The Ultra is a brigade scale invasion transport using 3025 tech. Comments/questions/suggestions welcome.
The Ultra's 7/11 movement makes it capable of evading anything except light enemy ASF. It's light weaponry (a few AC2s for long range and a number of small lasers) is deadly for such light enemy ASF. More powerful attacks from assault dropships or smallcraft can be repelled by the large onboard ASF complement and (hopefully) endured by the 500+ point of armor.
The Ultra also contains quarters for 1800 personnel, enough to support all bay personnel, tech crews, many marines, and other ancillaries. The cargo storage of 6K ton and fuel reserve of 1K tons provides support for up to a 6 month war zone deployment.
Relative to the Vengeance for example, the Ultra can carry up to 5x the ASF complement, nearly doubles acceleration, carries more than twice the fuel reserves, and has incomparably larger personnel and cargo complements. All of this comes at a price ~6x a Vengeance which is further alleviated by more subtle values. The Ultra can also perform in a land invasion role (unlike the Vengeance) defraying the cost of a land invasion transport using a
dyad force structure. In addition, the Ultra simply gets more out of a jump collar (amortized cost 250M+).
Ultra 3025
Type: Military Spheriod
Mass: 100,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3025
Mass: 100,000
Battle Value: 6,935
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 2,221,671,200 C-bills
Fuel: 1,600 tons (16,000)
Safe Thrust: 7
Maximum Thrust: 11
Heat Sinks: 556
Structural Integrity: 85
Armor
Nose: 544
Sides: 544/544
Aft: 544
Cargo
Bay 1: Small Craft (12) 1 Door
Bay 2: Fighter (108) 8 Doors
Bay 3: Cargo (6100.0 tons) 0 Doors
Bay 4: Cargo (649.0 tons) 0 Doors
Ammunition:
810 rounds of AC/2 ammunition (3 tons)
Escape Pods: 5
Life Boats: 5
Crew: 8 officers, 16 enlisted/non-rated, 12 gunners, 276 bay personnel, 1800 passengers
Notes: Mounts 306 tons of standard aerospace armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (12 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
RS/LS Fwd (12 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
RS/LS Aft (19 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
3 AC/2 3 1(6) 1(6) 1(6) 1(6) AC
AC/2 Ammo (270 shots)
1 Large Laser 8 1(8) 1(8) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
Aft (19 Heat)
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
2 Small Laser 2 1(6) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
1 Large Laser 8 1(8) 1(8) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
3 AC/2 3 1(6) 1(6) 1(6) 1(6) AC
AC/2 Ammo (270 shots)
Capabilities:
The Ultra is designed around
ASF+Marine dyads but can also be deployed in several other configurations.
- Dyads consist of 2 ASF, 20 marines with 115 tons of cargo. 54 such units provides 2 regiments of 108 ASF, and a Brigade/regiment of 1080 marines all of which can exit the Ultra in 7 minutes.
- ASF max configurations can put ASF in the smallcraft bays, carry additional ASF in cargo, and swap marines for techs who can rapidly deploy the ASF. This allows deployment of up to 3 regiments of 100 ton ASF or 2 regiments of 100 ton and 2 regiments of 50 ton ASF. Using teams with Strongarm exoskeletons a 50 ton ASF can be loaded into an ASF bay in 3 minutes with a constant half g thrust. With a dedicated tech team and an extra tech team for each ASF loaded from cargo, they can be prepped in 2 minutes implying a near constant stream of ASF can be launched over a period of 13 to 14 minutes.
- Marine max. The number of marines can easily be doubled to two regiments with 1800 folks in quarters and nigh-unlimited supplies. Furthermore, these can easily be delivered via smallcraft designed for boarding ops while a large ASF complement screens the deployment. The number of marines that can be supported for short stays is potentially much larger, controlled only by the life support available in smallcraft.
Tradeoffs here:
Size: I'm considering deployment by jump circuit to an L1 pirate point as a baseline scenario. Note here that the last jumpship may easily end up sacrificed given the jump into a warzone. In that setting, the amortized cost of the jump collars used is ~250M/hop with a plausible minimum of 250M. To amortize that, we are interested in large transports which maximize the force brought into a situation. We could imagine going with something half scale like the Warmother which allows delivery of slightly more than half as many units at slightly more than half the price. But, with 3025 tech, the Ultra scale appears both survivable and desirable given a jump circuit deployment. As an example, a
Voyager jumpship could bring two Ultras into a pirate point generating a Thera+ scale ASF superiority complement for perhaps 1/5th the price.
Versatility: There is a significant tradeoff between the amount of force which can be brought to bear on a specific problem vs a large range of problems (high speed engagement, space combat, open field combat, in-facility combat). I'll discuss later after more details are filled in, but this design provides an effective way to address each of these at a modest cost relative to a design optimized to address just one of these.
Speed: A 7/11 movement on a transport is controversial. At a practical level, crews need g support, the cost is increased, and the payload is significantly decreased. For example, with a 5/8 movement you could add 40% more transport while decreasing the price. You could even go for a 2/3 transport with twice the capacity. The advantage of the high speed is that Ultra is super-survivable. Very little can outrun it in deep space, and the little which can is highly vulnerable to either onboard weapons or onboard ASF. Thus the extra cost and reduced capacities are effectively the cost of reuse across multiple battles. As an example, an Ultra might jump in-system, deploy ASF for a high speed engagement (while avoiding that itself), gather the ASF and patch them up while swinging around for a low speed engagement to finish off opposition naval survivors, again gather the ASF and outfit them with bombs for opposition land forces, then land some infantry to mop up opposition survivors. This battle sequence is expected to be survivable for the Ultra while slower transports could be targeted and killed at the first step.
Variants: A similar design at the battalion scale is the
Brood following a suggestion below.