Do fighters require engines?

[Slick]

To answer the question: Technically no, fighters do not require engines and the game allows you to create them without engines. They DO require a cockpit and a fighter life support and cannot be created without these. Amazingly, without engines, fighters still get 1 strategic movement. I haven't tested it in combat, but they should get 1 combat movement too (1/2 * 1 = 1/2, rounded up to 1). Fighters without engines won't have any supplies either, so they won't be able to fire their weapons. Are there any real uses for engineless fighters? Probably not, maybe in an extreme case they could be used as PD fodder to soak up hits for other fighters or missiles or something, but that's probably stretching it because of their low movement.

Now on a practical note, and probably what you were really asking, is yes, they were intended to have engines to move and carry supplies as stated by others here.

Slick.