#Convoy LF Jumpship

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bitter talon
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Mass: 500,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 3145
Mass: 500,000
Battle Value: 7,531
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-F
Cost: 3,223,404,750 C-bills

Fuel: 200 tons (500)
Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 0
Sail Integrity: 6
KF Drive Integrity: 10
Heat Sinks: 154 (308)
Structural Integrity: 1

Armor
    Nose: 50
    Fore Sides: 45/45
    Aft Sides: 45/45
    Aft: 47

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Small Craft (2)         2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Standard Repair Facility (Pressurized) (7,200)2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Standard Repair Facility (Pressurized) (7,200)2 Doors   
    Bay 4:  Cargo (580.5 tons)      0 Doors   

Ammunition:
    864 rounds of Anti-Missile System [IS] ammunition (72 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 6
Grav Decks: 2 (250 m, 250 m)
Escape Pods: 8
Life Boats: 8
Crew:  7 officers, 34 enlisted/non-rated, 10 bay personnel

Notes: Equipped with
    lithium-fusion battery system
    277 tons of lamellor ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                       Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                 Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (12 Heat)
12 Anti-Missile System                     12   0(36)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
    Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (144 shots)
FRS/FLS (12 Heat)
12 Anti-Missile System                     12   0(36)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
    Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (144 shots)
ARS/ALS (12 Heat)
12 Anti-Missile System                     12   0(36)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
    Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (144 shots)
Aft (12 Heat)
12 Anti-Missile System                     12   0(36)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AMS         
    Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (144 shots)

Features the following design quirks: Docking Arms```
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The SLDF made many innovations in the field of FTL military logistics, notably creating the Carrack as a self-escorting freighter and the Potemkin as a superfreighter for large operations, yet extreme construction, operating, maintenance, and manpower costs ended Carrack production and limited the Potemkin to a slow trickle of new hulls. As Lithium Fusion Batteries saw increasing deployment, neither military transport was particularly well suited for the technology, being inadequate in the case of the Carrack and the Potemkin being outrageously expensive expensive to refit, forcing the stopgap measure of putting expensive docking collars on LF Battery equipped Warships in order for fast LF Battery formations to bring their own ground forces, logistics, and escort dropships.

Since their creation Jumpships have been the backbone of all interstellar logistics and the Lithium Fusion Battery showed no sign of changing things. But converting popular Jumpship designs to use the LF Battery proved difficult.

Jumpships are by their nature bare bones designs, little more than a KF Core with docking collars and the absolute most basic maintenance, control, and crew systems attached, but while that provided the absolute rock bottom prices for FTL transportation it also meant that the extra 1% of total mass needed for an LF Battery found itself directly competing with other necessities.

Various attempts were made at solving the problem, but in the end, the requirement of integrating the LF Batteries that already multiplied the entire cost of KF Cores was to remove roughly half of a Jumpship's docking collars to make room, further doubling the total cost per Dropship.

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Enter the Convoy: An affordable, fast, and battle-ready Jumpship ready to revolutionize FTL travel!

At 500 kilotons the Convoy combines the largest possible Jumpship frame with a Lithium Fusion Battery to stretch efficiency to the max, allowing 6 docking collars out of the 10 normally allowed by its size, a 20% increase over what most LF Jumpships can manage. But instead of a stripped down hull, hollowed out interior with bare fuel and cargo stores, poor crew accommodations, and shortage of auxiliary craft, the Convoy has strong endurance, excellent quarters and amenities, a full compliment of both life boats and escape pods, thicker armor than many warships, and complete coverage by powerful anti-missile arrays.

This unprecedented durability and defensive capability combined with the strategic speed of an LF Battery already makes the Convoy a must for military forces, but the pinnacle of the design is the Repair Bays bays mounted on each side of the ship.

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While an LF Battery Jumpship cannot accommodate a full load of standard docking collars, the Convoy sidesteps the issue by using smaller custom designed collars integrated into the two Repair Bays, which are capable of transporting four Dropships of up to 3,600 tons, enough to fit the ubiquitous Union class. Alternatively, a single dropship per bay of up to 7,200 tons can be carried, neatly covering all legacy Dropshuttles and some larger designs. This brings the Convoy beyond the usual transportation limits of normal LF Battery Jumpships and back to matching standard models in Dropship count.

Yet it's the Repair Bays themselves that change the military application of the Convoy. While military naval boards have long debated and weighed between the 'dead weight' of 'defenseless' Jumpships and the extraordinary cost of Warship Docking Collars, an issue only exacerbated by the drastic cost increases in both cases caused by LF Batteries, the Convoys minimize the risk while adding their own assets to the discussion. Not only are the small Dropships that fit in the bays perfect for escort missions or special operations, the Bays themselves are capable of emergency repair work in the field. Where normally damaged dropships would need to be scuttled, used despite risk, or simply rely on limited damage control and prayers, Convoy Jumpships can conduct repairs in proper yard conditions while doing normal charging in a system, or even wait for damaged craft to dock before jumping out and taking them safely out of the battle zone without the need to send ships home for the rest of the campaign.

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A lesser benefit from which the Convoy derives its name is the unexpected synchronicity it has with common escort Warships. With full military electronic countermeasures active it has been found that the similar mass and shape of the Convoy means that when in close formation with Heavy Destroyers and Light Cruisers, overlapping sensor shadows make the ship exceptionally difficult to hit.

frozen swift
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Unions are 3600t, not 3500t, but that should be fairly easy to fix

bitter talon
frozen swift
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I like the trick of using small repair bays to squeeze in extra collars, especially since it winds up favoring the relatively-common-in-universe small DS

bitter talon
frozen swift
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I think it's twofold; one, nominally a smaller ship should be faster/easier to build (even if the cost doesn't really reflect this, the infrastructure might), and two, if it blows up you lose less of your forces at once

bitter talon
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I was trying to make a ship carrying 200-400t dropships then I thought, 'Wait a minute, I can use this for all the stupid small Dropships the universe is full of, and solve the LF Collar Problem'

frozen swift
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putting all your baskets in one egg is cost-efficient but very unpleasant if you lose it

bitter talon
frozen swift
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I use that one at every opportunity, I find it very funny

bitter talon
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Fair

frozen swift
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Big Egg time

bitter talon
bitter talon
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Smaller builds much faster in general

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It would be hilarious if most of the small dropships in lore come from 2765+ mass production

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With all the Star League era maximally cost efficient dropships getting nuked

frozen swift
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entirely plausible tbh

mystic echo
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Well I can see the smaller DS being more productive with this as the main carrier...

frozen swift
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that and/or the smaller-ship yards were more likely to survive the SW

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or both

bitter talon
bitter talon
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but only has 10 Dropships vs 9xMerchant's 18

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But it does have an LF Battery

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I suppose if you are double jumping that would be superior efficiency

frozen swift
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yeah I think it winds up reasonable for LF Battery capable

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they're always going to be more expensive

bitter talon
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In this case

frozen swift
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also a big chunk of that is the mobile HPG, pretty sure

bitter talon
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Though obvs it loses to a Monolith

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Oh

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I forgot

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lmao

bitter talon
frozen swift
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yeah that takes a good chunk off the price

bitter talon
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6xMerchant Cost

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hmm

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I'll check Monolith

frozen swift
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mobile HPG, naval commscanner, and naval C3 prices were always a bit more made up than average

bitter talon
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Less than double monolith cost

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Despite one more dropship

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So this is actually the most efficient cost per dropship as long as you double jump every time

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hell yeah

bitter talon
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That means if unpressurized the size can triple

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Pressurized is more useful though