Longbows from a converted hangar don't last all that long in AI hands.
They are slow at speed 134 (200*0.67), so many frigates out run them and their attack runs take more time, and they take 50% more damage on those runs. Since we are discussing converted hangar, they are one wing to a ship, they won't coordinate strikes. So in AI hands, converted longbows are not infinite sabots. Essentially, after the first minute of engagement, you will have far fewer longbow wings as they'll be taking 36 seconds or more to respawn a single fighter. You'll probably get an unenchanced sabot pods worth out of them before CR starts ticking down on a Fury. The AI is far too willing to send them off to attack ships, and in a large battle, that means bomber losses. Xyphos have much higher up time, and are likely to still have a pair up at the end of fight.
There's a similar problem with wasps and talons, in that they get sent off and get blown up, ticking down fighter respawn rate. They're arguably better initially, but for the long haul, Xyphos will tend to win the attrition war.
And I just gave you the fit: replace your HB with IP, replace your Xyphos with long bow and replace your sabot pod with harpoon pod (or reaper if you trust AI using it - I don’t).
IP is short range because you’re already fighting short range, so the “extra” range on xyphos is not needed. It’s not even a counter argument.
So I tried this in the AI battles mission. 10 Furies vs 10 Furies, no skills, simulated 2 s-mods.
1 Heavy Blaster, 2 Sabot Pods, Xyphos, Converted Hangar, Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit, and Shield Conversion-Front. To simulate 2 s-mods (+33 OP), I threw on 19 capacitors and 21 vents.
Versus
1 Ion Pulsar, 2 Harpoon Pods, Longbow, Converted Hangar, Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit, Shield Conversion-Front, 19 capacitors and 21 vents - although this doesn't really have enough guns for it's flux capacity at all.
So I took some liberties with your suggestion and also did a run with 2 Ion Pulsars, 1 Harpoon Pod, Longbow, same mods, 39 capacitors and 0 vents (still only 490 sustained flux usage out of 600 dissipation).
In very limited testing (i.e. 1 match each), the Xyphos Furies won with only 1 Fury lost, and then against the second build, the Xyphos again won with 6 Furies lost. The longbows came out strong, but after the initial wave, basically did nothing as they were too sporadic to do much - they consistently got shot down by the Xyphos, although they'd tend to release their payload on the way - but respawn times just kept going up.
And btw an officer can has both tech skills, idk why you would mention it.
I mean, with a very specific leadership skill and hiring and firing officers until you roll the double tech skill option, this is true. However, if you're running a pure Fury fleet, that typically means grabbing +2 officers instead of +1 level. And doubling down on leadership probably isn't as good as going down combat, leadership and tech for a Fury fleet + player flagship. So for most players it is likely they won't have 10 Fury officers with both Gunnery Implants and Energy weapon mastery.
Anyways, for battle "carriers" with converted hangars and 1 fighter, I would tend to avoid bombers and go for a pure support fighter, like a Xyphos or a Mining Pod. At least for end game grind fests. If you're just going for an initial shock and awe and expect to win in the first minute, Longbows will likely serve you better.
Actually, the ships that probably benefit most from Xyphos are low tech front line ships, like Enforcers, Dominators, and Onslaughts. They don't have access to cheap and efficient ion damage otherwise, but can benefit greatly from knocking the engines out on faster enemy ships while their shields are still up. They've already got missiles covered (especially with s-mods and officer skills - 36 sabots on an Enforcer doesn't really need more from longbows). They also tend to have excessive amounts of OP, so converted hangar is a reasonable addition.
