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Had a thought,
Drones in Star Trek, Now if we think back to the S2 finale of Discovery, we have the introduction of 2 things, Manned fighters and Drone fighters. Now manned fighters like the Perigriene has been in Trek, but like with the Runabouts, are pretty much useless against starships, as there sheilds are to strong, and they can't carry full sized torpedos or the phasers are underpowered. Its never been like Star Wars or Babylon 5 where a swarm of fighters could take down a capital ship, even in the S2 finale, they didn't do much damage to the Enterprise or Disco
Now there has been a larger "Drones" in the Vengence with its phaser pod that is capable of launching at a target.
Now with Disco, we have fighters and with Control /S31 drones.
So the question is, thoughts on the small 1 manned fighters, and the small drones. ??
It really depends on the level of tech & Miniaturization, & AI Programming along with Remote Control Range/Security/Viability.
During the 22nd century, we saw the Romulan Drone Ship being controlled from Romulas via Telepathic controls.
That's quite amazing given how far away the "Drone Ship" was from the home world.
Given that in the 24th century & beyond, fighters seem to be making a come back thanks to miniaturization of weapons, reactors, & batteries.
The Maquis & Dominion have both proven the viability of Fighters & Small Attack Craft.
Their viability has become far more likely against Capital Ships of much larger sizes.
But unlike the late 20th Century, I think large Capital Ships & Smaller Fighter Craft can easily co-exist in a Post 24th Century environment since both will have their useful place in a fleet.
But the option for a Hybrid of (Remote Operated by People / AI Assisted Locally on Platform) "Remote Weaponry / Drone Fighters / Ships" would be even more useful.
Imagine Remote-Controlled, but local AI Powered (Remote Weaponry, Fighter Craft, & Small Escort Ships) assigned to each single StarShip as a Mini Sub Fleet for each vessel.
If you lose any of them to Destruction via Combat Attrition, it's a small but minor loss, but the advantages in Combat & Exploration can easily act as a Force Multiplier.
- Remote Controlled Weaponry -
Remote Controlled Weaponry like Gundam Style Attack Bits / Funnels. (e.g. The MSN-04 Sazabi with the 6x Cylinder Funnels stored in its back pack)
Having flying Weapons that are fully autonomous but given "High Level" commands will easily multiply any attack force since it allows interception of any slow moving projectiles at vast ranges.
So Torpedoes/Missiles along with any object in STL moving significantly slower than "The Speed of Light" can easily be shot down.
The concept of Point Defense should be taken FAR more seriously moving forward as part of the Doctrine for all StarShips within the UFP.
No Matter how strong your Shields gets, it's better to shoot down any slow moving incoming Projectiles like "Torpedoes" or "Plasma Torpedoes" like from TOS.
Honestly the "Plasma Torpedo" should be renamed to a "Plasma Cannon-Ball" since it's closer to that than a traditional Torpedo that has it's own guidance & manuevering systems.
If it's that slow, shoot it down, or have a Remote Controlled Weapon do the Ultimate Sacrifice or Block for you if it can shrug off the hit.
It's better to lose a piece of Small Tech than have the Mother Ship take damage if you don't have to.
You can easily Mass Produce Remote Controlled Weaponry, Mother Ships & People are FAR more "Time & Material" Resource Intensive to replace than a small Remote Weapon.
Doctrinally, I think that needs to change moving forward, the current Doctrine of StarShip combat is "WAY Out of Date" compared to what IRL is moving towards.
Star Trek needs to keep up and move ahead of them in that field if it's to be a proper show-case of "Future Tech" & "Future Thinking".
- Remote Controlled Drone Fighters -
Remote Operated / Local AI Powered Drone Fighters can be easily produced in bulk.
IRL, the US is going that route anyways. It makes sense from a Logistical & Force Multiplying perspective.
1x Manned Fighter can easily be accompanied by 3-7x Remote Operated/AI Powered Drone fighters.
The Manned Fighter can act as a Local Data Router and to control the action locally should any Remote Jamming of control signals occur.
This allows the Drone Fighters to know which Control Information is valid and allow the Local Manned Fighter to ensure control of it's Drones.
Treat the Drones like Remote Controlled "Attack Dogs" with the Manned Fighter as the Person acting locally on-site to gurantee the control.
This on top of your normal "Manned Fighter" Deployment allows a normal Carrier sized Fleet to cover ALOT of space since everybody can easily spread out.
Given how VAST space is, it's best to deploy Smaller Fighters Accompanied by Drones & Remote Weaponry for Recon / Sensor Network purposes.
- Remote Controlled Drone Mini Ships -
Imagine having a Texas-class style (Remote Controlled / AI Powered) Drone Ship that was similar in size to the Jem'Hadar Fighter, but far more powerful, & un-manned.
We obviously saw how powerful 3x Texas-class could be, they managed to incapacitate a Sovereign Class StarShip.
Those are no slouches, yet 3x Small Texas-class ships had enough "Fire Power" to stop such a vessel.
I think 'Venom Geek Media' stated it best, the Dominion War exposed to the Alpha Quadrant the viability / useful-ness of the "Attack Craft".
The Dominion War really exposed how valuable Small, but Power Compact StarShips can be in mass production to support the larger StarShips.
Doctrinally, StarFleet realizes that it's current StarShip make-up is to focused on the middle sized vessels AKA "Lots of Cruisers" strategy.
It's over-all Fleet Composition tends to focus too much on the Medium sized vessels across the majority of StarFleet.
Post Dominion War, I can see StarFleet Re-Balancing it's Fleet to be a bit more heavier on the smaller vessels with alot of Remote Operated Weaponry that are local AI Powered on top.
This gives you the best of both worlds since alot of the Regular-Sized StarShips can have their own "Mini Fleet" to escort all the larger more packed Manned Vessels filled with regular people.
Combine all 3x Aspects above into one coherent package and assign them to each StarShip that carries a significant amount of Personnel above. Then you have a "Real Force Multiplier".
This makes the "Defensive Onion" that much harder to peel for even the Smallest of StarShips, this isn't even counting to how large the mini fleet could get with one of the more massive manned vessels.
Imagine what a future "Universe Class" StarShip when it carries it's own Mini Fleet composing of Hundreds of Drone Ships + Thousands of Drone fighters + Ten's of Thousands of Remote Weaponry.
When it's exploring outside in the Wild Un-Explored Space, it's "Never Alone", and it's Local Area Sensor Network is far wider with far fewer blind spots.
This "Combined (Hybrid Remote Controlled/AI Assisted) Drone Mini Fleet" Doctrine is what I have for my "Head Cannon" moving forward in the 26th Century.
It's what I envision the future to be since risking normal lives is all well & good in the name of exploration.
But we shouldn't be so quick to throw away bodies to solve a problem when you can have a Hybrid of "AI + Manned Platforms" working in Synergy.
That's the true "Force Multiplier". The combination of both (Organic People + AI), using each to the maximum of each of their respective potentials.
Well if you look at PIcard era, the Inquiry, and if were to belive the 100+ copy pasta fleet from s1, those aren't small, still 600+ meters, then you have others like the Ross, and Sutherland etc. sure some smaller ones are out there, but it seems that after the dominion war, they just continued to "Go Big" like the Enterprise F.
But I agree with you, Medium size ships like the Intripid or the Reliant can do most of the work "In Borders" but Starfleet still has its Exploration charter, so your still going to have the Huge Honking Explorer classes.
But for me, its a "Get with the times" type of want, I like Big ship battles, but real life is moving to a multitude of drones, etc. and would like it to be expressed in Trek more.
Well if you look at PIcard era, the Inquiry, and if were to belive the 100+ copy pasta fleet from s1, those aren't small, still 600+ meters, then you have others like the Ross, and Sutherland etc. sure some smaller ones are out there, but it seems that after the dominion war, they just continued to "Go Big" like the Enterprise F.
But I agree with you, Medium size ships like the Intripid or the Reliant can do most of the work "In Borders" but Starfleet still has its Exploration charter, so your still going to have the Huge Honking Explorer classes.
But for me, its a "Get with the times" type of want, I like Big ship battles, but real life is moving to a multitude of drones, etc. and would like it to be expressed in Trek more.
I'm with you in the liking "Big Ships", but even I build the appropriate # of big ships relative to the small ships.
I'm not stupid like the Imperial Empire & it's Dumb "Tarkin Doctrine" where they over emphasized on the Star Destroyer mentality and went nuts with a Budget Breaking Death Star.
I'm far more balanced on a Fleet Composition Level with the amount of "Big Ships" vs "Medium Ships" vs "Small Ships" in terms of Build Ratios.
And I'm weighted far heavier towards the small ships along with a heavy emphasis on "Many (Drone Ships / Drone Fighters / Drone Weapons)" being mass paired with each Regular Manned StarShip as the Nexus for it's own "Mini Fleet".
