NOT ASKING FOR SPECIFIC DESIGNS, link them from the proper place if you want
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With that out of the way . . . in the 2nd MWDA novel we get the description of a 'new' type of dropship- the Civilian Conversions. As part of Stone's swords-to-plowshares mentality and general de-militarization, military dropships were converted to civilian applications While not given specifics, some weapons and cubicles were removed to give more cargo space carrying capacity . . . and perhaps some armor depending on the ship. The only two classes specifically mentioned in the MWDA fiction were for a Okinawa and a Overlord though the implication was the program was carried out across the 'fleet' of dropships.
But what would they lose? What other changes might occur?
Let's look at the Okinawa over all . . . they had a design shift that increased the armor to the nose . . . probably easy to remove that 'extra' armor that was placed on the nose. But what about the interior? The design originally carries 18 fighters- and the CC adaptation did not rebuild the ship in such a way they could not go back to carrying fighters. The known example was effectively a Steel Wolf Q-ship, traffic control still thought it was a Okinawa CC . . . right up until it started launching fighters. So the hull & decks were not altered in such a way to remove any future use as a carrier. I would suggest that both flight decks had all the ASF cubicles removed and perhaps 1 or 2 small craft cubicles put in place per deck. This converts something like 18 fighter cubicles to 2300t of cargo.
Which is a start, but it is still a 'combat' DS . . . and by the CC description the weapons were reduced. With 13 large energy weapons (ERLL, ERPPC, LPL) and mixed missile racks it is a lighter armament than some but I do not know that it compares to other 'civilian' DS of equipped weapons. Closest pure civilian DS I can find is the Bucaneer, which has 1 LL, 1 LRM5 and 6 ML though its aerodyne and 1kt lighter- also 13 tons armor vs the Okinawa's 43. So to convert IMO the Okinawa would go to at best go to 3 large energy weapons with the other mounts getting MLs or ending up vacant. The missiles would lose their Artemis IV with the 20s being removed while the 10s stay. The SRM6s totally removed . . . and the Streaks stay as a 'cheap' addition? The energy weapons would give up about 50 tons, over 40 tons for missile launchers . . . and the bigger savings would be pulling the extra DHS- 87 would no longer be needed.
I would suggest that officer, crew, and gunner quarters no longer needed would become passenger quarters- basically the rooms were just repurposed. Granted it is not really a great merchant ship, but with a post-war (lots of wars) loss in shipping- especially when the Jihad would target freighters compared to the Clan invasion- it gets some freight moving instead of having to wait years for new freighters. Of course the Overlord would end up moving more freight when converted.
So what do you think would be involved in a Civilian Conversion of military transport DS? Keep in mind both of the two known examples were re-militarized without much difficulty- mostly just time and sourcing weapons.
