Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

L. Optionally, you could get the budget version of the gravitational lifter,

M. Since the rules don't allow a two factor disadvantage, it would be limited to hundred diameters.

N. It's never been established what happens if you fire off the rockets, afterburners, and the gravitational manoeuvre drive, at the same time.

O. Laziest solution would be to add up the two highest accelerations.

P. I'd say, the other effects would still be in force, factor one inertial compensation, hovering in place, and heat shieldless atmospheric reentry.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

Q. One issue with having a manoeuvre drive, is that you have to find a way to energize it.

R.

S. Batteries are an option, but a fusion reactor actually lasts longer.

T. Then there's solar coating, since you can't deploy the panels while under acceleration.

U. The problem being less about insufficient energy pool, more about inoperability during atmospheric reentry.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

V. In theory, or actually practice, solar panelling has a one turn latency.

W. That means, that it would take a turn to contribute to the power pool, and you'd still have that contribution the next turn after it's turned off.

X. That would mean, if the gravitational drive is the sole means of keeping you afloat and the solar coating the only way to shuffle energy to it, you better have landed within six minutes.

Y. Having looked over the text, there's no indication that an atmospheric reentry damages the solar coating.

Z. Just that repairing the hull that's coated with it, and assuming you need to reapply the coating, plus presumably the power interface, it's going to be somewhat costly.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

1. Coatings applied to close-structure and dispersed hulls produce 50% less energy because their surfaces have extensive areas that are obscured from view, thus making it difficult for them to extract power from a star.

2. That leaves planetoid, buffered planetoid, sphere, streamlined, and standard.

3. Coatings are not applied to streamlined hulls since the stresses of atmospheric re-entry renders them inoperable.

4. Pretty vague.

5. Assuming it's due to ionic interference in the upper atmosphere, it would depend on how long the spacecraft would remain within that band.

6. If basic systems and the manoeuvre drive are the only things that need power during descent, which for every six minutes would be a quarter and, assuming factor one default, half a point, that would be three quarters of a power point per six minutes.

7. Highly technologized one eighth of a power point, total three eighths of a power point per six minutes.

8. Sixty power point battery pack, would be four days.

9. Which either replaces the solar coating or supplements it.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

A. Planetoid hulls are gravitated by default, at four kilostarbux per tonne.

B. Presumably, if you switch off the artificial gravity, the construction cost remains the same, but the operating energy requirement for basic system is halved.

C. The default chunky nature of the planetoid hull would have indicated some loss of efficiency for solar coating energy harvesting.

D. Worse, if buffered.

E. The nature of the organic hull armour bonus of the buffered planetoid would indicate that you can't really alter it.

F. That would not be the case for the default planetoid.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

G. The default planetoid relies on it's organic hull armour factor on the twenty percent waste volume.

H. In theory, as long as the buffered planetoid has a waste hull volume of thirty five percent, it should retain it's organic hull armour factor of two.

I. That would work out at five percent overhead, seven and a half percent per hull factor, for nickel iron hull (armour).

J. In theory, five percent and seven and a half percent, total twelve and a half percent hull volume, would allow an organic hull armour factor of one.

K. Or even, allocating five percent of hull volume, and constructing it out of nickel armour, would permit a spacecraft a nickel iron hull, without any organic armour factor, but with an organic artificial gravity installed, at a cost of four kilostarbux per tonne.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

L. We could have modularized the five tonne ultralite fighter with a breakaway hull.

M. I figure that the minimum size for a breakaway hull, or any number of them, would be five tonnes.

N. Since they have to be independent of the primary hull.

O. And be self sufficient.

P. But at a minimum, you're doubling engineering requirements (and costs).

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

Q. Per five tonne lot, that's ten kilogrammes.

R. Which would cost a hundred kilostarbux.

S. Essentially, double that for two five tonne breakaway hulls.

T. Unless one or both are automated, each would need at a minimum a one and a half tonne cockpit.

U. Compared to a standard five tonne module, which would, though, require a ten tonne hull, and can't be expanded.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

V. Up to 75% of a ship’s internal tonnage can be designated as modular.

W. That would be three and three quarters tonnes.

X. Engineering and bridge can't be modularized.

Y. Though you have to wonder with zero tonnage, you could modularize fixed mounts.

Z. In the sense that switching them would not be considered a minor system refit.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

1. Since I couldn't modularize engineering, I can't easily switch out either the drives nor the power plant without a major refit.

2. Which probably wouldn't be worth it.

3. Conceptual modularization of this specific spacecraft model, into submodels, would cost too much, comparatively.

4. Hard coding the components into the ultralite fighter, or at least the major systems, would indicate disposability.

5. Disposability would preferably be cheap acquirement cost.

6. Operating cost could be more expensive, if confined mostly during operational use.

7. In other words, if the fighter comes back heavily shot up, it would be cheaper and easier to chuck it out of the cargo hatch.

8. And pull out a new one from storage.

9. The most valuable item being the (trained) pilot.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

A. At technological level ten, you can invoke a virtual crew with an across the board skill level of zero.

B. Five vee crewers at a cost of a megastarbux and five bandwidth.

C. One would assume pilot, gunner, engineer, mechanic, and sensor operator.

D. Annual maintenance cost would a kilostarbux for the programme, and you can cost account the computer.

E. Striker came up with around fifty kilostarbux per private, per annum.

F. Over the initial four year term, a pilot can acquire six skills.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

G. The Confederation Navy kickstarted off at technological level twelve.

H. That probably means that they had acquired, for that time, cutting edge aerospace fighters at that technological level.

I. Chances are, that they also acquired technological level eleven spacecraft, from less developed industrial bases.

J. That would mean, that Confederation Navy fighters would range, historically, between technological levels eleven to fifteen.

K. Whether they have anything below technological level thirteen at this moment, might depend on upgrades and cost benefit.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

L. Spacecraft gravitic based manoeuvre drive becomes available at technological level nine.

M. You can immediately get the budget alternative.

N. At technological level twelve, you can get a highly technologized factor/one, at plus fifty percent premium.

O. Obviously, in context with solar power, the accumulative advantage you'd want is seventy five percent energy efficiency.

P. Though there seems to be a way to game the system.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

Q. Technological level thirteen allows a highly technologized factor/three manoeuvre drive.

R. Three gees should pretty much cover almost all human colonized worlds.

S. Likely used for intercontinental travel.

T. Less energy output, whether by power plant or thrusters, contributes to stealth.

U. And as long as you have a complete gee in reserve above the local gravitational field, you can pretty much go hyper within an atmosphere.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

V. Does the Confederation Navy have technological level fifteen ultralite fighters?

W. The answer is likely yes and no.

X. The small hull size would only utilize minimal technological level fifteen spaceyard space.

Y. However, more likely they would be heavily stealthed and utilized for reconnaissance and infiltration missions.

Z. Directed by Solomani Security.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

1. The gaming solution is to use manoeuvre drive factor/zero.

2. For atmospheric reentry, not take off.

3. The bridge has two weeks of life support and battery power, while emergency thrusters give it basic manoeuvring capabilities, equivalent to Thrust 0.

4. A detachable bridge is even capable of soft-landing on a planetary surface.

5. It's never been specified what the hull configuration of a detachable bridge, is.

6. If deck plans are created for a design with a detachable bridge, include a compact battery array and manoeuvre drives adjacent to the bridge.

7. There is a discrepancy in High Guard.

8. Spacecraft require half a percent in volume, costs two megastarbux per tonne, and divide hull volume by forty for power requirement.

9. Space stations require a quarter percent in volume, cost a megastarbux per tonne, and divide hull volume by ten for power requirement.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

A. Calculate annual maintenance by taking the total cost of the station and divide this figure by 12,000 for the monthly cost.

B.

C. Might be worthwhile to give space stations jump drives.

D. Calculate total life support and reduce by 25–50% to account for typical occupied usage of accommodations and residential facilities.

E. It would certainly cut down on operational costs.

F. Though a five tonne space station might be pushing it.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

G. You probably can modularize one or more sections of the spacecraft, and build it/them to space station specifications.

H. It looks like space station engineering specifically excludes jump drives.

I. And manoeuvre drives greater than factor/zero.

J. I guess that's why we have docking clamps.

K. Or the placement of a space station into a cargo hold.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

L. Space stations cannot manoeuvre to any appreciable degree in combat and thus follow very predictable orbital paths.

M. Space stations may never engage in any kind of combat manoeuvring (see the Traveller Core Rulebook, page 164).

N. Presumably, what's missing is inertial compensation.

O. Which still would be missing if the space station was situated as an external attachment to the primary hull.

P. But not if placed internally, say, in a cargo hold.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Twin Impulse Engine Fighter

Q. The size of the control centre is less important, than the cost of that effective control.

R. At five times less than a spacecraft, default.

S. Presumably, if you degrade that control by one, by making the control centre cramped, you pay half of that.

T. I would say two functions the control centre would not be capable of, would be jumping, and greater than factor/zero manouvring.

U. You could, of course, substitute it with a more intrusive bridge.