Retry
05/17/18 11:54 PM
174.70.184.145
|
The loss of most of the MHI Standard Helicopter plans and prototype to invading Jihadists was a substantial setback to the AFFS's plans to expand the VTOL force, and to the section of Michaelson Heavy Industries still based in Federated Suns territory. With all of the heavy industrial equipment needed to produce the Standard Helicopter series captured by the Word of Blake on Ruchbah, the AFFS was left with a completely unfulfilled contract for Omni-helicopters. MHI suggested that they could fulfill this contract using their military complexes on June to build heavily modified Cavalry and Warrior frames to carry a modified turret from surviving plans and heavily modified versions of the 100 SFE developed and refined from the Cobra helicopter. With both the Cavalry and Warrior being reputable designs, the proposal was accepted.
The Cavalry-based platform became the Drake and the Warrior-based platform became the Cockatrice. Despite both being lighter and faster than the MHI Standard Helicopter (which would become the Wyvern under WoB service), their reliability and maintenance gains were more meager than expected, with modifications to the Drake's powerplant souping up the engine power (and the Cockatrice's replacement of the 100 SFE with a stock 70 SFE from purchased Ripper VTOLs) coming at the cost of the pre-prepared reliable 100 SFEs causing some problems like decreasing service life and increasing maintenance requirements to more typical numbers. The Drake and Cockatrice both could only carry 2/3rds of the weapons payload of the Wyvern, and the severely downsized turret mechanism could only carry 5 tons of ordnance. Many of their non-combat centered configurations, the Cargo Hauler in particular, were simply limited in their carrying capacity and frequently demonstrated to be insufficient for the types of jobs that the original MHI Standard Helicopter's Cargo Hauler was designed for.
While lacking the sheer number of combat and non-combat roles that they could fill, there were several key roles that either could perform better, primarily related to the speed of the craft (Swift infantry transportation and Med-Evac deserving special mention), which combined with the relatively low cost of the design resulted in authorization for mass production in 3073.
Trouble came to the designs similarly to the MHI Standard Helicopter when the Malagrotta Cooperative, a short-lived Periphery splinter state, took control of June in 3075. The AFFS quickly retook the planet and ended the Cooperative's existence but not before the Drake & Cockatrice industrial complexes were razed by Cooperative Troops.
While the complexes were eventually rebuilt and production restarted, opinion within the AFFS drastically turned against the Omni-Helicopter project which seemed to be virtually cursed. Enough Drakes and Cockatrices were built to replace Cavalry and Warrior units and the rest were sold in the export market, with the AFFS abandoning the idea of switching out their entire VTOL fleet with Omni-Helicopters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Drake Omni-Helicopter Base
Base Tech Level: Experimental (IS)
Level Era
Experimental 3073
Advanced 3073-3079
Standard 3080+
Tech Rating: E/X-F-F-D
Weight: 25 tons
BV: 246
Cost: 844,097 C-bills
Movement: 10/15 (VTOL)
Engine: 110
Internal: 18
Armor: 72
Internal Armor
Front 3 15
Right 3 15
Left 3 15
Rear 3 10
Rotor 3 2
Turret 3 15
Pod Space:
8 tons (5 in chin turret)
9 Slots
Variants:
Prime
ER Large Laser (Chin Turret)
C3 Slave
A
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
SRM2 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
C3 Slave
B
5x SRM2 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (Front)
C
4x Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
Targeting Computer
C3 Slave
D
LRM-10 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (Front)
E
2x Medium X-Pulse Laser (Chin Turret)
Targeting Computer
C3 Slave
F
Clan UAC/2 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (front)
F2
Clan LB-2 X AC (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (front)
EW
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
TAG (Chin Turret)
Beagle Active Probe
Guardian ECM Suite
Foot Infantry Transport
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
Targeting Computer
3 tons pod Infantry space
BA Transport
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
4 tons pod Infantry space
Heavy BA Transport
8 tons pod Infantry space
Medium Field Kitchen
2x Field Kitchen
2 tons cargo space
Cargo Hauler
2x Lift Hoists (Front, Back)
Command
8 tons Communication Equipment
Medevac
8 tons Paramedic Equipment
-------------------------------------------------------------
Cockatrice Omni-Helicopter Base
Base Tech Level: Experimental (IS)
Level Era
Experimental 3073
Advanced 3073-3079
Standard 3080+
Tech Rating: E/X-F-F-D
Weight: 21 tons
BV: 179
Cost: 561,000 C-bills
Movement: 10/15 (VTOL)
Engine: 70
Internal: 18
Armor: 48
Internal Armor
Front 3 10
Right 3 10
Left 3 10
Rear 3 6
Rotor 3 2
Turret 3 10
Pod Space:
8 tons (5 in chin turret)
10 Slots
Variants:
Prime
ER Large Laser (Chin Turret)
C3 Slave
A
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
SRM2 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
C3 Slave
B
5x SRM2 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (Front)
C
4x Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
Targeting Computer
C3 Slave
D
LRM-10 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (Front)
E
2x Medium X-Pulse Laser (Chin Turret)
Targeting Computer
C3 Slave
F
Clan UAC/2 (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (front)
F2
Clan LB-2 X AC (Chin Turret) (1t Ammo)
2x ER Medium Laser (front)
EW
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
TAG (Chin Turret)
Beagle Active Probe
Guardian ECM Suite
Foot Infantry Transport
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
Targeting Computer
3 tons pod Infantry space
BA Transport
ER Medium Laser (Chin Turret)
Light PPC (Chin Turret)
4 tons pod Infantry space
Heavy BA Transport
8 tons pod Infantry space
Medium Field Kitchen
2x Field Kitchen
2 tons cargo space
Cargo Hauler
2x Lift Hoists (Front, Back)
Command
8 tons Communication Equipment
Medevac
8 tons Paramedic Equipment
|