Jack of Harts

The Republic of Texas Space Force thought it had outsmarted the Navy when it demanded that all new Navy ships carry fighters. The Navy did not operate its own fighters, and had always relied on Air Force or Marine fighters to protect them. So the Space Force knew that demanding the Navy carried fighters would allow them to operate off Navy ships without all the boring drudgework of maintaining them. And it would cement their position as the superior space military arm. That is what happened in most cases, but the Texas Marines had their own say in the matter as well. They did not have as much expertise operating in space as the Space Force did, but they had far more experience operating fighters off ships. And they did operate some aerospace fighters retired by the Space Force many years before. The Marines put their foot in the door and managed to get some of those squadrons assigned to spacegoing Navy ships after passing tests no one else thought they could.