Cheetah-A CLASS Troop Transport
Overview:
The design work on the down-teched version of the Cheetah started already in 2806 following the success of the Gepard gunboat version of the baseline Cheetah. Fortunately Federated Defense Systems at Capolla were able to keep up production of the more advanced Cheetah version until the chaos of the civil war made a change over to the simpler design unavoidable.
Capabilities:
The Cheetah-A is very similar in capability to its parent baseline version. It carries the same amount of troops although 200 ton less supplies for them due to the squeeze effect of using more primitive materials. The Cheetah-A uses standard armor plating in the same general layout as the now discontinued Gepard gunboat. Supporting this hard armored shell is an extensive array of laser point defense clusters. While the redistributed armor is theoretically able to withstand a direct hit by an anti-ship nuke on the bow the laser point defenses minimize the danger of testing this theory.
The original weapon array and the advanced double heatsinks have been replaced with more primitive versions. While this reduce the damage potential and range of the weaponry this reduction is rather marginal. The greatest danger is the lack of long range anti fighter weaponry but the high thrust ratio of the Cheetah-A makes it hard for fighters to exploit this potential weak spot.
Variants:
There are several patchworks Cheetah-A versions that makes use of the odd bit of advanced technology that was available when the ship was repaired or built but there are no official versions of this ship.
Deployment:
The Cheetah-A didn’t enter production until the reconstruction effort in the post-civil war era and is thought to be a unique Terran Republic design. While the Loyalist faction probably have the plans to the design so far no ships of this variant have been sighted out on the Terran Rim.
 
Cheetah-A CLASS Troop Transport
Type: Military Spheroid
Tech: Star League
Mass: 4,500 tons
Dimensions
Length: 90.00 meters
Width: 90.00 meters
Height: 85.00 meters
Fuel: 200.00 tons ( 6000 )
Tons/Burn-day: 1.84 tons
Safe Thrust: 6
Max Thrust: 9
Heatsinks: 348 ( single )
Structural Integrity: 40
Armor: standard
Nose: 1200 ( 120 )
R/L Sides: 400 ( 40 )
Aft: 544 ( 54 )
Weapons:
Arc (Heat) Type Short Medium Long Xtreme
Nose(62 Heat)
4 PPC 4(40) 4(40) - -
2 Large Laser 2(16) 2(16) - -
6 Small Laser 2*(18*) - - -
LF/RF(124 Heat)
4 PPC 4(40) 4(40) - -
2 Large Laser 2(16) 2(16) - -
6 Small Laser 2*(18*) - - -
AL/AR(96 Heat)
2 PPC 2(20) 2(20) - -
2 Large Laser 3(26) 2(16) - -
2 Medium Laser
6 Small Laser 2*(18*) - - -
Aft(48 Heat)
2 PPC 2(20) 2(20) - -
2 Large Laser 3(26) 2(16) - -
2 Medium Laser
6 Small Laser 2*(18*) - - -
Cargo:
Bay 1: Battlemech ( 4 ) 4 Doors
Bay 2: Heavy Vehicles ( 4 ) 4 Doors
Bay 3: Jump-Infantry Platoon 2 Doors
Bay 4: Cargo ( 307 tons )
Escape Pods: 2
Life Boats: 8
Crew: 4 Officers, 16 enlisted/non-rated
Note: Equipped with 144 tons of standard armor.
Cost: 413 million C-Bills.
