' Wrote:We've never been at all out war for nearly 70 years. And in ww2 you will find Us Army planes (the USAF didn't exist back then) were launched on USN carriers. I would not be surprised at all if say America went to war with another 1st rate military like China, if USAF Jets didn't land on USN carriers out in the seas if the jets needed to. but then again, we have jets that can fly all around the globe but unlike in space, what do you expect a LN Navy Defender to undock Manhattan at a Navy ground base, fly to the front, have 5 hours of combat and fly back? No. And the LAF wouldn't either. We'd need the carrier INRP.
You really don't know what you're talking about, do you?
Air force planes do not have the reinforced gear, tailhooks, or launch bars needed to operate from carriers. And you can't just swap in a few spare parts and have it work--it would be an extensive and expensive modification process.
In addition, landing on a carrier is difficult. Navy pilots undergo extensive training in order to do it. Air force pilots don't. You'd have to retrain all your pilots, and that's not a simple or cheap process either.
It's far simpler to just base the aircraft from a forward air base and aerial refuel if necessary.
Quote:Cost? Why put millions upon millions worth of equipment that makes the aircraft excel in a certain terrain when 99% of the time it'll fight and be destroyed everywhere but that terrain. Secondly mechanically it may not be possible to cram space technology needed to make the Defender excel in space combat, also equalize in Atmospheric battles with super sonic and whatever else 'super' jets. But again, we are playing in a fantasy land, sometimes we should just 'roll' with it.
I fail to see how a missile with the range of a continent is any less useful in space, where you can actually see that far, than in atmo where that would be far over the horizon and way out of range of a dogfight. In that case what do you even need the aircraft to deliver it for?
I also highly doubt that spacecraft capable of reaching orbital velocity would have any trouble at all getting to supersonic speeds.
As far as Freelancer goes--any air force would by necessity be a strictly defensive planet-based force. There is nothing in any freelancer lore to suggest ships that enter atmo to drop off/pick up atmo fighters exist, so there is zero force projection capability.
Having a purely defensive force with a command structure and training programs catering specifically to aerial combat suddenly decide to go on the offensive in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar ships is completely illogical. It would be like if coast guard cutters used for drug interdiction suddenly sailed to the front lines. They're vastly out of their element.
I'm not against the idea of some kind of elite fighter group. I can even deal with the idea of a bunch of pilots too snobby to help out on the home front. But the name has got to go. It doesn't make any sense at all in the Freelancer world.
