How short are "short range fighters"? Are we talking extra limited flight times of under 1 hour or so making them carrier based fighters (or otherwise reliant on a mothership), or several hours and capable of going out and being used independently without relying on a nearby home base? Further, are these short range fighters capable of leaving the system they launched from?asked by Crystles

I'd definitely say short range fighters cannot leave the system they're launched from. They would not be jump capable. And then the short range fighter would depend... I mean, something like the Merlin, which is probably the example of the smallest and shortest range of one, really couldn't operate for that long outside of being re-docked back in the Constellation and refueled and rearmed. Some of the military short range or lighter fighters would obviously have a lot more range than that. So it sort of depends on the ship basis, but I would definitely say that the definition of a short range fighter is one that can't do inter-system jumps.