Space fighters in science fiction are exciting and cool, and lead to great story possibilities. It doesn't matter what powers them, because its all fantasy anyway.<br /><br />But in reality, space fighters in general are a bad idea. There is no air in space, and everything follows the laws of physics. Maneuvering wastes fuel that could be used for acceleration.<br /><br />In other words, lets say that a given spacecraft has enough fuel to accelerate in a straight line to 20,000 mph. That means it has the ability to change its velocity by 20,000 mph. It has a delta-v of 20,000 mph. If it wants to return to base, it would have to use 1/4 of its delta-v to get up to speed, 1/4 to stop at the destination, 1/4 to accelerate back, and 1/4 to stop at its carrier. The top speed would thus be 5000 mph because only 1/4 of the the delta-v would be used to get there.<br /><br />On the other hand, if your "fighter" were a missile, it would arrive at the target at 20,000 mph, because the entire delta-v would be used for straight line acceleration.<br /><br />