5 replies to this topic

[Nebfer]

Neither side will use nukes, after all if "Real life" starts using them, well that gives them an excuse to use theirs... the result will not be fun for earth at any level.

Circa 2020 the US government responds to a credible threat to it's borders, it has identified a force intent to invade the Hawaiian islands to use as a staging point for an invasion of the mainland

The Ground forces are 5 Mechanized infantry Regiments (2 "motorized" infantry btlns, 1 light armor) supported by a Jump Regiment, 2 companys of battle armor and a artillery battery (in total theirs 48 tubes present), the Naval forces...

In short The US Navy faces A Circa 3090 era B-tech Blue Water fleet 250 miles (400km) north of Hawaii

2x Luftenburg Super Carriers
6x Jormungand Cruisers
24x Rapier Destroyers
8x Triton Missile Subs
32x Neptune Subs

Each of the two Carriers carries
40x Meteor HSF
20x Raubvogel Aerobomber
20x Drake Medium Stealth Fighter
12x Stork Tanker
12x Mosquito IX Radar Plane
6x Ferret Scout VTOL (Recovery)
6x Karnov UR Transport Upgrade (Cargo/Transport)
12x Marten (Scout and ASW)

The Cruisers and Destroyers carry
60x Marten (Scout and ASW)
24x Karnov UR Transport Upgrade

All Fighters have been issued Free worlds league pilots helmets and gear Circa 3060 or later, I'll let you figure out what that means. Other wise they would be equipped with HMDs...
Despite the pilots helmets the force belongs to House Davion.

Ordnance carried by the B-tech aircraft
1,000kg HE Bombs (Meteors & Raubvogels can carry nine each, Drakes seven, Mosquitos four; all other entry's are per this entry, unless noted)
1,000kg Laser Guided Bombs
1,000kg Cluster Bombs
1,000kg Inferno Bombs
1,000kg Torpedo Bombs
500kg "Light" Air to Air missiles (Meteors & Raubvogels can carry four each, Drakes three, Mosquitos can carry two)
2,000kg Anti Ship Missiles (All Fighters can carry one each, missile is a hypersonic duel warhead kinetic kill)
10 Cell Rocket Pods
TAG Pod
Drop Tanks each carrying 500kg of fuel
1,000kg Air Launched Arrow Missiles, of various types (all fighters can carry one)

Notes VTOLs can carry the same ordinances, at the same ratios (one per five tons of aircraft), as such the Martens can carry three bombs, the Karnov six (or three LAtA Missiles or even a AtSM)

------------------------------------
The USN has available for use, though not all would be 55 Burk class Destroyers, 3 Zumwalt Destroyers, 16 Ticonderoga Cruisers, 6 Nimitz Class Carriers, 2 Ford Class Carriers, 16 LCS, 20 Virginia class Subs, 20 Los Angeles class subs and 3 Sea Wolf Subs

The USN has about 200 F-35s (Marines included), 460 FA-18s, and various other planes.
The US Air force has 40 F-22 Raptors, 300 F-35s, 100 F-15 & 100 F-16s

The Army has 3 infantry Brigades, a Armor Brigade, a Stryker Brigade, and a artillery Brigade. Their is also a Marine Division.


So can the US defeat Battletech, on land in the air or by sea?

[Hex Pallett]

LOL not with the slightest chance would modern US Navy win.

I mean, we're talking about BT technology, whose armor is so advanced that it's literally impenetrable, and had to be gradually chewed off and melted through. I doubt modern AA missile could even scratch them.

[Rogue Jedi]

Helmstif, on 20 October 2014 - 12:18 AM, said:

LOL not with the slightest chance would modern US Navy win.

I mean, we're talking about BT technology, whose armor is so advanced that it's literally impenetrable, and had to be gradually chewed off and melted through. I doubt modern AA missile could even scratch them.

if the armor can be penetrated (gradually chewed off and melted through) then it is not impenertrable

has the strengh of battletech armor ever been properly represented in modern terms?
e.g. how much kinetic force does a gauss round deliver and what is the blast yeald of a single LRM or SRM?

unfortunately without relitave weapon and armor strenghs is is realy dificualt to say who should win

as far as I remember from novels (and I could be mistaken) Battletech pilots have roughly equal capibilities in terms of being able to withstand G forces as modern fighter pilots in modern G sutes, as the pilots G tolerances are the limiting factor for manuverability, modern fighters would not be at a severe disadvantage, the armor could be a problem but we do not know how strong it is

in terms of weaponary the US Navy has a massive range advantage over battletech, almost nothing in battletech had a range of more than a Kilometer while modern navies and airforces have weapons which are accurate at more than 100KM.

some of the smaller Battletech ships have a speed advantage over modern navel vessels, but most of the large battletech ships are of compariable speed to modern ships.

it all comes down to relitave weapons power of the fighters (if a modern missile can cause significant damage to a battletech fighter then the US navy will probabaly win, so long as they do not run out of missiles before battletech run out of fighters) and relitave armor of the Battletech ships because with the ranges and relitave speed the battletech ships would not get into range to fire on the modern ships

[Hex Pallett]

Rogue Jedi, on 20 October 2014 - 04:37 AM, said:

has the strengh of battletech armor ever been properly represented in modern terms?
e.g. how much kinetic force does a gauss round deliver and what is the blast yeald of a single LRM or SRM?

In terms of weight, AC5 is probably closest to the common 120-125mm MBT cannon, and it registers five damage (considering shots as single shell here like MWO IS technology, otherwise it's gonna be hectic) A ton of armor, in MWO term, provides 32 points of armor.

[Rogue Jedi]

Helmstif, on 20 October 2014 - 05:23 AM, said:

In terms of weight, AC5 is probably closest to the common 120-125mm MBT cannon, and it registers five damage (considering shots as single shell here like MWO IS technology, otherwise it's gonna be hectic) A ton of armor, in MWO term, provides 32 points of armor.

so based on this a modern air to air missile probabaly does about 3-5 points of damage if we went with the classic battletech 18 armor per ton then the modern air wing would down several Battletech fighters but still loose, the air wing would run out of missiles long before Battletech ran out of fighters, indeed no modern fighter would carry enough missiles to take down a single battletech fighter so the battletech fighters would win the air battle after which they would straif/bomb/torpedo the modern ships and likely sink them.

if we excluded air assetts the modern ships should win (because they would just stand off at range and fire until they ran out of ammo or more likely sunk all the Battletech ships), but the advantage in aircraft durability means a modern navel force would not stand much of a chance.

[Nebfer]

Humm Well here's the basic flight specs of the B-tech fighters, note the Novels indicate they can fly at hypersonic speeds at low altitudes (say 500m above the ground), but this is what the rules indicate. The Karnov is a bit more guessed at as theirs less to go on, aero ranges is 500m per hex, so a Medium laser has a range of 4.5 or 6km (extreme range), though the standard range rules would provide a range of 3km (short, 6 hexes). Though their is the higher altitude ranges which would be 18km per hex (atmo ranges at this scale would limit ranges to 4 or 5 hexes max).

The Marauders AC-5 is a 120mm based weapon firing about 3 rounds in a burst, the Prototype Mackie used 110mm AC-5, the Merkava Tank that faced it had a 105mm AC-5, out side this many AC-5s are 50 to 90mm based, many AC-20s are 120mm based however (which fires of 200kg worth of munitions at a time, modern 120mm Tank ammo is 18-25kg in over all weight).

Modern Air to Air missiles have one notable issue, their configured to deal with targets with no armor whatsoever, their proximity detonated fragmentation warheads, they often do not even hit the target. Notable amounts of armor is going to degrade their effectiveness.


Name: Drake Medium Stealth Fighter
Date in service: 3087
Operator: AFFS
Empty weight: 28.5 tons
Mass: 35 tons
Max take off weight: 42 tons
Power plant: GM 210 Fusion rated at 1,545kN (347,228 lbf)
Acceleration: 4.5Gs (6/9)
Climb Rate: 900m/s or more
Service Ceiling: 35,000 meters (114,800 feet)
Max Low altitude speed (0-17km): 2,160kph (1,350mph) Mach 1.77
Max High altitude speed (18-35km): 3,240kph (2,015mph) Mach 3.02
Fuel load: 3.5 tons +3.5tons external
Max Ferry Range: 40,320km (80,640km with external)
Max Endurance: 187 to 1,120min (373 to 2,240 min with external)
Armor mass: 2 tons Stealth Armor
External ordnance: 7 tons
Weapons: 2x Krupp 3 Tube MML w/2t ammo, 1x SarLon MiniCannon LAC-5 w/1t ammo, 1x GECM pod

Name: AB-18C Raubvogel
Date in service: ~3055
Operator: Lyran Alliance & Federated Suns
Empty weight: 41 tons
Mass: 45t
Max Take off weight: 54 tons
Power plant: 180 turbine rated at 1,324kN (297,624lbf)
Acceleration: 3Gs (4/6)
Climb Rate: 600m/s or more
Service Ceiling: 35,000 meters (114,800 feet)
Max Low altitude speed (0-17km): 1,440kph -Mach 1.36
Max High altitude speed (18-35km): 3,240kph -Mach 3.02
Fuel load: 2 tons +2.5 tons
Max Ferry Range: 23,000km (51,800km with droptanks)
Endurance HA: 160 to 640min (426 to 1,440min with droptanks)
Armor mass: 2 tons FF
External ordnance: 5 tons
Weapons: 1x Large Laser, 1x SRM-2 w/1t ammo, 2x Streak SRM-4 w/1t ammo

Name: Meteor Heavy Strike Fighter; Model A (Alt Names; DCMS= Inseki, TCAF= Bat Hawk)
Date in service: 2665
Operator: Every one (Fed Suns introduced)
Mass: 45 tons
Empty weight: 38 tons
Max Take off weight: 54 tons
Power plant: GM 225 Atmo-Fusion rated at 1,765kN (396,832lbf)
Acceleration: 4Gs (5/8)
Climb Rate: 600m/s or more
Service Ceiling: 35,000 meters (114,800 feet)
Max Low altitude speed (0-17km): 1,800kph (1,125mph) Mach 1.47
Max High altitude speed (18-35km): 3,240kph (2,015mph) Mach 3.02
Fuel load: 3 tons (+4.5t external)
Max Ferry Range: 34,560km (86,000km with external)
Max Endurance: 197 to 960min (672 to 2,400min with external)
Armor mass: 2.5t
External ordnance: 9t
Weapons: 1x Mydron Model B AC-10 w/2t ammo, 2x Holly SRM-4 w/ 2t ammo
The Mydron in a number of novels is stated to be a 80mm.
And here's the Karnov VTOL transport
Name: Karnov UR (3055)
Date in servece: 3055
Manufacture: New Earth Trading Company (Terra)
Major users: Every one

Mass: 30 tons
Empty Mass: 20.8 tons
Maximum carrying capacity: 37 tons (7t internal, 30t external)
External Ordnance Payload: up to 6t
Max Road Speed: NA
Max Off Road Speed: 226.8kph
Engine type: DAV 160 Gas turbine (ICE)
Engine power: Motive in excess of 4,000 kilowatts (5,300hp), Weapons & Electronics unknown
Fuel Type: Petrolchemicals
Fuel Capacity: 1.2 tons (~1,600 liters)
Range: 1,000km (1.6 liters per km, 1.47 MPG) -Tech manual
Range: 2,500km (0.64 liters per km, 3.67 MPG) -Strat ops
Range with Droptanks: 3,500km (using Tech manual numbers), /w 4,000 liters external fuel (3t)
Crew: 2
Armor: 1.5 tons Lexington Ltd High Grade
Electronics: Basic Military sensor and jamer suites *
-Radar: 18 hexes
-IR: 27 hexes
-Magscan: 27 hexes
-Seismic: 3 hexes
-Radio: Various 25 to 50km (point to point)
Weapons: 2x ScatterGun Light MGs
Ammo capacity: 1,000kg

* Fluff indicates longer ranges than the ranges presented here in terms of sensors, even some of the rules also indicate longer ranges.