Design
Very Hard: 6
UFAF-HAT-41 "Ice Giant" B: This is an enormous transport aircraft, powered by eight turbo-prop engines. Each of these engines is based on the aT-J04b, but drives a shaft which powers a propeller, which is more efficient for low-speed applications. The final result is engines which are relatively efficient, but each of them is small, as designing larger turbines would have taken too long. Most of the effort is poured into the enormous airframe, constructed largely of wood. The wing spar and some important reinforcements use aluminum beams. The majority of the frame is arranged in a geodetic structure, but it's still much less resilient to damage and fire than a metal frame. It can carry a single fully loaded Salamander, or about 13 tons of cargo. Compared to smaller bombers, it's slow and flies with the grace of an emu. It lands on eight large, partially-retracting wheels to support its weight. There are two points on the sides for AS-AC18 guns, but they are removed at full load. Provides 2 TC. [6 Ore (1 Al), 2 Wood, 7 Oil]
Normal: 2
UF-ASA-40 "Overcompensator" Coastal Artillery System: This is an enormous 30cm gun, made specifically for covered ground emplacements. Like a ship gun, shells and powder casings are stored below the barrel itself and lifted up by an electric hoist and ramming system, which fires a little over twice a minute. The shells weigh about 350kg and reach a range which is greater than existing artillery, but not extremely impessive for their size- except the rocket propelled shells, which can go almost 30km. It normally sits in a reinforced concrete bunker with a wide aiming slit, on the shore to aim at ships. It lacks any advanced fire control as much of the time was spent developing a barrel and breech which could withstand the pressure necessary, so commanders must find a firing solution by pen, paper and slide-rule alone, and correct their aim based on visual observation. It also needs a large steam power generator on site or nearby, which needs a bunker of its own, and the generator or power lines are a potential vulnerability. [5 Ore, 3 Oil]
Very Hard: 5
S-CV-40 'Zheleznogorod' B: This is Forenia's biggest ship yet; an aircraft carrier with two vertically stacked flight decks. Each deck is longer than those of the Wasp Nest, and built of steel. The lower flight deck is directly connected with the hangar deck, and can only launch aircraft. The upper flight deck can launch and recover aircraft with an arrester, which are transported from the hangar deck with a lift. Each flight deck terminates in a "ski ramp". Between some space on the top flight deck, the hangar deck's floor, and cable winches from the hangar deck ceiling, the Zeleznogorod can carry about 36 planes, but only 20 are able to quickly deploy. However, planes stored on the ceiling are prone to swinging about and often damaged during ordinary ship maneuvers. There is a launch assist system, on the lower and longer flight deck only, for heavier aircraft: a "catapult" is loaded with disposable solid-propellant rocket motors. This system, broadly speaking, works: heavier aircraft are accelerated enough to take off, but a launch fills the hangar deck with smoke for a few minutes and the rocket motors are lot more expensive than a steam system. There is a con tower as well, but no radar. The space taken up by the two flight decks, hangar, and living quarters leaves fairly little space for the engines. The ship is armed with a few AS-AC18's for point defense only, and armored with a moderate torpedo belt. It is top-heavy, and neither fast nor maneuverable. [6 Ore, 5 Oil]
Very Hard: 6, 4
UFAF-F-40 "Thunderbird": This is a jet aircraft, powered by two of Forenia's first functional turbojet engines. It is a relatively small fighter, the pilot sits in a round glass cockpit with two AS-AC18 cannons and a Sorraia in the nose. The wings are as narrow as possible, low-mounted and swept back, and have small wing fences to prevent sweep-related instability. The tail is relatively high-mounted to put it outside the jet wash from the wings. It also features air brakes. The Thunderbird's engines are relatively small, axial-flow turbojets, and they are somewhat crude in nature. The interior of the turbojet becomes extremely hot, necessitating high-temperature alloys, but failure of the turbine and even compressor blades has led to a design where they are relatively small, with large combustion chambers which burn lean in the middle, excess air is used for cooling. The high-temperature materials could probably stand to be improved. The two engines burn kerosene, and lots of it, and they sit in nacelles under the wings which are thickest in the middle, giving a sort of egg shape. Overall the aircraft has a speed a good bit faster than the Stinger (though much less than what these new turbojets are theorized to be capable of), and its jet engines have a higher altitude ceiling. The air brakes are a good choice, because the jet engines must maintain a lot of thrust at their minimum speed to avoid a flame out, so landings and slower combat engagements benefit from them. Requires a long runway for takeoff. Right now, the engines are [Complex] and require frequent maintenance. [4 Ore (1 Ti), 4 Oil]
Normal: 5
UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires finned rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer. [1 Ore 3 Oil]
Hard: 6
UF-39-APC "Salamander" Pattern B: The Salamander is a large amphibious APC, with a wide body to keep itself stable on the water. It is covered in medium armor, and the body is in a "hexagonal cross-section" shape, which means that any point on its sides or front is either sloping up or down, with the front being long and narrow while the sides are flatter. It has 8 large wheels, the front and rear axles both drive and steer, while the middle two axles are dummies. Water propulsion is from two small propellers. This was a necessary compromise to keep transmission weight down, but land performance isn't amazing. It holds about fourteen soldiers, or a few less if they're bringing heavy weapons and Tiger Armor. Soldiers exit double file through a watertight rear door/ramp and there's a top front crew hatch. It is armed with an AS-AC18 turret and coaxial Sorraia. [5 Ore 3 Oil]
Very Hard: 6, 1
UFAF-F39-W 'Haast': The Haast is a single-engine heavy fighter. It has a single supercharged, fuel-injected V12 petrol motor with a notably bigger displacement than those on the Falcon or Stinger. It's about at the limits of what V12 is capable of without more elaborate induction, different fuel or more cylinders. It is very heavily armed with two M3 Sorraia nose guns, and four wing-mounted AC-18's. The cabin is armored with a manganese-alloy "bathtub". It has deep ellipse wings to create the lift necessary for its considerable weight, plus that of bomb mounts- it can wrangle 1000kg of bombs on three mounts, potentially holding two Dolphin torpedoes. It doesn't outmaneuver existing fighters, and it's relatively slow. It has a large wingspan, but can fit on Wasp Nest carriers thanks to folding wings. It also includes some other new features: foam-lined fuel tanks act to self seal in the event of leaks, and a new Oxygen Regulator which safely controls the pilot's oxygen supply. It can't take off of a Wasp Nest with bombs, the runway is just a little too short. [5 Ore (1Al, 1Mn), 4 Oil]
Normal: 2
RDN-39-2 "DEADLIER RAY": The "Deadlier Ray" is a more sophisticated radar, using an array of antennae on a rotating swivel, a single unit can get the direction and range of enemy aircraft. It's huge though, and requires a building or an entire dedicated CV-22 ship to manage all the equipment. The operator can see air contacts on a CRT display with a circular progression, it looks really cool and goes beep. [Complex]
Normal: 4
UFC-RC-1939 'Glorious': The Forenian race car entry is built around the large, powerful HF-32 engine, a turbocharged V10. As an aircraft engine, it is simply huge for a car. Its weight and the fact that it's tuned to run close to maximum RPM all the time, as well as the choice of turbo for forced induction, mean that it is slow off the line despite giving lots of power when the car is up to speed. The car is built from aluminum, and the body is an unusual shape. Observation in a wind tunnel determined that the tops of the wheels were a source of a large amount of drag, so they are covered in cowls. The front of most cars is nearly flat, but this one comes down to a wedge with a front wing, to hold the front steering wheels down. This wedge shape actually created some lift as more air is moved towards the top, and this top air is moving faster, so a small tail is added sticking up from the rear of the body and "spoil" the air flow there.
Very Hard: 1, 3
Radar Defense Network RDN 'DEATH RAY': [Expensive] Forenian engineers were getting nowhere until some students from the American exchange program helped cause a breakthrough. Rather than using radio waves to cause aircraft to melt or catch fire, they could be used to detect them! An individual Death Ray tower uses multiple high-frequency radio broadcast antennae at once to generate a narrow line of peak constructive interference, a concept which Forenians don't really understand but they know it seems to work. For more than 100km, this line has enough amplitude to reflect back and be detected by a receiver antenna. The whole system just looks like three radio masts. An individual Death Ray operator only knows if there is an object in his 'view', but not how high or far it is. When a station spots something, the operator radios back to command. Command has a map of the lines formed by Death Ray stations, and seeing which ones "light up" at a given time can provide a coarse estimate of enemy aircraft positions. Currently only available as a building on land, preferably on a coast or mountainside; it cannot have any terrain obstructions in its "sight". [Complex]
Easy: 1
UFAF-MTA-38 'Reckless Effect': [Expensive] The MT stands for Military Transport Aircraft, but nobody is sure what 'Reckless Effect' is supposed to mean other than sounding cool. This is a large cargo aircraft with four V12 engines, normally aspirated with an eye towards fuel efficiency. It has a broad wingspan with a high wing, ample cargo space, and adequate power to take off from a long runway with a four ton load, just don't expect much in the way of evasive maneuvers. Befitting its role as a dedicated cargo craft, the body terminates is a large cargo door/ramp at the rear. The frame is largely aluminium for weight. Even an L-1 Tiger truck or AS-MV-21-AL just barely fit within the size and weight limits! The door can also be opened in flight for paratroopers, or for an emergency cargo jettison... which is where things go wrong. Some nutter thought a system which automatically opens the door and releases all the cargo floor hooks using loaded springs at the same time was a necessary feature, and unfortunately this system is liable to off during takeoff, landing, and flying through turbulence. It will provide 1 Transport Capacity if you stop it dropping things out the back for no good reason. [4 Ore (1 Al), 4 Oil]
Hard: 6
UFS-CV 'Wasp Nest' 38, Pattern A: Forenia's first aircraft carrier, and their biggest ship by far compared to the CV22 cargo ship and Archer. Its hull contains four of the turbines used to power the Archer, and is unarmored except for a torpedo belt. Planes stored belowdecks are lift by a single hydraulic lift. The command center is below-decks, so that the wooden flight deck almost completely covers the ship, giving it a low, flat appearance. The flight deck's rear section stores several combat-ready aircraft, and there are three Bumblebee AA guns on each side, one deck below on exposed platforms, plus several AC18's for point defence. The last important feature is a set of arresting cables on deck allowing planes to land safely, these catch hooks on the planes themselves, and are lowered out of the way for takeoff. [4 Ore, 2 Oil]
Hard: 3
UFS-DD-38 Pattern E 'Archer': The Archer is Forenia's first combat ship. It is relatively small, and made of steel but unarmored, with two 90mm Bumblebee guns, complete with targeting system, in covered turrets on either side of a center con tower. There are also two more Bumblebees not in covered turrets, as the ones in the turrets were supposed to be larger originally. It is powered by two steam turbines, and it is relatively fast. Auxiliary weapons include an AS-AC18 on each side, and some Sorraia machineguns on railing mounts. There are also four Dolphin torpedo in launchers on deck: These are basically wooden chutes which can be aimed on a swivel, before the torpedo is released by untying a knot. [3 Ore, 2 Oil]
Revision
Normal: 1
UF-RTS-41 'Long Shot' A: This is a radar fire-control system, which allows radar operators to directly control the Overcompensator gun by its electric motors. This is based on the entirely-mechanical Bumblebee aiming system, the radar operator simply aligns a metal ring which slides on rails on two axes over the radar blip on his screen. With manual calibration for each unique gun and radar position, this sets the gun to a firing solution. It is crude, and imprecise to the point where it almost never hits. It has only found practical use as a means of moving the gun near where it will need to be aimed while a firing solution is calculated the old fashioned way, on pen and paper.
Hard: 5
aTJ04 B: This version of the aT J04 jet engine is cheaper to produce. Moskurg's inexpensive mass-forging techniques have been applied to some new varieties of alloys, which are nickel-aluminum based for some of the colder blades and nickel-steel with small amounts of Tungsten for hot blades and combustion chambers. The new jets are of similar performance to the old ones, but less expensive to produce.
Easy: 4
UFS-CV-50b 'Sea Lift': This is a ship based on the Zheleznogorod hull, but used instead to transport cargo. It includes its own crane and is lightly armed with a Bumblebee and some AC18's. It provides 3 TC, and serves for general purpose logistics such as moving tanks and soldiers to areas with docks. [6 Ore, 4 Oil]
Normal: 3
aT-J03: Subtle tweaks to the amount of metals in the alloy used for critical components of the aT-J01 jet engine, and a special forging process, have allowed higher rotational speeds and larger turbine and compressor blades. The improved engine is still small, but a single unit can provide as much thrust as the engine used in the Haast, while being lighter.
Normal, maybe??: 6
Infantry QoL:
-Boots: You already have good boots that don't reasonably stand to be improved.
-Binoculars: You have created binoculars which are Cheap to manufacture. The lens are made of "acrylic glass" and the quality isn't as good as the ones on your rifle scopes but it's fine for this purpose.
-Medikits: You already have some medical officers equipped with bandages, disinfectant, surgery tools etc.
-Sunglasses: Sunglasses take the form of wide goggles with a single acrylic lens across the face.
-Bayonets: Combat knives which fit on bayonet lugs replace single-purpose knives or bayonets.
-Engineering Equipment: You already have sandbags, barbed wire etc. You could maybe benefit from metal detectors to find mines, but those would at least need their own revision.
-Pockets, etc: Your current uniforms leave no real room for improvement, but a lot of important straps are replaced with slightly lighter and more durable nylon fabric. The weird elbow pouch nobody uses is kept as a matter of tradition.
-Knee and elbow pads: Solid metal knee and elbow pads fit over thick cotton ones sewn into the uniforms. Most of the time, soldiers eschew the hard pads for flexibility unless they know they'll be crawling through gravel or something.
-Gloves: Right now the best gloves you can make are the leather gloves you already have. They're available in full or finger-less cut.
-Flashlights: The UF standard flashlight uses leak-resistant zinc-carbon batteries, in an aluminum frame. It fits on weapon rail mounts, or on helmets. It's rather heavy though, so soldiers prefer to hold them by hand when they can, possibly with a pistol in the other hand. Also includes colored lenses for signalling.
-Compasses/navigation: You already have compasses, sextants and parallax rangefinders- they work fine. Soldiers always have a compass but sextants and rangefinders are only issued where deemed necessary.
-Cricket: Sure why not.
-Mosquito Nets: Soldiers are now given these standard issue instead of buying them with their wages before they deploy. The few Arstotzkans who scoffed and said, "They're just bugs, right?" really appreciate it.
-Other Stuff: Steerable parachutes or plastic explosives should probably be a revision on their own, so that's where I'm stopping.
Very Hard: 5
UF-R4-39 'Tigers Roar': This dramatically named radio is very similar to the Model 3, but fits in a single backpack and supports voice or morse over FM. When communicating in morse code, it can be attached to a separate Tiger's Whisper machine for coded messages.
Hard: 3
Ship-Detecting Radar: Existing RDN-2 systems have been improved. They can detect ships within 30km, and interestingly also draw a picture of the shore or other obstacles within this range. The range of detecting aircraft isn't any further, though.
Very Hard: 2
Explosive Reactive Armor: The good news is, putting plates of explosives on the outside of your tank is a great way to deform HEAT shells. Unfortunately, it's also a great way to deform the tank. Making matters worse, it all goes off at once, and it goes off even if so much as an armor-piercing rifle round hits it. This basically turns your tanks into rolling death traps.
Hard: 6
TPD 'DOLPHIN' 38b: The revised Dolphin torpedo has the same body and warhead, but the gyro and engine have been re-worked, plus 'breakaway' wooden fins have been added. The final torpedo is tolerant of being dropped at very high speed and hundreds of meters of altitude. The biggest innovation is the magnetic detonator, which allows to torpedo to go off well below the waterline of ships it targets without passing straight under or bouncing off.
Normal: 4
Reckless Effect Revision: The cargo door is fixed, and every other system in the plane gets a once-over. The engines, while not high performance, are very reliable, and the plane can fly and land (but not take off) with two engine failures. Our mathematicians tell us it can fly with big holes in the wings, but they couldn't explain to us the advantages of building a version with holes in the wings. They said the Cannalans might make one for us, so maybe that means we should beat them to it, whatever this accomplishes.
Normal: 2
HF-32b "Stinger": The "Stinger" variant of the HF-32 has retractable landing gear which makes it far more aerodynamic, and an oxygen system for pilots at altitude. The oxygen, however, is stored in pressurized tanks, the valve to which must managed carefully- if opened too quickly, the oxygen will become extraordinarily cold as it decompresses, in the worst cases causing instant frostbite of the lungs.
Easy: 6
UFS-BL-38-A 'Firecracker': This bunch of letters followed by a word denotes a 2.5kg finned bomblet, with a either a HEAT+Fragment warhead, or an incendiary warhead. These come in pods of 100 which fit on standard bomb mounts, and release their bomblets at an experimentally-determined altitude which causes them to cover a 50 meter square with roughly one bomb every 5 meters- enough to hit a group of armor, or more forgiving of error than a single 250kg bomb when trying to hit a single target.
Poll
17 (16%)
Author
Topic: Intercontinental Arms Race: Finale (Read 563413 times)