That'd be either Rook or Xal, whoever it was that had control of Fleet on the old forums into the new before the thread purge during the current rework of fleet.
They were deemed VTOL since the dropships are VTOL.
Who decided to make the fighters NOT VTOL? They used to be, because space.
Never, because that's the job of TAC and MI. Fleet's entire purpose in SST is capital ships, air support in the form of bombers and transports and that's about it. In SSTRP it gets extended slightly with orbital bombardments.
I legit forgot Jarhead and Midway, Tora is a solid film and I think is what made Michael Bay do his shitstorm based on Pearl Harbour, was debating throwing in Red October and Sum of All Fears but didn't since Tom Clancy stuff is a bit hit or miss.