the Firestarters to travel with Pinchers.

Because the Intrepid can only carry one ammunition reload, she travels with a collier/tanker/supply ship as well. The Jammer class collier has 8 dual gauss turrets for a little extra insurance on missiles. For longer travels, a fast tanker from the beam navy will be dispatched as well.

Overall, I think beam ships are still more fun because the shield and armor tech I have shrug off every effort the NPR puts up before blowing through their pressure hulls, but carriers are pretty cool too. I have designed an escort carrier to support the Intrepid as well, but since she's half the size and has no magazine, it only carries beam fighters and I haven't needed to build one.

[Energyz]

I agree, carrier are really fun . Your laser fighter is intended to attack ships?

I'm using fighter-bombers as well, and I noticed that without PD fighters escorting them you'll have a hard time launching your missile (even though 5M seems a reasonnable distance)

[macks (OP)]

I mean, can the Pincher fire controls fire on missiles? I made a fighter with 2 miniature gauss cannons but I didn't think PD at a distance would be worth the time. Should I make a turret and a PD fighter?

[Energyz]

Yeah it can, but the lower range of the fighter and the FC TS will limit you. Since beam fighters are rubbish against ships in C#, i would personally switch for pure PD fighters.

I guess it will depends a lot on your ennemy ships design, what I noticed propably can't be generalised

[Jorgen_CAB]

Put a Rail-gun in the fighter for PD or a small Gauss if you have the technology for a good Gauss gun, but Rail-guns are pretty good as PD for fighter groups. They are expensive for PD for a fleet as there are better options but PD fighters can still be used to protect fleets as well in a secondary role.

The beam fire-control in C# are very expensive and large for fighters in C# so they are not terribly good for beam fights... you should let FAC do that if you need something fast and are a bit more durable.

The range of the Harpoon missile also has way too little range... you will likely enter into AMM distance with them and this is not health for a fighter... even 30m kilometre I would consider low range at this level of technology. Any decent anti-fighter platform could probably engage them at that range with anti-fighter missiles.

[DFNewb]

I would change the fire control on the beam fighter to a higher tracking speed and lower range. You don't need to outrange things when you are moving at 24732 km/s.

I don't know what your tech is but try to get the tracking speed close to 24732 km/s  and having a lower range does not matter too much so you can decrease the range to compensate the size change.

[Father Tim]

Beam ships are definitely way more fun.

- - - - -

If that support ship gets hit, things will not be good for the carrier strike force.  The Intrepid stocks fewer MSP than I'd be comfrotable with, and with those engines failures will be costly and fairly common.

[DFNewb]

Also adding in a 0.1 size active sensor on all fighters is not that big of a deal.

[macks (OP)]

I'll probably have to make an upgraded version of my gauss fighter (shorter ranged beam control, very high tracking speed) for PD, and I'll look more into missile design as well. The Harpoon was just what looked right in the missile design menu because I wanted something sorta fast with big explosion.
The collier/tanker is armed up with a bunch of gauss turrets, and hopefully with the fighters it will never get close to the conflict, but if I find that's the case I could have the carrier strike group form up with a heavily armored beam fleet to make a task force. I'll probably end up doing that for anything larger than skirmishes anyways.