I've been trying to come up with something to replace the standard mid-TL modular cutter so that essentially the same functionality is available without putting all of one's eggs in one basket. The mission is to act as both a space-born picket for its mother ship while being able to be converted for customs work and delivery of ground troops and combat vehicles to possibly "hot" landing zones.
Using a custom 15 dton hull, three of these will take up less space than a single standard modular cutter, provide the same amount of modular payload with slightly less acceleration but have armor that'll shrug off a standard ship-to-ship laser and all but the heaviest ground fire. The 10 tons of modular payload can be customized for any mission, with capacity for up to 10 battle-dressed Marines, one light/medium armored fighting vehicle, or any anti-starship weapons module up to a fusion or particle beam barbette or even a triple missile turret with a very generous ordinance storage capacity.
I call it an assault picket. Here are the design specs. Any design flaws I've missed? Any way to improve its mission capabilities without increasing its overall displacement?
Using a custom 15 dton hull, three of these will take up less space than a single standard modular cutter, provide the same amount of modular payload with slightly less acceleration but have armor that'll shrug off a standard ship-to-ship laser and all but the heaviest ground fire. The 10 tons of modular payload can be customized for any mission, with capacity for up to 10 battle-dressed Marines, one light/medium armored fighting vehicle, or any anti-starship weapons module up to a fusion or particle beam barbette or even a triple missile turret with a very generous ordinance storage capacity.
I call it an assault picket. Here are the design specs. Any design flaws I've missed? Any way to improve its mission capabilities without increasing its overall displacement?
