StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Okay, let's say that its a few years after Voyager gets home and their designs of the Delta Flyer are mass produced. Would these be considered the Federation's new fighters? Shuttles are not meant for fighting,only for short range transport, Runabouts are meant as long rage transports, Tac Fighters don't really do it. Could ships like the Akira and Soveirgn and all the new designs be filled with Delta Flyers as fighters for when battle calls?

How effective would they be against the Dominion, Klingon Empire(even though they are pretty much ruined), Romulan Empire(their Scorpion Fighters for example), and so on.

Lets set up scenarios and see how they do.

12 Delta Flyers vs. 12 Scorpions(or if too easy, 3 times that)

12 Delta Flyers vs. a Klingon BOP

24 Delta Flyers vs. a Romulan D'dedirex(I can't spell it)

60 Delta FLyers vs Shinzon's ship(I forget the name)

So, how do these scenarios turn out?

Delta Flyers would make poor assault craft. Their photonic missiles are less powerful then full sized torpedoes and their main weapon is a series of phaser arrays. The Scout from Insurrection is a better suited weapons platform because it can fire full sized torpedoes. The Peregrine Tactical Fighter is also superior because of its micro torpedoes designed for capitalship attack.

Yeah, but that one was a little too big as a fighter,wasn't it?

An anyway, just for the scenario, play along, how would the Delta FLyer do in these situations?

Delta Flyers heave too much wasted space for a proper fighter. They'd waste the BoP though...

A modified Delta flyer chassis would make a suitable Feddie fighter replacement. Just make the C&C module smaller, remove the aft compartment. Replace phaser arrays and photonic weapons for quantums and PPCs if they can be shouehorned in (if not, whatever the Tac Fighter has for primary energy weapons would likley be acceptable). If you have the entire aft compartment converted to torpedo magazines, she could carry an impressive number of torpeodes for something so small. She's got a small profile, good turn of speed and quick on the helm.

12 Delta Flyers vs. 12 Scorpions(or if too easy, 3 times that)

Scorpians don't have similar manuverability judgeing by their lone onscreen performance. Also, their weapons fit is likley weaker given their smaller size. 12 vs 12, it's the Delta's. 12 vs 36, it's pretty much MAD IMHO.

12 Delta Flyers vs. a Klingon BOP

Lone BOP is toast as long as the Delta's stay dispersed and jinking to limit cloak sneak attacks.

24 Delta Flyers vs. a Romulan D'dedirex(I can't spell it)

Deltas could cocievably take this one as well as long as they stay in weapons blind spots. D'deridex has em given that most of the weapons are forward arc only. But if a Delta falls into the forward arc, it's toast. Similar Delta tactics should be eployed as they did with the BoP, but even more dispersed and more rapid course changes beause of the considerably heavier forward punch of the D'deridex.

60 Delta FLyers vs Shinzon's ship(I forget the name)

60 Deltas are toast vs. the Scimitar. It'll chew em up and spit em out, as their weapons systems cannot hope to take out the Scimitar's shields and armor. Hell, mini-Picard can keep the fire while cloaked off and still win this one easily.

FaxModem1 wrote: Lets set up scenarios and see how they do.

12 Delta Flyers vs. 12 Scorpions(or if too easy, 3 times that)

I'd say the Flyers take it.

12 Delta Flyers vs. a Klingon BOP

I'd say the Flyers overpower the BoP, but at least one Flyer gets killed.

24 Delta Flyers vs. a Romulan D'dedirex(I can't spell it)

Depends on how well the Flyers can avoid the forward firing arc of the Romulan ship. I still think it would be a tough fight for the Flyers.

60 Delta FLyers vs Shinzon's ship(I forget the name)

The Schimitar cleans house. The Flyers phasers and other weapons are not near as powerful as the Ent-E, and neither are their shields. The Schimitar can probably kill a Flyer in 5 or less hits.

So, how do these scenarios turn out?

Really you have to consider shield strength of the opposing ship against the Flyers phasers and photonic missiles. Can the opposing ship handle the punishment the Flyers will give it long enough to kill them all.

I like the idea of developing the Delta Flyer as a fighter. I picture developing this design to be cheap and easy to mass-produce, fast, well-armed, tough and able to be run by AI units. I'd fill the empty space in it with a bigger engine, more armor, an AI computer, and weapons. I'd probably dump the warp nacelles and launch them from a ship, maybe put in a warp sustainer coil so they can launch from a ship at warp speed. By making them automatic, they can be ground out by industrial replicators and transporters collecting material from wrecked ships. If a manned version is to be made, I'd design it to engage small enemy vessels and fighters. I'd keep the cockpit minimal, with a simple set of controls and a special emergency transporter. The signal gets sent to a probe that ejects from the fighter, carrying a beacon and a pattern buffer designed to hold the trace pattern of the pilot for days or weeks. I would install a phaser bank or two mounted on turrets, and a couple of small missile launchers. Perhaps a rapid-fire phaser, plasma or antimatter weapon could be invented.

12 Delta Flyers vs 12 Starfuries

FIGHT!

A shielded thingie with torpedoes vs an unshielded flimsy fighter that falls to equally unshielded Minbari fighters that can't perform the neat spin-around thing they can? Buh-bye Starfuries.

My idea for a Federation fighter would be a simple sphere lined with phaser strips with an armored reactor. Heck, that's my idea for ALL Feddy craft.

A shielded thingie with torpedoes vs an unshielded flimsy fighter that falls to equally unshielded Minbari fighters that can't perform the neat spin-around thing they can? Buh-bye Starfuries.

To be fair, the Starfuries couldn't target the Minbari fighters to begin with.

HemlockGrey wrote:12 Delta Flyers vs 12 Starfuries

FIGHT!

Heh...make it a dozen Minbari fighters, go ahead and decide that the DFs couldn't penetrate their stealth consistently, and you might have a good fight

The Delta Flyer should be almost totally immune to any Starfury attacks, whereas single hits from her weapon would decimate pretty much any fighter seen in Bablyon 5. (I'd except the Thirdspacers only. Even Vorlon fighters have rather unremarkable defenses.)

HemlockGrey wrote:

A shielded thingie with torpedoes vs an unshielded flimsy fighter that falls to equally unshielded Minbari fighters that can't perform the neat spin-around thing they can? Buh-bye Starfuries.

To be fair, the Starfuries couldn't target the Minbari fighters to begin with.

True, but watch the Battle of the Line flashback scenes to see how they can't even beat a numerically inferior foe.

I think if you made the DF small and more economical. Eg: No hold in the back, reduce to 2 man controls, it could actually be pretty good as a fighter. As 'Imperfection' showed, it's pretty maneuverable to begin with.