Re: [GZG] [FT] [DSII] Trojan Horse Assault Transport

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Thanksgiving - Here's the post I promised.  

Since there haven't been any comments to this subject, I assume that it
is accepted that an ITTT 7 mass cargo pod converted to a drop pod has
enough cs to carry a company of mechanized infantry & its command, at
least in an abbreviated form.  

Considering that 3 companies make a battalion, and 3 battalions make a
regiment, a flotilla of 10 Trojan Horse Assault Transports carry enough
drop pods to imbed an entire trans-atmospheric assault division;  That
includes 27 companies of mechanized infantry, 12 companies of mobile
artillery, 3 companies of armor, 3 companies of anti-aircraft artillery,
3 companies of combat engineers, and numerous service units, including
division command & control, intelligence, HasMat/UXO disposal, M.A.S.H.,
quartermaster, and others.  

A proper flotilla for a trans-atmospheric assault division will consist
of 10 Trojan Horse Assault Transports, 3 "Galahad/Ropucha" class assault
transports, enough troop transports to carry division personnel, a
hospital ship, a combat stores ship, and perhaps an ortillery monitor
converted from an obsolete capital ship;  Such as a NAC Eastwood SDN
with the heavy beam batteries swapped out for ortillery systems.  

A massed planetary assault procedes as follows;  A battle group
consisting of capital ships & ortillery monitors gain space superiority
to planetary orbit and begin suppressing ground & air defences with
ortillery & converged sheaf beam fire.	Within one jump of the planetary
assault operation, trans-atmospheric assault troops transfer from the
troop ships to the Trojan Horse ships, gaining access to the drop pods
thru the ships' central access spine.  When planetary ground/air
defences are sufficiently suppressed, the assault transports jump to
orbit and deploy the drop pods, targeting a selected landing zone/area
of operations [LZ/AO].	The pod decent is assisted by use of chaff & ECM
to disguise the drop pods number, location, & trajectory from remaining
ground/air defence.  Drop ships from the "Galahad/Ropucha" classes
follow with special forces for situation-specific operations.  If a
nation has multi-mode fighters, they can be used dirt-side as ersatz
combat walkers.  

Now, the assault troops don't ride the drop IN the vehicles;  They ride
down in ejector seats that line the walls of the pods.	If pod
parachutes don't fully deploy & slow decent to less than terminal
velocity at 1000 feet, the ejector seats fire and the troops land clear
of the crashing pod.  That company loses its vehicles & heavy
equiptment, but the ejector seats come with light assault weapons,
communications & field supplies so that the unit can still operate as
dismounted light infantry.  

Once dropped, the assault units fan out, engaging enemy ground units,
taking & holding valued objectives & approaches to the LZ/AO.  When the
LZ/AO is secure enough, the combat engineers, with grating & paving
equiptment, are dropped into a central locale.	Their job is to build a
tarmac that is large enough to accommodate the landing of a Stork medium
freighter.  When the tarmac is built, it will be used as a bridgehead to
bring in reenforcements.  Reenforcement personnel are brought in on
Storks, because they can be disenbarked quickly, while their vehicles &
heavy equiptment are brought in by cargo pods, from Roos & Fetches, from
Work Horses & Huskys.  

The reenforcements mount their vehicles, and relieve the assault units
holding objectives.  Once relieved, the assault units withdraw to the
bridgehead tarmac.  At the same time, Roos from the Trojan Horses gather
up the drop pods & take them to the bridgehead.  At the bridgehead, the
assault troops dismount & board one of the Storks for transport to a
division staging area, for rest & further training.  The assault
vehicles are loaded back into the drop pods, the Roos remount them on
the Trojan Horses, and they are transported to a refurbishment center,
where impact & combat damage to the vehicles & pods are repaired, the
chutes repacked, deceleration rockets reloaded, and the drop pods
prepared for the next operation.  

JBrewer@webtv.net  

"Always strive to be a good person.  If you can't do that, at least
strive to be someone other than an asshole."

-----Original Message-----
From: John Brewer
Sent: Monday, November 5, 2007 6:15 PM
To: gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: [GZG] [FT] [DSII] Trojan Horse Assault Transport

Since the subject of how many CS is in a FT mass, I thought I would post
this.  

The Trojan Horse assault transport is actually little different than a
standard Work Horse medium freighter; it's used to carry & deploy 7 mass
ITTT cargo pods that have been modified into large drop pods for massed
planetary assault.  The cargo pods are modified into drop pods by
equiping them with partial streamlining, chemical thrusters for
pre-atmospheric entry course correction, atmospheric entry heat
shielding, atmospheric descent parachutes, pre-impact decelaration
rockets, and shock-absorbing landing gear.  

How much these 7 mass drop pods can carry needs to be determined.  For
ease of organization, I would like to think these large drop pods can
carry 3 platoons or 1 company of assault-rated mechanised infantry. 
According to MT, 3 platoons of mechanised infantry in 4 MICVs take up
144 cs, not counting the command platoon & their vehicles.  An
unmodified 7 mass cargo pod can carry 175 cs.  How much cs needs to be
taken up by the drop pod modifications?  Can some of the modifications
be partially externalized, like the landing gear?  

You could put 1 company into 2 drop pods, but that would run the risk of
the 2 halfs being seperated during the drop.  You could also organize
the unit into a "short" company, with only 2 platoons & command riding
in the MICVs; deployed with special assault weapons & equipment that
would give the short company the effective firepower of a full company.  

I leave it to the list to help me with this.  Later, I will post how the
Trojan Horse assault transports & their drop pods are deployed in a
massed planetary assault.  

JBrewer@webtv.net  

"Always strive to be a good person.  If you can't do that, at least
strive to be someone other than an asshole."