Saturn Patrol Ship (Niops Refit)
Overview
Seeing its neighbors, the Free Worlds League, expanding their naval capabilities, and understanding that the inevitable response from the Marian Hegemony would be to do the same, the Niops Association, having finally gotten their act together post-Jihad beatdown, realized they were, once again, in a deeply unpleasant place to be: smack dab in between two larger powers who, nominally, didn't really like one another, whom they weren't terribly thrilled with either.
Additional ground forces were one thing, and the Niops Association had finally, in 3145, begun making noises to try to get their acts together and rebuild the Niops Project Workshops. The first product, a more primitive knockoff of the Space Otter IndustrialMech, had gone straight to the belt to assist in mining operations, but other ground units were also slowly trickling their way out of the rebuilt Project Workshops.
In the Niops Belt, though, other things were at work. The Association, which always had a good relationship with its belter community (considering the native Niopians, on their barely-habitable worlds circling their marginal red dwarf, weren't that far removed from being belters themselves), relied heavily on asteroid mining throughout the 32nd Century for income, as well as their continued joint-projects with Interstellar Expeditions. One thing Niopian Belters remembered from the Jihad is that space superiority can go a long way towards cutting the number of ground forces you have to deal with, if you've got space superiority to do it.
With manufacturing just getting on its feet throughout the Niops system, and quality of manufacture generally not up to the Star League levels from the pre-Jihad days, the Association wanted defensive spacecraft with more patrol reach than aerospace fighters that could help defend their star system, from orbit to the belts. Small size would be a plus, allowing it to be built in more Belter enclaves, but ability to be built on the surface of the three inhabited Niopian planets would be a plus. To that end, the NAM, in conjunction with the Project Workshops and Belter communities, turned to the Saturn class patrol ship.
Capabilities
While Niops engineers could not improve the overall aerodynamics of the Saturn, rendering it somewhat unstable in atmospheric flight, the Saturn is not a DropShip meant to spend much time in the atmosphere, only long enough for ground-built Saturns to leave and head into space. Nor did Niops' depleted technology base have the capacity to build DropShip transit drives more advanced than those originally mounted in 2243, meaning that its drive systems are far more massive than a modern DropShip would be. On the other hand, Niopian engineers found the Saturn's hull was easily capable of handling nearly two-thirds more armor than the original Saturn carried, which they took immediate advantage of, improving armor protection considerably.
Predating the ubiquotous energy weapons later found throughout the Age of War, Niopian engineers wished to forgo mounting machine guns or primitive autocannons on their refit Saturn. However, they quickly found themselves stymied by matters of power distribution and cooling. Instead, they compromised, retaining the primitive class-5 autocannons, since there were a number of primitive BattleMech designs that could use the same gun, and limited their efforts to the machine guns. Laser anti-missile systems would have been ideal, but they couldn't build those. Ballistic missile systems were briefly discussed, but the sophisticated radar and tracking systems used by AMS systems, as well as the rapid-cooling for their mechanisms, were presently out of reach. So, instead, an equal number of small lasers, though less effective and more primitive than standard ones, replaced the machine guns in point defense duties. Like the machine guns, these lasers are only able to track a limited number of targets compared to dedicated AMS systems, but they have the benefit of not requiring ammunition, thus simplifying logistics.
The added cooling systems needed for the weapons loadout did, however, come at a price: the Saturn's cargo capacity was reduced from 29 to 27 tons, and its fuel bunkerage from 150 to 120 tons. This does still provide the Saturn with 40 days of continuous thrust at 1 G cruising, and the loss of 10 days worth of time at 1 G is not expected to significantly impact patrol durations. There is still ample supplies for nearly 6 months for the crew, a duration few crews are expected to require in a star system as small as Niops.
Deployment
Thus far, only a handful of Saturn class patrol ships have been constructed and delivered to the Niops Association Militia, sufficient for a single squadron. At present, Saturns are generally forced to operate solo, due to their small numbers, though NAM hopes rectify this once more vessels are available. NAM has additionally placed an RFP for a larger, 2000-ton vessel utilizing the same drive system, functioning as a common hull platform for an escort carrier and Pocket WarShip class.
Saturn Patrol Ship (Niops Refit)
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 1,200 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Experimental)
Introduced: 2243 (original), 3150 (refit)
Mass: 1,200
Battle Value: 2,078
Tech Rating/Availability: D/F-X-X-X
Cost: 121,953,440 C-bills
Fuel: 120 tons (3,750)
Safe Thrust: 5
Maximum Thrust: 8
Heat Sinks: 54
Structural Integrity: 15
Armor
Nose: 180
Sides: 160/160
Aft: 130
Cargo
Bay 1: Cargo (27.0 tons) 2 Doors
Ammunition:
90 rounds of Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 ammunition (6 tons)
Escape Pods: 2
Life Boats: 4
Crew: 2 officers, 6 enlisted/non-rated, 5 gunners, 15 marines
Notes: Mounts 54 tons of primitive aerospace armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (9 Heat)
4 Primitive Prototype Small Laser 8 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
1 Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 1 1(5) 1(5) 0(0) 0(0) AC
Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 Ammo (225 shots)
RS/LS Fwd (9 Heat)
4 Primitive Prototype Small Laser 8 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
1 Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 1 1(5) 1(5) 0(0) 0(0) AC
Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 Ammo (225 shots)
RS/LS Aft (9 Heat)
4 Primitive Prototype Small Laser 8 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
1 Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 1 1(5) 1(5) 0(0) 0(0) AC
Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 Ammo (225 shots)
Aft (9 Heat)
4 Primitive Prototype Small Laser 8 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
1 Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 1 1(5) 1(5) 0(0) 0(0) AC
Primitive Prototype Autocannon/5 Ammo (225 shots)
Features the following design quirks: Improved Communications, Atmospheric Flight Instability
