Cerebrus class Strike Fighter

Cerebrus class Strike Fighter
Distant Fringe vessel.
Type: FC Microfighter
Category	[[Smallcraft]]
Size	8 Tons
Hull Configuration	[[Wedge Hull]]
Streamlining	Streamlined Hull
Tech Level	TL–8
Engineering
Computer	2
Jump	J-0
Maneuver	5 G
Armaments
Hardpoints	1
Accommodations
Staterooms	0
Personnel
Crew	2
Officers	2
High/Mid Passengers	0
Payload
Cargo	0 Tons
Fuel tank	0 Tons
Construction
Origin	Distant Fringe
Year Operational	None
Price
Cost	MCr27.900 (base) MCr22.320 (discounted)
Architect fee	MCrAde Stewart.
Statistics
Quick Ship Profile	PL-1A50
Images
Blueprint	No.
Illustration	No
Source
Also see	Strike Fighter
Canon	Published, fan design
Era	1105
Reference	Fan: Ade Stewart
Starships are designed with the Classic Traveller format, using High Guard.

The Cerebrus class Strike Fighter is a combatant smallcraft.

• It is a paramilitary ship and a fighter.
• This is a generic class of smallcraft.
• Please also see AAB article: Ships of the Distant Fringe.
• Please also see AAB article: Warships of the Distant Fringe.

Description (Specifications)

The Strike Fighter is a cheap, reliable vessel designed to precisely engage enemy units. Similar designs have been in use from the time the Distant Fringe was first settled. It is defined as a microfighter due to its small size.

• The vessel is a TL-8 design.

Image Repository

A Cerebrus class Strike Fighter (top) and a Razor class Strike Fighter (bottom).

Basic Ship Characteristics

Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here. The small craft factor indicates the number of squadrons (of ten craft) carried on the ship. Tonnage on the universal ship profile is shown in kilotons (thousands of tons) when necessary.

Basic Ship Characteristics
No.	Category	Remarks
1.	Tonnage / Hull	This Strike Fighter is constructed using an 8 Ton hull built in a generally wedge-shaped configuration. The hull is fully streamlined and has airfoil surfaces, giving giving improved atmospheric performance that is further enhanced by its onboard gravitic systems. Individual sections of the ship are divided into sealed compartments. The vessel has a sturdy retractable landing legs, allowing surface landings.
2.	Crew	Total Crew Complement: 2 x1 pilot, x1 weapons/electronics specialist. Accommodations The cockpit contains x2 acceleration couches and control equipment, and is fitted with grav plates and inertial compensators. It has full life support and environmental systems. The craft does not have an airlock: if the cockpit is opened life support integrity is lost. There are monitoring and security systems throughout the vessel. There are x2 small emergency lockers.
3.	Performance	The vessel mounts a Maneuver-5 drive and a Power Plant-5, giving performance of 5-G acceleration. The ship has an agility rating of 5. The internal fuel tankage is sufficient to give the power plant almost 5 weeks duration. The engineering section is controlled from the cockpit. Access to the machinery can be gained via a sealable hatch.
4.	Electronics	The vessel is fitted with a Model/2 Computer: no backup computer is installed. The vessel is fitted with communications equipment, an advanced sensor array, jamming equipment, and has an Avionics suite. It has a transponder unit that can be deactivated on command. It is equipped with a sophisticated ECM package.
5.	Hardpoints	x1 hardpoint.
6.	Armament	The normal weapons fit-out for a Strike Fighter is: Fixed triple missile racks. Each missile rack mounts x3 standard Anti-Shipping Missiles. The Strike Fighter is equipped with an Auto-Cannon in a fixed forward-facing mount. The Auto-Cannon has a ROF of 200 rounds per minute: the vessel carries 400 rounds of cartridge ammunition. The weapon is ineffective against spacecraft or starships but can be used to strafe light targets and vehicles. It is sometimes referred to as a "frustration weapon", serving to give the pilot a means of striking at a threat, however ineffectively, and thus providing them with a psychological release.
7.	Defenses	The hull is unarmored. The vessel is not fitted with screens or other passive defensive systems.
8.	Craft	The vessel carries no subcraft.
9.	Fuel Treatment	The vessel has internal fuel tankage of 1.2 Tons. The hull is fitted with fuel scoops. The vessel is not equipped with fuel purification equipment.
10.	Cost	The basic cost of the vessel is MCr27.900. The ship is a standard design. Detailed architectural plans are widely available and no design fee is chargeable. If multiple examples of the design are ordered all of the ships in the production run qualify for a 20% discount, which reduces the price of each unit to MCr22.320.
11.	Construction Time	24 weeks (5.5 months) as standard. Build times can be reduced by mass production and the efficiencies such processes generate, by increased financing, and by allotting additional yard resources and facilities to the construction contract.
12.	Comments	The vessel has no internal cargo capacity.

History & Background (Dossier)

An ubiquitous design used throughout the Distant Fringe, the Strike Fighter is cheap, durable and reliable. The design is representative and a large number of variants exist, particularly with regard to the allotted weapons systems and onboard electronics. Despite their status as space fighters, designs of this type have airframe features, augmenting their handling characteristics within planetary atmospheres.

Memoirs of a Pilot

The role in which these vessels excel is the precise delivery of ordnance, on target, over time. Naval wisdom holds that "the better the payload delivery, the better the rate of mission success". The extra crew space is dedicated to a wizard of electronic warfare: this guy calls the shots, making the pilot a glorified chauffeur.

The ability to ensure that the package gets delivered to the battle space and that enemy ordnance is left confused and disoriented is vital for the survival of larger navy and commercial vessels. To decoy, jam and disable enemy weapon volleys and get rounds on target with laser guided accuracy is of paramount importance. The need for mission success means that formations of Strike Fighters often have dedicated Escort Fighters assigned to ensure they arrive intact and ex-filtrate to fight again. The covering escorts are considered expendable while Strike Fighters are not.

Strike Fighters target designate at extreme range for fleet barrages, ship to ship and/or surface bombardments. They launch follow-me loads, targeting drones with brilliant sub munitions and captor beacon mines to interdict key targets. Fleet software packages can ensure their missile fire missions arrive in higher battery strength as a merged salvo. The density of the converged warhead sheaf overloads enemy point defense and helps ensure target saturation.

Distant Fringe Vessels

The Distant Fringe is said to be a far spinward-rimward area inhabited by colonists and refugees originating on Terra. The region is extremely isolated, separated from the rest of Charted Space by vast, almost uncrossable rifts that were once broached by a system of calibration Points and the use of tankers. Those few academics within Charted Space who have found references to the Distant Fringe regard it as little more than a tall tale. Likewise, many of the inhabitants of the Distant Fringe believe the existence of Charted Space to be mythical.

Vessels originating within the Distant Fringe are very rarely encountered outside of the region. However, misjumps do occur and anomalies with bizarre spacetime and Jumpspace effects exist: as such, craft of this type are not entirely unknown within Charted Space.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities

Individual vessels are generally named by their crews.

• Individual vessels within the class are issued specific serial numbers and transponder codes.
• Naming a ship is considered a serious affair and is generally accompanied by a traditional ceremony, usually pouring a local beverage over the bows of the craft. Spacefarers tend to be superstitious folk and a ship with a frivolous name is considered "unlucky".

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Strike Fighters are mass produced commercial fighter craft, made from standardized components and assembled in class A and B starports of TL-8 or greater across the region. A range of different hull shapes are available but two main variants have become standard:

Smallcraft - Fighters:

• Type PL class Light Fighter
  • Cerebrus class Strike Fighter
  • Razor class Strike Fighter

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman. High Guard (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), 20-37. (Design Sequence Used)
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science