system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Trek] Why don't ships from Star Trek use fighters in they're space/fleet battles?
gpt
You've hit upon the legendary "fighters vs missiles" debate in science fiction.

The short version is that fighters often don't make practical sense in most science fiction settings.  If you want a small craft loaded with weapons, you don't want to put all the equipment necessary to keep a human alive on it, you just want weapons, targeting computers, and engines.  Beyond that, a human doesnt really add anything to the fighter craft, since the computers are going to be making all of the decisions anyways.  As a result, in any situation where the Federation might launch a fighter craft, they just fire a photon torpedo instead.

That said, the federation *does* have smaller vessels with life support and weapons, but they're for transportation (shuttles) or longer term missions (the Defiant).