Aren't fighters very vulnerable to AMM's ??
I can see an average fighter at about 20-25mk (should double that on my new generation of sensor ships) and my current AMMs have 35mk range at 50k speed - obviously if the fighters ahve a missile that is longer ranged than I can see them that is ok - but once I find the Carriers (My ship senssors are going from 610k to over 1mk shortly) and close with them, it then becomes problematical for carrier based forces I believe. AMMs (even 50k 35mk range ones) cost so much less than fighters...
Input welcome from Carrier 'jocks' ...
We can use my current game on the Paradox Forum as an example.
The year is currently 2057, but I've had substantially the same fleet set-up for nearly 10 years. I have two battle fleets (plus a third fleet that holds my "siege train" for attacking defended planets).
Each of the battle fleets has three 20,000-ton Fleet Carriers and a 15,000-ton Light Carrier, plus a dozen or so other ships... battle-management ships, Gauss PD vessels, anti-Fighter and anti-FAC escorts, multi-role Cruisers, etc.
Each Fleet Carrier holds 51 Strike Fighters, each armed with one size-6/strength-9 missile in a box launcher, and each Light Carrier holds 28 Air Superiority Fighters, each armed with three size-2/strength-4 missiles in box launchers. Typical engagement ranges are 54 m-km for the strike Fighters (against an ECM-40 opponent... that would be 90 m-km with no ECM) and 18 m-km for the Air Superiority Fighters (again, vs an ECM-40 opponent; it would be 30 m-km against an opponent without ECM). The Strike Fighters have res-100 fire controls, and the Air Superiority Fighters have res-4 fire controls.
These Fighters are so effective that my other ships rarely get a chance to take part in the battle... the opponent is nearly always destroyed by Fighter strikes long before he comes within range of my main battle fleet. Similarly, no opposing Fighters or FAC has ever (ever!) gotten close enough to launch a missile at me. My Air Superiority Fighters intercept and destroy them well beyond engagement range.
Regarding your 35 m-km AMM question... my strike fighters can launch a time-on-target fleet salvo of 103 one-missile salvos from well beyond that range.