TechMemo:Combat Shuttle Equipment
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Star Fleet Engineering
Bureau of Starship and Starcraft Technology
Combat shuttle craft, often referred to as fighters or attack shuttles depending on their mission, are highly specialized sublight shuttlecraft intended to operate in or near atmosphere in the support of marine landings. They are also employed in a limited space-bourne roll in patrolling systems and enforcing commerce regulations.
This section details the equipment used in combat shuttlecraft.
Combat Shuttle Engines
While first generation combat shuttles -- first deployed in the 2360's -- attempted to incorporate warp drives, later generations did not. Currently, combat shuttles have only sublight drive systems. In second and third generation combat shuttles, the drive system of choice was the impulse drive. This has several purposes.
- Impulse drives can be powered by fusion reactors.
- Fusion reactors are less suceptable to catastrophic damage than antimatter reactors.
- Antimatter storage volume is limited in a combat shuttle. This limits endurance at warp speeds.
- Antimatter reactor volume is limited in a combat shuttle. This limits top speed.
- The two factors above limit the FTL capability of any shuttle to at most a few light years range, making them incapable of independent interstellar flight.
- Without volume being allocated to a warp system, the shuttle can have substantially larger impulse drives and inertial compensators, allowing much higher accelerations.
Fourth generation combat shuttles first entered service in late 2416 aboard the USS Kronshtadt. These shuttles were powered by a revolutionary reactionless drive system based on gravitic technology. This drive cannot be activated inside the hull of a starship and so requires special linear accelerator launch tubes to push the combat shuttles clear of the hull. As such, only new vessels designed to accomodate the fourth generation combat shuttles can truly deploy them efficiently. This has slowed adoption of the third generation shuttles despite the vast improvements in drive output and inertial compensator technology which roughly tripled the performance of the shuttle.
Since the gravitic drive node of the fourth generation combat shuttles is based on a modified dimensional warp hyperspace node and hyperspace drives can be powered by fusion reactors alone, it is possible that future shuttles will test reconfiguration of the node for hyperspace flight. This would give combat shuttles a true interstellar flight capability. As of early 2417, this possibility was still in the conceptual stages.
Combat Shuttle Torpedoes
Torpedo launchers for small craft are classified as mini-Photon Torpedo launchers. These are single fire units which means that they can not fire group of torpedoes simultaneously like the launchers on large cruisers. Recycle time is about 7 seconds between shots. Depending on the craft, there are 2-5 reloads.
The mini-photon torpedoes come in two types, Mk IV and V. Most smaller combat shuttles carry the Mk IV type torpedoes which have a yield of 10% of a full photon torpedo. Larger craft can carry the larger Mk V's which have a yield of 15% of a full photon torpedo. Both types have a range of 500,000 km. There is no equivalent of the quantum flux torpedo for shuttles.
Combat Shuttle Phasers
Combat shuttles are equipped with Type V (standard) and Type Va (pulse) phasers.
All shuttle phasers are "cannon." type phasers. That is, they are arranged in series only and cannot be arranged in parallel. The term cannon is not normally applied below Type VIII, the first emitter type which can be configured in parallel and the lowest grade of military emitters and not commonly used on any modern Federation designed starship. All shuttle phasers have a much narrower field of fire than a starship's Type X or Type Xa (since you cannot array them in parallel or fit a large turret on a fighter). It is only capable of targeting within a 20 degree cone based at the emitter and pointing ahead of the fighter. This means that the pilot must point the shuttle nearly straight at the target at the target,
The Type V phaser is a single shot system capable of firing once per second until full discharge is reached after 45 seconds of continuous firing. Full recharge time from a complete discharge is about 5 minutes. It is possible to fire to the phasers with only a partial recharging of the capacitor banks. The Type V phaser range is 100,000 km.
The Type Va phaser can pulse the emitter output, sending an overload charge through for a short period of time and repeating the process rapidly. This burns up emitters more quickly and requires a different capacitor system to power the phaser, but these are accepted in high maintenance combat shuttles because of the increase in firepower. The recycle time between shots of a type Va is only 0.15 seconds. The weapon normally fires five bursts per second to prevent emitter burnout and to extend capacitor charge lifetime. Full recharge time from a complete discharge is about 5 minutes. It is possible to fire to the phasers with only a partial recharging of the capacitor banks. The Va phaser has a range of 75,000 km.
Combat Shuttle Configuration
Almost all combat shuttles are actually aerodynamic in design and have wings. They are intended to be capably of atmospheric flight and the most effective controls for a craft in atmosphere are still wing-mounted control surfaces. In space, the thrusters are set up so that the ship banks when turning, etc. to give the same feel as flying in atmosphere. That particular aspect of the control system can be overridden if desired, though many pilots prefer a craft that handles similarly in all of its operational environments.
The mini-topedoes are mounted on the bottom of the shuttle near the base of the wings.
Phasers are mounted around the nose cone of the craft, around the primary sensor array and navigational deflector.
The navigational deflector is small and is about 30cm x 10cm in overall
The sensors are not visible on the surface of the fighter and are embedded in the skin of the craft.
On a larger scale, the nose looks something like: (o=phaser, x=pulse phaser, ***=torpedo launcher)
_---_
/ \
_/-------\_
/ o \
/ x x \
| |
__________| o _ o |__________
\_________\___[][_][]___/_________/
*** ***
Please keep in mind that this is an ASCII cartoon to give you an idea of where the weapons are placed. It is not truly to scale and the craft does not look like a soap-box-derby racer with wings.
Because of the reloading system, torpedoes cannot be mounted on the wings. Since there is a narrow field of fire for the weapons (they can track in about 10 degrees from the mount line arc), there is no need to wing mount them. Also, it would restrict field of fire. If phasers are wing mounted, the nose of the craft is in the way of the field of fire for the beam.
Combat Shuttle Deflector Shields
Shuttle deflector shields are classified as Type FC (Federation shuttleCraft). Most personnel and cargo shuttles have deflector types FC-1 or 2. Dropships, which are large than most combat shuttles, can have Type FC-5. Most combat shuttles carry FC-3 or FC-4. The power level of an FC-5 is 40% of that of a destroyer, FD-7, or about 50% that of a corvette FD-6. The e and c letter designations of capitol ships do not apply to combat shuttle shields. These letters refer only to the recharge method for cocooning shields.
Combat shuttle shields are not cocooning, they are directional deflectors. Each craft has four units (front, rear, port, starboard) with essentially independent power levels, though power system damage will effect all shields. The shields are curved and meet on top and on the bottom of the ship where they overlap a little, making the top and bottom of the craft the most protected. The final letter in the shield description is denotes series subtype. These are sequentially applied to each new generation of a deflector system, ie FC-3b is a newer version than FC-3a.
Combat Shuttle Ejection Capsule
All Star Fleet combat shuttles are equipped with either a single person Mk II or 2 person Mk III ejection capsule. The system known as POIS (Pilot Out In Space) is a cockpit capsule that seals and blasts itself clear of the craft. Each POIS also houses a single use emergency transporter, for pilot recovery, and an emergency becon. A Mk II POIS can sustain a pilot with food and oxygen for 3 man/days (one person for three days) and a Mk III POIS can sustain a pilot with food and oxygen for 6 man/days (two people for 3 days).
