Iceblade
Admiral
It is hard to imagine packing 18 Rapiers IIAs into an Exeter or even 16 Rapiers IIAs and two small shuttles inside that small capship. Based on measurements from the extracted game sprite images and using the length as the conversion tool, I have been able map out spaces for the fighters.
Fighter storage below the gray "shoulders" placed under the inner two Engines would be a good fit for hangar deck and fighter storage, but only 8 Rapiers (each sized at 24m x 26 m) and the two Lifts would fit in the bottom most areas with no way to move the fighters around (meaning that 4 Rapiers would be blocked by a Rapier apiece). Plenty of spare room along the sides though to arm and repair the fighters below deck allowing for the removal of separate repair/arming bays on hangar deck. This would allow for perhaps 2 or 4 more Rapier IIA fighters to fit on the Hangar deck, though deck space (and interior armored walls) would be needed to store ordnance and fuel limiting available space for fighters on the Hangar deck. Biggest issue is flying a Rapier IIA out of the back dark gray space (most likely area for a hangar exit). The Rapier IIA would be wingtip to wall (a mere 0.1185 meters on each side) when trying to launch from a rear Hangar exit.
And of course, the remainder of the wings and gray shoulders of the Exeter class are mostly taken up by Engineering and the four large Engines plus any missile/torpedo launchers located there.
The later Rapiers would be much better fit and the Epees could easily be parked in large numbers below in the Fighter storage with only logistics limiting complement size.
I find it hard to believe there were any Exeters that received even a half-squadron of Rapier IIAs let alone for said ship to be captured by the Kilrathi with at least 7 of them still intact.
Fighter storage below the gray "shoulders" placed under the inner two Engines would be a good fit for hangar deck and fighter storage, but only 8 Rapiers (each sized at 24m x 26 m) and the two Lifts would fit in the bottom most areas with no way to move the fighters around (meaning that 4 Rapiers would be blocked by a Rapier apiece). Plenty of spare room along the sides though to arm and repair the fighters below deck allowing for the removal of separate repair/arming bays on hangar deck. This would allow for perhaps 2 or 4 more Rapier IIA fighters to fit on the Hangar deck, though deck space (and interior armored walls) would be needed to store ordnance and fuel limiting available space for fighters on the Hangar deck. Biggest issue is flying a Rapier IIA out of the back dark gray space (most likely area for a hangar exit). The Rapier IIA would be wingtip to wall (a mere 0.1185 meters on each side) when trying to launch from a rear Hangar exit.
And of course, the remainder of the wings and gray shoulders of the Exeter class are mostly taken up by Engineering and the four large Engines plus any missile/torpedo launchers located there.
The later Rapiers would be much better fit and the Epees could easily be parked in large numbers below in the Fighter storage with only logistics limiting complement size.
I find it hard to believe there were any Exeters that received even a half-squadron of Rapier IIAs let alone for said ship to be captured by the Kilrathi with at least 7 of them still intact.
