Cray
02/02/07 08:28 AM
147.160.136.10
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Related to the GE SSF-1 submarine thread: http://www.sarna.net/forums/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/27701/page/0
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AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout VALIDATED . Class/Model/Name: A-3 Strike Fighter Tech: Inner Sphere / 3067 Vessel Type: Conventional Fighter Rules: Level 2, Standard design Rules Set: AeroTech2 . 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ==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. . 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. . 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... . 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. . 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.) . ==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. . 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. . 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. . ==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. . 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. . 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. . 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. . ==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. . 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. . ==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. . ==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. . 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. .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TOTALS: Heat: 0 30.00 Tons Left: .00 . 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
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
Edited by Cray (02/02/07 08:28 AM)
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strife
02/05/07 09:31 AM
80.122.168.213
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What the? Its got a fusion engine and no energy weapons? It looks weak and really easy to blow up. You could make a 70-rated ICE VTOL that'd out-do this thing in every catagory.... I don't get it.
"caliber fifty JUSTICE!"
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Karagin
02/05/07 07:58 PM
70.123.166.36
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Welcome to the issues and problems and built in disadvantages of the conventional fighters and their consturction rules...again why I think the SV rules that allow bigger weights and really MORE useful ways of making them, should force a revision of the ConFighter construction rules...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Cray
02/07/07 08:39 AM
147.160.136.10
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What the? Its got a fusion engine and no energy weapons?
Read the variants again. The RL15s are easy to swap out for a triplet of medium lasers.
However, that's a risky variant unless you're attacking opponents with no substantial anti-air capabilities because as you observed, this is weak and really easy to blow up. Thus the primary weaponry is a heavy load of one-shot weaponry and the bombs, which maximize its damage output during the brief moments it can survive on the battlefield.
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It looks weak and really easy to blow up.
Of course. It's a light conventional fighter. It's not something that stays on the battlefield and gets into a slugging match with assault mechs. It's supposed to drop onto a battlefield, fire 145 rockets and drop 6 bombs on something in need of indiscriminate justice, and leave before it gets shot down. Speed is life.
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You could make a 70-rated ICE VTOL that'd out-do this thing in every catagory.... I don't get it.
No, the VTOL wouldn't outdo this is in every category. The VTOL wouldn't be able to fly across a continent, like this can; the VTOL wouldn't be able to operate at mach 2 for several hours, like this can; the VTOL wouldn't be able to drop onto a Battletech map board for one turn and obliterate an invading dropship in one pass, like a squadron of these can; and the VTOL wouldn't be able to evacuate the average battlefield in one turn.
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again why I think the SV rules that allow bigger weights and really MORE useful ways of making them, should force a revision of the ConFighter construction rules...
When you build a fixed wing support vehicle that truly outperforms the best a conventional fighter can manage, then I'll agree. But so far you haven't come up with any winning examples. The best you did was the Torrent, and that had to be 200 tons to have less weaponry and slightly more bomb load than a 50-ton MechBuster.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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