I don't know, something about SD and gunboats is just inspiring...
ANDURIEN CLASS GUNBOAT
Overview:
The design of the Andurien was based on the positive experiences of using the civilian drives units in a military design that the FWLN had with the Ryerson gunboat project. The FWL decided to go ahead with a new faster strike craft to complement their solid but rather slow Ryersons flotillas. The Andurien class gunboat uses the same civilian drive unit, the GM-2080, as the Ryerson and although they are not entirely identical there is a 90% component interchangeability between the GM-2080-R2 and GM-2080-A3 as well as some 80% commonality with the civilian variant mounted in the Mule class transport. In addition many of the components of the ships themselves are identical, like the hexagonal laser turrets, and can be switched freely between the classes. This high level of standardization is expected to contribute to a very high readiness rate matching that of the Ryerson which is already exceptional for gunboats.
There are reports that FWL companies and officials have been making inquiries to numerous manufacturers to purchase surplus GM-2080 units although so far without any known success, mainly due to the general shortage of dropship drives all over the Inner Sphere and the strict regulation of such commodities imposed by the war economy. Following the Treaty of Connaught there were some plans for a joint venture with various Terran companies to develop and produce a militarized version of the GM-2080 but these efforts ended after the Terran Civil War when the Terran industries no longer had spare capacity to devote to the project.
The FWLN is obviously pushing hard for standardization both to boost volume and reliability of their gunboat forces. With the Andurien the FWLN plugs a long known gap in their gunboat forces, namely the lack of a dedicated strike craft.
Capabilities:
Very similar in size and armament to the Kuritan Okha class the Andurien gunboat type is never the less a very different ship. The main armament of the Andurien consists of three heavy missile tubes backed up with an array of lasers and laser based anti-missile systems.
The secondary weapons layout is relatively light and the Andurien is clearly not intended to tangle with fighters or conduct escort missions, those are tasks for the Ryersons and their fighter screen. The lack of secondary weaponry, while a potential weak spot; is not entirely accidental since it helps push the price tag down. The Andurien is easily the cheapest of the modern fast gunboats costing about half of the Nikes and Standards as well as just two thirds of the price of an Okha. The penalty paid for this economy is the sacrifice of protection and secondary weaponry making the Andurien more of a dedicated strike craft along the line of the Standard rather than a general purpose gunboat like the Okha and the larger Terran Nikes.
The Andurien uses the same thirsty civilian drives as the Ryerson although further refined to compensate for the much higher acceleration. The experiences with the Ryerson greatly simplified this procedure of adapting the civilian engines to more extreme conditions and there were no known disastrous accidents like those that plagued the rushed Ryerson program.
The Andurien is well protected but it still is at the low end of armoring for modern gunboats and the ship is clearly not intended to hang around in a dogfight but is intended for fast strafing runs with their heavy shipkiller missiles and relying on their thrust to avoid getting cornered and decisively engaged.
Variants:
There are no official variants of the Andurien yet, although some ships have been equipped with advanced technology when it has been available to the construction yards, primarily advanced armors.
Deployment:
The Andurien Class is only just starting to reach the gunboat flotillas but it is expected that it will be very widely deployed same as its cousin the Ryerson since the yards building the Ryerson will be quite capable of also constructing the Andurien. Like its larger cousin the main issue is how many drive units can be diverted from civilian to military use by the FWL. It should be pointed out that the Andurien will introduce variation into the FWLN gunboat flotillas not additional numbers. Since the Anduriens uses the same drives as the Ryerson and the Mule they have the same limitation as the Ryerson in that the FWL can either build an Andurien or a Ryerson or a Mule making the drives for these classes an enormous bottleneck.
The potential for these classes to spread is high since all the great houses have yards building the Mule class freighter in operation and thus access to the drive unit which usually is the main bottleneck when it comes to dropship construction.
With the Andurien class entering service the FWLN will have a solid pair of relatively cheap gunboats for any future conflict, the Andurien strike craft to take the fight to the enemy and the Ryerson for escort, screening and patrol missions. Additionally should the need arise conversions and production the Freebooter can always be resumed to refill the ranks. It is expected that Ryerson production will decrease sharply over the next few years as the FWLN is building up the numbers of Anduriens.
 
ANDURIEN CLASS GUNBOAT
Type: Civilian Spheroid
Tech: Star League
Introduced: 2828
Mass: 5,600 tons
Dimensions
Length: 74.00 meters
Width: 74.00 meters
Height: 112.00 meters
Fuel: 500.00 tons (15000)
Tons/Burn-day: 3.37 tons
Safe Thrust: 6
Max Thrust: 9
Heatsinks: 166
Structural Integrity: 35
Armor: standard F-A
Nose: 1156 (116) 1257 (126)
R/L Sides: 350 (35) 400 (40)
Aft: 300 (30) 340 (34)
Weapons:
Arc (Heat) Type Short Medium Long Xtreme
Nose(82 Heat)
3 Killer Whale 12 12 12 12
2 Large Laser 2(16) 2(16) - -
6 Small Laser 2*(18) - - -
FL/FR(56 Heat)
2 Large Laser 4(36) 2(16) - -
4 Medium Laser
Aft(28 Heat)
2 Large Laser 4(36) 2(16) - -
4 Medium Laser
Cargo:
Bay 1: Cargo ( 88.0 tons ) 1 Door
Escape Pods: 4
Life Boats: 0
Crew: 4 Officers, 12 enlisted/non-rated, 8 gunners
Ammunition:
30 Killer Whale Missiles
Note:
Equipped with 126 tons of standard armor.
Cost:
334 million C-bills.
