Irim Heavy Gunship Refit to Light Carrier?

[paladinrpg]

After the success of Orochi squadron in making this old warhorse cool again, I was noodling on the prospect of perhaps making a newer refit of the Irim Heavy Gunship that emphasizes it's light carrier-like qualities rather than fleet killing weaponry, while obviously modernizing many of its systems and amenities to be more in line with things like the Plumeria Medium Gunship and its derivatives. I especially think this would be relevant considering that Yamatai only has one large dedicated capital-sized carrier (the Heitan), and lacks something lighter and more nimble that can do infantry and fighters equally well. The Urufu Light Cruiser doesn't exactly strike me as quite filling this role either, but is a good match in size/hull strength for the Irim.

What do you think?

 

[raz]

The Urufu Light Cruiser doesn't exactly strike me as quite filling this role either, but is a good match in size/hull strength for the Irim.

If you like the Urufu, you'll love the Kagai-class Assault Ship! The possibilities on this baby are seemingly endless with those deployment pods. Check it out: there are two pods and each pod has 6 bays worth of space. One of the described bays can hold and maintain 4 Raccoon shuttles. What if an industrious captain got their ship refit to only have shuttle bays converted to fighter bays? That'd leave the Kagai with a whopping 55 (48+normal complement of 6) fightercraft and a power armor bay big enough to fit a century's worth of spacy armor.

That's not the impressive 168 that a Heitan-class has, but could come in handy for a captain with a task force and specific mission plan.

 

[Wes]

Maybe. I looked and, despite being obsolete and no longer produced, there's still 600 Irims in 3rd fleet, 50 in 8th fleet, 10 in 9th Fleet, 49 in the depot, and one in a museum, so it might be worth looking into a refit.

 

[paladinrpg]

If you like the Urufu, you'll love the Kagai-class Assault Ship! The possibilities on this baby are seemingly endless with those deployment pods. Check it out: there are two pods and each pod has 6 bays worth of space. One of the described bays can hold and maintain 4 Raccoon shuttles. What if an industrious captain got their ship refit to only have shuttle bays converted to fighter bays? That'd leave the Kagai with a whopping 55 (48+normal complement of 6) fightercraft and a power armor bay big enough to fit a century's worth of spacy armor.

Well, thanks for the suggestions about the Kagai. I hadn't quite considered trying to repurpose the deployment pods! However, I was looking for something that preserved that launch-deck aesthetic the Irim has going... there's just something imminently COOL about being able to do a subspace-encased catapult system for Mindy's to literally be "fired" mass driver style at the enemy fleet @ 1.43 lys/hr! This was my first and greatest selling point about the old girl for my purposes, and one I was trying to see about "playing up" more.

@Wes has the idea here... so many are still listed as being in service that it just makes sense to try to keep them going and relevant now that large fleet to fleet battles don't happen so often in the SARP with the 2nd Mishhu War all but a distant memory. It would make sense to make them more of a small carrier for space and planetary operations, so the Star Army wouldn't have to try to replace them with costlier Eikans and Heitans.

It already carries 1 century of spacey armors and 1 fighter squadron, so just was perhaps going to try to add enough room additional fighter squadrons and/or spacey centuries. This could be accomplished by maybe bringing the underslung vehicle bay deck up slightly closer into the main body of the craft and making it wider, with catapults sticking out on either side of the sensor dish (rather than beneath it). There would be then 2 bays, one for each catapult, that could store and launch 1 century or 1 standard fighter squadron (or any combination of the two). Transport shuttles would also be present as they are now, just split between the bays.

Then modernize it's overall compartments (such as science being a true medical bay, more living spaces/barracks descriptions), add automation, crew compliment revamp (caretaker is not exactly a SAoY positon anymore for example!)...

Oh and also get it some newer art, like the Yui 7 got.