Re: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy

--- Brian Bilderback <bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I've come up with a few design philosophies of my OWN, but I don't
know 
> how/where they'd fit into the official timeline..
> 
> Here's one I suggest someone apply, perhaps to a colony or lesser
power:
> 
> I call it the "Universal Chassis" Philosophy. The idea is to base all
or 
> almost all of a force's vehicles on the same chassis. This means the
class, 
> engine type, and mobility type would all be the same, with variations
on the 
> weapons/equipment on each according to it's mission.
> 
> While this might be a little limiting for a major power, it's ideal
for a 
> smaller state or colony on a limited budget (the idea is used by the 
> Spartans in Pournelle's Prince Of Mercenaries series. There are also
several 
> real life examples of vehicles taking on this kind of life - like the 
> British Scorpion).  Uniformity of the chassis makes it easy to
accelerate 
> production, as well as simplifying logistics and repair. you simply
pump out 
> a bunch of chassis, then equip them with the appropriate shell for the

> necessary variant.  These will, depending on the user, tend to be
wheeled or 
> tracked vehicles, in the class 2-3 range, though you'll occasionally
see a 
> class 1 or 4 vehicle on this theme, perhaps even in a GEV, but I doubt
you'd 
> see anyone who can afford Grav technology or class 5-7 vehicles
needing to 
> resort to this strategy, except perhaps for second line/reserves
units.

Unless that high-tech government has thousands of worlds to defend with
grav
vehicles. The Traveller Imperium does this with its APC chassis. They've
got a
few AFvs, some minor vehicles (air rafts) and a plethora of APC
variants: APC,
Fire Support, Recon, Artillery (various types), command, logistics,
hospital,
whatever. I don't think this concept would work too well for AFVs, but
the
large amount of space in an APC hull gives the designers a lot of room
to play
with for variants.

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