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Alliance Class Combined Arms Transport
Introduced: Early 3072
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3067
Configuration: Spheroid Dropship
Rules: Level 2, AT2 Standard design
Mass: 12,300 tons
Hull: Newton FS Framework
Power Plant: Magna 3000tx Standard
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Armor Type: Durallex Standard
Armament:
11 BlazeFire Sweetshot ER Large Laser
27 Bright-Bloom ER Medium Laser
12 Johnston High Speed ER PPC
12 Dragon's Fire Gauss Rifle
12 NAIS Model 2b Rotary AC/5
8 Defiance Thunder Ultra AC/20
12 Imperator Code Red LB 10-X AC
17 Doombud LRM 15+Artemis IV
18 McArthur AMS
1 RangeFinder Mk III Long Tom Artillery
2 Valiant Catapult Arrow IV System
17 Guided Technologies 2nd Gen Streak SRM 4
Manufacturer: Federated Boeing of Galax
Location: Galax
Communications System: DynaTech PlanetComm Model V
Targeting & Tracking System: Garret MultiTrac Type XII w/Active Target Sync
Overview
With the Civil War over the AFFS Procurement Department has one of the largest rebuilding projects ever. Replacing all the units lost in the Civil War will be a daunting challenge. With the completion of the Conquistador Class dropship the AFFS was one step closer to finally having the kind of dropships they needed for their Regimental Combat Teams. The Procurement Department decided to solocit bids for several Combined Arms Transports, or
CAT's. Specifications for several different CAT's were laid down and several large companies put in bids for the new ships. Federated Boeing of Galax won the contract for what become known as the Alliance Class Combined Arms Transport. The design process was lengthy and ripe with problems, but after 4 years the first prototype slipped out of the yards and began testing in earnest. After 6 months of intensive shakedowns the design was approved. The first new ships are planned to be delivered within the next 4 months. This new ship will finally give the Federated Suns the tactical flexibility their RCT's have always wanted.
Capabilities
The Alliance is the largest of the new CAT's the Federated Suns are now deploying. The Alliance is capable of transporting an entire combined arms regiment onto the battlefield and then deploying its artillery to act as a firebase in support of its cargo.
Designers tackled many problems when laying out the design of the Alliance and made many compromises on the ships layout. In the most unusual move the Aerospace Fighter bays were located on the bottom most deck above the engines (Deck 10). This allowed the ships compliment of six Aerospace Fighters to be loaded or unloaded while the ship was grounded. This meant the ship could land and then refuel and rearm its Aerospace Fighters without having to be in orbit of the planet (something current Dropships cannot do).
The deck above the Aerospace Fighter hangars hold the ships armored vehicles. Deck 9 is split into two sub-decks and holds the heavy vehicle company in the lower portion while the two lighter vehicle companies are on the upper portion. Four doors open on the outer hull on Deck 9 that allows the heavy vehicles to depart first and secure the perimeter. Four smaller ramps then deploy from the upper deck and connect to the lower deck ramps to allow the lighter vehicles to deploy. The entire unloading process takes as little as four minutes with an experienced crew and is very simple. During the design and shakedown cruises of the Alliance it never took longer than 7 minutes to unload the entire vehicle battalion from the ship.
Decks six, seven and eight hold the Infantry and Battle Armor troops. Two infantry companies are housed on Deck six and Deck eight holds the remaining infantry company and battle armor. These two decks are where the bunkrooms are located for all the Infantry and BattleArmor. Deck seven has the mess halls, training rooms and recreation facilities. There are three methods that the troops are deployed. The first is the most dangerous and difficult. The Infantry and Battlearmor troopers are deployed similiar to Paratroopers. As the ship slowly hovers forward the troopers jump from the ship and use parachutes to land. The hot exhaust that rises around the ship causes each parachute to briefly rise away from the ship before starting to drift down and away from the ship. During trials with dummy troopers it was discovered that the parachutes did not always drift far enough from the ship and were caught in the engine exhaust and incinerated. This method is used only in the most dire situations with no other options available. The second method of deployment is by slide-pole and is used immediately after the ship lands. Each trooper wears a body harness that is attached to two lines which they connect to a metal bar. A very long metal pole is deployed from the dropship to within 2 meters of the ground. The trooper attaches his bar to the pole and then exits the ship, sliding down the pole very rapidly. Near the bottom the hang-bar hits a series of brakes built into the pole that slows the trooper before he is released to the ground. The slide-pole slowly swings in a back and forth motion, deploying a trooper every 3 feet in a 21 foot arc. This ensures the troops of each squad will not all end up in a very large pile at the bottom of the slide-pole. There is one of these slide-poles at each door the infantry leave through and they deploy the infantry in a circle around the ship. The third method is for normal embarkation and debarkation. The infantry simply single file out through the two lower cargo doors. This method is the safest and easiest.
Deck five holds the ships twelve BattleMech berths. The 'Mechs can be deployed in one of three methods. The first method is orbital insertion. This is the same method used by earlier 'Mech Carriers like the Union and Overlord. The 'Mechs are placed in a ceramic cocoon and dropped from orbit. The second method is having the Mechs exit the ship while it hovers above the drop-zone. This is the most common way to deploy the Mechs' into the combat zone. The third method is for the 'Mechs to deploy once the ship is grounded. Two large ramps lead to a set of doors on Deck 10 where the 'Mechs exit the ship.
Deck four is the ships crew quarters, and they also house the crews seperate mess and recreation facilities. These accommodation are said to be some of the most comfortable in any dropship designed to date.
Deck three houses the ships navigation equipment, and Deck two is where the bridge is located. The bridge is fitted with a holographic display system that enables the ground forces commander to control all the units he commands.
Deck one holds the three artillery systems the ships employs. These systems are operated by remote from the bridge.
Battle History
This design has yet to see combat
Variants
Two variants are currently being considered. The first replaces one heavy and one light vehicle company with an additional company of BattleMechs. The second replaces the company of BattleMechs with one heavy vehicle and one light vehicle company. It is not known at this time weather either variant will be produced as a full production model or on a case by case situation.
Deployment
The first shipment of CAT dropships are to be delivered to the Davion Guards, FedSuns Armored Cavalry, and the Crucis Lancers. Once these units are outfitted the Avalon Hussars and Deneb Lt Cavalry are next. At least three of these dropships are to be assigned to each RCT, but most will get between three to six.
Class/Model/Name: Alliance Class Dropship CAT
Mass: 12,300 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 2,398.50
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Structural Integrity: 25 615.00
Total Heat Sinks: 439 Double 312.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 408.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 93.00
Fire Control Computers: 184.00
Food & Water: (30 days supply) 207.00
Armor Type: Standard (1,540 total armor pts) 90.00
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 405
Left/Right Sides: 405/405
Aft: 325
Cargo:
Bay 1: BattleMechs (12) with 2 doors 1,800.00
Bay 2: Heavy Vehicles (51-100T) (12) with 4 doors 1,200.00
Light Vehicles (to 50T) (24) 1,200.00
Bay 3: Infantry (motor) Platoons (36) with 9 doors 252.00
Battle Armor Points/Squads (12) with 4 doors 120.00
Bay 4: Fighters (6) with 2 doors 900.00
Cargo (1) with 4 doors 355.50
Life Boats: 10 (7 tons each) 70.00
Escape Pods: 19 (7 tons each) 133.00
Crew and Passengers:
8 Officers (7 minimu) 80.00
14 Crew (0 minimum) 98.00
25 Gunners (25 minimum) 175.00
1,332 Bay Personnel .00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
2 ER Large Laser Nose 4(36) 4(36) 2(16) -- 24 10.00
4 ER Medium Laser 20 4.00
2 ER PPC Nose 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 30 14.00
2 Gauss Rifle(80 rounds) Nose 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) -- 24 40.00
2 Rotary AC/5(160 rounds) Nose 10(100) 10(100)-- -- 12 28.00
2 Ultra AC/20(80 rounds) 32 46.00
2 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) Nose 1(12) 1(12) -- -- 4 32.00
3 LRM 15+ArtIV(120 rounds) Nose 4(36) 4(36) 4(36) -- 15 39.00
3 AMS(240 rounds) Nose -- -- -- -- 3 21.50
1 Long Tom Artillery(100 rounds) Nose 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) 20 50.00
2 Arrow IV System(150 rounds) 20 60.00
2 ER Large Laser FL/R 4(36) 4(36) 2(16) -- 48 20.00
4 ER Medium Laser 40 8.00
2 ER PPC FL/R 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 60 28.00
2 Gauss Rifle(80 rounds) FL/R 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) -- 4 80.00
2 Rotary AC/5(160 rounds) FL/R 7(70) 7(70) -- -- 24 56.00
1 Ultra AC/20(40 rounds) 32 46.00
2 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) FL/R 1(12) 1(12) -- -- 8 64.00
3 LRM 15+ArtIV(120 rounds) FL/R 4(36) 4(36) 4(36) -- 30 78.00
3 Streak SRM 4(75 rounds) FL/R 2(24) -- -- -- 18 24.00
3 AMS(240 rounds) FL/R -- -- -- -- 6 43.00
2 ER Large Laser AL/R 4(41) 4(41) 2(16) -- 48 20.00
5 ER Medium Laser 50 10.00
2 ER PPC AL/R 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 60 28.00
2 Gauss Rifle(80 rounds) AL/R 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) -- 4 80.00
2 Rotary AC/5(160 rounds) AL/R 10(100) 10(100) -- -- 24 56.00
2 Ultra AC/20(80 rounds) 64 92.00
2 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) AL/R 1(12) 1(12) -- -- 8 64.00
3 LRM 15+ArtIV(120 rounds) AL/R 4(36) 4(36) 4(36) -- 30 78.00
4 Streak SRM 4(100 rounds) AL/R 3(32) -- -- -- 24 32.00
3 AMS(240 rounds) AL/R -- -- -- -- 6 43.00
1 ER Large Laser Aft 3(33) 3(33) 1(8) -- 12 5.00
5 ER Medium Laser 25 5.00
2 ER PPC Aft 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 30 14.00
2 Rotary AC/5(120 rounds) Aft 7(70) 7(70) 3(30) -- 12 26.00
2 Gauss Rifle(160 rounds) 2 50.00
2 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) Aft 1(12) 1(12) -- -- 4 32.00
2 LRM 15+ArtIV(80 rounds) Aft 2(24) 2(24) 2(24) -- 10 26.00
3 Streak SRM 4(75 rounds) Aft 2(24) -- -- -- 9 12.00
3 AMS(240 rounds) Aft -- -- -- -- 3 21.50
1 Lot Spare Parts (1.00%) 123.00
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TOTALS: Heat: 877 Tonnage: 12,300.00
Tons Left: 0.00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 1,707,176,800 C-Bills
Battle Value: 27,401
Cost per BV: 62,303.45
Weapon Value: 18,921 (Ratio = .69)
Damage Factors: SRV = 1,382; MRV = 959; LRV = 181; ERV = 3
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 162,936
(67,624 Structure, 73,747 Life Support, 21,565 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 54,132 (33% of MPV)
BattleForce2: MP: 3, Armor/Structure: 26 / 25
Damage PB/M/L: 50/44/20, Overheat: 0
Class: DL; Point Value: 274
Specials: sph
