They act as a regular fighter in battle (including being counted on the casualty board if lost), but they have a limited movement range of 1. A surviving carrier fighter always "disappears" from the game map after battle (assumed to have returned to carrier). The carrier can keep spawning a single carrier fighter each round as long as the carrier itself exists (whether or not a previous carrier fighter was lost in battle).
page 11 in rulebook... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZnjZpKno5KR9R4WsDZSoYoXmQpWaowgB/view
They act as a regular fighter in battle (including being counted on the casualty board if lost), but they have a limited movement range of 1. A surviving carrier fighter always "disappears" from the game map after battle (assumed to have returned to carrier). The carrier can keep spawning a single carrier fighter each round as long as the carrier itself exists (whether or not a previous carrier fighter was lost in battle).