Carrier Ops

People have mentioned recovering pilots, 
always important. And protecting the carrier, 
even moreso. 

But no one seems worried about the fighters. 
In the real world, you lose a $20M fighter you 
didn't need to lose, and you'll get your @ss 
kicked by the Navy I think. 

Plus in combat ops, recovering EVERY viable 
ship should be important. 

So if a fighter takes a stray hex-nut through the 
canopy and the pilot, thus rendering the vessel 
unpiloted, but otherwise perhaps combat 
worthy, the carrier should be able to recover 
the fighter. 

Second, if the pilot is injured, and his suit self-
seals, he could still be dying. The need to get 
him back aboard (his training cost $2M!) and 
into the surgery FAST is going to be very high. 

It seems to me if you want to go with a 
strategy of not bringing these fighters directly 
aboard immediately (though if the fighter is 
controllable an auto-pilot ought to be able to 
get it in hull-to-hull contact for a mag-grapple), 
then you'd best have CSAR shuttles out with 
powered-armoured CSAR guys with specialty 
cutters and med kits and portable atmo-
bubbles ready to roar to where the fighter is 
stopped and get CSAR med-techs to the injured 
pilot. The PA lets them "open the sardine cans" 
fast to get at the injured pilot if need be. They 
can then punch through the canopy or rip it off 
(thus giving access - and making for a quick 
replacement to get the fighter operational 
again. 

The morale effects of having in place fast 
mechanisms to save dying pilots would be 
noticeable and the long term campaign benefits 
would too. 

Also, your fighter might carry NOTHING that is 
dangerous to the carrier. Nowadays, fighters 
have AvGas and Bombs and Missiles. But in the 
future, maybe they have solid state lasers (not 
dangerous to explode), and torpedo launchers 
where the torpedo isn't dangerous until after 
launch, and solid fuel cells like a super version 
of what they use in NASCAR so that fuel spills, 
even in serious crashes, aren't an issue. So it 
might be fairly safe to bring the fighter inboard. 

Then also, you might design the fighter bay as 
you do the ammo compartments on an M1, so 
an explosion vents in one particular direction 
(out the bottom of the ship for example) thus 
leading to no more loss than the one fighter 
bay. 

Just some thoughts. 

Tomb.