Overview:
Prototyped only days prior to the invasion of the Federated Suns by the Draconis Combine in 3144, the Spatz (German for the Terran bird known as a 'Sparrow') was forced into an early adolescent right from the start - its field trials were right in the middle of the DCMS invasion thrust. Ironically, in many ways the invasion helped the design, as test pilots and ground crews had to immediately find ways to correct for early bugs in the craft's system with no time for bureaucratic red-tape to slow the process. That and the fact that the Spatz's armaments had yet to be locked down (initial tests were done with a nose mounted combination of a extended range large laser and twin standard medium lasers) and still were on modular mounts. Having to leapfrog constantly to keep ahead of the invasion waves, crews learned to rapidly turn the Spatz around and keep them in the air and space via hot-swapping entire weapon racks. While never designed to mount omni-pods, the prototypes were designed to be easily modified in the field to account for any unexpected problems, and this semi-modular nature was kept in the production model.
By the time things had sorted themselves out and the team had managed to pull back far enough from the DCMS lines, the Spatz had gone from a bleeding edge interceptor with any number of little problems to a solid multi-role craft. All that was required was getting the field data from their fallback point at Angol, back to their manufacturing plant on Goderich. Which of course is when the Capellan Confederation came across the border. If it wasn't for the fact the three Spatz prototypes were quickly proving to be a highly annoying irritant to anything that faced them, the fighter might have been considered cursed by that point. Instead it became something of a lucky rabbit's foot that the crews rallied around, as the fighters stubbornly refused to die no matter what was thrown at them. Even in one case where the second fighter had to practically coast into its carrier dropship missing an entire wing and half the tail shot off. Within a week it was back in service.
Capabilities:
Once finally back at Goderich, and even then the data was sent further into the Federated Suns just in case, engineers poured over the collection of emergency jury-rigs, replaced components, vastly different weapons arrangement on its nose, and in a rare display of knowing when to fold, gave the surviving engineering staff a near virtual free hand in fixing the jury-rigged parts, and finalizing its systems. Remarkably, outside of the jury-rigs, the team was satisfied with the replacements used
A trio of a energy weapons centered around a light particle cannon, make up the Spatz's primary offensive weaponry. For added punch, a capacitor coil is set behind the particle cannon, both for added punch during the initial pass of an engagement, or as the coup de grace to end one. Backing this up is a extended range medium laser and one of the X-series of pulse lasers, also of a medium grade model. Needless to say, letting a Spatz close the range with you is an experience few pilots are going to enjoy. For more tactical purpose, two light multi-missile launchers are carried, one under each wing near the half-way point. In space, normally only standard rounds are carried, split evenly between LRM and SRM rounds. While for surface operations, usually at least one ton of ammunition is set aside for tactical support, especially if friendly TAG equipped units are on the ground.
One piece of equipment that is paradoxically overlooked on paper, yet vitally important in the eyes of Spatz pilots, is the fighter's unique multi-axis thrust diverter. Making use of a series of electromagnetic coils, much like a Gauss Rifle, the Spatz can alter the trajectory of its plasma thrust plume in a cone, by up to a thirty degree angle off of centerline. While not quite nearly as impressive outside of an atmosphere, the controllable asymmetric thrust makes the Spatz a truly formidable fighter inside a planet's atmosphere where it can maneuver well beyond the lift its wings can produce, even accounting for control provided by the Spatz's wingtip RCS vernier clusters. With the properly trained pilot at the controls, a Spatz can actually perform the mind-bending Kulbit, or 'pancake flip', maneuver in mid-air, and even fire an accurate salvo at what likely will be a very surprised target that had previously been on the Spatz's tail.
Spatz fighters have quickly come to be seen as designs that simply will not die unless completely blown to pieces. Their simplified, no-nonsense construction, triple-redundancy (the tertiary one being an actual hydraulic based type) in their flight control surfaces, and ease of swapping out weapons has given them the nickname of the 'Undying'. The only maintenance hang-up is the previously mentioned electromagnetic diverter panels which not only require normal fusion drive maintenance, but also have to be completely removed and degaussed on a regular basis. Considering the ease of maintenance with the rest of the chassis, most ground crews make no more then the most minor of additional grumbling at dealing with it.
Variants:
The original SPZ-X1-271 Prototypes mounted an extended range large laser just below the nose and slightly off centerline to make room for the nose landing gear, with a medium laser recessed into mounts on either side of the cockpit. Initially hampered by several minor technical issues, and the major issue of DCMS forces hot-dropping onto the testing grounds, engineers literally yanked out large portions of cutting edge systems and replaced them with off-the-shelf, but time-tested and battle proven, components.
Design Quirks:
Atmospheric Flyer
Modular Weapons
Non-Standard Parts
Prototype (SPZ-X1-271 only)
Name: Spatz
Model: SPZ-271
IS experimental
35 tons
BV: 1,229
Cost: 5,118,868 C-bills
Movement: 10/15
Engine: 280 XL
Heat Sinks: 10 [20]
Structural Integrity: 10
Armor: 148 (Heavy Ferro-Aluminum)
Armor
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Nose 51
Left Wing 36
Right Wing 36
Aft 25
Weapon Loc Heat
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Light PPC NOS 5
ER Medium Laser NOS 5
Medium X-Pulse Laser NOS 6
MML 3 RWG 2
MML 3 LWG 2
Ammo Loc Shots
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MML 3 LRM Ammo NOS 40
MML 3 SRM Ammo NOS 33
Equipment Loc
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CASE NOS
Heavy Ferro-Aluminum AFT
PPC Capacitor NOS
