AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED
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Class/Model/Name:  A-3 Strike Fighter 
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 3067
Vessel Type:       Conventional Fighter
Rules:             Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2
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Mass:              30 tons
Power Plant:       180 Fusion
Safe Thrust:       6
Maximum Thrust:    9
Armor Type:        Standard
Armament:          
    1 Machine Gun
    3 RL 15 (OS)
   10 RL 10 (OS)
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==Overview:==
The wholesale acquisition of Lopez in the Duchy of Andurien actually caught
General Electric offguard. True, the Count of Lopez was in debt to GE, but the
situation had looked manageable and the debt payments would buoy GE's profits
for years to come. Lopez was stable (and a wealthy water planet), meaning the
Count received a steady income from taxes, meaning the Count's loans to GE
would be paid off. 
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However, the creeping effects of the Captain-General's dissolution of internal
trade boundaries within the FWL caught up with Lopez, and how. More aggressive
companies outside the Duchy had snapped up Lopez's light industrial markets as
the Duchy's trade barriers were dissolved. The cumulative effects piled onto
Lopez in a fierce depression in 3060. By 3062, the Count was in default on his
loans. A bright boy in GE's accounting division noted this and the
implications. In whirlwind exchange of in-house memos, GE's board of directors
approved the Count's "debt adjustment" and acquired Lopez  (its government, at
least) as a wholy-owned subsidiary. 
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While GE is a true giant of corporations in the Inner Sphere, it is a diffuse,
low-key corporation compared to the military giants of Defiance, CeresMetals,
GM, and Federated Boeing. Its profits are certainly on par with those other
corporations, but staggering profits from refrigerators, steam turbines and
x-ray/convection ovens just do not get the press time that the sale of a dozen
battlemechs or a new warship design does. It also does not engender a
corporate culture ready to take over the management of planets. 
.
Thus it took about 4 years of setting up a new Planetary Management bureau and
identifying managers suitable for the job before GE finally began truly
"ruling" Lopez. From 3060 to 3064, it had more or less allowed the former
Count's bureaucracy to run on its own inertia and maintain old policies and
old habits. This worked surprisingly well - in the "absolute monarchy" of the
former Count, the bureaucracy ran everything while the Count intervened in
whatever caught his attention, which meant very little overall interference
for a planet with a population of 4 billion. However, the Count and former
feudal government was necessary for some things, particularly the militia.
When GE flexed its policy-making muscles and looked at how it could "bring
good things to life" (i.e. improve profits), it noted the militia was almost
entirely absent. Oaths to the count and barons had lapsed, executive orders
were needed for decision making, and personal funds from the count's successor
were needed. 
.
This was actually rather thrilling to GE, or rather its executives. They were
having FUN ruling a planet, and now they got to build an army! They'd never
really had an army before. A security division had of a lot of rentacops and
some elite body guards, yes, but not an ARMY. And taxpayers could be made to
pay for it rather than paying for it out of the corporate budget. Well, sort
of. Lopez's taxes were now, technically speaking, part of GE's budgets. But
taxes could be raised and a tiny adjustment of Lopez's tax rates to the tune
of less than a C-bill per subject provided a vast military budget.
Muahahahahahahaha... 
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Through a convoluted decision making process heavily influenced by the desire
to make Lopez's economy more profitable for GE, the decision was made to
harness Lopez's native light industries for the construction of the militia.
One of these products was the GE A-3 Medium Strike Fighter. 
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A noted light aircraft manufacturer with an innovative, even radical chief
design (Burt Turan) who had been selling business jets to GE for years (well
before the Lopez acquisition) was contracted to build a conventional fighter
that fit into the stragetic defense plans of the new GE-Lopez Security
Division. (And as proof to leery businesses in the Duchy that GE wasn't going
to takeover ALL businesses but rather stick to its normal markets and this new
"government management contract", GE didn't even buy Burt Turan's company.)
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==Capabilities:==
The end result was surprisingly staid in some ways, borrowing from the
user-friendly Guardian maintenance systems and repairability design. The air
frame was rather unique and designed for ease of manufacture and repair, too.
The design was naturally a VSTOL - the vehicle needed to be independent of
large, fixed landing fields. The over-wing air intakes for the engine's
reaction chamber minimized the risk of foreign object damage when landing on
dirt or grass fields. The high landing gear was suitable for landing on rough
fields. Noting the short life of conventional fighters against enemy fire,
Turan designed the A-3 with low ammo endurance, high potency weapons - rocket
launchers and bomb racks. An obligatory MG was added as an integral weapon,
though it's of little use against armored opponents.
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On the other hand, the ability to loiter before "shooting its wad" was deemed
valuable, so the A-3 received huge fuel tanks and an in-flight refuelign
system. It was armored as heavily as possible to the extent it could endure a
PPC or class-10 AC hit on the nose or a large laser hit on the wings, but was
considerably more vulnerable from the stern. The redundant, multi-load path
structural design meant that catastrophic failures were unlikely - even when
shot to heck, the pilot would almost certainly be able to eject before the A-3
fell apart. 
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Turan took advantage of GE's opening of a fusion engine factory on Lopez to
make the A-3 truly independent of all but inexpensive ammo. As Lopez was a
water planet, the A-3's engine and fuel tanks included thermal water
distillers and desalinization systems to fill the tanks with "fuel": distilled
water reaction mass. For planets with scarcer water supplies, the ability to
use liquid hydrocarbons (kerosene, diesel, etc.), alcohol, ammonia, or other
light liquids as reaction mass was included. The A-3H variant is a
considerably bulkier (but no more massive) version with reaction mass tanks
for the militias and militaries that prefer to use liquid hydrogen as reaction
mass. The A-3H includes a powerful electrolyzer and liquification unit to
convert local water supplies to liquid hydrogen. 
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==Battle History:==
During the Jihad, squadrons and wings of A-3s would dive on landing/grounded
WoB dropships that had expected to find nigh-defenseless worlds. (Without
proper feudal leadership and a "corporate government" interested in profit,
the WoBblies apparently theorized that the planets of the Duchy would not have
expensive, unprofitable militaries. This was also a sign that WoB was not
omnipotent in its infiltration and information gathering.) Thousands of
dumbfire rockets and dozens of bombs could wreck even the toughest dropships,
even if it meant dozens of fragile A-3s were burned out of the air.
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The A-3's were critical in the Duchy's defense for destroying so many WoB
dropships, but they were overshadowed by the contribution of GE's Public
Relations Department. The PDR was not just responsible for selling goods (and
propaganda), it was responsible for finding out what the people wanted. The
PDR (now given new powers and support since GE was the Duchy's government) was
extremely good at polling and investigating consumer habits to better tailor
sales to them. With its vast web of consumer tracking software on planetary
computer networks and near-AI data filtering, the PDR could spot a shift in
consumer habits from (literally) 1000 miles away.
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So when the Jihad came to Andurien and sleeper WoB agents were activated
across the dozen planets of the Duchy, the PDR spotted their unusual
spending/e-mailing/phoning/movement habits immediately. It's estimated half of
all WoB agents were killed by local police before they could launch their
"revolutions" and terror attacks based on PDR information.
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The other half, of course, caused some trouble and aided the surviving WoB
troops on the ground. But that was fine - the PDR found them, too, and when
local police found themselves facing a level II unit of mechs, a wing of A-3s
were called in to bomb the invaders and traitors out of existence.
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==Variants:==
Turan's innovative design makes it easy to replace the rocket launchers with
SRM 2s, SRM 4s or LRM 5s and a ton of ammo. (Simple: they're in underwing pods
between the bomb racks.) LRM-equipped A-3s are popular with the Lopez-GE
"Asset Protection Division" for laying down minefields and anti-infantry
fragmentation missiles. SRM 2s are considered great fun when loaded with
Infernos. Change out of weapon systems takes about 6 hours "by the book," but
field exercises have shown dramatic reductions in this time. 
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The 30000 CB, 1-ton RL-15s are easily replaced by 30000 CB, 1-ton medium
lasers to improve the A-3's strafing capabilities.
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==Notable Vessels & Crews:==
There were hundreds of courageous pilots who flew their fragile A-3s against
military units that could smite them - and their entire squadron - from the
air in seconds, and yet they did anyway. Their sacrifices and victories
stopped the WoB Jihad in the Duchy of Andurien before it really began.
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==Deployment==
The inexpensive and simple A-3 was produced in large quantities throughout the
3060s and assigned to "subsidiary Asset Protection Division departments"
(militias). Most planets within the Duchy of Andurien had several hundred by
the time of the Jihad, and they proved their worth several times over...to
everyone's surprise.
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One of the advantages of the water-"fueled" A-3s was their inexpensive ammo
and "fuel." This (and militia pilots - "weekend warriors" - who remained in
this latter-day "air national guard" for decades) meant that A-3 pilots tended
to be good gunners and pilots almost wasted on this conventional fighter.
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Class/Model/Name:  A-3 Strike Fighter 
Mass:              30 tons

Equipment:                                                              Mass
Power Plant:  180 Fusion                                                 7.00
Engine Shielding:                                                        3.50
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 6
      Maximum Thrust: 9
Structural Integrity: 6                                                   .00
VSTOL Equipment:                                                         1.50
Total Heat Sinks:    10 Single                                            .00
Fuel:                                                                    4.00
Cockpit, Avionics & Attitude Thrusters:                                  3.00
Armor Type:  Standard  (30 total armor pts)                              2.00
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Nose:                                 10
   Left/Right Wings:                   8/8
   Aft:                                   4

Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
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1 Machine Gun              Nose         2     --     --     --    0       .50
  Ammo (MG) 100            ---                                            .50
1 RL 15 (OS)               Nose         9      9     --     --    0      1.00
1 RL 15 (OS)               Nose         9      9     --     --    0      1.00
1 RL 15 (OS)               Nose         9      9     --     --    0      1.00
1 RL 10 (OS)               RW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               LW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               RW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               LW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               RW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               LW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               RW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               LW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               RW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
1 RL 10 (OS)               LW           6      6     --     --    0       .50
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TOTALS:                                                     Heat: 0     30.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00
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Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        822,365 C-Bills
Battle Value:      506
Cost per BV:       1,625.23
Weapon Value:      623 (Ratio = 1.23)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 74;  MRV = 51;  LRV = 0;  ERV = 0
BattleForce2:      MP: 6,  Armor/Structure: 1 / 0
                   Damage PB/M/L: -/-/-,  Overheat: 0
                   Class: FL;  Point Value: 5