A gunboat carrier.

[Primus203]

So about a month ago I posted a design the fusil combat dropship https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=86907.0 a 490 ton gunboat taking advantage of the 500 ton targeting penalty. The issue was carrying them though small enough to be realistically carried inside there was no bay for such an thing and they would take up a drop collar each. I believe I have come up with a solution.

The solution I have come to is to take advantage of the reinforced repair facility that can house craft while moving. While meant for repairs there is no reason I couldn't stuff these gunboats in it. To simulate enough space for operations I have a requirement that instead of needing 490 size per gunboat I need double 980 per gunboat. To get around arguments on jump tonnage on top of all this there is cargo weight set aside to represent each of these gunboats. Below is my prospective design a modified version of my Liberty Armed Fleet Transport ship.

Liberty Gunboat Carrier- A mostly unchanged design from my standard gaining the space for the repair bay by converting the fighter and small craft bays as well as much of the cargo bays. The important thing is the size 147K repair bay large enough to carry 150 gunboats and having 15 doors to launch craft. The gunboats are represented by a 73,500 ton "cargo" bay. This ship still carries 46K cargo plenty for it's own medium term operations.

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Heavy Transport Warship Liberty Gunboat Carrier
Mass: 1,000,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Experimental)
Introduced: 3065
Mass: 1,000,000
Battle Value: 110,833
Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-F-F
Cost: 33,969,170,800 C-bills

Fuel: 6,600 tons (16,500)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 5
KF Drive Integrity: 21
Heat Sinks: 5000 (10000)
Structural Integrity: 120

Armor
    Nose: 540
    Fore Sides: 444/444
    Aft Sides: 396/396
    Aft: 252

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Reinforced Repair Facility (147,000)15 Doors 
    Bay 2:  Cargo (73500.0 tons)    1 Door   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (46739.5 tons)    2 Doors   

Ammunition:
    1,600 rounds of Piranha ammunition (16,000 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 18
Grav Decks: 4 (250 m, 250 m, 250 m, 250 m)
Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 80
Crew:  70 officers, 250 enlisted/non-rated, 120 gunners, 50 BA marines

Notes: Equipped with
    1 MASH Equipment (5 theaters)
    18 Space Mine Dispenser
    1 Naval C3
2,400 tons of lamellor ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                      Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (1,934 Heat)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                       900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                       900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
FRS/FLS (298 Heat)
3 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    96   9(90)   9(90)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
3 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    96   9(90)   9(90)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
RBS/LBS (550 Heat)
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
10 Sub-Capital Laser /1                   240  10(100) 10(100) 10(100)   0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
10 Sub-Capital Laser /1                   240  10(100) 10(100) 10(100)   0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
ARS/ALS (298 Heat)
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
1 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha)   9   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Missile
    Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
3 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    96   9(90)   9(90)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
3 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    96   9(90)   9(90)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
Aft (602 Heat)
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
2 Laser AMS                               14    1(6)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
4 Naval Laser 55                          340  22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220)  Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
1 Sub-Capital Laser /3                    32   3(30)   3(30)    0(0)     0(0)   Sub-Capital Laser
Just in case the earlier posted Fusil.

Code: [Select]

Ultra Budget Limited Tech Anti-Ship Dropship Fusil
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 490 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3050
Mass: 490
Battle Value: 4,838
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-D-D
Cost: 138,097,400 C-bills

Fuel: 20 tons (1,400)
Safe Thrust: 7
Maximum Thrust: 11
Heat Sinks: 56
Structural Integrity: 11

Armor
    Nose: 201
    Sides: 169/169
    Aft: 137

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Cargo (11.0 tons)       1 Door   

Ammunition:
    80 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (1 tons)

Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 0
Crew:  2 officers, 3 enlisted/non-rated, 2 gunners

Notes: Mounts 39.5 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:                   Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)             Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (56 Heat)
8 AC/20                56   16(160)  0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  AC         
    AC/20 Ammo (80 shots)This concept gives excellent strike range. Also according to my math if just 10 percent hit 960 cap damage will be dealt something only matched by a broadside of the largest battleships.

[FastConcentrate8]

So, slight problem.

You can only carry two Gunboats through FTL this way.

A Repair bay has two KF Collars inside of it. Anything else would interfere with the KF Field so you would need a bunch of small repair bays to carry all of them.

[Primus203]

so in response fast concentrate the tonnage of these dropships is accounted for in the 73,500 ton cargo bay. to my understanding k-f collars allow moving extra tonnage. however by accounting for the gunboats weight as cargo I am at the ships tonnage of a million tons not over it. I could be wrong but i think this squeaks through.