General background questions

H

HammerHead

Rear Admiral
I have a few background questions on the world of wing commader circa 2654-56:

1) which carrier classes are in active service?
I recall a certein list listing aside from the Ranger-class, Concordia-class and Bengal class, a small number (3?) of old, pre-war class of carriers.

2) what is the space-group complement of a Bengal-class?
A Bengal has fighter complement of 102 fighters - with a standard squadron size of 12 it translates in to 8 squadrons and one half-squadron (shuttles?), and with a squad. size of 15 it translates into 6 squad. and one 12-craft-squad. What type of squads compose the space-group and in what numbers? (i.e. a Stars-wars ISD carries 6 12-ship squads, for a total of 72 crafts - 4 squads TIE fighters, 1 squad bombers and 1 squad interceptors)
 
for their fighter escort i would expect a Bengal class carrier to carry the following 8 wings of 12 as standard

2 squads light fighter
2 squads medium fighter
2 squads heavy fighter
1 squad bomber
1 squad fighter bomber

personally i would also think that the remaining 6 slots would either be an extra fighter of each type and then 2 shuttles the reason being is that you may lose a bird, but you might get the pilot back and you cant have that pilot sitting on their hands durring a fight that you will need everyone for
 
A Bengal actually carries 104 fighters, not 102. I also think a carrier would have more than 2 shuttles. The 104 number might not include the carrier's complement of shuttles and utility craft, it might only apply to actual strike craft.
 
1) which carrier classes are in active service?
I recall a certein list listing aside from the Ranger-class, Concordia-class and Bengal class, a small number (3?) of old, pre-war class of carriers.
Click to expand...

Well, the easy answer is that we have no idea.

We know that there are Concordia (I)-class, Bengal-class and Victory-type carriers are all in service at this point. Ranger-class, Soryu-type and Horus-type carriers existed before 2654, but we don't know if any are still in service.

2) what is the space-group complement of a Bengal-class?
A Bengal has fighter complement of 102 fighters - with a standard squadron size of 12 it translates in to 8 squadrons and one half-squadron (shuttles?), and with a squad. size of 15 it translates into 6 squad. and one 12-craft-squad. What type of squads compose the space-group and in what numbers? (i.e. a Stars-wars ISD carries 6 12-ship squads, for a total of 72 crafts - 4 squads TIE fighters, 1 squad bombers and 1 squad interceptors)
Click to expand...

The Bengal-class' fighter complement is 104, not 102.

Standard squadron size was 16 planes in 2654, not 12 (which is, to the best of my knowledge, 'standard' only in Star Wars).

The Tiger's Claw had six squadrons, all fighters. The makeup changed over time, but it was between one and two squadrons of light fighters, three and four squadrons of medium fighters and a single squadron of heavy fighters.

Bombers and interceptors, which had a much more limited role at this point in the war, were 'mixed': for instance, Black Lion Squadron and Blue Devil Squadron each had two Broadswords, rather than there being a single bomber squadron onboard the carrier.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Well, the easy answer is that we have no idea.

We know that there are Concordia (I)-class, Bengal-class and Victory-type carriers are all in service at this point. Ranger-class, Soryu-type and Horus-type carriers existed before 2654, but we don't know if any are still in service.
Click to expand...

What about carriers converted from other ships? In McAuliffe the TCN lost most of it's carriers, so replacment had to be made fast.
Before WWII US navy converted uncompleted cruisers into the carriers Saratog and Lexington (the first ones). The USN did it for other reasons, but would that be an option it this case?


Bandit LOAF said:
The Bengal-class' fighter complement is 104, not 102.

Standard squadron size was 16 planes in 2654, not 12 (which is, to the best of my knowledge, 'standard' only in Star Wars).

The Tiger's Claw had six squadrons, all fighters. The makeup changed over time, but it was between one and two squadrons of light fighters, three and four squadrons of medium fighters and a single squadron of heavy fighters.

Bombers and interceptors, which had a much more limited role at this point in the war, were 'mixed': for instance, Black Lion Squadron and Blue Devil Squadron each had two Broadswords, rather than there being a single bomber squadron onboard the carrier.
Click to expand...
What other fighters where in each role aside from the Hornet, Scimitar, Raptor and Browdsword, and where still in service?
(I'm specifically interested in heavy-figher and bomber replacments)

Sarty said:
A Bengal actually carries 104 fighters, not 102. I also think a carrier would have more than 2 shuttles. The 104 number might not include the carrier's complement of shuttles and utility craft, it might only apply to actual strike craft.
Click to expand...
I thing that the 104 number does inclue the shuttles, and that 8 utility crafts is a reasonable number.
 
http://hamtwoslices.net/loaf/fleetcarriers.html

This list? Is that an accurate list of all the carriers known to date?

Speaking of captial ships and all. Does anyone know about the Tallahassee class Cruiser?
I vageuly remember reading it somewhere that the ship has been around near the beginning of the kilrathi war and has been around. Was it this cruiser or was it another capital ship that has been around. I remember Blair was referrring one ship in the WC4 novel of one ship being as old as he was or something???
 
I've never heard of 12 being the standard fighter squadron for anywhere outside of Star Wars either (though even there the EU gives alot of room for larger sized squadrons).

On a more interesting note, the trick that Towlyn comes up with - reducing the number of Squadrons but increasing their size to keep more planes in service - was used by the RAF prior to World War II, when leading Command Elements from the Naval and Army branches were trying to sabatoge development of the RAF for Britain.

I know that in the USN, depending on the Squadron, a Squadron is considered 18 fighters or Fighter/Bombers, usually. But some evidence I've been skimming through seems to suggest that back during the Cold War, a Squadron size of 12 fighters was a far more common occurance, due to the fact that it allowed Carriers to created a more customized air wing based on it's needs.

This was also undoubtedly related to the fact that were a relatively high number of Aircraft available to operate off of the Air Craft carriers back then, everything from the A-4's A-6's and A-7's to the F-4's F 14's and eventually the F/A-18. By comparison, only the F-14 and F/A-18 are still in operation aboard carriers, and a select number of A-6 airframes that are outfitted for electronic warfare (these planes and the F-14's are slated for replacement by F/A-18's and specially built F/A-18's for the A-6 frames in the next few years).

Now that everything is becoming "Standardized" and the military is still standing down from Pre-cold war heights, the squadron size has increased to 18 again probably for the same reasons that it happened in Wing Commander, and in the RAF before World War II.

It's an interesting trend of Democracies who attempt to maintain a large standing military, which has traditionally been a problem.

At least until there's another war.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top