Fortress (Defender) - OR - Can One DropShip Do Everything?

[Giovanni Blasini]

OK, having looked at the Outpost Defender again today, and reading the assault DropShip discussion, I started thinking: can you have one DropShip do it all?

By "do it all", I meant:

• 'Mech transport
• Vehicle transport
• Infantry transport
• Fighter carrier
• Space assault
• Planetary defense
• Ground artillery support/counter-battery artillery/air defense
• Forward staging base

This is hardly optimized.  Mainly, I dropped the nose gauss rifle bay, added on two Pirahna launchers, and then some fore/aft laser AMS.  To facilitate that, I had to modify the cargo bays pretty heavily, but it does still carry a combined arms battalion with a squadron of aerospace fighters in support, plus around 400 tons of cargo, more than it originally had.  Armor got switched to ferro-aluminum, and maxed out.

So, can one DropShip do it all?  Arguably, yes.  Can it do it all well?  Maybe not so much.

Code: [Select]

Fortress Defender
Type: Military Spheroid
Mass: 6,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 3145
Mass: 6,000
Battle Value: 8,860
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-D
Cost: 471,886,800 C-bills

Fuel: 400 tons (12,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Heat Sinks: 112 (224)
Structural Integrity: 15

Armor
    Nose: 242
    Sides: 230/230
    Aft: 182

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Mech (4)                1 Door   
    Bay 2:  Heavy Vehicle (4)       2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Infantry (Foot) (15)    1 Door   
    Bay 4:  Light Vehicle (12)      1 Door   
    Bay 5:  Fighter (6)             1 Door   
    Bay 6:  BattleArmor (IS) (9)    1 Door   
    Bay 7:  Cargo (409.0 tons)      1 Door   

Ammunition:
    60 rounds of AC/5 ammunition (3 tons),
    36 rounds of LRM 10 ammunition (3 tons),
    125 rounds of Long Tom ammunition (25 tons),
    90 rounds of SRM 6 Artemis-capable ammunition (6 tons),
    36 rounds of LRM 10 Artemis-capable ammunition (3 tons),
    20 rounds of Piranha ammunition (10 tons),
    30 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (6 tons),
    48 rounds of LRM 20 Artemis-capable ammunition (8 tons)

Escape Pods: 10
Life Boats: 2
Crew:  7 officers, 27 enlisted/non-rated, 9 gunners, 250 bay personnel

Notes: Mounts 46 tons of ferro-aluminum armor.

Weapons:                                      Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (114 Heat)
1 Long Tom                                20    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Artillery   
    Long Tom Ammo (125 shots)
2 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)  18   6(60)   6(60)   6(60)    0(0)  Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (20 shots)
2 ER PPC                                  30   2(20)   2(20)   2(20)    0(0)  PPC         
2 ER Large Laser                          24   2(16)   2(16)   2(16)    0(0)  Laser       
2 Medium Pulse Laser                       8   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Pulse Laser
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  AMS         
RS/LS Fwd (59 Heat)
1 ER PPC                                  15   1(10)   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)  PPC         
2 LRM 20+Artemis IV                       12   2(24)   2(24)   2(24)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Artemis-capable Ammo (24 shots)
2 ER Large Laser                          24   2(16)   2(16)   2(16)    0(0)  Laser       
2 Medium Pulse Laser                       8   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Pulse Laser
RS/LS Aft (42 Heat)
1 ER PPC                                  15   1(10)   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)  PPC         
1 AC/20                                    8   3(25)    1(5)    0(0)    0(0)  AC         
    1 AC/5
    AC/20 Ammo (15 shots)
    AC/5 Ammo (20 shots)
2 LRM 10+Artemis IV                        8   1(12)   1(12)   1(12)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 10 Ammo (36 shots)
2 SRM 6+Artemis IV                         8   2(16)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  SRM         
    SRM 6 Artemis-capable Ammo (45 shots)
1 Medium Laser                             3    1(5)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
Aft (47 Heat)
1 AC/5                                     1    1(5)    1(5)    0(0)    0(0)  AC         
    AC/5 Ammo (20 shots)
2 ER Large Laser                          24   2(16)   2(16)   2(16)    0(0)  Laser       
2 Medium Pulse Laser                       8   1(12)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Pulse Laser
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  AMS         



[Cannonshop]

That's generally the price you pay for a Blivet-it may be a do-everything design, but it's not going to do anything spectacularly well.

[Dragon Cat]

6 of those and you'd have a fairly substantial force that can defend its own transit

[idea weenie]

At 6 kilotons, you are not going to get a lot of performance out of a generalist Dropship.  The goal should be that you can have a production line churning these out in large numbers, and a commander just has to select how many Blivets will be in the force instead of attempting to juggle multiple different designs.


This would be a good proof-of-concept for a larger design (16 kton Excalibur replacement), a militarized Mammoth, or a Cray special.

[Daryk]

The only thing you're missing are some LTACs... 

[boilerman]

You can do anything given enough budget. In the sub 10k range the Fortess is about as good as it gets.

[Giovanni Blasini]

You can do anything given enough budget. In the sub 10k range the Fortess is about as good as it gets.

Overlord just barely squeaks by in there too, and can be revised to do the job:

Code: [Select]

Overlord (3150) (Combined Arms)
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 9,700 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 3150
Mass: 9,700
Battle Value: 10,382
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Cost: 499,646,000 C-bills

Fuel: 306 tons (9,180)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Heat Sinks: 120 (240)
Structural Integrity: 18

Armor
    Nose: 220
    Sides: 210/210
    Aft: 152

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Mech (12)               4 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Fighter (6)             2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Light Vehicle (12)      1 Door   
    Bay 4:  Heavy Vehicle (8)       1 Door   
    Bay 5:  Infantry (Foot) (100)   0 Doors   
    Bay 6:  Cargo (577.5 tons)      0 Doors   

Ammunition:
    200 rounds of AC/5 ammunition (10 tons),
    25 rounds of Long Tom ammunition (1 tons),
    25 rounds of Arrow IV ammunition (1 tons),
    10 rounds of Cruise Missile/50 ammunition (25 tons),
    30 rounds of Piranha ammunition (30 tons),
    30 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (6 tons),
    96 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (16 tons)

Escape Pods: 3
Life Boats: 3
Crew:  8 officers, 13 gunners, 720 bay personnel

Notes: Mounts 45 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:                                      Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (159 Heat)
2 PPC                                     20   2(20)   2(20)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
2 AC/20                                   16   5(50)   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)  AC         
    2 AC/5
    AC/20 Ammo (30 shots)
    AC/5 Ammo (40 shots)
2 Medium Laser                             6   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)  Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (10 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Laser /2                    28   2(20)   2(20)    0(0)    0(0)  Sub-Capital Laser
1 Arrow IV                                10    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Artillery   
    Arrow IV Ammo (25 shots)
1 Cruise Missile/50                       50    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Artillery   
    Cruise Missile/50 Ammo (10 shots)
1 Long Tom                                20    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Artillery   
    Long Tom Ammo (25 shots)
RS/LS Fwd (68 Heat)
1 PPC                                     10   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
1 AC/5                                     1    1(5)    1(5)    0(0)    0(0)  AC         
    AC/5 Ammo (40 shots)
1 LRM 20                                   6   1(12)   1(12)   1(12)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (30 shots)
2 Medium Laser                            14   2(18)    1(8)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    1 Large Laser
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)  Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (10 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Laser /2                    28   2(20)   2(20)    0(0)    0(0)  Sub-Capital Laser
RS/LS Aft (24 Heat)
1 PPC                                     10   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
2 Medium Laser                            14   2(18)    1(8)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    1 Large Laser
Aft (30 Heat)
2 AC/5                                     2   1(10)   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)  AC         
    AC/5 Ammo (80 shots)
1 LRM 20                                   6   1(12)   1(12)   1(12)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (36 shots)
2 Medium Laser                            22   3(26)   2(16)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    2 Large Laser



[Retry]

At 6 kilotons, you are not going to get a lot of performance out of a generalist Dropship.  The goal should be that you can have a production line churning these out in large numbers, and a commander just has to select how many Blivets will be in the force instead of attempting to juggle multiple different designs.


This would be a good proof-of-concept for a larger design (16 kton Excalibur replacement), a militarized Mammoth, or a Cray special.

Of course, the advantage of juggling multiple different dropship designs is that a faction at the strategic level is (theoretically) capable of planning and picking your Dropships and their equipment complement to suit the mission.  The vehicle & infantry bays will be dead weight if the objective is to take control of an installation on an atmosphere-less moon, as is anything not a fighter bay in fleet engagements.

The Cray Special is large enough to actually be useful (it's an entire self-contained RCT; simply having such a carrying capacity is a role in itself).  A hodge-podge of Lance-sized formation?  I'm not convinced.