KA-74 Pyrrhic Scyth: AK-47 of starfighters

[Kanuckistan]

Something I've been tinkering with; new, cheap export fighter. Opinions wanted.


KA-74 Pyrrhic Scyth
(Space-Only Starfighter)

A bigass gun straped between a pair of fusion rockets, with a pilot along for the ride, the KA-74 combines commonly avalible components and Kanuckistani engineering expertise to create a cheap, lethal, and effective starfighter.. even if it's a little fragile.

It's armament is a powerful Plasma Hammer; a weapon inspired by recoilless anti-tank rifles of old, it utalises a specially designed bi-focal fusion- or conversion-bomb, with omnidirectional EM energies released during detonation interacting with a conductive lattice in the barrel to create a temporary containment feild, with forward ejecta being focused into a powerful near-cee plasma beam, while aft ejecta is dispersed shotgun-like at the end of the barrel to negate recoil and avoid potentially firing at friendlies behind you - rear ejecta is only dangerout within a hundred meters or so of a firing fighter. The result is a very powerful cannon which draws very little power from the fighter's powerplant, leaving more for propulsion

Plasma Hammer ammunition is special in that the bombs release all their energy in two, opposite directions; a single direction bomb was tested exparimentally, but designs either imparted signifigant recoil onto the firing platform, or the bomb, thrown backwards from the cannon during detonation, 'splashed' the firer with enough plasma to cause signifigant damage. Combined with design complications, such was abandoned. And an omnidirectional bomb would destroy the weapon, and possibly the fighter.

Pilot survivibility is increased through the use of an ejectible cockpit mounted on a stout pylon, with blow-out valves within the engines and ammo mag designed to channel the force of the exploding fighter away from the pilot.

Multi-valve thrust vectoring combine with high-speed rotary gyros to yeild an obscene degree of manueveribility; able to pull two 360s per second, and direct thrust in any direction, the KA-47 can literily 'circle-straif' targets when in the hands of a skilled pilot

Two varrients of the fighter are avalible; the basic, and a pricier, better equiped and more rugged version. Ammunition is avalible below.

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KA-74 Pyrrhic Scyth

Price Per Unit: $2.5 million USD

Dimentions(LxWxH):
-16x8x4m
Powerplant:
-Dual Purpose-built multi-stage fusion plant
Endurance:
-96 hours/max output
-1000 hours life support/air recycling
Drive:
-Dual High-End Hydrogen-injection fusion rockets
-Internal Rotary-Control Gyros
Acceleration:
-650 gees sustained
-720deg/sec rotation
Armament:
-1x Plasma Hammer(1000 round capasity/varrible rate of fire(90 rounds per minute max))
-12x Varrible Molecular Bonding Hardpoints
Armour:
-5mm Nuclear-force Enhanced Silver(NES), type 12; Aproximatly 250mm RHA-equivilent protection value.
Stealth/ECM:
-Basic ECM-Flare launchers
Sensors:
-Broad-band EM Active/Passive(RADAR/LiDAR/Optical/etc)
-mass detector
Comms:
-Standard Multi-Band EM transciever package(broadcast, tightbeam, laser)

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KA-74-A Pyrrhic Scyth

Price Per Unit: $12.5 million USD

Dimentions(LxWxH):
-16x8x4m
Powerplant:
-Dual Purpose-built multi-stage fusion plant
Endurance:
-96 hours/max combat output
-1000 hours life support/air recycling
Drive:
-Dual High-End Hydrogen-injection fusion rockets
-Internal Rotary-Control Gyros
Acceleration:
-650 gees sustained
-720deg/sec rotation
Armament:
-1x Plasma Hammer
-12x Varrible Molecular Bonding Hardpoints
Armour:
-4mm Sub-Atomic Partical Lattice(SAPL), ATV-3127; Aproximatly 1000mm RHA-equivilent protection value.
Sheilds:
-1x Diffusion Sheild Effector w/ 8 meter focal and 180 deg/sec traverse
Stealth/ECM:
-RADAR/LiDAR absorbant/refractant coating
-Basic RADAR/LiDAR jamming package
-Basic EM Comms jamming package
-Basic EM 'Chaff-Field' Spoof Effectors
Sensors:
-Broad-band EM Active/Passive(RADAR/LiDAR/Optical/etc)
-mass detector
Comms:
-Standard Multi-Band EM transciever package(broadcast, tightbeam, laser)


As the first commercial craft equiped with a Diffusion Sheild Effector, some explination is in order; it, basicly, 'agitates' quantum uncertainty along it's circular focus, the result being that matter and energy passing through are.. diffused across it's surface, scattered in both location and direction of travel. This serves to massivly reduce damage done to the fighter, and can provide a sort of 'missile immunity' if said missiles are fused such that the sheild ripps them apart befor they detonate.

This sheild has the advantage in that it does not 'wear down' and is extreamly difficult to overload - requioring either capital ship fire or signifigant collision, which would force a 20 second system recycle. However, this near-immunity to light fire is extreamly limited; creating only a single plain of protection, with a traverse speed of 180 degrees per second.

It can, however, be readily replaced with another sheild system if you have a suitible one; removal of the diffusion sheild reduced price by $2.5 million USD


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Plasma Hammer Ammunition(stated yeilds are effective forward output, not net):

10 Kiloton Bi-Focal Presurised Plasma Bomb Ammo
-$150 USD each

25 Kiloton Bi-Focal Presurised Plasma Bomb Ammo
-$350 USD each

75 Kiloton Bi-Focal Fission Bomb Ammo
-$700 USD each

300 Kiloton Bi-Focal Fission Bomb Ammo
-$1500 USD each

1.5 Megaton Bi-Focal Fusion Bomb Ammo
-$3000 USD each

10 Megaton Bi-Focal Fusion Bomb Ammo
-$9000 USD each

100 Megaton Bi-Focal Matter-Energy Conversion Bomb Ammo
-$20'000 USD each

500 Megaton Bi-Focal Matter-Energy Conversion Bomb Ammo
-$50'000 USD each


NOTE: giving this fighter to rookies is not advided if you have a quality fighter corps with more diverse craft; they can be very effective with it, but it's survivibility in unexperianced hands is not conductive to the building of a first rate pilot corps.

NOTE: anti-reverse engineering provisions are in place within certain systems, as per standard with Kanuckistani exports. See user manual for further details.

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NEW: -B varrient, with upgraded drive specs.


KA-74-B Pyrrhic Scyth

Price Per Unit: $17.5 million USD

Dimentions(LxWxH):
-16x8x4m
Powerplant:
-Dual Purpose-built multi-stage fusion plant
Endurance:
-96 hours/max combat output
-1000 hours life support/air recycling
Drive:
-Dual High-End Hydrogen-injection fusion rockets
-Internal Rotary-Control Gyros
Acceleration:
-920 gees sustained
-1080deg/sec rotation
Armament:
-1x Plasma Hammer
-12x Varrible Molecular Bonding Hardpoints
Armour:
-4mm Sub-Atomic Partical Lattice(SAPL), ATV-3127; Aproximatly 1000mm RHA-equivilent protection value.
Sheilds:
-1x Diffusion Sheild Effector w/ 50 meter focal and 180 deg/sec traverse
Stealth/ECM:
-RADAR/LiDAR absorbant/refractant coating
-Basic RADAR/LiDAR jamming package
-Basic EM Comms jamming package
-Basic EM 'Chaff-Field' Spoof Effectors
Sensors:
-Broad-band EM Active/Passive(RADAR/LiDAR/Optical/etc)
-mass detector
Comms:
-Standard Multi-Band EM transciever package(broadcast, tightbeam, laser)

[Central Facehuggeria]

60 meters long!? That's a huge fighter. A fighter that big would be decimated in any sort of dogfight.

[Arizona Nova]

That is monstrous for a fighter. It's bigger than my Hughie Gunship! Besides, it sounds like more of a bomber than a fighter, having a big gun at all.

[Kanuckistan]

60 meters long!? That's a huge fighter. A fighter that big would be decimated in any sort of dogfight.

It was suposed to be big, but yeah; I horribly screwed up the scaling of my mental image, but I was basicly inventing the weapon system at the same time, so meh.

Make it...

LxWxH(m)
16x8x4

[Central Facehuggeria]

That's a bit better.

[Kanuckistan]

Well, what do you think of the fighter itself?

[Central Facehuggeria]

Overall: Meh.
I don't really like the shields, they seem too close to godmoding for a fighter. I can accept similar devices on battleplates because you only have a handful of those ships. But on fighters? That's crossing the line.

[Kanuckistan]

Overall: Meh.
I don't really like the shields, they seem too close to godmoding for a fighter. I can accept similar devices on battleplates because you only have a handful of those ships. But on fighters? That's crossing the line.

Well, they provide minimal protection against omnidirectional blast weapons, so a small proximity-fused nuke would kill it, and the radius would only be 8 meters to match the reduced fighter size - from the side, for example, it could only cover half the fighter.

A fighter also won't typicly engage entirly in stand-off attacks, but rather close range and get in amoungst the enemy, at which point this sheild isn't very useful - nominally, you'd set it forward while closing with the enemy, then rear to cover your ass so that, if someone tried to light up your tail, you had some warning they were there prior to dying.

Other than that, what's 'meh' about it?

[Central Facehuggeria]

Meh: I am unimpressed. Other than the shields, it doesn't seem particularly noteworthy. There's the gun, but even that doesn't seem up to the high standards (weapons yields) that I've come to expect from you.

[Jordaxia]

I like it quite a bit actually. Like most other things, I'd claim to make an order for it, then not because I forget, but I like this enough to purchase them. Only difference I'd make is to replace the pilot with an AI to get the most out of the manoeuvrability, or at least have an effective assist program. If you can supply, or allow me to put in my own, I'll certainly buy a few hundred/thousand.