AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED

Class/Model/Name:  Saturn 
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 3025
Vessel Type:       WarShip
Rules:             Level 3, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              240,000 tons
K-F Drive System:  (Unknown)
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       2
Maximum Thrust:    3
Armor Type:        Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament:          
    6 NL55
   10 AR10 Launcher
   32 AMS
   64 Large Laser
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==Overview:==
When the Terran Alliance sent the Alliance Marines to Denebola in 2234, it had
nothing but itself to blame for the "Denebola Debacle" several times over.
Obviously, it's century-old policy of draconian colonial governance initiated
the rebellion. However, the subsequent failure of the Allliance Marines had
roots in complicated political wrangling between the Alliance and its Terran
member-states from the 2170s to the 2210s. 

In this era, the Alliance's eclipse of Terran member-state authority and
decades-old pressures to reduce military spending (no one to fight, really)
came together to both consolidate all interstellar military operations under
the Alliance Militia in 2204 and drastically cut spending. It was thought that
police could handle most rebellions, and only small, light infantry units
would be needed for most other threats.

The missed opportunity (for Terran imperialists) was that in the 2170s,
member-states had actually expanded their militaries in anticipation of
needing to suppress "Separatist" colonies, should they be established, and to
defend their colonies against the Separatist Terran nations. The member-state
militaries had their last hurrah supporting the Alliance Militia in its
annexation of the Separatists in the 2170s, but the elevated budgets continued
throughout the 22nd Century. One of the products was the Saturn-class Assault
Transport.

A century before James McKenna oversaw the deployment of the Dreadnought, the
United States of America had an inkling of true WarShips. Its Puerto
Rico-class BattleShip was broken up in the slip when only 10% complete,
leaving the Saturn-class Assault Transports (generically, "SATs" or "Killer
SATs") without real escorts, but compared to the other armed JumpShips of the
era - like the descendents of the Charger - the Saturns were nimble, well
armed, and adequately armored.

Able to deliver nuclear weapons, laser-based orbital bombardment, and a heavy
regiment of mechanized infantry, the Saturns stood to revolutionize
interstellar warfare. However, after 30 years of unexciting service starting
in the early 2180s, the Saturns were instead scrapped in the 2210s. Had they
lasted another couple of decades, the Saturns would likely have greatly
altered the outcome of the Denebola Crisis.


==Capabilities:==
The Saturn Assault Transport was, essentially, a militarized colonial
transport. It used a pair of engines to greatly out-accelerate post-Aquilla
colonial ships. Critical systems were doubled and tripled compared to civilian
ships, or spaced widely apart between armored bulkheads. The ships were armed
with heavy batteries of capital missile launchers to smite any foe with
nuclear warheads; batteries of heavy lasers to gun down armed shuttles that
slipped past escorts; point-defense batteries to deal with nuclear warheads;
and giant lasers to provide secondary anti-shipping firepower and endless
orbital bombardment.

Killer SATs were not envisaged as a space-dominating battleships, though. That
was for the gun-laden Puerto Rico-class battleships and the swifter
Orlando-class cruisers. Rather, the Saturns were assault transports that could
deliver an entire heavy combined arms regiment to defend American colonies
from Separatists or suppress Separatist colonies.

To accomplish this, the Saturns carried a wing of armed shuttles, plus an
additional squadron of transport shuttles. They also carried six mammoth
DropShips (up to 5000 tons) able to deliver entire armored companies each.

Those DropShips and shuttles were only secondary to the heavy regiment of the
Saturn. A full battalion of heavy armor, three battalions of light armor
(primarily IFVs for infantry squads), and a regiment of infantry for the IFVs
(with mass budgets of motorized infantry) gave a Saturn a significant landing
force. They had to be painstakingly loaded into the assault DropShips during
the approach to a planet, but a squadron of Saturns could usually seize a
respectable spacehead on a rebellious planet in minutes.

The Saturn's capabilities were bottlenecked by the lack of modern-style
docking collars. Its DropShip bays, such as they were, required internal
transfers of troops from their bays into the DropShips before deployment.
Ideological successors like the Potemkin could release their troops much more
rapidly.

On the other hand, the Saturn - named partly in reference to the famous
American moonships and partly for its "ringed" appearance of its 100-meter
diameter gravdecks around the narrow core - provided very comfortable quarters
for its complement of 2000+ crew and ground troops. Permanent quarters were
located in the four gravdecks because the Saturns spent most of their lives in
freefall. The gravdecks could be halted and quarters quickly reconfigured for
week-long system transits. Critical areas of the ship had nearby escape pods /
life boats, re-entry capable pods with inflateable living sections to make
long spaceflights tolerable, and the gravdecks consisted of hundreds of
similar pods that could be scattered when the ship was crippled.

==Battle History:==
None. The Saturns entered service after the last Terran Separatists were
annexed and before the Terran Alliance encountered foreign threats.

==Variants:==
The last four Saturns reversed their bow and stern weapon bays after years of
simulated combat revealed the Saturns most often fired on enemies while being
in the lead of stern chases, or hovered stern-first over bombardment targets.
The ships were scrapped before this variant could be standardized.

==Deployment==
The last independent administrations of the United States envisaged dozens of
Saturns being deployed in squadrons of 2 to 6 ships because their troop
capacity was relatively modest compared to historical oceanic troop
transports. In fact, only 12 were completed and they mostly served
individually, with none of the evisaged Puerto Rico and Orlando-class escorts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Saturn 
Mass:              240,000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass  
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                       28,800.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 2
      Maximum Thrust: 3
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive:  Compact (Integrity = 6)                108,600.00
Jump Sail: No Sail (Fusion-Charged K-F)                                   .00
Structural Integrity: 25                                             6,000.00
Total Heat Sinks:    1,285 Single                                    1,000.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                   6,120.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                600.00
Fire Control Computers:                                                   .00
Armor Type:  Improved Ferro-aluminum  (114 total armor pts)            119.50
                           Capital Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                 21
   Fore-Left/Right:                   18/18
   Aft-Left/Right:                    18/18
   Aft:                                  21

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Small Craft (25) with 2 doors                             5,000.00
   Bay 2:  Press Repair Facil. (6-5,000 T Capy, 6 doors)             2,250.00
           Heavy Vehicles (51-100T) (40)                             4,000.00
           Light Vehicles (to 50T) (120)                             6,000.00
           Infantry (motor) Platoons (30)                              210.00
           Cargo (1)                                                27,984.50

Grav Decks #1 - 4:  (100-meter diameter)                               400.00
Life Boats:  700 (10 tons each)                                      7,000.00

Crew and Passengers:
     25 Officers (21 minimum)                                          250.00
     75 Crew (68 minimum)                                              750.00
     32 Gunners (32 minimum)                                           320.00
  2,000 1st Class Passengers                                        20,000.00
  1,885 Bay Personnel                                                     .00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 NL55                     Nose        22     22     22     22  340  4,400.00
2 AR10 (20 KW)             Nose         *      *      *      *   40  1,500.00
2 AR10 (20 KW)             Nose         *      *      *      *   40  1,500.00
4 AMS(240 rounds)          Nose        --     --     --     --    4     22.00
4 Large Laser              Nose     3(32)  3(32)     --     --   32     20.00
4 Large Laser              Nose     3(32)  3(32)     --     --   32     20.00
4 AMS(240 rounds)          FL/R        --     --     --     --    8     44.00
4 Large Laser              FL/R     3(32)  3(32)     --     --   64     40.00
4 Large Laser              FL/R     3(32)  3(32)     --     --   64     40.00
2 AR10 (20 KW)             L/RBS        *      *      *      *   80  3,000.00
4 AMS(240 rounds)          L/RBS       --     --     --     --    8     44.00
4 Large Laser              L/RBS    3(32)  3(32)     --     --   64     40.00
4 Large Laser              L/RBS    3(32)  3(32)     --     --   64     40.00
4 AMS(240 rounds)          AL/R        --     --     --     --    8     44.00
4 Large Laser              AL/R     3(32)  3(32)     --     --   64     40.00
4 Large Laser              AL/R     3(32)  3(32)     --     --   64     40.00
2 NL55                     Aft         11     11     11     11  170  2,200.00
2 AR10 (20 KW)             Aft          *      *      *      *   40  1,500.00
4 AMS(240 rounds)          Aft         --     --     --     --    4     22.00
4 Large Laser              Aft      3(32)  3(32)     --     --   32     20.00
4 Large Laser              Aft      3(32)  3(32)     --     --   32     20.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                            Heat: 1,254     240,000.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        2,226,336,000 C-Bills
Battle Value:      32,418
Cost per BV:       68,675.92
Weapon Value:      17,617 (Ratio = .54)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 1,227;  MRV = 1,039;  LRV = 527;  ERV = 211
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 463,694
                   (56,000 Structure, 355,710 Life Support, 51,984 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 157,441  (34% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      Not applicable