Carrier Ops

People have mentioned recovering pilots, always important. And protecting the
carrier, even moreso.

But no one seems worried about the fighters. In the real world, you lose a
$20M fighter you didn't need to lose, and you'll get your @ss kicked by the
Navy I think.

Plus in combat ops, recovering EVERY viable ship should be important.

So if a fighter takes a stray hex-nut through the
canopy and the pilot, thus rendering the vessel unpiloted, but otherwise
perhaps combat worthy, the carrier should be able to recover the fighter.

Second, if the pilot is injured, and his suit self-
seals, he could still be dying. The need to get him back aboard (his training
cost $2M!) and into the surgery FAST is going to be very high.

It seems to me if you want to go with a strategy of not bringing these
fighters directly aboard immediately (though if the fighter is
controllable an auto-pilot ought to be able to
get it in hull-to-hull contact for a mag-grapple),
then you'd best have CSAR shuttles out with
powered-armoured CSAR guys with specialty
cutters and med kits and portable atmo-
bubbles ready to roar to where the fighter is
stopped and get CSAR med-techs to the injured
pilot. The PA lets them "open the sardine cans" fast to get at the injured
pilot if need be. They can then punch through the canopy or rip it off
(thus giving access - and making for a quick
replacement to get the fighter operational again.

The morale effects of having in place fast mechanisms to save dying pilots
would be noticeable and the long term campaign benefits would too.

Also, your fighter might carry NOTHING that is dangerous to the carrier.
Nowadays, fighters have AvGas and Bombs and Missiles. But in the future, maybe
they have solid state lasers (not dangerous to explode), and torpedo launchers
where the torpedo isn't dangerous until after launch, and solid fuel cells
like a super version of what they use in NASCAR so that fuel spills, even in
serious crashes, aren't an issue. So it might be fairly safe to bring the
fighter inboard.

Then also, you might design the fighter bay as you do the ammo compartments on
an M1, so an explosion vents in one particular direction (out the bottom of
the ship for example) thus leading to no more loss than the one fighter bay.

Just some thoughts.

Tomb.