Carrier and fighter questions

Fighter Questions:

If a Carrier launches a heavy interceptor squadron and
a torpedo-fighter squadron at the same time and flies
them to the same target, who determines which squadron
is targetted by PDAFs, ADAFs, C-Beams and other fighters?

Can a fighter group within range of several frigates target
more than one of them?	Obviously each of their targets
would get to use their point defense against the whole
fighter group, but splitting up a torpedo squadron to attack
several low mass frigates is better than wasting half their
torpedos!

I understand that some people play without the restriction
of fighters to Capital ships.  Having done some of the numbers
I'd like to weigh in against doing away with the restriction.
Especially doing away with the restriction for Heavy Fighters!
As a historical note, in WWII the smaller carriers were often
armed with less powerful planes because the best fighters
required longer runways.  I don't know what sorts of extra
logistical requirements the more expensive fighters need,
but limiting them to Capital ships is important.

As I understand how fighters work, they get half their
movement the turn they are launched, but they can attack
that very turn.

Consider:  the Swarm Carrier
Mass 18
move 8

systems
FCS
Needle Beam
PDAF
fast-torpedo fighter squadron (or other fighter squadron)

A fighter group attacks targets within 6", right?  So the
Swarm could hit a target 15" away from the end of its
movement.

Against no point defense this attack would do an average
of 14 points of damage.

This is more damage than submunitions do at
12".  9 submunitions at 12" would do an average of
12 points.  And unlike submunition equipped ships,
the Swarms can do something after their first attack,
namely refuel and rearm, as well as firing their Needle.

Fleets would need to seriously up their anti-fighter defenses!

There is of course the question of whether the Swarms would
survive long enough to launch their fighters, but with 
Thrust 8 they should only suffer one volley of A batteries
at extreme range before they can launch.

At long range it would take 6 A Batteries to inflict a
threshold check on a Swarm, (or any escort), barring a
superior targetting system, and 14 to kill one.  At closer
range a lot depends on your initiative system, but launch
and fighter movement takes place before combat.

Fighters may get left behind some high speed combats, but
there isn't much dodging a point blank launch.

As for how I got on this topic, I was trying to design an
in-the-thick of it Carrier which would rearm its fighters
during combat.	Unfortunately, the larger Carriers are slow
and have launcher congestion.  So I started looking at
Cruisers and Escorts.

Anyone have any ideas on how long it takes to reload and
rearm fighters?  Does it make a difference what the mass
of the Carrier is?

Swarm II (Cruiser type Carrier)

Mass 36
move 8
systems
FCS
FCS
shield
shield
fighter squadron
C Beam PCS
C Beam PCS
PDAF
PDAF
2 Mass Cargo Space for extra munitions for fighters

I suppose that with enough extra cargo space the Swarm II
could rearm torpedo fighters, interceptors, attack-fighters,
basically whichever fighter squadron happened to be near
it.  You could have 3 Swarms launching 3 different types
of fighters, but any squadron could rearm at any Swarm.
Considering that the torpedo fighters would need to rearm
more quickly this versatility could be important!  And on
the not too infrequent occurences that a launch bay or a
Swarm cruiser was destroyed, the extra cargo area would
mean that they could still recover the fighters without
blocking the launch bay.

By having in-the-thick-of-it Carriers to recover and rearm
fighters, a fleet would have the option of keeping its fleet
Carriers further back, not to mention spending less on defenses
and escorts for those Carriers.

I'd like to point out that in terms of both cost and mass,
Fleet Carriers are going to be more efficient in terms of
total fighter weight.  However, the Swarms should have an
advantage in terms of launching and recovering fighters.
A non-ftl version of the Swarm could afford better anti-fighter
defenses, more cargo area and some offensive power of its
own.  Because of the amount of mass devoted to defense, a
non-ftl version of the Swarm would have a great advantage.

Swarm II non-ftl version
Mass 36
move 8
systems
shield-3 (I forget if you can actually put Shield-3 on a Cruiser)
fighter squadron
3 Mass Cargo space
A Beam PCS
C-Beam PCS
ADAF
PDAF
PDAF

Unless your enemy has Pulse-torpedos or submunitions in
large quantities, this Cruiser is going to be tough to kill.

Michael Sandy