Bulwark class Armored Fighter

Bulwark class Armored Fighter
Distant Fringe vessel.
Type: PA Light Fighter
Category	[[Smallcraft]]
Size	13 Tons
Hull Configuration	[[Wedge Hull]]
Streamlining	Streamlined Hull
Tech Level	TL–10
Engineering
Computer	Model/1 bis
Jump	J-0
Maneuver	6 G
Armaments
Hardpoints	1
Accommodations
Staterooms	0
Personnel
Crew	1
Officers	1
High/Mid Passengers	0
Payload
Cargo	0.0 Tons
Fuel tank	0 Tons
Construction
Origin	Distant Fringe
Year Operational	None
Price
Cost	MCr18.175 (base) MCr14.540 (qty)
Architect fee	MCrAde Stewart.
Statistics
Quick Ship Profile	PA-2S60
Images
Blueprint	No.
Illustration	Yes
Source
Also see	Spaceplane
Canon	Published, fan design
Era	1105
Reference	Fan: Ade Alagoric Stewart
Starships are designed with the Classic Traveller format, using High Guard.

The Bulwark class Armored Fighter is a combatant smallcraft.

• It is a paramilitary ship and a fighter.
• This is a generic class of smallcraft.
• Please also see AAB article: Ships of the Distant Fringe.
• Please also see AAB article: Warships of the Distant Fringe.

Description (Specifications)

The Armored Fighter is a cheap, reliable vessel designed to have improved survivability. Similar designs have been in use from the time the Distant Fringe was first settled. It is defined as a microfighter due to its small size.

• The vessel is a TL-10 design.

Image Repository

A Bulwark class Armored Fighter (top) and an Esther class Armored Fighter (bottom).

Basic Ship Characteristics

Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here. The small craft factor indicates the number of squadrons (of ten craft) carried on the ship. Tonnage on the universal ship profile is shown in kilotons (thousands of tons) when necessary.

Basic Ship Characteristics
No.	Category	Remarks
1.	Tonnage	This Armored Fighter is constructed using a 13 Ton hull built in a generally wedge-shaped configuration. The hull is fully streamlined and has airfoil surfaces, giving good atmospheric performance that is further enhanced by its onboard gravitic systems. Individual sections of the ship are divided into sealed compartments. The vessel has sturdy retractable landing legs, allowing surface landings.
2.	Crew	Total Crew Complement: 1 x1 pilot. Accommodations: The cockpit is the only crew-accessible part of the ship: it is fitted with grav plates and inertial compensators. The vessel has full life support and environmental systems. The craft does not have an airlock: if the cockpit is opened life support integrity is lost. There are monitoring and security systems throughout the vessel. There is a small emergency locker.
3.	Performance	The vessel mounts a Maneuver-6 drive and a Power Plant-6, giving performance of 6-G acceleration. The ship has an agility rating of 6. The internal fuel tankage is sufficient to give the power plant 6 weeks duration. The engineering section is controlled from the cockpit. Access to the machinery can be gained via a sealable hatch.
4.	Electronics	The cockpit contains an acceleration couch and control equipment. The vessel is fitted with a Model/1bis Computer: no backup computer is installed. The vessel is fitted with communications equipment, a standard sensor array, and has an Avionics suite. It is equipped with a sophisticated ECM package. It has a transponder unit that can be deactivated on command.
5.	Hardpoints	x1 hardpoint.
6.	Armament	The normal weapons fit-out for an Armored Fighter is: Fixed triple missile racks. Each missile rack mounts x3 standard Anti-Shipping Missiles. The Armored Fighter is equipped with a VRF Gauss Gun in a fixed forward-facing mount. The Gauss Gun has a ROF of 4000 rounds per minute: the vessel carries 4000 rounds of needle ammunition. The weapon is ineffective against spacecraft or starships but can be used to strafe light targets and vehicles. It is sometimes referred to as a "frustration weapon", serving to give the pilot a means of striking at a threat, however ineffectively, and thus providing them with a psychological release.
7.	Defenses	The hull is heavily plated, braced and structurally reinforced, with an armor rating of 5. The vessel is not fitted with screens or other passive defensive systems.
8.	Craft	The vessel carries no subcraft.
9.	Fuel Treatment	The vessel has internal fuel tankage of 1 Ton. The hull is fitted with fuel scoops. The vessel is not equipped with fuel purification equipment.
10.	Cost	The basic cost of the vessel is MCr18.175. The ship is a standard design. Detailed architectural plans are widely available and no design fee is chargeable. If multiple examples of the design are ordered all of the ships in the production run qualify for a 20% discount, which reduces the price of each unit to MCr14.540.
11.	Construction Time	24 weeks (5.5 months) as standard. Build times can be reduced by mass production and the efficiencies such processes generate, by increased financing, and by allotting additional yard resources and facilities to the construction contract.
12.	Comments	The vessel has no internal cargo capacity.

History & Background (Dossier)

An ubiquitous design used throughout the Distant Fringe, the Armored Fighter is hardy, durable and reliable. The design is representative and a large number of variants exist, particularly with regard to the allotted weapons systems and onboard electronics. Despite their status as space fighters, designs of this type have airframe features, augmenting their handling characteristics within planetary atmospheres.

The thick hull does not prevent critical hits from major naval combatants. High weapon factor naval guns and missile barrages can still overwhelm and dismantle these fighters with ease, especially paired with main fleet units' advanced computational tracking and predictive targeting algorithms. Military software plays a major role, often unappreciated in space combat. The investment in armor truly pays dividends when they match up against other snub fighters, firing smaller weapon batteries. The ability to shrug off critical hits in a dog fight grants a huge advantage when hunting enemy fighters.

All of that aside, they are worth their weight in gold in their best role, the savior of the marine, close air support. Modern ground units can not expect to survive for long on the ground without tightly integrated close fighter support. VRF Gauss Gun strafing runs and precision weapon deployment against hard ground targets allow grav mobile assault units to strike fast and hard. The ability to take out enemy grav tanks, provide point defense and best of all survive ground fire. These thickly armored hulls render them all but immune from most army and marine mobile weapon systems, only enemy fighter squadrons offer any real deterrent to their operations. They tend to strike with impunity and then slink off to reload and return, a welcome sight to any ground pounder, provided his frequency agile EMS IFF is squawking loud and proud.

Distant Fringe Vessels

The Distant Fringe is said to be a far spinward-rimward area inhabited by colonists and refugees originating on Terra. The region is extremely isolated, separated from the rest of Charted Space by vast, almost uncrossable rifts that were once broached by a system of calibration Points and the use of tankers. Those few academics within Charted Space who have found references to the Distant Fringe regard it as little more than a tall tale. Likewise, many of the inhabitants of the Distant Fringe believe the existence of Charted Space to be mythical.

Vessels originating within the Distant Fringe are very rarely encountered outside of the region. However, misjumps do occur and anomalies with bizarre spacetime and Jumpspace effects exist: as such, craft of this type are not entirely unknown within Charted Space.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities

Individual vessels are generally named by their crews.

• Individual vessels within the class are issued specific serial numbers and transponder codes.
• Naming a ship is considered a serious affair and is generally accompanied by a traditional ceremony, usually pouring a local beverage over the bows of the craft. Spacefarers tend to be superstitious folk and a ship with a frivolous name is considered "unlucky".

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Smallcraft - Fighter:

1. Type FH class Heavy Fighter
   1. Bulwark class Armored Fighter
   2. Esther class Armored Fighter

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman. High Guard (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), 20-37. (Design Sequence Used)
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science