Vehicle of the Week: Sea Skimmer HydrofoilOver the years, the wet navy as a general concept has waned significantly over time, and frequently, the Inner Sphere relied on hovercraft, air power, and arming commercial designs to get the job done. In the case of the Sea Skimmer, a combination of money and noble interest was used to get military-grade gear from Skye Pleasure Craft, Ltd., on Skye. The specifics go something along the lines of back in 2867, a group of young Lyrans floated the idea of forming their own militia unit to avoid the incipient draft under the Military Disaster Act, and the LCAF agreed to the prospect after suitable political pressure was applied by Skye nobles. (Whether or not those nobles happened to be related to any of the youths in question is something TRO3039 tactfully declines to comment on.) The 348th Reserve Detachment stood up within three months to begin patrolling the local waterways and escorting civilian pleasure craft out of what is, no doubt, patriotic fervor and a desire to provide for the common defense. Until 2895, despite frequent maneuvers with civilian observers and a generous allotment of consumables, the unit saw no action, but then the Combine invaded. Demolition devices of the nuclear variety were delivered by two Sea Skimmers in a suicide mission in a desperate bid to flood Kuritan lines as they threatened Inverness by dropping the Mantty River Dam. Although one was destroyed in a collision with a Kuritan
Wasp as it stood up after being knocked off balance by SRM spreads, the other speedy Sea Skimmer was able to deliver its payload. The only notable Sea Skimmer other than those unnamed vessels is the Tiger Lily, dispatched by Duke Kelswa-Steiner to assist in the rebellion against the Kuritans. It was destroyed by units from the First Shin Legion while providing spotting data for the Dragonslayers mercenary unit. Lately, though, some more advanced models of the Sea Skimmer have turned up.
The basic model of the Sea Skimmer is fast and, well, that's about the most notable thing to say. At 25 tons, it's certainly not very big, and the hydrofoil naval motive type means it's (naturally) restricted to the water, although the small size does mean it can get into most water hexes without needing to worry too much about bottom clearance. A Skye Engines 150 ICE provides the power to drive it at a blistering 194 kph, over 104 knots, and it can outrun a fair number of VTOLs, to say nothing of most hovercraft or WiGEs. Unfortunately, that's where the really impressive part stops. The Glasgow Limited standard plate is exactly what it says with two tons arranged 9/7/4/5. A PPC or AC/10 blast to the side can blow you right out of the water. The armament is so-so, with a Coventry 4 Tube SRM launcher in the turret and three Sperry Browning machine guns, one on each side and one fixed aft. The SRMs have a single ton of ammo, while the MGs split a half-ton of ammo.
No production variants were built until much later, but some militia units were known to use different launcher arrangements. The only common ones either replaced all the machine gun mounts with an SRM 2 on each side and the turret with two SRM 2s or pulled the side MGs to upgrade the turret launcher to an SRM 6.
If you were wondering where the LRM variant was, well, apparently Skye Pleasure Craft picked up on that idea. Eventually. But when they did, the designer Robert Holburn picked up on it in spades based on the results of his changes in XTRO: Corporations. The engine was exchanged for a fusion power plant to get tonnage for a change of weapons. (It also increases blue water operating radius for those of you concerned about things like that.) The armor was upgraded with the use of heavy ferro-fibrous composites, although with still only two tons to work with, you're still only getting an armor arrangement of 9/8/8/6. Still, it helps significantly. The weapons were entirely replaced by a single extended LRM 5 launcher with a single ton of ammunition for 18 shots (seven tons of weapon and ammo for those of you counting at home). Despite the remarks by the StarCorps analysts, I think they were on to something here. Yes, it's underarmored, although compared to your standard APC or the older Sea Skimmers, it's an improvement. Yes, it's no longer suitable for light coast guard duties because of the loss of close-in weapons. But the sheer reach has its uses for bombardment, AA, and harassment duties.
Judging from TRO Prototypes, I'm not the only one who thought so. When the Word visited Skye, the Sniper variants roused from Skye Pleasure Craft's drydocks were the most successful Sea Skimmers in the conflict, with their most notable victory being routing a Word of Blake artillery battery with fire from their ELRMs. In the aftermath, Skye Pleasure Craft made some tweaks as they worked to get the ELRM launchers into production. The speed was reduced to 162 kph (requiring a mere 100-rated Hermes standard fusion engine), providing the tonnage to increase the ArcShield HFF by 50% to a 13/12/12/10 arrangement that's significantly more survivable provided the Sea Skimmer does its best to evade enemies getting into range. The engine may be a bit underpowered (it has a Poor Performance quirk), but the Coventry Comet ELRM 10 (the other gain from the speed drop) with 18 shots has the Accurate Weapon quirk to compensate and two tons of ammunition for your harassment needs.
The original Sea Skimmers are suitable as coast guard units but against heavier foes, they need to be rammed down someone's throat. You can use them as cheap screening units for larger blue water craft, although you'll need to use them in groups to have enough firepower to decisively force marauding hovercraft or VTOLs down with a flurry of SRM hits. The lack of torpedoes means you can't engage below the water line (or target submarines), but you can engage hovers or VTOLs, so it's a bit of a wash. The ELRM variants are very different animals (albeit ones that could stand some support from a couple of their older kin). Keep them at a distance (you have to given the minimum range and half damage inside it) and use the incredible range of the ELRM to pepper someone with fire and keep yourself out of terrain that's going to drastically limit your movement options. It also gives you a staggering range basket for AA duty as a screening unit in support of other naval vessels, although the number of engagements where that sort of use is a major factor is limited.
Countering Sea Skimmers is relatively tricky. The number of things that can run them down is relatively limited unless they get too close to the shoreline and run out of room to evade. That means a lot of shots if they decide to go evasive are going to be at long range and bad modifiers. On the other hand, even IS pulse lasers will suffice to keep the SRM models at arm's length. The ELRM variants are going to be a pain because they don't need or want to get close to engage. Given the room to maneuver, I honestly think the original Sea Skimmer Sniper is arguably the harder model to kill because of the greater speed, but at 10/15, the Sea Skimmer (ELRM) is still not exactly slow, and in open terrain, either one's going to be able to engage before the enemy can in most circumstances. A pass by conventional fighters hauling bombs (which don't care about the target's movement modifiers) isn't a bad answer but be prepared to get sniped at in return.
References: The
Master Unit List is an excellent starting point as ever, while
the Wiki has some different artwork. The sole example on CamoSpecs is from the
Kraken Unleashed mercenary unit.
