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Post by ash19256 on Feb 2, 2017 1:40:37 GMT
With recent advances in drone warfare, the Republic of Free Peoples' Navy has realized that it's Fleet Carriers, although bolstered by the recent development of a number of replacements for the venerable Stinger Drone, are still weighed down by a now woefully obsolete drone in the form of the Hellfire Drone. The legendary admiral of the RFP Navy has sent out a Request For Information, or RFI, regarding possible replacements for this aging, obsolescent drone. Requirements: - The drone must weigh between 12.5 tons and 70 tons. As with the previous contract sent out by the Admiral, the drone technicians are putting their feet down on the idea of microdrones, and the Admiral is putting their foot down on the idea of "micro-capital" drones.
- The drone must not cost more than 1 Mc. One of the major reasons that the Admiral has put out this RFI is that Hellfire drones cost 2.29 Mc per unit. At the rate of drone casualties in the war against the NSTA, that was an unsustainable cost per unit, resulting in Hellfire drones being all but phased out of service during the conflict.
- The drone must have superior performance to at least it's predecessor in all categories. One of the other reasons that the Hellfire drones saw much reduced service compared to the Stinger drones, besides it's cost per unit, was the fact that the only area in which the Hellfire surpassed the Stinger drone was in terms of firepower. Ideally, manufacturers are encouraged to attempt to surpass the performance of a number of the replacements for the Stinger drones in terms of performance.
- All forms of weaponry are allowed. Something that proved rather successful in the development of replacements for the Stinger drone was opening the allowed armaments of the drones to all types of weaponry. This continues into this RFI.
The first entry into this challenge is mine. Verolan Space & Aeronautics presents the AQ-8 Maximus drone. This drone is an upgraded and militarized version of one of our prototypes for our AQ-9 Minimus combat drone.
Link to imgur album.These drones are more heavily armed, more heavily armored, and significantly more capable in terms of both maneuverability and delta-V, at a significantly reduced cost (approximately 5% the cost of the less capable Hellfire drone) and at approximately 50% the mass.
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Post by deltav on Feb 2, 2017 2:20:24 GMT
With recent advances in drone warfare, the Republic of Free Peoples' Navy has realized that it's Fleet Carriers, although bolstered by the recent development of a number of replacements for the venerable Stinger Drone, are still weighed down by a now woefully obsolete drone in the form of the Hellfire Drone. The legendary admiral of the RFP Navy has sent out a Request For Information, or RFI, regarding possible replacements for this aging, obsolescent drone. Requirements: - The drone must weigh between 12.5 tons and 70 tons. As with the previous contract sent out by the Admiral, the drone technicians are putting their feet down on the idea of microdrones, and the Admiral is putting their foot down on the idea of "micro-capital" drones.
- The drone must not cost more than 1 Mc. One of the major reasons that the Admiral has put out this RFI is that Hellfire drones cost 2.29 Mc per unit. At the rate of drone casualties in the war against the NSTA, that was an unsustainable cost per unit, resulting in Hellfire drones being all but phased out of service during the conflict.
- The drone must have superior performance to at least it's predecessor in all categories. One of the other reasons that the Hellfire drones saw much reduced service compared to the Stinger drones, besides it's cost per unit, was the fact that the only area in which the Hellfire surpassed the Stinger drone was in terms of firepower. Ideally, manufacturers are encouraged to attempt to surpass the performance of a number of the replacements for the Stinger drones in terms of performance.
- All forms of weaponry are allowed. Something that proved rather successful in the development of replacements for the Stinger drone was opening the allowed armaments of the drones to all types of weaponry. This continues into this RFI.
The first entry into this challenge is mine. Verolan Space & Aeronautics presents the AQ-8 Maximus drone. This drone is an upgraded and militarized version of one of our prototypes for our AQ-9 Minimus combat drone.
Link to imgur album.These drones are more heavily armed, more heavily armored, and significantly more capable in terms of both maneuverability and delta-V, at a significantly reduced cost (approximately 5% the cost of the less capable Hellfire drone) and at approximately 50% the mass. Very nice. How much does it cost? How much does it weigh? I will try to meet this challenge.
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Post by ash19256 on Feb 2, 2017 2:33:25 GMT
Check the imgur album. It has the rest of the images.
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Post by Enderminion on Feb 2, 2017 2:42:43 GMT
WOW I HAVE SOMETHING FOR THIS!!! This drone barely excedes the Hellfire Drone in all aspects save total armour thickness but the armour is designed with laser fire in mind, firepower is questionable but my cannons fires a nearly 3x as heavy shot at double the rate of fire
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Post by dragonkid11 on Feb 2, 2017 3:23:16 GMT
Well, good to see someone is making a challenge similar to mine. Anyway, here's my submission, which I made some months ago already and probably posted some in the Post Your Design thread. Basically a series of Light Tank class drone, named as such because they weigh like a goddamn tank in ammunition. Besides the methane NTR drive, there's also a MPD drive for long distance. All drones are only protected in anti-laser armor, as no amount of kinetic resistance armor will make the drone last more than one second. This lighten the weight of the drone so that it can carry missiles in minimum of hundreds. Though the Pyrite version carried only one big railgun and nothing else for sheer endurance firepower. There's also light tank drones designed to carry other drones or different kind of missiles or more coilgun, but they are pretty much the same thing.
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Post by ash19256 on Feb 2, 2017 13:44:31 GMT
Well, good to see someone is making a challenge similar to mine. Anyway, here's my submission, which I made some months ago already and probably posted some in the Post Your Design thread. Basically a series of Light Tank class drone, named as such because they weigh like a goddamn tank in ammunition. Besides the methane NTR drive, there's also a MPD drive for long distance. All drones are only protected in anti-laser armor, as no amount of kinetic resistance armor will make the drone last more than one second. This lighten the weight of the drone so that it can carry missiles in minimum of hundreds. Though the Pyrite version carried only one big railgun and nothing else for sheer endurance firepower. There's also light tank drones designed to carry other drones or different kind of missiles or more coilgun, but they are pretty much the same thing. About the only problem with these drones is that they have inferior maneuverability to the Hellfire drone. But otherwise they fall into the requirements of the RFI fairly impressively.
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Post by ash19256 on Feb 2, 2017 13:46:20 GMT
WOW I HAVE SOMETHING FOR THIS!!! This drone barely excedes the Hellfire Drone in all aspects save total armour thickness but the armour is designed with laser fire in mind, firepower is questionable but my cannons fires a nearly 3x as heavy shot at double the rate of fire Does your drone have superior performance to your entry/entries in the Stinger Drone replacement challenge? Because if you do you are the second person to have designed their entry for this contest to have superior performance to Stinger drones and Stinger drone replacements.
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Post by dragonkid11 on Feb 2, 2017 14:28:22 GMT
Well, good to see someone is making a challenge similar to mine. Anyway, here's my submission, which I made some months ago already and probably posted some in the Post Your Design thread. Basically a series of Light Tank class drone, named as such because they weigh like a goddamn tank in ammunition. Besides the methane NTR drive, there's also a MPD drive for long distance. All drones are only protected in anti-laser armor, as no amount of kinetic resistance armor will make the drone last more than one second. This lighten the weight of the drone so that it can carry missiles in minimum of hundreds. Though the Pyrite version carried only one big railgun and nothing else for sheer endurance firepower. There's also light tank drones designed to carry other drones or different kind of missiles or more coilgun, but they are pretty much the same thing. About the only problem with these drones is that they have inferior maneuverability to the Hellfire drone. But otherwise they fall into the requirements of the RFI fairly impressively. I basically consider high G acceleration for really long range weapon to be useless. Though I'm mostly intended for the drone to go into gun range only when all the missiles have run out so they will have MUCH higher acceleration by then as ammunition took up a quarter of the weight. Though the Pyrite drone is made to stay back and just shoot at enemy for up to half an hour.
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Post by Enderminion on Feb 2, 2017 14:58:07 GMT
WOW I HAVE SOMETHING FOR THIS!!! This drone barely excedes the Hellfire Drone in all aspects save total armour thickness but the armour is designed with laser fire in mind, firepower is questionable but my cannons fires a nearly 3x as heavy shot at double the rate of fire Does your drone have superior performance to your entry/entries in the Stinger Drone replacement challenge? Because if you do you are the second person to have designed their entry for this contest to have superior performance to Stinger drones and Stinger drone replacements. They are both made off the same drone but this one has more armour, firepower, and acceleration but less Dv, but I tend to aim for around 4km/s Dv for missiles and drones
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Post by newageofpower on Feb 2, 2017 15:34:59 GMT
I believe my Swarmer II qualifies for this (and the Stinger Replacement) programs as well. Though, they are not designed for Capital Ship launch, but rather being carried into combat by near-capital Bus Drones with high dV.
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Post by Easy on Feb 3, 2017 3:14:21 GMT
Forgive the off topic post, I am considering a material restricted challenge at a later date. So far the idea would be no boron, magnetic metal glass or U-233. One of those how to build an entire multirole capship but without using the usual material crutches we often rely on.
The in-universe reason would be that the materials are not available for whatever political/economic/supply chain reason. The idea would be just to get people out of their comfort zone of cheap 1GW reactors, 100km/s coilguns and 1Mm lasers.
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Post by newageofpower on Feb 3, 2017 3:25:49 GMT
Forgive the off topic post, I am considering a material restricted challenge at a later date. So far the idea would be no boron, magnetic metal glass or U-233. One of those how to build an entire multirole capship but without using the usual material crutches we often rely on. The in-universe reason would be that the materials are not available for whatever political/economic/supply chain reason. The idea would be just to get people out of their comfort zone of cheap 1GW reactors, 100km/s coilguns and 1Mm lasers. I haven't been able to build a monolithic (non-payload using) coilgun above 62 km/s. If you have devised a 100 km/s coilgun firing solid munitions, please show me.
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Post by bdcarrillo on Feb 5, 2017 5:06:06 GMT
Cheesy NeedleFire -Similar hull size as Hellfire -5.41 km/s -Almost 6Gs acceleration -40.4 t, 417 kc Gun Specs: -403 km max range -56.2 km/s
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Post by evonix on Apr 1, 2017 2:38:46 GMT
So I was trying for a replacement stinger drone with a focus on exspendabilty, unloading as much osmium as is possible before it passes and is shot in the unarmoured side, and low cost/weight. This has gone beyond it's specs, a bit, for a start it's now 33 tonnes, has some decent armor, costs a Mc and instead of having low armour on the sides because it's not worth sending on another pass it has unarmoured sides because the enemy probibly won't have working guns once it gets a chance to fire there. I was gunna call the Wasp but now I think I'm gunna call it the Bull. Pics later, writing this on a phone.
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Post by goduranus on Apr 1, 2017 5:33:22 GMT
Don't compare acceleration, it's not a missile. Low acceleration for a drone is usually no problem. For drones the important number is burn time, which dictates how long you can keep the guns on target. After that it's an appropriate turnabout time, too slow and it can't keep up with gun torque, too fast and it will wobble.
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