Back when I posted the Mirage class Assault DropShip, Takiro asked to see the Defiance design that was rejected by the TCN. Well, it took me a while, but here it is. Enjoy, MA.
==Overview:==
Shortly before General Kerensky led the SLDF in the assault to liberate Terra
from the Usurper Amaris, Protector Nicoletta Calderon of the Taurian Concordat
began to lay plans for the chaos she was certain would shortly consume the
Star League. One aspect of those plans was for the reconstitution of the
Concordat Navy.
Using the existing customs enforcement service, Nicoletta began to organize a
military arm that had been dead and buried for two centuries. The nascent
naval service was desperately short of armed craft with no way to obtain
modern warships. The handful of capital ships that the Periphery had managed
to illegally procure during the Star League occupation had all been destroyed
in the recent fighting. Concordat shipyards were closely monitored by the
SLDF and certain vital technologies and industrial processes had been
eliminated from the Concordat industrial base.
Unable to construct new warships, the reborn Concordat Navy instead turned to
a strategy of hordes of smaller ships to protect Taurian worlds. Research at
the University of Samantha turned up the design schematics for an ancient
close orbital defense vessel, the Defiance class. Rejected by the Taurian
Concordat Navy during the 25th Century in favor the larger and more capable
Mirage class Assault DropShip, the Defiance was well within the capacity of
the Concordat's shipyards to produce, and to produce in quantity.
Approved for full-scale production in 2788, hundreds of Defiance class
gunships began to enter service. Limited production continues to this day,
with an estimated sixteen hundred of these armed shuttles on active or reserve
status.
==Capabilities:==
Massing just two hundred tons, the Defiance is an extremely tight design.
Thirty-two point five percent of the ships mass is consumed with a powerful
fusion drive that can provide 2.5-g's of constant thrust with a burst capacity
of 4-g's. A ten-ton fuel bunker was fitted, allowing Defiance class gunships
the ability to cruiser at 1-g for more than five days, although fuel
consumption dramatically increases at higher accelerations and during combat
maneuvering.
Thirty-one tons of standard armor give the Defiance class boats exceptional
protection for a vessel of their size and acceleration capacity. Personnel
spaces are tight and austere, with allowance made for a four-man flight crew,
consisting of a pilot, co-pilot/navigator, flight engineer, and gunner. While
standard crew quarters are available on the design (two two-man staterooms),
these are normally used only in shifts on long patrols where the Defiance
coasts along on a ballistic unpowered track. Normally, the crew remain at
their acceleration couches for the duration of any patrol, using the cramped
staterooms as makeshift cargo holds for any additional supplies.
Intended for use close to a manned station or a planetary base, the Defiance
carries no internal cargo or spare parts and a mere twenty-five days of life
support. There is an adequete amount of fresh water carried onboard and food
supplies for the small (but well-equipped) galley tend to consist of frozen
and refrigerated meals instead of dry-storage ration packs. Lacking the space
for escape pods or life boats, the designers of the Defiance simply did not
mount any, nor is there any provision for spin-generated gravity.
All remaining tonnage was allocated to weapons and heat sinks. The main
battery consists of four LRM-15 launchers mounted around the nose of the
vessel. Able to fire twelve salvoes of sixty missiles each, this battery has
both range and striking power; at least until the magazines run dry. The
secondary battery consists of two machine-guns mounted in the stern of the
ship to discourage hostiles from tail-gating too close to the Defiance.
Twenty standard heats were fitted, giving the Defiance the ability to fire all
weapons without reservation.
Critics of the Defiance rightly point out that these ships are grossly
inefficent, as a 100-ton or perhaps even a 90-ton fighter could carry at least
as many weapons. Proponents counter by citing that by doing so the fighter
can't carry as much fuel or armor, and that no fighter ever built can remain
on station for periods of up to twenty-five days duration. One-man crews
versus four-men; relative cost-effectiveness studies; training time for highly
skilled ASF pilots versus the ability of Defiances to focus on their own
speciality. The debate goes on to this day.
Regardless of that debate, the Defiance class vessels serve as an important
component in the defense of Concordat worlds, and will continue to do so
throughout the foreseeable future.
==Variants:==
One variant, the Defiance Mk II, has been introduced, but it has not been
widely accepted by the flight crews of the Concordat Navy. The Defiance Mk II
replaces the original weapon systems with a five-gun laser battery in the
nose; four large and one medium. Heat sinks have been increased by fourteen
tons to compensate for the increased heat production of these weapons. The
stern mounted machine-guns have been retained on this design.
However, this variant required the fuel tankage to be cut in half and armor
reduced by five tons in order to squeeze a second gunner aboard and to provide
additional command space for an officer. While it possesses greater firepower
and does not have to worry about munitions shortages, mainly Defiance crew
believe that the Mk II is suitable only for point-defense of vital worlds and
stations. Fewer than two hundred Mk IIs are on active service and production
of this variant came to a halt sixty years ago.
==Deployment==
Organized in divisions of four, Defiances are assigned to nearly every
first-tier world in the Concordat and many second-tier colonies as well. Even
a few third-rate worlds can boast of a division of Defiances for their
protection. It is, however, the major worlds of the Concordat (New
Vandenberg, Pinard, Samantha, and Taurus) that have the lion's share of these
small vessels. Taurus alone has no fewer than one hundred and twenty
Defiances stationed at both ground bases and orbital stations.
The greatest single concentration of Defiances is at Gateway Point. The sole
known jump-point into the Hyades Nebula, Gateway is situated inside a
tremendous belt of asteroids and cosmic debris. This is the area where the
SASF remain on station with laser, autocannon, and missile batteries built
into the asteroids continually manned and ready for combat. Two hundred and
fifty-six Defiances are divided among the eight space stations spaced along
the perimeter of the asteroids. These vessels conduct patrols and give cover
for customs inspections, often in conjunction with shuttles filled with SASF
Marines.
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
VALIDATED
Class/Model/Name: Defiance
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3025
Vessel Type: Aerodyne Small Craft
Rules: Level 1, Custom design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
Mass: 200 tons
Length: 31 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 5
Maximum Thrust: 8
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
4 LRM 15
2 Machine Gun
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name: Defiance
Mass: 200 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 65.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 5
Maximum Thrust: 8
Structural Integrity: 9 9.00
Total Heat Sinks: 20 Single 19.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 10.50
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 1.50
Fire Control Computers: .00
Food & Water: (25 days supply) .50
Armor Type: Standard (532 total armor pts) 31.00
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 147
Left/Right Wings: 147/147
Aft: 91
Crew and Passengers:
3 Crew (3 minimum) 21.00
1 Gunners (1 minimum) 7.00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 LRM 15 Nose 9 9 9 -- 20 28.00
Ammo (LRM 15) 48 --- 6.00
2 Machine Gun Aft 2 -- -- -- 0 1.00
Ammo (MG) 100 --- .50
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 20 200.00
Tons Left: .00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 14,312,700 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,741
Cost per BV: 8,220.96
Weapon Value: 3,022 (Ratio = 1.74)
Damage Factors: SRV = 37; MRV = 26; LRV = 10; ERV = 0
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 2,348
(946 Structure, 850 Life Support, 552 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 3,152 (134% of MPV)
BattleForce2: MP: 5, Armor/Structure: 13 / 0
Damage PB/M/L: 4/4/4, Overheat: 0
Class: DS; Point Value: 17
Specials: if
