Source: Technical Readout 3057
Mass: 152,000 tons
Armament:
2 Large Lasers
The Invader Class JumpShip is the most common JumpShip in the Successor States and the Clan occupation zone. First launched in 2631, the versatile vessel has met with surprising success and is popular with both military units and commercial users. Almost the entire current production of the Invader is being purchased by military users.
The pair of large hydroponics domes mounted on booms on either side of the Invader's command section is the most distinctive feature of the design. These facilities produce both food and oxygen for the JumpShip crew and create enough surplus to trade with transported DropShips. These hydroponics gardens are fully automated on most Invaders, but system failures force the crews on about 30 percent of active Invaders to maintain the domes manually. Many older Invaders suffer from a design flaw that causes the hydroponics booms to lock in the extended position, which can prevent the vessel from entering hyperspace. Work carried out since the Fourth Succession War has solved this problem on all new craft, and many older vessels have been modified to eliminate the flaw.
The Invader is one of the few old Inner Sphere designs whose original meteor-defense system also provided an offensive capability. The original design featured a pair of special-purpose long-range lasers, but maintenance problems led manufacturers to replace this system with either large lasers or particle projection cannons. However, these replacement weapons provide little more than psychological support for the crew.
The Invader's sophisticated communications system and computers make it an ideal vessel for coordinating a task force. The vessel can maintain radio and laser-link feeds to up to ten transmitting stations.