Strike Craft

A term for the various fighters, bombers, and combat-oriented craft designed for carrier/planetary-scale operations.
Strike craft have an illustrious history rooted in the aviation elements of primitive pre-spaceflight civilizations. While not as useful in the modern age due to their poor survivability and shortened weapon ranges, with proper tactics several squadrons can seriously threaten capital ships regardless. And unlike a battleship, their weapons are much less likely to accidentally crack a planet in half with a stray shot.
A wing of modern strike craft is piloted primarily by autonomous programs, networked to a single sapient protected from the void by inertial dampeners and suicidal maneuvers.