Strike Craft

Strike craft are a vital component of any major military force. Their primary purpose is to achieve and maintain atmospheric superiority -- by eliminating hostile strike craft, launching air-to-surface attacks, and supporting friendly ground troops. They are, in a sense, the "middle-man" between the orbital armada and infantry forces. They are designed to operate in any environment, including space.

General Design
Strike craft are descended from ancient combat aircraft, but are meant to operate in an astronomically wide range of environmental conditions. All strike craft are fully sealed, separating the pilot and internal equipment from the potentially harsh external environment.

Propulsion
All strike craft are propelled by variable accelerated plasma thrusters. These thrusters have two or more burn modes, all of which are suited for a particular environment.

Power Burn
When operating in a vacuum, strike craft typically utilize the power burn mode. This mode is optimized for high-thrust, short-duration burns. In space, an object in motion will stay in motion -- so there's no need to constantly use the engines. The thrusters remain on "standby" until manually triggered by the pilot. Burns in this mode typically don't last for more than a few seconds while in space, as strike craft typically just loiter around fleet vessels. Thus, they don't need to achieve high speeds.

Power burns are primarily used to transport strike craft to and from orbit.

This mode rapidly consumes fuel, and will usually empty the craft's reserves after fifteen non-consecutive minutes of use.

Lean Burn
A craft's lean burn mode is used while operating in any kind of atmosphere. This mode sees the thrusters operate in a low-thrust, constant-burn capacity. While in an atmosphere, a craft's engines are constantly burning while in use, just like a jet engine.

In this mode, the craft uses a small fraction of its total engine power -- roughly 1-25% of max power. Fuel consumption is significantly reduced. In this mode, strike craft can operate anywhere between 10 and 30 hours without having to refuel.

Variants
The term "strike craft" encompasses a wide variety of small vessels designed to operate within an atmosphere or near the surface of a satellite. Types of strike craft can be divided into the following general categories:

Interceptor/Attack
These vessels are designed to be offensive multi-role fighters. In addition to engaging enemy strike craft, they also provide direct fire support to ground troops by destroying enemy artillery and mobile armor. They are highly maneuverable and have impeccable atmospheric acceleration. Some I/A craft are designed to specialize in just one area of combat, but all urums maintain a "general use" model that can quickly adapt to new combat situations.