Fighter surviability...

All this talk about fighters has brought up a point that I've always
had some trouble with:

Can fighters survive in a futuristic environment e.g. space?  The 
concept of the fighter, manned or unmanned has a very strong romantic
ideal associated with it, and we build our universes accordingly.

However, the conditions that lead to the widespread use of the 
fighter seem to fail under futuristic environments.  For example, can
fighters carry weapons heavy enough to damage capital ships?  Is 
fighter maneuverability an acceptable defence against all possible 
weaponry?  Does there exist a weapon that hits with a high enough
probability that it can take fighters down with very little effort?  
Does a fighter have enough of a range and speed advantage over 
targets to make it practical?  And on and on.

For example, in a universe with practical laser weaponry and movement
limited to Newtonian reaction systems, fighters would have a tough
time surviving because they could not maneuver quickly enough within a
certain range to avoid getting hit by the laser.  

Just a thought.  If anybody asks, I can write a heck of a lot more, I 
just have to get back to work here.  (8-)

J.

-- 
Jerry Han -  CANOE Canada - jhan@canoe.ca - http://www.idigital.net/jhan
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