OBT Forum

Naval Flechette Round

Aerospace fighters have always proven to be a major problem for warships.  During the Age of War naval battles were often decided by which side had the superior fighter force.  It is not surprising therefore that there were many attempts to develop weapons and tactics to protect expensive warships from fighter attacks.  Each state came up with it's own solution to this problem.  In the Terran Hegemony they tended to rely large capital missiles and fighters for defense, while the Federated Suns and Free Worlds League preferred to rely on conventional lasers and small missile launchers for self-defense.  In the Taurian Concordat, the Navy tended to rely on large numbers of lasers and long range missile launchers.  These efforts proved moderately effective, but the sheer numbers of fighters that were typically involved in battle simply overwhelmed even the largest ships ability to defend itself.

It was during the Reunification War that the Taurian Concordat developed a new weapon for defending it's warships against enemy fighters.  In the wake of the battle of Tentativa in 2577, Marshal David Santos and a number of senior Concordat Navy officers analyzed the battle and the lessons learned from it.  Despite their resounding victory, the Taurian officers felt that the Federated Sun's New Syrtis class carrier with its massive fighter payload could prove difficult in future battles. 

During the meeting a number of suggestions were made on how to protect the Concordat's warships from large numbers of aerospace fighters.  One of the officers present was a history buff and mentioned how back on Earth in the early days of flight armies had used proximity fused shells to create flak in an effort to bring down airplanes.  As the discussion progressed all present agreed that a similar system with current autocannons would be ineffective due to the improved armor found on modern fighters.  It was then that one of the officers made an offhanded suggestion that for such as system to be effective they would need to use a Naval class autocannon.  Marshal Santos quickly latched on to the idea and thus the naval flechette round was born.  However, it would be almost 5 years before Taurian engineers could transform that idea into a functional weapon.

The naval flechette round is composed of thousands of tungston-depleted Uranium flechettes housed in a standard cannon shell. When the round approaches a group of aerospace fighters, the proximity fuse detonates, spreading the flechettes over a wide area and striking any fighters in the shells flight path. The flechettes then tear through the aerospace fighters and in most cases inflict enough damage to cripple or destroy the plane.

The first use of the naval flechette round was at the battle of Warren in 2583.  The Taurian 5th Fleet found itself engaged with a AFFS naval taskforce built around 4 New Syrtis class carriers.  Facing over 600 aerospace fighters, the Taurian fleet would have been wiped out if not for the fact that they had some of the first production naval flechette rounds.  As the AFFS fighters approached, the Taurian fleet fired massive numbers of flechette rounds.  The few surviving AFFS pilots describe what happened next like running into a wall of steel.  Hundreds of fighters were shredded and destroyed by the rounds.  Stripped of their fighters, the AFFS warships became an easy target for the Concordat fleet. 

Naval flechette rounds were soon carried on every ship of the Concordat Navy. During the war large numbers of aerospace fighters would fall to these weapons.  Despite the success of the Flechette, no other navy has chosen to develop a similar weapon.  It is believed that the SLDF, despite having studied the weapon, chose not to develop it as their ships feature only limited ammunition supplies for their Naval Autocannons and the flechette rounds would limit the number of conventional rounds that can be carried.

Rules:
The Naval Flechette (NF) round has the same tonnage as standard Naval Autocannon Rounds. However there are a number of differences between the NF and a standard round. Unlike standard NAC rounds, the NF does not receive any penalty when firing at targets weighing less then 500 tons. Instead When fired at a target there is a -1 modifier to the attack role.

If the attack is successful damage is then applied to the target. If the target is an aerospace fighter squadron or small craft, each unit receives damage equal to 1/3 the value of the round, rounding down. For example a NAC 40 inflicts 13 points of capital scale damage. To represent that this damage is spread across numerous targets, the damage is applied in 2 point groups.  For every 2 points of damage roll a d6 and apply the damage to the approriate fighter.  Note that according to Strategic Ops, this will result in a critical hit almost every time.  This is intentional as the NF is intended to penetrate through armor and destroy internal systems.

Against dropships, the NF round inflicts 1/4 of it’s damage rating, rounded down. For example a NAC25 inflicts 6 points of capital scale damage. Against warships the round inflicts 1/5 of it’s damage rating. For example an NAC40 inflicts 8 points of Capital Scale damage.

While a NF round has the same mass and size as a standard round, the rounds cost 3 times as much due to the added complexity.