Topic: Pegasus Class Assault Ship (Read 7135 times)

lrose · « **on:** July 17, 2011, 09:23:39 AM »

Pegasus Class Assault Ship
In Service: 2508
Type: Military Aerodyne
Mass: 5,300 tons
Thrust: 5/8
Fuel: 600 tons
SI: 16
Armor: 72 tons
   Nose: 316
   Wings: 316
   Aft: 268
Heatsinks: 283
Fighters: 8
Crew: 2 officers, 5 enlisted, 8 Gunners, 16 2nd class passengers
Lifeboats: 2
Escape Pods: 1
Cargo: 424.5 tons
Bays:
   Bay 1: Fighters (

2 doors
Bay 2: Cargo 2 doors
Weapons:
Nose:
4 PPCs
3 LRM 15
3 Large Lasers
2 AC/5

RW/LW:
3 LRM 15
4 AC/5
2 Large Lasers
3 Medium Lasers

RW/LW Aft:
3 LRM 15
1 Large Laser
5 Medium Lasers

Aft:
3 Large Lasers
2 AC/5
4 Medium Lasers

Ammo:
AC/5 (24 tons)
LRM 15 (30 tons)

Overview:
In the early 26th Century, the Terran Hegemony began to dispose of old and unwanted military equipment. Among the items offered for sale were Dart Light Cruisers, Manatee Transports and DroST IIA Light Bulk Transports. The Taurian Concordat quickly purchased many of these vessels for their fleet. While some senior officials in the Concordat questioned the reasons for purchasing foreign vessels for the fleet, when the Concordat had a successful ship building industry, many realized there were several benefits to acquiring the ships. Among them was the chance to study Terran technology, even if it was somewhat out of date and the ability to greatly expand the size of the Concordat fleet for a minimal cost, especially when compared to the cost of building new hulls. The DroST IIA was the design acquired in the largest numbers- hundreds of these ships were purchased in 2505. The DroST vessels soon found themselves transporting TDF troops across the Concordat, as well as hauling other military cargoes.

Soon after acquiring the former HAF ships, the Taurians launched the first Concordat class frigate. Intended to operate as part of a naval task force, the Concordat did not carry a large number of fighters, instead it was expected to deploy fighter carrier dropships as part of its escort. The Concordat Navy studied several options for a new fighter carrier to support the Concordat but ultimately settled on a modified DroST IIA design. While there were those in the Navy who questioned the decision to rebuild the DroSTs as carriers rather then build new vessels, the numbers were in favor of the DroST. Even with the cost of the overhauls and modifications, the Concordat could acquire 3 DroST carriers for the cost of a single new build dropship. The DroST modification program was soon established at the Horsham shipyards in 2508 the first of the modified ships, designated the Pegasus Assault Ship, entered service with the Concordat Navy.

Capabilities:
The Pegasus is designed to serve as both a carrier and an assault ship for the Concordat Navy. The above average thrust capacity of DroST, while considered excessive for a transport, is ideal for an assault ship. The large engines provide the ship with superior maneuverability and the ability to chase down enemy transport.

The small craft bay on the DroST was expanded to carry a single fighter squadron of 8 fighters. The fighter bays are quite spacious, providing plenty of room for maintenance work. The Pegasus also features an over sized fuel bunker and large cargo bay, both of which are used to support the needs of the fighter squadron. To ensure that the pilots and their crews are performing at their best, the DroST's cramped sleeping quarters for vehicle crews have been replaced by double occupancy quarters for the pilots and mechanics.

As the Pegasus was expected to serve as an assault ship, in addition to serving as a carrier, there were numerous changes made to the ship's armor and weapons. The Pegasus carries more then twice the armor of the DroST, giving it excellent protection. While the DroST carried a few weapons for self defense, the Pegasus bristles with weapons. Numerous lasers and autocannon turrets cover the ship. These are backed up by numerous LRM tubes, allowing the Pegasus to engage opponents are long ranges, while the nose of the ship features 4 powerful particle canons. With the weapons covering all sides of the ship, the Pegasus is not only a threat to other dropships but it very effective against enemy fighters.

Deployment:
The Pegasus has been widely deployed with the Concordat Navy. Originally the main carrier for the Navy, the ship has been superseded in the role by the larger Phoenix class. However the ship continues to serve as the main assault ship for the Taurian fleets. Typically 2 Pegasus are assigned to each Concordat Frigate and Bulldog Destroyer, serving as escorts and protection against enemy fighters and dropships. It is also common to see the Pegasus assigned as escorts to the Winchester Cruisers and as part of planetary defense flotillas.

During the Reunification War, the Pegasus class saw heavy action, being involved in nearly every major operation of the war. The ships proved very successful against the SLDF's transports and the need to counter the ship was one of the reasons why the SLDF developed the Achilles class assault ship. Even the vaunted Pentagon class dropship found itself equally matched by the Pegasus.

The most famous Pegasus is the TCS Gauntlet under the command of Ivan Roshenko. Gifted with a talented chief engineer, they modified the Gauntlet so that the giant Kapesen engines could both rotate 180 degrees and rotate independently of each other. This allowed Roshenko to develop a tactic that became known as a Crazy Ivan. While an enemy ship was pursuing them, they would reverse the direction of one of the engines and then fire both of them. This would spin the ship far faster then was normally possible and allow the Gauntlet to engage the rapidly approaching enemy vessel with a full barrage from it's forward guns. Numerous enemy dropships were destroyed by this tactic, but surprisingly no other ships were modified in this way. The modification severely stressed the engine mounts and it was only through very extensive and time consuming maintenance that the ship remained operational.

Gabriel · « **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2011, 09:35:29 AM »

Hmmmm

Halvagor · « **Reply #2 on:** July 18, 2011, 09:50:45 PM »

You need three more gunners, at the least. More crew would also be a good idea, unless you want the craft to be constantly unavailable due to broken equipment. The maintenance point calculator for HMA (which, granted, doesn't seem to still be in use based on the Tech Manual rules) would suggest a crew of 7 officers, 28 enlisted and 11 gunners. At a regular experience level they'd just about be able to produce enough maintenance points to take care of the many, many systems on this dropship. However, they'd also take up another 232 tons. And by the numbers, you'd need another 11 escape pods or life boats, for another 77 tons. Cut out one of those as surplus based in the idea that the fighter jocks will "escape" inside their fighters and your total of additional equipment to add hits 302 tons. And doesn't include food. 75 days worth of food (to match the Concordat's 63 days of operation at 1 gravity as an upper limit on time-out-of-port) costs another ~25 tons of food & water. 1% of ship mass devoted to spare parts removes another 53 tons. Leaving, by my calculations, 66.5 tons for actual fighter-support cargo.

My advice for cutting mass? Every pair of AC/5s you eliminate allows you to add another PPC and all the heat sinks for it, while still saving 5 tons of mass. Doing that with all your AC/5s saves 30 tons from weapons & ammo, another 7 tons because you need one less gunner, yet doesn't change your damage curve in the slightest. But, since we only added 37 tons of "discretionary" cargo. There are a couple other ways to tackle that issue, if you want more cargo, however.

If you change each trio of LRM-15s (and their 6 tons of ammo) with a pair of LRM-20s (with 6 tons of ammo) you save 4 tons per set. Yes, you lose 3 points of damage per salvo of LRMs, but you do get to fire 18 times before running dry, rather than 16. The damage evens out exactly. That saves you 20 tons total, with the option of saving another 7 tons by deleting a gunner, since you've reduced your weapon totals.

A third method involves switching out your medium lasers for the same number of smalls. This will eat into your damage somewhat, but cuts your heat sinks required for all-around fire by 40 tons, plus another 10 tons for the weight difference of your lasers. Small lasers have the same range increment as mediums do for space battles, and can also be used against incoming missiles, meaning they aren't just dead weight if you're under missile attack from an enemy at some distance.

Between these economies, I make the crew now 7 officers, 28 enlisted, 9 gunners, and bring the unassigned cargo back up to 180.5 tons (after 70 more tons of escape craft, crew additions for 218 tons, 25 tons dedicated to food & water and 53 tons to ship's spare parts). I'd probably cut the fuel to 400 or 500 tons (to save another 204 or 102 tons, respectively), on the grounds that, if this ship is tied to Concordat frigates, it can probably get by with as little as 3.5 times as much powered-flight time as the mothership, and still have more than enough fuel for its own fighters.

Solid use of the DroST design, however, and the sort of economizing I'd expect from the Concordat.

lrose · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2011, 08:21:31 AM »

Good catch on the gunners. I keep changing the weapons and never recalculated them. And your right about the crew- that should also increase. But I think you are high on the number of light boats- 8 or 9 total should cover everyone- the passenger spots are for the pilots & mechanics- there are no bay personal on this boat. If I increase the crew, add 5 escape pods and decrease fuel by 100 tons that leaves 259.5 tons of cargo space. Not as much as I would like but still better then a Leopard CV.

Halvagor · « **Reply #4 on:** July 19, 2011, 08:38:19 PM »

Fun thing about mechanics for things in the bays; while the rules only provide one tech per 'mech, fighter, or small craft, Strat Ops indicates that a "standard" tech crew is 7 techs (one lead and six astechs) per unit. The single tech assigned as part of Bay Personnel is supposed to be that "lead" tech, but they're only intended to perform the most essential of maintenance while in-transit, and then receive Astechs at the destination to help them keep the vehicle they're assigned operational in regular use.

To quote from pg 168:
"It is common practice for a 'Mech, fighter or other vehicle to be accompanied by only a [single] Technician during transport (and the appropriate vehicle bay included provision for their accommodation and life support needs). When the unit reaches its destination, the Technician draws on a pool of AsTechs to form a technical team."

Now, no official WarShip or assault/carrier DropShip actually does this (clearly the guys who make the rules aren't the ones designing the ships!), but if you put the AsTechs in the spots you would normally have for the pilot & single tech, you at least have a total of three techs per fighter. If they're all good, that'll keep your fighters flying, though there may still be issues. Alternately, I'd assign enough Steerage personnel to hold 3-4 astechs per fighter. Cuts into your cargo again in a serious way; fuel is the easiest place to draw mass from to bring your cargo tonnage back up, but you might also take away some heat sinks; leave your self enough to fire all the forward-facing weapons and either the aft wing weapons or the regular aft weapons. That won't save you a lot of weight, only 38 or 76 tons by my count.

OBT Forum

News:

Author Topic: Pegasus Class Assault Ship (Read 7135 times)

lrose

Pegasus Class Assault Ship

Gabriel

Re: Pegasus Class Assault Ship

Halvagor

Re: Pegasus Class Assault Ship

lrose

Re: Pegasus Class Assault Ship

Halvagor

Re: Pegasus Class Assault Ship