This is a design that Cannonshop might like.
The Interdictor is a small craft designed for chasing dropships. Small craft have terrible sensors, so it's important to seed a system with
military satellites or other large craft to direct them where to go. With satellites scattered around a system, it's possible to passively track drive plumes out to a range of about 10 million kilometers (~=1/15th AU) with a detection check of 7 or less. When a drive plume is detected, an Interdictor can plot an intercept which may take place at either low speed (for an inspection) or with a high speed pass (aiming for heavy damage).
The Interdictor can carry supplies for 100 days and has 10 burn-days worth of fuel so with coasting it can loiter in a system for quite a long time before requiring recovery. The 7/11 movement profile makes it as fast as assault dropships, easily able to overtake just about every other kind of design. The AC-20 centerpiece weapon is extremely potent in a high speed engagement with the 5 small lasers providing additional backing damage or antimissile defense. Note that a "fast" high speed engagement requires <2 days worth of acceleration at 1g and less than 8 hours at 5.5g.
The relatively high cost (twice a heavy ASF), somewhat lighter weapons load compared to a heavy ASF, and the initiative advantage of ASF make ASF strongly preferred as a fighter. If an Interdictor finds itself facing ASF, it's most valuable asset is being able to pull 5.5g sustainably. Only very light ASF like a Cheetah can do the same without risking structural damage, and they typically have marginal fuel and little weapons.
Valuable missions for an Interdictor are things like:
- Shutdown an enemy system by jumping in beyond detectable range and launching a bunch of military surveillance satellites and Interdictors to control all civilian transport in system.
- Defensively, Interdictors are convincing customs craft. No civilian transport will run away from them effectively.
- Offensively, several Interdictors provide an alternative to an assault dropship. For example, BV claims that 2 Avengers are similar to 5 Interdictors, and yet they cost 1/7th the price while not requiring a drop collar.
- Attacking secondary targets like enemy satellites or asteroid mining facilities in a system.
- Accompany friendly ASF squadrons into a battle zone generating ECM vs. enemy ASF.
- Carry 25 marines to board an enemy large craft.
- Post-battle search and rescue operations.
Interdictor Smallcraft
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 200 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3025
Mass: 200
Battle Value: 2,244
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 13,386,750 C-bills
Fuel: 20 tons (1,600)
Safe Thrust: 7
Maximum Thrust: 11
Heat Sinks: 12
Structural Integrity: 11
Armor
Nose: 203
Sides: 166/166
Aft: 141
Cargo
Bay 1: Cargo (2.5 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
20 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (4 tons)
Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 0
Crew: 1 officer, 2 enlisted/non-rated, 1 gunner
Notes: Mounts 39.5 tons of standard aerospace armor.
Weapons
and Ammo Location Tonnage Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV
AC/20 Nose 14.0 7 20 0 0 0
5 Small Laser Nose 2.5 1 3 0 0 0
tradeoffs:In terms of raw damage in low speed combat, it's possible to do about 50% more in the same movement profile using a pure small laser approach. The AC/20 here makes the Interdictor able to inflict threshold criticals on many dropships and even all of them in a high speed engagement where it can hit for 80 points of damage.
You could also consider a 5/8 profile for this mission. This frees up 24 tons, but substantially reduces the overtake velocity, sometimes to zero vs. a Seeker for instance. That reduction damages the primary mission profile that I'm thinking about. It also means the design is less survivable since heavy ASF can pace it effectively.
You could also consider a 9/14 profile. Since thrust above 12 may cause crew damage, this isn't very advantageous and the loss of 27 tons significantly compromises arms & armor.
Alternatives:I looked around for alternatives with a similar profile. The closest canon unit is the
Ares Attack Craft which has a similar movement profile while relying on advanced energy weapons and double heat sinks. It has half the fuel and its high speed intercept game isn't that strong so the design is iffy for some of the mission profiles.
