Paladin Steel “Super Clipper” GMR Aerodynehttp://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/BoeingSuperClipper.jpg “Yeah, we think of it as a destroyer...a freaking FAST destroyer...that FLIES.”
“We’ll be using our missile-carriers to launch both sea-skimming and high-ballistic cruise missile strikes at these three coastal sites---all of them have substantial air defenses and radar stations, so they’ll be kept occupied by the bombardment. Similarly their naval flotillas are going to be under missile, torpedo, and jammer attack out at sea. Meanwhile, though, we’re going to slip in our Marine raider force by Clipper HERE, at this little port. Defensive coverage isn’t all that good, and we can isolate their communications easily enough. PLus they’re just a hop and a skip...or maybe a power-assisted fast crawl...away from the facilities HERE. We play this right, they’ll be looking for a direct airborne assault, not a ground force kicking in their back door.”
Before the Coming of the Rifts the Boeing company was one of the world giants in aviation, both commercial and military. Despite some economic setbacks, Boeing had come roaring back to the forefront during the Golden Age, quickly making use of the many advancements of the period. Many of its design would continue to have an impact on post-Rifts technology.
PS’s establishment of Paladin Steel West near the ruins of Old Seattle was no coincidence. PS technology recover teams immediately began digging around the remains of the massive Boeing aircraft company’s facilities there. Though hardened with megadamage materials(as a vital defense contractor), the Boeing facilities didn’t fare as well as other hardened sites around the continent(including Paladin Steel’s own reinforced compound), being lashed by earthquakes, Pacific tidal waves, and truly massive ash falls from the newly erupting Cascades. Rather than serve as the nucleus of a post-apocalyptic civilization, the Boeing facilities were abandoned by survivors of the initial days of the Rifts, and subsequently buried, until unearthed over a century later by the new residents of the region. While most of the assembly halls and waiting stocks of aircraft had been crushed by the overburden of debris and infiltration of water, a surprising number of facilities in the sprawling Boeing complex survived intact, including research and administration blocs. Here explorers found Boeing’s extensive archives and design database, complete with tooling specs, for a vast variety of products and projects, both military and commercial. Paladin Steel would quickly begin using the recovered data to launch many aviation projects, including the massive sea planes it uses to conduct trade across the vast Pacific. Among these designs that PS would use as a basis for their own hardware was a design study for a ‘Boeing Super Clipper’, a giant-scale sea plane/flying boat.
Boeing had engaged in a variety of design studies for radical wing designs, superheavy payload lifters, and supersonic transports, but the lagging economies, concerns about fuel efficiency, environmental impact effects, the pall cast over international travel by terrorism, and conservatism in design led to many of these studies getting nixed, advancing no farther than computer simulation.
The Golden Age and its rapid advance of technology changed all that. The newer, lighter, tougher materials of the ‘megadamage revolution’ allowed for more compact, hotter-burning, longer-lived engines that could use fuel more efficiently and burn it more cleanly. A few years later, clean nuclear fusion powerplants that could fit aboard an aircraft came along and opened even broader vistas for air transport. Airframes could be made tougher and lighter. A new sense of globalism, coupled with advances in medical and security technologies(NEMA being in the forefront of the latter) led to a surge in international travel, while a new optimism led to an embracing of radical new design and technology. Companies like Boeing accordingly took out the old formerly ‘far-fetched’ design studies, updated them, and put them on the road to production again.
The Boeing ‘Super Clipper’ was one such design study for a dual land/sea plane that combined aspects of the past with the radical ideas of the future. Looking like a mammoth cross between one of Boeing’s new spanloader flying wings, with two of its older iconic 747 ‘Dumbos’, the design echoed back to the glory days of the golden age of flying boats and transPacific travel. A central fuselage, fully a third longer than a 747, emerged from a blended wing housing accommodations for up to six hundred passengers in the central hull. Almost as an afterthought, two 747-like secondary hulls flanked the main thickness of wing, acting as nacelles and additional cargo space. Three paired groups of engine nacelles ran along the upper surface of the blended wing at the rear.
The SuperClipper was still in its prototype testing stages when the Rifts brought an end to its development. The plans and samples of associated hardware, however, survived to be studied by Paladin Steel.
PS has resurrected this old design, and revamped it a third time. Advances in megadamage technology have made the design tougher, while the inclusion of an antigravity GMR drive system have removed the need to rely purely on aerodynamics to remain aloft. Jet engines have been replaced with plasma-electric thrusters. And, of course, abundant self-defense armament has been added.
Paladin Steel has incorporated much that has learned from constructing the PB-2005ST ‘Wayfarer’ and PS-PBY-18 ‘Great Fulmar’ flying boats into the design. Entire subsystems as well as variant schemes have been imported over from the Skymaster III line. While PS has flown bigger flying boats, the ‘Super Clipper’ is faster and more agile than most of those vehicles.
Basic cargo carrier SuperClippers are available commercially from Paladin Steel. Military conversions are available only by special request and PS/GNE approval.
The GNE uses its militarized versions as ‘destroyers’ to the smaller GMR corvettes and larger Foss-Flier ‘transports’, the faster aircraft providing flanking cover or fast missile battery support fire.
Type: PS-C300 Super Clipper
Class: Long Range Aerodyne Heavy Air Transport/Heavy Maritime Aerodyne
Crew: 12-40, plus up to 1,250 passengers(depending on configuration)
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 1,200
Cockpit 250
Point Defense Lasers(5) 100 each
Gatling Turrets(2) 100 each
Short Range Missile Launchers(4) 120 each
Mini-Missile Launchers(2) 120 each
*Engine Nacelles(6) 360 each
**Wings(2) 500 each
*Destroying the engines will rob the aircraft of its forward propulsion, though the GMR drive will keep it aloft
**Destroying the wings will result in a loss of forward speed, though the GMR drive will keep the aircraft aloft, and of fine control for the aircraft. Subsequent control rolls will be made at -15%
Height: 70 ft
Width:(wingspan) 370 ft
Length: 250 ft
Weight: 250 tons
Cargo: *1,250 passengers and 30 tons of freight, or 350 tons of cargo
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: Hover to 640 MPH, maximum altitude of 27,000 ft, Can operate from water and beach onto land. Using VTOL thrusters it CAN operate from dry land, but typically it operates from open bodies of water.
Market Cost: 65 million credits
Systems of Note:
*Long Range Radio---1,000 miles
*Long Range Radar---200 miles
*Short-Range ‘Look Down’ Radar---Range: 6 miles. This system scans the ocean surface and can look just below the surface for submerged vessels , islands(a good navigational aide) and lurking supernatural beings(like Reachers, about to burst up through the water).
*Inertial and Astronomical Navigation---The Interface and the destruction(?) of the old GPS networks has meant that globe hopping is much more difficult...but not impossible. Fortunately, the Interface doesn’t prevent accurate navigation by the stars and other(stable) astronomical objects(unless one happens to be within a leyline storm or area of dimensional instability), and the long-range aircraft have been fitted with automated star-trackers. PS is planning on extending its network of stealthed LeyNet ‘Dark Star’ Semi-Sats that could be used to accurately guide vessels about the Pacific(some say they already have), but to date, there has been no issuance of TW-GPS terminals for the fleet...
*Life Support---Pressurized Cabin and air filtration systems
*Internal Fire Suppression System
Weapons Systems:
1) Point Defense Lasers(5)---Mounted along each wing, one in the nose, and one in each lateral fuselage tail, are point defense laser systems
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
2) Point Defense 12.7mm Rapid Fire GatlingTail Cannon in twin-mountings (4x2, one dorsal, one in each lateral fuselage nose, and one tail mounted, firing between the tail booms from the center fuselage)
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per 40 rd burst
2d6x10 MD for a simultaneous double burst from both guns.
Rate of Fire: EPCHH. Can only fire bursts.
Payload: 120,000 rds per gun(2,000 bursts)
3)Short Range Missile Launchers(4)---These are air defense launchers for AAMs. Two are mounted forward, just behind and outboard of the forward gun turrets, and the other two are lateral mounts firing to the sides and rear of the aircraft. PS ‘Black Talon’ LSAMs are the preferred missile for these launchers, but they will accept any standardized SRM.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
Damage: Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload: 30 missiles each launcher, 120 total
4) Mini-Missile Launchers(2)---Two mini-missile launchers are mounted in the wings
Range: Varies by Missile Type
Damage: Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-12 per launcher
Payload: 72 per launcher, 144 total
5)Chaff/Flare Countermeasures Launchers(4)
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fy into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 20 per launcher, 40 total.
Variants:
*-C300-C Cargo Variant---SuperClipper optimized as an air freighter. Features included the rebuilding of the passenger decks into a large cargo deck, installation of rear-opening tail hatches, and floor roller-path. 360 ton cargo capacity(95,500 cubic feet space).
*-C300-MCT Marine Combat Transport Variant----Commissioned by the GNE Marine Corps, these aircraft have been optimized for rapid troop transport and deployment in hostile waters. The MCT carries two companies of Marines, up to six patrol boats( these can be open-topped troop boats or stealth ‘Bailey Boats’) slung in special bays under the main BWB(blended wing body), and comes equipped with extra armor(30% more armor to all locations), armaments, and countermeasure gear.
1) Lateral Rapid-Fire Rail Guns(4)---Gunship weapons in lateral bays: Paladin Steel 20mm six-barrelled chainguns.
Range: 19,000 ft
Damage: 4d4 MD single shot (2 ft blast radius)
1d6x10 MD per 5 rd burst(5 ft bast radius)
2d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst (10 ft spray radius)
6d6x10 MD for a 40 rd burst(is -4 to strike targets smaller than 60 ft)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Each weapon is served by a 2,000 rd ammunition drum
-ECM Jamming---*ECCM system: A semiautomatic system that uses electronic encryption and frequency jumping to (attempt to) negate jamming systems. The system has a 25% chance of negating radar or communications jamming (non-magical) when operating on automatic.
Having an Electronic Warfare Skill gains a +15% bonus to operating this system.
Note that this only applies to received communications (the system filters them out from the jamming clutter) and sensory data received by that unit alone (other units cannot make use of it, unless they have an unaffected datalink/info-share with the ECCM equipped unit. Magic/psychic jamming is NOT affected by this system.
-Sensor Jamming---An active, manned system that gives a 30%+operator’s ECM bonus chance of jamming enemy radar, including radar guided munitions and missiles. Effective range of 50 miles.
**-C300-CDD---’Flying Destroyer’ variant based on the MCT variant, but instead of carrying troops, the CDD is optimized for air- and surface-attack, carrying a battery of medium range missile launchers in the lateral fuselages, and two large quad-mount 30mm turrets atop them.
MDC/Armor By Location:
Medium Range Missile Launchers(4) 120 each
Heavy Turrets(2) 120 each
Same features as the C300-MCT, except replace the troops and small craft with:
1) Medium Range Missile Launchers(4)
Range: Varies by Missile Type(Medium Range)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type(Medium Range)
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-8
Payload: 24 missiles per launcher, 96 total
2) Eight 30mm Autocannons(2x4)---This is a mounting of four 30mm cannons in twin powered turrets, previously seen and proven on the FA/PS/H18B-B139 Covenant Medium TW Bomber. The turrets are surprisingly fast to respond to their rotation controls, able to snap-track and traverse with ease, and have proven quite reliable, despite the rigors of high performance aerial maneuvers, high-altitude freezing temperatures, and battle shock that would jam and lock less robust systems. Advanced(and lightweight) recoil control also cut the recoil imbalance from four to eight weapons going off at once in burst fire mode.
In combat, the quad-turrets have proven devastating effective, with a single two-shot burst from all four cannons in a turret able to virtually vaporize a flying gargoyle in midair, or chew a Horune raider to pieces in a single pass.
Range: 10,000 ft
Damage: 4d6 MD single rd, 1d6x10 MD two rd burst, 3d6x10 MD six-round burst per single cannon...so a full burst of six rounds each from all four cannons firing simultaneously....12d6x10!
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: 800 rds, 400 rds per cannon
Bonuses: Independent laser and radar tracking system(range: 11,000 ft). +1 strike set on automatic against aerial attack, +2 strike fired by gunner
*C300-HLC Heavy Laser Carrier--- The C300 HLC was built with the experience of the C-271 Skymaster III Flying Laser conversion.
The HLC sports a nose-mounted heavy laser turret and extra sensory turrets atop each of the outboard secondary hulls, with fire control being mounted in the central fuselage. Most of the interior cabin space has been refitted to hold a separate powerplant dedicated to powering the weapons, large battery capacity, sensors, and fire control. At the time, the laser systems aboard the HLC were some of the most advanced and powerful on Rifts Earth, possessing range in excess of anything not space-based.
The SuperClipper (aka ‘Laser Clipper’) HLCs, operate much as the Skymaster III HLCs do, patrolling sectors and acting as airborne laser batteries, shooting down incoming enemy aircraft and missiles. C300-HLCs are typically part of an airborne taskforce, including several C-271 ‘strategic escort’ platforms or airborne carriers, and fighters.
Changes/Modifications:
MDC/Armor by Location:
Nose Laser Turrets(2) 120 each
Sensor Fairings(4, roof and tail) 100 each
Systems of Note:
*Long Range Sensors---Long range acquisition and tracking radar with a 200 mile range, laser range finding, thermal, and optical telescopes with a 100 mile effective range. These systems give the mega-laser a +6 to strike at ranges under 5 miles, +4 at ranges out to 80 miles.
Weapons Systems:
1)Mega-Lasers(2)---Though some rifles and infantry heavy weapons did more damage, few mobile weapons systems had the range of the HLC’s laser. This weapon is designed to start burning through a missile’s or aircraft’s shielding well out beyond the range of standard laser systems. Even so, the range is piddling compared to what some pre-Rifts Golden Age systems were supposedly capable of; hitting ICBMs and IRBMs in their terminal boost phase from hundreds of miles away....
Range: 80 miles
Damage: 3d6x10 MD at ranges under 5 miles, 2d4x10 MD out to 20 miles, 6d6 MD out to 40 miles, and 4d6 MD out to 80 miles.
Rate of Fire: Once per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
*C300-LR/CMCA Missile Carrier---Developed at the same time as the Heavy Laser Carrier, the Missile Carrier (LR/CMCA) was to counter the Coalition States’ long range and cruise missile attacks on GNE territory by returning the favor. Orbiting squadrons of LR/CMCAs would launch counter-missile attacks on incoming CS ordnance, while other squadrons, flying outside CS airspace, would unload ‘swarm’ attacks of mixed decoy and attack missiles, seeking to overwhelm air defenses...or at least give the CS headaches dealing with the distraction. On several occasions, LR/CMCA squadrons threatened the CS Navy, keeping their ships at bay and on the defensive against possible anti-ship missile strikes.
The C-300 LR/CMCA features four rotary launchers; two in the blended wing central hull, and the other two in the outboard secondary hulls. Typically used in a surface attack mode, LR/CMCAs have also been used in conjunction with AWACS craft for long range aerial interception and presumably have been tested in an ASAT role as well(for deployment on worlds not hampered by a dimensional interface/Orbital Debris Ring).
Changes/Modifications:
MDC/Armor by Location:
Missile Bays(4) 80 each
Systems of Note:
*Long Range Sensors---Long range radar with all-weather capability, 200 mile range
Weapons Systems:
1) Long Range Missile Launchers(4)
Range: Varies by Missile Type(long range)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type(long range)
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10 each bay, per melee
Payload: 50 missiles per bay, 200 long range missiles total
Notable Munition Types:
* ‘Tacit Rainbow’ Drones----These are LRM-sized mini-cruise missiles/reentry vehicles configured as ‘smart’ decoys that can be deployed from the craft, then fly off on their own power, emitting false sensor signatures, and their own ECM. Adding to the confusion, the drones can be programmed to behave in appropriately evasive ‘stealthy’ fashion, to give the impression that they are in reality a real target attempting to evade detection...only to pop up again later to confuse enemy observers.
When their fuel/power is exhausted, the drones then activate a self-destruct device that destroys them completely( destroys drone and does 3d6x10 MD to everything in a 10 ft radius)
MDC of Drone: 50
Size: 15 ft long, 3 ft wide, w/ 13 ft wingspan w/ wings deployed
Speed: Mach 1.4
Range: 1,000 miles
Damage: None, aside from self-destruct
ECM: Jams enemy sensors and radio transmissions with 50% effectiveness (range: 25 mile radius). Can also be programmed to pump out misleading radar signatures conforming to other craft, including larger aircraft. In an emergency, the drone can pump out so much signature that enemy missiles and sensor guided weapons targeted on the mothership(must be within 10 miles of each other to be effective) will be +4 to strike the drone, and will lose target lock on the SR-100.
Bonuses: Drones are +4 to dodge attacks
*SAW---Stand-off Attack Weapon , for ground attack. Basically, this is a large LRM-sized pod with maneuvering thrusters, rudimentary guidance system, and fold-out glide wings, that is designed to overfly a target zone and launch cluster munitions over it, in a bombing pattern. These submunitions can range from golf-ball-sized antipersonnel grenades, runway crater shells, area denial mines, chemical shells, or even carbon-fiber ‘angel hair’ electrical disruption spools. PS is also working on using SAWs to deploy Kera-Tech style EMP weapons and other specialized munitions.
One SAW can be carried per LRM hardpoint.
Range: SAW has an effective range of 20 miles in atmosphere Submunitions can be launched up to 300 ft out to either side of the SAW’s flight path.
Damage: (AP Grenade) 4d6 MD to 8 ft area
(Chemical Grenade) Varies by chemical type and atmospheric conditions. A chemical grenade will generally generate a cloud of aerosol 15 ft in radius.
(HE Shell) 5d6 MD to 20 ft area
(Fragmentation Mine) 4d6 MD to 12 ft area
(Incendiary Bomb) Does 4d6 MD to 40 ft area, does an additional 2d6 MD for 1d6 melees, and 1d6 MD per melee for an additional 2d4 melees
(Angel Hair)---Does NO damage, but against conventional power generators and uncovered power lines and distribution systems, it can short out power grids, clog generator air intakes(80% effectiveness against industrial generators and internal combustion engines), and be a general nuisance to clean up.
Rate of Fire: A SAW can volley its submunitions in any combination
Payload:(Typical loadouts)
400 AP/Chemical grenades
OR
100 HE/anti-vehicle grenades
OR
100 Fragmentation Mines
OR
50 Incendiary Bombs
OR
500 spools of wire, each spool holding up to 4,000 ft of aluminum-coated filament
*HSOW--Hypersonic Stand-Off Weapon----A new concept in ‘brilliant’ ground attack weapons, designed to penetrate enemy air defense nets, the HSOW is a large Hypersonic Missile(essentially a multi-warhead LRM) that penetrates enemy defenses at a hypersonic sprint, then splits open to deploy four smaller ‘crulets’, miniature cruise stealth missiles that cruise about the battlefield looking for targets. After deploying its crulets, the main carrier missile can continue on to the target with its own small warhead. The main advantage of the HSOW is that it can be ‘blind-fired’ towards known or suspected concentrations of enemy troops or facilities, before deploying the submunitions to cruise about, ID individual targets, such as tanks, robots, or bunkers, and then attack. PS is also working on intermissile-communications programming, that would allow a ‘brilliant’ missile to quickly assess a target, and if necessary, ‘birddog’ the other submunitions in its flight to ‘pack attack’ a chosen target. Other improvements down the road include HARM(Homing Anti-Radiation Missile) capability, allowing the carrier missile to draw enemy air defense fire while the crulets attack the enemy radar sites by homing in on their emission beams(the LRM air defense sites around Chi-Tow and Lone Star would be natural targets for this system).
Range:(Main Missile)500 miles
(Crulets) 60 miles, w/ ‘loiter’ capability
Damage:(Main Missile) 2d6x10 MD to 20 ft blast radius
(Crulets) Varies by Missile Type, but typically Plasma(4d6x10 MD to 40 ft blast radius), or Armor Piercing(3d6x10 MD to 20 ft blast radius)
Payload: Main Missile carries 4 ‘crulets’
Bonuses:(Main Missile)+5 to strike
(Crulets)+5 to strike
*TW ‘Breaker’ Missile---The ‘Breaker’ is a new, and extremely expensive, cruise missile-style munition that came about after observations of the various weapons used in the Tolkeen struggle. Engineers were particularly intrigued by several of the anti-armor Technowizardry weapons systems deployed by Tolkeen, especially the Energy Disrupter Mechanism(EDM----See Siege on Tolkeen, pg 69 for details), which allowed small vehicles to infiltrate magically- and technologically-generated forcefields/energy barriers . Anticipating that the Coalition might at some future time acquire large battle-screen capabilities, as well as the knowledge that Atlantis already possessed both technological and magical forcefields, PS mated the EDM to a cruise missile. This addition allows the weapon to penetrate enemy forcefields to deliver its warhead to the target within. The PPE cost is actually less for the missiles than for the original EDM system, owing to the much smaller size of the projectile.
Currently, however, this technology is still rather expensive and bulky...despite hopes of being able to install a Sphere of Annihilation device inside the warhead, the ‘Breaker’ is limited to conventional warheads. The missiles are also prohibitively expensive and complex to manufacture, limiting their numbers and distribution. ‘Breaker’ Technology can be fitted to MRMs and LRMs---it is not considered to be cost effective to employ it on SRMs and mini-missiles.
Range: Varies by Missile Type--MRM or LRM
Damage: Varies by Missile Type--MRM or LRM, but typically the heaviest warhead available.
Special: Can punch through forcefields and magical barriers, but only those larger than 12 ft or more(will not work on personal forcefields)
PPE Cost to Create: 300 PPE to enchant the crystal ‘initiator’ crystal.
*C300-ACV Fighter Carrier---Following the conversion of several C-271s to airborne aircraft carriers, PS decided to take advantage of the larger and wider airframe of the C300 to do a similar conversion, reasoning that the wider blended wing body and more spacious airframe would make for more capacity and safer operations.
PS adapted several C300s to the purpose, outfitting them to carry Tercel or Vixen light fighters, deploying them from a rear tail hatch or mid-hull belly hatch. Automated systems provide servicing and limited rearmament from ventral cargo bays, and an enlarged crew area immediately aft of the cockpit provides limited facilities for fighter pilot relaxation between sorties. The air defensive armament has been beefed up as well, as the ACV tends to attract more than its share of hostile attention.
The major shortcoming of the C300-ACV is its limited facilities and capacity...Recovery of deployed aircraft can be a problem in a hot conflict zone, and attending to damaged aircraft with compromised systems can be a real problem, especially if an overstressed component gives way AFTER the fighter has been brought aboard(and, worst case scenario, after additional aircraft have been recovered after it, preventing the damaged aircraft from being easily ejected from the carrier).
The design has, however, also proven viable with flying power armors.
Changes/Modifications:
MDC/Armor by Location:
All Locations: +10% extra armor
Launch/Retrieval Bays(5) 120 each
Systems of Note:
*Air Grapples---These are combination robotic arms and flexible tether-nets used for snagging aircraft and guiding them into the bays...or easing them out away from the mothership.
*Drone Hooks(4)---The rear wing assembly mounts four hookup mounts for towing airborne UAVs like the PS-RPV-05 Firebird, PS-RPV-06 Blackbird, PS-QF-4 Phantom, or PS-XF-UCV-45 SkyDagger. The linkage allows the mothership to recharge any onboard electrical systems in the drone aircraft, and update their programming in flight. The downside is that towing the parasite aircraft reduces overall speed by 10% with two UAVs, and 20% with four attached.
Weapons Systems: Standard
Embarked Vehicles:
*12 Tercel Light Aerospace Fighters OR
*16 Vixen Light Aerodyne Fighters OR
*28 Taon Fighter Pods OR
*160 Flying power armors(or Heavy Air Combat Cyborgs may be substituted)