Design Challenge - Periphery built VSTOL Ground-Attack Aircraft

[Black_Knyght]

Last night a fellow CBT player/friend sent me some pics he'd found online and asked if I could post them in a kind of "Design This" challenge, to see what the various folks around here might do with them.

THAT said, here's the SECOND: A Ground-Attack VSTOL conventional aircraft built by some Periphery government

[DOC_Agren]

I will submit my
Sluagh Strike Fighter
Capabilities:
The Sluagh Conventional Strike Fighter is a somewhat fragile design.  Slow compared to comparably sized aerospace fighters, the design crammed as much armor as possible, making it less vulnerable to enemy fire then it could be. The Sluagh is known as a rugged design.  Realizing that air bases would be the one of first targets in an invasion, the Sluagh was designed to operate from improvised air fields. VSTOL equipment removed the need for long runways and the plane was designed to be able to operate without any requiring any specialized equipment.  The plane even includes a retractable ladder for the pilot to climb in and out of the cockpit.

Equipped with a heavy autocannon as it’s primary weapon and then with the ability to swap the wing mounts (has the Modular Weapons Quirk) from LRM, SRM, MG, or even STAKE ADAT missiles (RL10)  for an added punch.
.
With the Sluagh’s autocannon normally carries a mix of normal and special munitions.

Class/Model/Name:  Sluagh Strike Fighter
Mass:              50 tons

Equipment:                                                              Mass
Power Plant:  200 Turbine                                               17.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 4
      Maximum Thrust: 6
Structural Integrity: 5                                                   .00
VSTOL Equipment:                                                         2.50
Total Heat Sinks:    0 Single                                             .00
Fuel:                                                                    3.00
Cockpit, Avionics & Attitude Thrusters:                                  5.00
Armor Type:  Standard  (48 total armor pts)                              3.00
                           Standard Scale Armor its
   Location:                            L / R
   Nose:                                 16
   Left/Right Wings:                  12/12
   Aft:                                   8

Weapons and Equipment      Loc
or    Short Range Model
AC10           Nose
Ammo    (20)
1 RL 10        Nose
1 SRM4        RW
1 SRM4        LW
SRM4 Ammo (25)
or    Long Range Model
AC10           Nose
Ammo    (20)
1 RL 10        Nose
1 LRM5        RW
1 LRM5        LW
LRM5 Ammo (24)
or   Rocket Model
AC10           Nose
Ammo    (20)
3 RL 10        Nose
4 RL 10        RW
4 RL 10        LW
or   COIN Model
AC10           Nose
Ammo    (20)
1 MG            Nose
2 MG            RW
2 MG            LW
Ammo    (200)
2 RL 10        RW
2 RL 10        LW

[Daryk]

Holy cow!  That Rocket model is straight scary.  Good work!  :thumbsup:

[DOC_Agren]

and once tech advances far enough as I look at the Sluagh as introtech (Rockets should be), you can swap that AC10 for RAC5 and 2 more tons of ammo.

[Daryk]

Heh.. good call on that too!  :thumbsup:

[Sabelkatten]

I'm not up to date on rules... Can you use a small laser for strafing? In that case:

25 tons, 5/8 ICE, 2 tons fuel, VSTOL, 1.5 tons armor (11/4/5), 2xMG Nose, 2xMG RW, 2xMG LW, SL Nose, ML Nose.

[Daryk]

Not to my knowledge (unless it's ER)...

[Sabelkatten]

Eh, bugger. Dropping to 4/6 means it 0.5 tons short of mounting a second ML... I suppose one of the nose MGs could be removed.