Cray
04/08/04 06:52 PM
68.200.105.141
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Code:
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
VALIDATED
Class/Model/Name: Merchant Patrol Cutter Ford
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3067
Vessel Type: WarShip
Rules: Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
.
Mass: 250,000 tons
K-F Drive System: (Unknown)
Length: 350 meters
Sail Diameter: 1,000 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament:
16 NL55
16 AR10 Launcher
80 AMS
80 Large Laser
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==Overview:==
The (Henry) Ford-class "Merchant Patrol Cutter" was introduced in 2720, but it
is the culmination of centuries of "armed merchantmen" and "convoy escort
boats." The Ford-class Merchant Patrol Cutter was commissioned by General
Motors from its Nashan Diversified division's N&D Shipyards subdivision.
.
The Ford, like many other military-grade corporate "security assets" is
labeled with euphemisms to dance delicately around the subject that a
corporation (already bothersome to governments for being wealthier and more
powerful than Periphery nations) had significant military firepower. In this
case, the Ford is a "Merchant Patrol Cutter" rather than "Corvette."
.
Labels and government worries aside, the Fords (and kin) were built for a
definite purpose (at least one - some megacorps actually did want to rule
human space). Sure, some megacorps could huddle in the core of the Inner
Sphere, where six House militaries protected their operations, but real
corporations, the survivors and thrivers, did not huddle at home. They sought
out new markets, fringe markets...Periphery markets. There simply weren't
enough SLDF or House warships to suppress pirate threats in the Periphery, so
the bold megacorps had to be bolder and take matters into their own hands.
They would build warships (and fighters, and other military equipment) to
protect their assets far from Humanity's Cradle.
.
The Ford is one of the most powerful purpose-built corporate ships (several
megacorps operated larger hand-me-down House warships). It has enough "newtons
under the skirt" to pace merchant dropships and jumpships, and the firepower
to deal with pirate dropships and fighters. Its own fighter detachment was
usually adequate to protect a convoy (or intimidate Periphery planetary
governments). The Ford's capital-scale weaponry was of little use against real
warships, but it could rough up "armed merchantmen" and light warships typical
of the Periphery.
.
==Capabilities:==
The Fords are built around a Merchant-class JumpShip KF core with a compact
drive's controller and hyperspace field initiator. This limited its size, but
that suited GM executives concerned with the petty worries of House
governments. ("Oh, no, megacorps are building their own militaries. What next,
replacing planetary governments?" - Silly politicians. Megacorps had directly
controlled whole planets since 2137.) The long, narrow Fords show their
JumpShip heritage in their long, cylindrical format.
.
The striking arm of the Fords is its small array of capital weapons,
anti-fighter large lasers, and moderate fighter capacity. With a large fuel
capacity, sizable spare parts stores, and two dropship collars, Fords are
suited for dealing with pirate threats (and do a reasonable job of abusing
problems on planets not conducive to a megacorp's business plans), but not
front line combat.
.
Indeed, these warships are viewed as basically the "rent-a-cops" of warships
compared to "real" naval assets. They lack cutting edge technology like HPGs
and lithium-fusion batteries, advanced cooling systems, or ER lasers.
.
However, Fords (and other purpose-built corporate warships) tend to surprise
opponents. While on a large scale warships represent a small expense for
megacorps, they are sizable individual expense with a high profile and
important duty. Megacorps (or their security divisions) tended to recognize
that if they were going to drop billions of C-bills on a warship, then it
would be reasonable to hire personnel appropriate for the job. Not a few
retiring veteran House and SLDF crewmen (and fighter pilots) would find their
way onto corporate warships, particularly those with good service records.
Considering the alternative was civilian freighters and passenger liners (or
completely planetbound jobs), signing up for a corporate warship at civilian
payscales was quite attractive. Pirates, then, often found themselves facing
veterans with a decade or more of military experience who were more than a
little pissed at having their boring, safe civilian jobs interrupted by
bloodthirsty pirates.
.
The Fords are definitely optimized for long patrols, loitering near flotillas
of recharging jumpships at jump points. Crew quarters are roomy and
well-appointed. The large-diameter gravdeck consists of a pair of modules that
are reeled out on tethers (with an elevator tube) and rotated around the
equator of the ship. The gravdeck has quarters for 500 individuals, 250 per
module. The tracks that gravdeck rotates on are vulnerable to battle damage -
more than a few Fords have been stuck with zero-G quarters after a sizable
micrometeorite strike or pirate attack. Roomier, luxury quarters are provided
outside the gravdeck (for visiting executives, of course), but Fords mostly
spend their time at jump points, which leaves these in zero-G.
.
==Deployment==
General Motors initially deployed a dozen Ford-class Merchant Patrol Cutters
to protect its convoys to the major Periphery nations. The success of the
cutters inspired other megacorps to purchase Fords, until over five dozen were
in operation.
.
At the outbreak of the Amaris Coup, GM and other megacorps commissioned
additional "merchant patrol cutters," until (records suggest) over
corporations operated over 200 warships. These warships lasted about as long
as a snowball in Hell when the First Succession began and the Houses targeted
enemies' abilities to wage interstellar war - including civilian jumpship
convoys.
.
Of course, none exist today. The megacorps of the Inner Sphere in the 3060s
couldn't possibly muster the paltry tens of billions of C-bills necessary to
establish secret shipyards (or hire existing shipyards) to build warships.
.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name: Merchant Patrol Cutter Ford
Mass: 250,000 tons
.
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 45,000.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive: Compact (Integrity = 7) 113,125.00
Jump Sail: (Integrity = 3) 42.00
Structural Integrity: 75 18,750.00
Total Heat Sinks: 2,500 Single 2,155.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 5,100.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 625.00
Fire Control Computers: 88.00
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum (273 total armor pts) 374.50
Capital Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 52
Fore-Left/Right: 45/45
Aft-Left/Right: 45/45
Aft: 41
.
Cargo:
Bay 1: Fighters (20) with 3 doors 3,000.00
Bay 2: Small Craft (4) with 2 doors 800.00
Bay 3: Cargo (1) with 2 doors 16,580.50
.
DropShip Capacity: 2 Docking Hardpoints 2,000.00
Grav Deck #1: (2000-meter diameter) 500.00
Escape Pods: 120 (7 tons each) 840.00
.
Crew and Passengers:
40 Officers (32 minimum) 400.00
100 Crew (55 minimum) 1,000.00
60 Gunners (59 minimum) 600.00
240 1st Class Passengers 2,400.00
60 Marines 600.00
60 Bay Personnel .00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 NL55 Nose 11 11 11 11 170 2,200.00
2 NL55 Nose 11 11 11 11 170 2,200.00
4 AR10 (20 KW, 20 B) Nose * * * * 80 2,600.00
20 AMS(240 rounds) FL/R -- -- -- -- 40 60.00
20 Large Laser FL/R 16(160)16(160) -- -- 320 200.00
2 NL55 L/RBS 11 11 11 11 340 4,400.00
2 NL55 L/RBS 11 11 11 11 340 4,400.00
4 AR10 (20 KW, 20 B) L/RBS * * * * 160 5,200.00
20 AMS(240 rounds) AL/R -- -- -- -- 40 60.00
20 Large Laser AL/R 16(160)16(160) -- -- 320 200.00
2 NL55 Aft 11 11 11 11 170 2,200.00
2 NL55 Aft 11 11 11 11 170 2,200.00
4 AR10 (20 KW, 20 B) Aft * * * * 80 2,600.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (3.00%) 7,500.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 2,400 250,000.00
Tons Left: .00
.
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 3,324,836,000 C-Bills
Battle Value: 57,233
Cost per BV: 58,092.99
Weapon Value: 33,871 (Ratio = .59)
Damage Factors: SRV = 2,200; MRV = 1,856; LRV = 1,098; ERV = 440
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 484,477
(123,085 Structure, 264,312 Life Support, 97,080 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 540,000 (111% of MPV)
BattleForce2: Not applicable
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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Cray
04/09/04 08:25 AM
147.160.1.5
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Incidentally, the production shipyards for the Ford should be, "Alarion Unlimited's Henderson shipyards," not the Nashan shipyards. Nashan picked up the shipyards in ~3012, long after the Ford was out of production.
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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Cray
11/30/13 10:54 PM
97.101.96.171
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Bump. A ship that isn't 2.5 megatons.
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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Karagin
12/01/13 12:55 AM
24.243.178.124
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Retry there are more on the site, you just need to look through the posting. I have posted a lot of ships of all weight classes. Just as Cray has.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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ATN082268
12/01/13 04:58 AM
69.21.96.245
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Quote:
I know there are more. It was a bit of an overstatement. It seems like half of the warships are completely maxed in tons.
Even I, who like to design big ships, have posted Warships less than 2.5 million tons a few entries down on this page like the Basilisk and Tiamat. I wouldn't get too hung up on tonnage as it seems to have little effect on things like cost and speed of Warship. Just post what you like to design 
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Cray
12/01/13 09:32 AM
97.101.96.171
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Quote:
Though why doesn't it have more thrust? For something 1/10th the size of those massive beasts it's not much faster.
Several reasons, some noted in the fluff:
1) It is a Star League-era WarShip. "Swift" SLDF battlecruisers sometimes had 2/3 thrust. 3/5 was common among most designs of ships in the era, with a few exceptions reaching 4/6.
2) It was meant to escort Star League-era civilian ships (with 0.2 thrust points) from Star League-era pirates, which either operated with DropShips (mostly 3/5) or clandestinely-provided, cheap, archaic WarShips from Houses (mostly 2/3 to 3/5). Having any sort of capital firepower lurking near a merchant convoy would scare off most of the Hidden War "pirate" contractors used by Houses.
3) Most importantly, it's supposed to be cheap and not a cutting-edge ship. High performance military engines were not appropriate. This is a destroyer escort or corvette built to nearly civilian standards. House militaries would get antsy about highly capable escorts in the hands of civilians.
4) A rules / math reason: small WarShips are actually worse for having high acceleration. The engine mass is fixed (6% of ship's weight per thrust point), as are most other significant structural masses. But while a 240,000-ton ship with 3/5 thrust and a 2,400,000-ton ship with 3/5 thrust can have about the same percentages of their mass leftover for weapons and payload, the 2,400,000-ton ship has a much larger absolute mass to work with. The 240-kiloton ship cannot afford to shed 14,400 tons for another thrust point as easily as the 2.4-megaton ship can shed 144,000 tons.
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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