FIGHTER FORCE OVERVIEW: CAPELLANS
Originally posted 28 Dec. 2005. You’ll recall that I defined the ‘ideal’, ‘complete’ overall fighter force back in the
“Generic Fighters†Overview column; please take the time to refresh your memory before/while you read what follows, and bear it in mind; however, the bare acceptable
minimum for any force is one (or more) interceptors, a dogfighter and an attack bird - the other roles are the ‘nice-to-have’ spaceframes which act as force-multipliers.
For the purposes of this discussion, I’m going to handle the signature Succession Wars-era Capellan fighters on their own, then throw in the ‘generic’ fighters they have access to (according to FM:U, TRO3050U, TRO3075, and
MadCapellan’s excellent work
Objective Raids 3067), then handle the IS2-era stuff in one big whack. }:) ::)
FORCE ASSESSMENT: SIGNATURE CAPELLAN STARFIGHTERS, c.3025TR-7 Thrush - INTERCEPTOR (CLOSE ATTACK)
25t, 12/18/12/5, 7/6/5, 10 SHS; N: ML; W: ML Introduced in 2798, the TR-7 makes you wonder what the heck the Confederation was using for a lightfighter in the Star League era. (And why the heck they switched, given the TR-7’s abysmal survivability in the face of enemy fire - unless Mujika pulled another of their cons?) Despite its armour being a polite fiction and somewhat awkward aerodynamics, the
Thrush does bring an impressive acceleration curve and decent firepower to the table.
TR-10 Transit - CLOSE-ATTACK (DOGFIGHTER)
50t, 6/9/6/5, 65/35/33, 13 SHS; N: AC/20(2), 2xML; W: ML The result of the infamous “Mujika BOHICA†scam by the Capellan government, Mujika’s TR-10
Transit is effectively a clone of Tengo’s
Lightning and has been in service since the first quarter of the 26
th century(!). Noted for its forgiving handling characteristics and certainly not short of short-range punch, the
Transit is a mainstay of CCAF fighter-commands despite its lack of reach.
TR-13 Transgressor - DOGFIGHTER
75t, 6/9/6/5, 82/51/40, 25 SHS; N: LL, ML; W: LL, ML; A: ML First seen in action in the last decade of the thirtieth century, the
Transgressor is more than likely another ‘cloned’ spaceframe (this time a rip-off of the FWL’s
Eagle), proving that across a contested border, the sincerest form of flattery can also be the deadliest. ;D A superb dogfighter well-known for its firepower and toughness, the
Transgressor is probably a good choice of
ab initio aircraft for Capellan rookies, letting them survive their mistakes long enough to learn how to be deadly, not just a menace to themselves.
IN TERMS OF THE ‘IDEAL’ FORCE - SIGNATURE CAPELLAN STARFIGHTERS, 3025
ROLE ADDRESSED
Interceptor YES (1)
Fast Dogfighter NO
Dogfighter YES (1)
Fire-Support NO
Attack NO
*Close-Attack YES (1)SIGNATURE CAPELLAN FIGHTERS IN ’25 - FORCE POSITIVES: A ‘pure’ Capellan force has close-attack and dogfighting abilities that are hard to argue with. It’s interesting to note that the usual doctrine of medium = dogfighter, heavy = attack is reversed in the CCAF; the fifty-ton
Transit is the attack platform which can dogfight if pressed, while the seventy-five-ton
Transgressor is the multirole platform which especially revels in the air-to-air brawl! :o It’s an early sign that, as
Rage once said, “[Capellans] like to ****** with peoples’ heads.†:P
The
Thrush also matches the speed of the
Cheetah, making it one of the fastest ASFs in the game.
SIGNATURE CAPELLAN FIGHTERS IN ’25 - FORCE NEGATIVES: There are no fire-support platforms in the ‘peculiarly Capellan’ line-up; nor is the nice-to-have fast-dogfighter anywhere to be seen. Capellan dogfighters have to fly into the furball without any LRM barrages to prepare their way, which can get awfully un-fun when the other guy
does have missile-boats.
Despite its speed and fairly good firepower, the
Thrush is one of the most fragile systems in the sky. It isn’t really the best choice to tangle with
Sparrowhawks one-on-one, so swarm tactics are vital.
Despite the devastating firepower offered by the
Transit’s AC/20, all of its weapons are restricted to Short-range engagements, meaning that anyone who has slightly more reach can beat the hell out of it without entering its danger-zone.
Now, having the
Transgressor in your starting line-up
does cover a multitude of sins... but not
that many. Without fire-support of its own, even so potent a system as the TR-13 is missile-bait.
The news doesn’t get much better when you throw in the ‘generic’ fighters found in the Capellan RATs in FM:U and other sources. Despite the infamous scandal, Tengo kept building the Cappies
Lightnings on Sarna and Texlos (as well as on St. Ives before, during and after the Compact’s independence); presumably, the
Sabres,
Centurions,
Hellcat-Is and
Eagles which appear in the RATs are prizes of war and/or legacy products, though the
Thunderbirds might have been obtained in useful numbers through legitimate trade (the Taurians build them on Perdition and Taurus, and those TR-13s in the Periphery RAT had to come from
somewhere. ::)) Being that a handful of ‘
isorla’ designs likely aren’t going to be a significant factor in any strategic calculations, I’m adding only the
Lightning and
T-bird to the Capellan order of battle for the purposes of this discussion... though what that gains is arguable, given that the
Lightning and
Transit are virtually identical and calling the
T-bird Cappie-built is a rather generous interpretation. :-X
IN TERMS OF THE ‘IDEAL’ FORCE - ALL CAPELLAN-BUILT STARFIGHTERS, 3025
ROLE ADDRESSED
Interceptor YES (1)
Fast Dogfighter NO
Dogfighter YES (1)
Fire-Support NO
Attack YES (1)
*Close-Attack YES (2) The
T-bird adds much-needed Long-range punch to the CCAF’s aerospace arm, but it’s too slow to support the
Transgressors, meaning that the dogfighters don’t have anyone who can keep pace with them when they move into the furball. The
Transit/
Lightning/
T-bird combination is a formidable attack package, especially against ’Ships - the THB-D36s stand back and pound with LRMs and LLs while the other two rush in with those intimidating AC/20s - but when the ‘Great Davion Satan’ has
Corsairs at his disposal, the
Transit/
Lightning jocks are in for a rough time of it, and even the
Transgressor jocks might find things sporty.
If they’d had the option (perhaps under the terms of the Kapteyn Pact?), the Capellan would have done well to buy or clone some
Shilone fire-support birds, and/or a number of
Sai fast dogfighters. It might not have completely turned the tide during Big Mistake Number Four, but it might have helped turn that war’s disheartening near-rout into a determined fighting retreat which would have been far better for the morale of the nation (and its supporters). ::)
FORCE ASSESSMENT: SIGNATURE CAPELLAN STARFIGHTERS, c.3067TR-8 Thrush - INTERCEPTOR (CLOSE ATTACK)
25t, 12/18/12/5, 7/6/5, 10 DHS; N: ERML, W: ERML
TR-12 Transit - CLOSE ATTACK
50t, 6/9/6/5, 69/39/37, 12 DHS; N: LB-20X(4), 2xERML, W: ERML
DFC-O Defiance - ATTACK/FIRE-SUPPORT (OMNIFIGHTER)
55t, 6/9/6/5, 75/60/45, 11 DHS; 26 tons pod-space
CMT-3T Troika - FIRE-SUPPORT/ATTACK
65t, 6/9/6/5, 74/52/46, 17 DHS; N: LRM-20(3); W: ERPPC, ERML
TR-13A Transgressor - DOGFIGHTER
75t, 6/9/6/5, 82/51/40, 25 DHS; N: ERLL, ML; W: ERLL, ML; A: ML Well, I
said they needed fire-support birds, and it looks like the Capellans recognised it too - though coming up with
two types, the
Defiance and
Troika, to address the role might have been going a little overboard. (It’s okay, though. The
Troika’s development was driven by three different sets of national biases/requirements, so the resulting design was always going to be a compromise, and the result is pretty fair. :P)
This makes the Capellans’ ‘overall force’ picture much, much brighter. However, a fast dogfighter would still be a very good idea; though virtually all of their medium and heavy platforms can turn-and-burn at 6/9 and have very, very respectable warloads, armour and heat-curves, the opposition’s possession of 7/11 birds like the
Dagger and/or the
Lancer can make those sames birds’ lives very, very uncomfortable.
Data on the exact form of the LTN-G16L is still pending the release of the ASFs-updated RS3075 Unabridged, but TRO3075 specifically describes it as carrying an Ultra autocannon, ER lasers, ferro-aluminium armour and DHS. This makes for a very nice combination with the
Transit that usurped its original prominence, leading to punch (huge!) holes with what is presumably a UAC/20 while the
Transits follow in their jetwash and exploit the breaches with LB cluster-rounds. A very nice ground-attack pairing, to be sure, but not quite what I was hoping for. :-\
CONCLUSIONS: In the pre-foundtech era, the ‘signature’ Capellan fighters, taken on their own, do not comprise a ‘complete’ starfighter force, though they
do fulfill the three tiers demanded by the accepted wisdom of the Successor States (interceptor, dogfighter, attacker)... albeit in their usual bass-ackward kind of way. When considered in conjunction with the ‘generic’ fighters which they can build or buy, their attack capabilities improve a great deal, but their dogfighters are still bereft of 6/9 fire-support platforms. (Of course, so are the Leaguers and Davions they face, but still....)
With the technological renaissance that accompanied/followed Operation: REVIVAL, and the eventual implementation of OmniTech, those fire-support platforms finally appear, making the CapCon fighter corps more or less ‘complete’... though it happens very late in the piece (the
Defiance debuting circa ’63, and
that only thanks to WoB assistance that recent canon indicates Sun-Tzu will very much live to regret [skull]). However, it still lacks a fast dogfighter... a lack which the FWL/WoB
Lancers, FedSuns
Daggers, and Manei Domini
Shades/
Rusalkas would/will exploit with no small amount of glee. }:)
Almost all of the major powers came up with something cool in the ‘late-to-post-Jihad’ TRO3085, and the Confederation wasn’t left out, scoring the
MÄ›ngqÃn 5/8 heavy attack bird. Apart from some
Thunderbirds here and there, it’s not a role the CapCon appears to have ever majorly addressed before - perhaps they never felt the need, or couldn’t spare industrial capacity from their established types - but the
MÄ›ngqÃn’s standard fusion engine (for low costs) and fearsome armament (twin plasma rifles #P, two LRM-15s, three SRM-6s, three pairs of ERMLs and a single defensive SPL!) make it a
very serious problem for folks on its business end. Especially for the Republic of the Sphere, who if I’m not mistaken are going to be seeing a
lot of these angular ‘flying wings’ pointed their way before the end of the thirty-first century. }:) Once again, personally I might have been more eager to see them procure a fast-dogfighter to counteract the
Dagger, but then again, Capellans have always done things their own way. I know
I’m not
quite so warped that I’ve ever been able to fathom their alleged thought-processes. ;D
Be advised: the attached .txt transcript(s) of previous run(s) of this thread may contain numerous reader-proposals for variants. I’ll try to change those out for ‘sanitised’ versions of those threads when I can, but I can’t promise it’ll be soon - that’s a lot of ground to cover. ;)Sorry for the delay, folks - fic-muse showed up, and I had to write the broad strokes while the idea was fresh and energy was high. ::)
