Type: M-5 Drone Warship (Casper) In Service: 2705 Number in Service: 3912 Mass: 680,000 tons KF Integrity: 0 Sail Integrity: 0 Thrust: 5/8 Fuel: 15,000 tons SI: 120 Armor: 1632 tons of standard Armor ( Fore: 125 + 12 Sides: 117 + 12 Aft: 60 +12) Heatsinks: 4051 Docking Collars: 0 Fighters: 0 Small Craft: 0 Crew: 0 Lifeboats: 0 Escape Pods: 0 Grav Deck: 0 Cargo: 0 tons Other Equipment: Automated Repair & Maintenance System (ARMS) Advance Artificial Intelligence Control System Bays: Bay 1: ARMS Weapons: Forward: 4 NAC 30 Fore Left/Right: 5 AR10 Missile Launchers 4 NAC 30 LBS/RBS: 8 NAC 20 1 AR10 Missile Launcher Aft Left/Right: 8 NAC 20 1 AR10 Missile Launcher Aft: 6 NAC 30 Ammo: 6000 Rounds NAC 20 Ammo 4000 Rounds NAC 30 Ammo 1000 Barracuda Missiles 1000 White Shark Missiles 1000 Killer Whale Missiles Designer’s Notes: The biggest problem with this design was filling the space that was normally taken up by the KF Drive. I originally wanted a faster ship, some of the text describes the Caspers making swift attacks on the SLDF ships. However I was limited by the fact that the text also says the ships had the maneuverability of a destroyer. So a Thrust of 5/8 may be pushing it when looking at existing SLDF destroyers but it isn’t too far out of line like the 8/12 model I had at one point. The mass of the ship was determined by the statement that the ship had the firepower of a battlecruiser on the frame of a Lola destroyer. I did however increase the SI to allow more armor. The AI/Control system was calculated at 5% of the ships weight. I figure this includes the extra equipment needed to automate all the components of the ship. The ARMS was calculated at 10% of the ships mass. This includes the repair equipment as well as replacement parts for the ship (5% of the ships mass in spare parts). The rear armor is weak to match the text that the ships had a potential weakness in the aft of the ship. The number of ships may seem high but it is probably reasonable. I assumed 60 out of 103 worlds of the Terran Hegemony had SDS systems. There are only 2 systems for which the number of drones is provided- Terra had over 250 Caspers and Epsilon Indi- 56 caspers. So I estimated there were on average 65 drones per world. Overview: When Jonathan Cameron came to power as the First Lord he began a major expansion of the SLDF military. Of the new projects that he introduced, the Space Defense System was one of the most ambitious. The SDS involved a number of ground based defensive stations and unmanned Drone Warships. These unmanned warships, the M-5 Drones which were more commonly known as Caspers, would patrol the systems of the Terran Hegemony and their jump points. The house lords originally opposed the development of the SDS system but were eventually swayed to support it with the promise that they would receive SDS systems when the technology was proven. Production of the Casper drones began at a variety of shipyards in the Terran Hegemony starting in 2704. The first ship entered service in the Sol System in 2705. Capabilities: The M-5 drones were the most advanced automated ships ever developed by the SLDF or any other nation. The AI control system for the Caspers was a marvel of technology that was developed jointly by the New Earth Trading Corp, Ulsop Robotics and the Nirasaki Computers Collective. The resulting AI system was programmed with the minds and abilities of the finest Admirals of the SLDF Navy to make them very challenging opponents for anyone who dared to attack the Hegemony. Combined with the ability to rapidly process data, the ships were able to analyze tactical situations and quickly formulate and implement the best response to any situation they encountered. As impressive as the control system was, the Automated Repair and Maintenance Systems (ARMS) was even more impressive. As there would be no human crew on board the ship, the designers needed to implement a way for the ship to repair itself and preform routine maintenance. The ARMS system, developed by Ulsop Robotics, more then exceeded it’s design goals. Every component that the designers expected to replace while the ship was still in the field was designed to be completely modular with quick connect power and data interfaces. When a failure was detected the ship would run a diagnostic that would locate the specific failing module. The ARMS system would then use a remote robot repair unit to pull the failing module and replace it with a new one. The ARMS system was like a small railroad on the ship- there was a track system through out the ship that would allow the remote robot repair units to access all of the ships systems. [Editor’s Note: The system was so successful that the SLDF admirals refused to allow it to be used on any other ship. As the system could do all maintenance on a ship, the admirals realized the system would reduce ship crews by half or more. What they were afraid of was that with the reduced requirements for ships crews, the SLDF Navy’s funding would be reduced. ] Major repairs such as engine overhauls still needed to be done by SLDF engineers at a Naval Dry dock facility. The Caspers mounted an incredibly heavy weapons array for a ship their size. The designers based the Casper’s weapons array on that of the Black Lion class Battlecruiser. While there was some concern about the use of so many ammo based weapons, the weapons proved very effective in combat. The Caspers carried a significant amount of ammunition, so much in fact that there is little concern that the ships will run out of ammo even after several prolonged battles. More importantly the weapons proved very effective for the Casper’s standard tactics. One of the most commonly used tactics by the drones was a quick strafing pass through an enemy fleet. The heavy hitting power of the Naval Autocannons allowed the drones to inflict heavier concentrated damage against the enemy then the could have been done by Naval Lasers or Naval PPCs. Also, since the drones rarely engaged the enemy at long ranges, the additional range of the capital class energy weapons would have been of little value to the drones. The armor of the Casper was also very impressive for a ship it’s size. While the Casper is based off of the Lola III Destroyer, the designers reinforced the structure of the ship allowing it to carry more armor then the Lola III. Even with the extra armor, there was a significant weakness in the aft armor of the ship. This was due to the large engines which were mounted on the ship and which, due to their size, prevented the designers from mounting more armor on the aft. [Editor’s Note: This was in fact one of the biggest secrets of the SDS program. While the engineers were aware of this problem they buried the data so that no one else would find out, instead reporting the armor on the aft was equivalent to the armor mounted on the sides of the ship. The SLDF did not learn about the weak aft armor until 34th Royal Battlemech Division and the 568th Armed Transport Flotilla launched an attack on the Epsilon Indi system early during the Amaris Crisis. Admiral Braso, commanding the 568th, discovered the Caspers were susceptible to attacks on the tail and that data was forwarded to General Kerensky as part of her final report. When the SLDF engineers investigated the data files on the drones they discovered the weakness in the armor and the SLDF began using new tactics that called for the ships to concentrate their fire on the aft areas of the drones where possible.] The only other weakness that the ships had was in their intership communication system. While the primary communication interface was very effective, the secondary interface was too slow to allow effective coordination between ships. The SLDF eventually learned about this weakness and developed a system that would swamp the primary communications and force the drones to rely on their secondary systems. Deployment: The M-5 Drones were deployed around many worlds of the Terran Hegemony. While the drones were intended to defend the Hegemony from enemy attacks, in one of history’s great ironies the first ships that the drones faced in combat were the ships of the SLDF Navy. The initial battles went poorly for the SLDF. The SLDF lost a minimum of 3 major warships when they attacked a world defended by Casper Drones. As the SLDF developed new tactics and equipment to deal with the Caspers the SLDF’s losses began to decrease. The largest battle involving Casper drones was the attack to free terra. There were over 250 drones defending the Terra system, which posed one of the greatest challenges to General Kerensky and the SLDF during the campaign to liberate the Hegemony. The SLDF lost over 100 warships and 75 transports (and many divisions of troops) in the battles with the Casper drones, but the SLDF did eventually succeeded in destroying all of the drones. No Caspers are known to have survived the battles of the Amaris Crisis.