Underfighter class Submersible Fighter

Underfighter class Submersible Fighter
From The Seas To The Void
Type: FP Patrol Fighter
Category	Smallcraft
Size	50 Tons
Hull Configuration	Wedge Hull
Streamlining	Airframe Hull
Tech Level	TL–10
Engineering
Computer	Model/4
Jump	J-0
Maneuver	9 G
Armaments
Hardpoints	0
Accommodations
Staterooms	0
Personnel
Crew	2
Enlisted	2
High/Mid Passengers	0
Payload
Cargo	0.2 Tons
Fuel tank	0 Tons
Construction
Origin	Second Imperium
Manufacturer	various
Year Operational	-2198
End of Service	Examples still operate post-Collapse
Price
Cost	MCr63.115. MCr56.8035 in quantity.
Architect fee	MCrAdrian Tymes
Statistics
Quick Ship Profile	FP-5A90
Images
Blueprint	Yes
Illustration	No
Source
Also see	Gas Giant - Fighter
Canon	Published, fan design
Era	Second Imperium
Reference	EXTERNAL LINK: MGT Forums
Designed with Mongoose Traveller High Guard rules, but portable to other versions.

The Underfighter class Submersible Fighter is a submersible spaceship.

• It is a military ship and a Submersible Fighter.
• It is designed to remain deployed in a protected area for a long duration, making it a Patrol Fighter.

Description (Specifications)

The limited range of smallcraft (firmpoint-mounted) weapons has long been an issue in the practical deployment of fighters. The Underfighter is one solution. Essentially a heavy fighter with a pressure hull, it lurks in squadrons in the depths of a gas giant or ocean, undetectable to most sensors and relying on passives from remote sensor drones to alert when ships jump in and approach for refueling. A large or protected fleet can be ignored, while a small fleet or lone ships get abruptly swarmed. When this works exceptionally well, the Underfighters' prey wind up disabled before their crews can get from commons or quarters to the guns.

Despite being only TL-10, Underfighters can manage a total 9 Gs thrust by combining their maneuver and reaction drives. If attacking a large target, Underfighters will sometimes take advantage of their surprise to fire one missile programmed to wait several minutes, fire another missile with a bit less wait, and so on to form a salvo that the Underfighter then accompanies to attack, though the Underfighter's fire control can only coordinate up to 4 missiles at once this way. Typically, the pilot reloads the rack as the fourth missile is fired, then pulls up to attack as the gunner warms up the pulse laser.

Merely calling them "a nasty surprise for the unprepared" does not do justice to the concept. There is a tale from the latter days of the Ramshackle Empire, of a Vargr system defense commander (having been born and raised in the Empire, with no loyalty to his distant kin) conspicuously planting fake (hollow, quickly and cheaply built, but convincing) Underfighter hulls in starports along the path of incoming Vargr raiders, causing the raiders to take refueling slow and cautiously, giving the defense commander time to rally enough forces to ward them off.

Underfighters lack jump drives, and must be ferried to destinations not in the same system as they start. 3 month shifts are common on such deployments, between which a jump-capable craft (more often far traders than dedicated tenders) will visit to rotate crews and perform maintenance.

Image Repository

Not available at this time.

General Description & Deck Plans

1. Deck Plans for this vessel.
   

Basic Ship Characteristics

Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here.

Basic Ship Characteristics
No.	Category	Remarks
1.	Tonnage / Hull	Tonnage: 50 tons (standard). 700 cubic meters. Airframe Wedge Hull. Dimensions: maximum 15 meters long by 20 meters wide by 3 meters tall.
2.	Crew	Crew: 1 Pilot, 1 Gunner.
3.	Performance	Acceleration: 3-G maneuver drive and 6-G reaction drive installed, for a total of 9-G. No jump drive.
4.	Electronics	Model/4 ship computer.
5.	Hardpoints	No hardpoints, 2 firmpoints.
6.	Armament	One chin-mounted pulse laser. 1 missile rack, mounted coaxial.
7.	Defenses	None, aside from the crew's skill and tactics.
8.	Craft	None. Vacc suits required for EVA (extra-vehicle activity). Rescue Balls for crew escape normally carried.
9.	Fuel Treatment	It is typically equipped with a fuel purification plant and fuel scoops.
10.	Cost	MCr63.115 standard (no architect's fees, as they were amortized long ago). MCr56.8035 in quantity.
11.	Construction Time	2 months standard, 1.5 in quantity.
12.	Remarks	An armed smallcraft made to hide in oceans and gas giants.

History & Background (Dossier)

While similar ships have been encountered and reinvented countless times, the Underfighter class dates from the early Second Imperium, from an effort to give worlds with underdeveloped (or, after the Interstellar Wars, demolished) economies a simple self-defense capability, to deter pirates, raiders, and invasion.

Underfighters occupy a distinctly TL-10 niche, though versions one TL to either side exist. At TL-9, more reliance on reaction drives is necessary, with fuel loads that crowd out effectiveness. TL-11 refines the systems and offers more luxury for extended deployment; adding a biosphere and enhanced signal processing is common. At TL-8 enough of the necessary components are unavailable that the concept becomes nonviable, while at TL-12 Deep Site Meson Weapons are deployed instead.

Underfighters only carry fuel for 4 weeks and an hour of reaction drive use, because when on station in gas giants or water they are surrounded by unrefined fuel, with all the equipment necessary to harvest and refine it and replenish themselves while waiting for the next engagement. This sometimes leads to Underfighter squadrons on gas giant deployments (when no ships visit during the deployment) being out of contact with anyone for the length of their tour of duty, facing a situation similar to naval starships with much less resources other than their fellow squadron mates. The most common solution is to bond with said mates, sometimes to the detriment of any external allegiances.

That the typical Underfighter crew is young, fresh from flight school and thus healthy, and in the lower-middle ranks of non-commissioned often results in fraternization. Nearly all navies that employ Underfighters turn a blind eye to this, unless and until any of the crew are harmed by it. Wiser navies conduct psychological screenings to make sure everyone in a given squadron is compatible. Certain corrupt navies will then use these screenings to attempt to set up romantic pairings for certain enlistees, giving them a socially acceptable excuse to terminate their military careers and begin raising a family - while retaining the privilege of having performed some amount of military service - after a single tour that is expected to have no actual enemy contact. Many novels have been written about such attempts backfiring dramatically, no small number of them being nearly word-for-word rehashes of earlier versions, with a few updates for the then-current-and-local audience's tastes.

Conversely, on colonized worlds with oceans that have not been attacked for a long time if ever, there exist Underfighters that have been continually manned and in contact with the water for centuries, with later generations of pilots treating it as a ceremonial duty, eventually just a rite of passage (with shift lengths adjusted for how many new pilots, and how many still-operational Underfighters, there were that year), where their constant contact with their host colony causing Underfighter crews to view their duty as little more than sitting in a chair and making sure their spy drone network remains operational. Increased fraternization happens in this case, too, but on average to a lesser level than on gas giant deployments.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities

Ship Interior Details (Peculiarities): Most of an Underfighter's time on duty is spent waiting around. It is not uncommon for Underfighter squadrons to be docked into one large structure on autopilot, sensor nets deployed to provide perspective across a large ocean or from around a the gas giant (receiving tightbeamed data from the spy drones), with one person taking a watch for the entire squadron. Underfighters come with double-entrance airlocks to facilitate this, and to provide structural separation between the bridge and the rest of the crew space.

Unlike with most smallcraft, maintenance is done from the inside thanks to the pressure hull; there are crawlways around the reactor and drives to get at all components, though these get hot and should not be used while the reaction drive is engaged.

Class Naming Practice/s: As with many spacecraft classes, the system an Underfighter is named for typically comes up with the name, resulting in little consistency across the class. What consistency there is, shows in names derived from lower-tech submersibles, or things associated with the water (or, less often, with the lower layers of gas giants).

That said, squadrons used by a given system tend to share a squadron name then have an individual designation (most often a number or letter-analogue), such as Aqua-1 through Aqua-6 or Poseidon-Alpha through Poseidon-Delta.

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Military Ship - Smallcraft - Fighter:

• Type FP class Patrol Fighter
  • Underfighter class Submersible Fighter

References & Contributors (Sources)

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• Citation Missing - High Guard (Design Sequence Used)
• EXTERNAL LINK: An Alphabet of Ships
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science