By the early 28th century, the Star League Defense Force was settling in to its generous budget, and starting to considering how to increase the overall efficiency of its numerous processes and procedures, from strategic doctrines down to basic recruit training. Whereas previously, individual commands would have a top-down review of their whole structure by their immediate superior in charge every five years (a serious and daunting task for the inspected), it was General Ikolor Fredasa's intent, as the Defense Force's commander-in-chief and "Father of the Military Renaissance", to not so much ensure every unit was operating according to 'the book' as it was to question if that book was providing the best methods of carrying out the mission. Retired colonels and generals were brought back as advisers to numerous planning and review think tanks, and all procedures were fastidiously studied, debated and brainstormed within their respective categories.
One major area of review concerned logistics, the purview of the Quartermaster and Transport Commands. Seeing the opportunity to draft a 'dreamlist' and get it filled, the influential members of these commands assigned to the logistics review explained the need to be able to deliver supplies to the front lines in as efficient a manner as possible, and that meant the less breaking down and re-packing, the better. While Standard Shipping Containers (S²C) had been in use for centuries, more often their use -in the SLDF- stopped at the DropPort, with individual boxes and equipment broken out and re-packed in whatever assets the intermediate transport command had on hand, then to be broken out at its receiving unit, stored in whatever facilities it had available. If the unit had to move (an anticipated experience on or near the front lines), the matter was complicated even further. The SLDF representatives successfully sold the need to extend the S²C concept out all the way to the gaining command, so that they could store their supplies in the very same containers in which they received them, breaking out items only once: when it was actually needed.
When that line of thought was firmly inculcated as the "right way to conduct the business of supplying the warfighter", the SLDF representatives began developing the concept of a transport system that could not only carry these 20-ton containers from the DropPort to the frontline, and all intermediate stops in-between, but do it without itself needing an extensive support network of its own. In other words, they wanted to reduce what they saw as the largest and most critical Achilles's Heel: the fuel supply. Though expensive, fusion reactors on a line of heavy-load prime movers would allow a convoy to directly transit any distance without having to be reliant on vulnerable fuel supplies. With two crew members, one could always be driving while the other (albeit, not comfortably) rested.
The New Earth Trading Company won the 2726 bid on providing the initial run for the new ship-to-unit logistics concept with the Defense Prime Mover 20 Ton (DPM-20T), affectionately known as the 'Dapperman' by the first units to receive them. Able to haul one S² container on its open bed, and cargo space available for an additional 6.5 tons of loose items, the Dapperman was more than capable of pulling the NETC DLHHL-20T trailer, with its 20-ton cargo. A top road speed of over 97 kilometers an hour, while not impressive, was considered acceptable, especially in light of the capability of high on-road hours.
The DPM-20T is armored, if lightly, and not equipped with any means of self-defense, but it was argued that the truck was not expected to face anything more likely than random insurgent light arms fire in a majority of cases. If a heavier weapons capability was believed to exist, the trucks would be protected via armed escorts, either alongside, overhead or both. With the philosophy of "keep on movin'" and "get 'er there", the truck was built with amphibious and off-road handling attributes, allowing the cargo to cross water and unpaved ground. Within twenty years, a modified version was offered, reducing the extra cargo space to 2 tons and increasing the commercial armor.
The Dapperman would probably have become a lot more common if not for the Amaris coup and the eventual fall of the Star League, as the disruptions of the former and the expense of the fusion-based motive system proved fatal to any intent to maintain its production. Fusion engines, especially one this big, became commodities needed elsewhere and the trucks more often than not rotted away, with the supply needs of the inheriting armies met by much cheaper and more prevalent forms of transportation.
Type: New Earth Trading Company DPM-20T "Dapperman" Transport Truck
Chassis Type: Wheeled (Medium)
Mass: 72.5 tons
Equipment Rating:E/B-B-B/C
Cost: 621,888 c-bills
BV: 196
Equipment
Chassis/Controls: 29.5 tons
Engine/Trans: Fusion, 16.5 tons
Cruise MP: 6
Flank MP: 9
Heat Sinks: N/A
Fuel: N/A
Turret: N/A
Armor Factor (BAR: 44
Armor Mass: 2 tons
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Front: 8/12
Right/Left Side: 8/12
Rear: 8/8
Turret: NA
Weapons, Equipment and Ammo:None
Crew: 2
Cargo:
Cargo, Container, 10 tons
Cargo, Container, 10 tons
Cargo, Other, 6.5 tons
Note: Features Amphibious, Off-Road and Tractor Chassis Modifications
Note: With respect to Boilerman's classic, Combat Support Manual.
