Hangar DropShip Concept
The First and Second Succession Wars devastated the interstellar fleets, both military and civilian, of all the Great Houses. In their desperation they all searched for solutions. House Liao, well known for the ability to make do with less, came up with yet another solution all of the Great Houses would copy. Noting that smaller, relatively low tech DropShips were much easier for civilian shipyards to build than larger more complex military ones House Liao found they could quickly ramp up production of designs such as the Leopard with their existing infrastructure. Many called the plan folly given the pitiful state of their JumpShip fleets, most felt that investments in larger DropShips were a better route since ramping up JumpShip building would be a much slower process than building a fleet of small DropShips. But the engineers had a way to help deal with the dearth of JumpShips too. Essentially all they did was resurrect the old hangar concept used in the first generation of JumpShips, before the DropShip docking collar was developed.
Modern DropShips are essentially just an evolution of the shuttles developed to service the first generation JumpShips. The KF Boom, which insures the KF field envelops the DropShip during a jump, is little more than an add-on component to a shuttle, in fact the first DropShips equipped with KF booms and docking collars were simply modified shuttles. The genius of the Capellan engineers’ idea was to simply put the small DropShips inside larger DropShips, doubling or tripling the capacity of a JumpShip’s docking collar. It must be made clear however that this concept cannot violate the 100,000 ton mass restriction for each collar: KF drive physics insure that. A beautiful part of the idea was that new hangar DropShips did not even have to be built; old ships, too tired for regular service, particularly atmospheric operations, could simply be modified and more or less permanently attached to a JumpShip.
Converting a DropShip is relatively simple: little more than just cutting a huge door into the hull. Sometimes the internal arrangement of a ship needs to be modified but large cargo DropShips rarely require extensive work of this sort. The first converted hangar DropShips were Jumbo class but all sorts have been used over the years. Recently there has been a trend towards converting more serviceable ships that are in good, functional condition, allowing trans-atmospheric operations without safety concerns. It must be noted however that the DropShips cannot be transported within a hangar DropShip. Docking facilities capable of properly securing a multi-thousand ton ship would essentially require a new, purpose built hangar DropShip for each class of DropShip to be carried. No this new trend is simply to provide a more versatile fleet since hangar facilities can easily transport cargo.
Rules:
Docking facilities mass 10% of the largest size DropShip to be transported and cost 50,000 C-bills.
Cutting large hangar doors in the hull will reduce hull Structural Integrity by 25%.
Attempting to thrust while carrying a DropShip internally will result in destruction of both vessels.
Code:
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
VALIDATED
Class/Model/Name: Jumbo 15 DropShip Hangar Mk. IVC
Tech: Inner Sphere / 2750
Vessel Type: Spheroid DropShip
Rules: Level 1, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
Mass: 14,800 tons
Length: 127 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
4 Autocannon/5
8 Medium Laser
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==Overview:==
Sick Bays consists of:
MASH Operating Theaters: 2
Paramedic Eqmt Sets: 12 (Function as ICU beds)
Mass: 7.5 tons
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Class/Model/Name: Jumbo 15 DropShip Hangar Mk. IVC
Mass: 14,800 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 2,886.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 8 237.00
Total Heat Sinks: 73 Single 6.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 1,510.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 111.00
Fire Control Computers: .00
Food & Water: (90 days supply) 88.00
Armor Type: Standard (431 total armor pts) 28.50
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 115
Left/Right Sides: 102/102
Aft: 112
Cargo:
Bay 1: Small Craft Bays (4) with 2 doors 1,200.00
Bay 2: DropShip Bay, Cap. 2400 tons (1) with 1 door 2,640.00
Bay 3: DropShip Bay, Cap. 2400 tons (1) with 1 door 2,640.00
Bay 4: Cargo (1) with 4 doors 2,069.00
Crew and Passengers:
1 Officers (1 minimum) 10.00
6 Crew (5 minimum) 42.00
2 Gunners (2 minimum) 14.00
24 2nd Class Passengers 168.00
162 Steerage Passengers 810.00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
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2 Autocannon/5(40 rounds) Nose 1(10) 1(10) -- -- 2 18.00
2 Medium Laser Nose 1(10) -- -- -- 6 2.00
1 Autocannon/5(20 rounds) FL/R 1(5) 1(5) -- -- 2 18.00
2 Medium Laser AL/R 1(10) -- -- -- 12 4.00
2 Medium Laser Aft 1(10) -- -- -- 6 2.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (1.16%) 172.00
11 C-18 Escape Pods 110.00
1 Mk.11 Captain's Gig 7.00
1 Sick Bay 2/12 7.50
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TOTALS: Heat: 28 14,800.00
Tons Left: .00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 216,964,776 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,872
Cost per BV: 75,544.84
Weapon Value: 2,625 (Ratio = .91)
Damage Factors: SRV = 55; MRV = 14; LRV = 0; ERV = 0
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 50,221
(24,859 Structure, 24,180 Life Support, 1,182 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 9,229 (18% of MPV)
BattleForce2: MP: 3, Armor/Structure: 7 / 7
Damage PB/M/L: 2/1/-, Overheat: 0
Class: DL; Point Value: 29
Specials: sph