OBT Forum

Class/Model/Name:  Falcone FGR.1a
Tech:              Inner Sphere / ? [‘mid-24^th Century’]
Vessel Type:       Aerospace Fighter
Rules:             Level 2, Primitive design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              30 tons
Frame:             PD(A)-30A
Length:            12 meters
Power Plant:       Principality Dynamics 240 Fusion
Safe Thrust:       8
Maximum Thrust:    12
Armor Type:        Principality Metal Works Lamellor-3
Armament:         
    2 Genarro Military Optics “Rapier” Medium Lasers
    3 Principality Metal Works S.129.2 20mm Machine-Guns
Manufacturer:   Principality Dynamics (Aerospace) Amalfi Aerospace
  Location:     Cavaretta City, Salerno Lafayette City, Acadia

==Overview:==
  Exactly when, where and how Salerno came into possession of the blueprints for the Terran Hegemony’s Star Dagger aerospace fighter is a mystery that has fascinated and frustrated outside observers and intelligence personnel for centuries; almost all records and facts relating to the acquisition have been lost to history - or creatively misfiled - in the intervening centuries.  Nonetheless, turning those blueprints into reality gave Salerno a weapons-system comparable to anything available during the early Age of War, and quite possibly fuelled their earliest dreams of empire.


==Capabilities:==
  Armed with wing-mounted medium lasers, a chin packed with triple 20mm rotary machine-cannon, and three missile-stanchions, the Falcone FGR.1a is not an overwhelming threat on the modern battlefield, and indeed it would have been outmatched by the contemporary SB-26 Sabre had the two ever met in direct action.  Nonetheless, it remains faster than many heavier spaceframes and can carry a respectable payload, making it an acceptable bomb-truck and strafer for garrison formations.  However, while cheaper and more readily available than modern battle-steel, the less sophisticated armour used on the Falcone FGR.1a leaves it distinctly vulnerable in sustained combat.


==Deployment==
  Once the standard Salernan aerospace fighter, and still well-recognised on the worlds of the Cavaretta Expanse as ‘the Angels from Hell’ that inflicted retribution on unruly ‘feral’ populations from Torrance to Svoboda during Salerno’s first expansionist period, the Falcone FGR.1a has been supplanted in most Duchies’ service by the heavier Leone, whose modern construction lends it better performance and offensive punch.  Nonetheless, with Leones generally prioritised to ‘offensive’ duties, many Ducal regiments remain equipped with the FGR.1a - especially those in garrison assignments, defending less-valuable sites or tasked purely with ‘pacification’ duties.  (After all, such duties rarely require a fighter with first-line performance, and modern fighters are so much more expensive....)

  On a less savoury note, while construction of the Falcone FGR.1a on Salerno was discontinued with the introduction of the Leone, the Falcone FGR.1a remains in full-rate production on Acadia, for sale not only to the other Salernan Dukes as attrition-replacements but also to almost any ‘privateer’, freebooter, or outright pirate in the Rimward Periphery who knows when and where to contact a representative of the Acadian Duchies.  Originally intended to inconvenience and bleed the Star League and its Union ‘lackeys’ in the years between the Reunification War and the Amaris Coup, this programme has developed a life of its own, and now most of the pirate-bands from Antallos to Tortuga to Astrokaszy derive their aerospace firepower from Acadian-built Falcones (or even newer Leones).

  (Of course, since the Acadians seem willing to sell these ‘antiquated’ machines to anyone in sight who isn’t actively hostile to the Principality of Salerno and can meet their prices, many smaller, out-of-the-way planets that need an aerospace arm cheap-and-fast and can get in contact with an Acadian sales-agent can also purchase a flight or two of Falcone spaceframes and ‘advisors’ to show them how to use them.  Although Fleet Intelligence has never received a confirmed report of its occurring, it is almost a statistical certainty that in the centuries since the Reunification War, a significant number of pirate-raids against ‘helpless’ worlds in the Rimward Periphery have turned into pitched battles where pirate and defender Falcones were pitted against one another.)


==Variants:==
  While fearsome anti-personnel weapons, suitable for breaking up demonstrations riots or massed infantry formations, the Falcone’s machine-guns are essentially useless in anti-aerospace combat.  Amalfi Aerospace, the current manufacturer of the Falcone, offers the FGR.1b as an alternate manufacturing standard (or refit package) to many purchasers who are more concerned with anti-aerospace duties, installing a chin-mounted medium laser and two more ordnance stanchions in place of the machine-guns and magazine.


Class/Model/Name:  Falcone FGR.1a
Mass:              30 tons

Equipment:                                                              Mass
Power Plant:  180 Primitive Fusion (220 Fusion)                         10.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 8
      Maximum Thrust: 12
Structural Integrity: 8                                                   .00
Total Heat Sinks:    10 Single                                           0.00
Fuel:                                                                    5.00
Cockpit [Primitive] & Attitude Thrusters:                                5.00
Armor Type:  Primitive ( 48 total armor pts)                             4.50

                           Standard Scale Armor Pts

   Location:                            L / R
   Nose:                                 15
   Left/Right Wings:                  12/12
   Aft:                                   9

Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Machine-guns             Nose         2     --     --     --    0      1.50
  Ammo (MG) 100                                                           .50
Medium Laser               RW           5     --     --     --    3      1.00
Medium Laser               LW           5     --     --     --    3      1.00
3 ordnance stanchions                                                    1.50
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                                    Heat:  6     30.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00


Class/Model/Name:  Falcone FGR.1b
Mass:              30 tons

Equipment:                                                              Mass
Power Plant:  180 Primitive Fusion (220 Fusion)                         10.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 8
      Maximum Thrust: 12
Structural Integrity: 8                                                   .00
Total Heat Sinks:    10 Single                                           0.00
Fuel:                                                                    5.00
Cockpit [Primitive] & Attitude Thrusters:                                5.00
Armor Type:  Primitive ( 48 total armor pts)                             4.50

                           Standard Scale Armor Pts

   Location:                            L / R
   Nose:                                 15
   Left/Right Wings:                  12/12
   Aft:                                   9

Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Laser               Nose         5     --     --     --    3      1.00
Medium Laser               RW           5     --     --     --    3      1.00
Medium Laser               LW           5     --     --     --    3      1.00
5 ordnance stanchions                                                    2.50
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                                    Heat:  9     30.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00