Axis Nova
06-04-2004, 21:40
OOC: This is very quick and very dirty; I'll probably clean it up and stat everything later. I still need to do infantry equipment... I only listed ground clearance and fan numbers for the combat cars and tanks; those are the vehicles I expect to see in combat most often. If it becomes an issue with other vehicles, I'll rez something up...
update: added info on AN standard infantry rifle
Quick and dirty profiles of important Axis Nova vehicles
Note: Axis Nova airships use fusion reaction drives; these work by sucking air in, heating it with the reactor, and blasting it out the back to provide propulsion. GEVs just use the power from the reactor to run electric motors. Same with ships.
Edit: I decided that the UAVs will instead use high efficiency jet engines-- a fusion powered airship or GEV is plausible, but a fusion powered fighter plane is not. (At least, not at the tech level I claim...)
-recon version: made mostly out of plastic and radar-absorbing materiels. Has a lot of passive sensors, cameras, LIDAR, etc. Has a laser designator.
-ground attack version: heavily armored, fairly slow, has several internal weapons bays that can be customized for the mission. Has wing hardpoints for various sorts of equipment (weapons or otherwise).
-air combat version: Extremely fast (Mach 2+) and maneuverable; more so than a human body could stand, but since there's no pilot, no big deal. Has twin 25mm vulcan guns and two types of AA missiles (radar lock and IR lock).
-wild weasel: Designed for anti-electronics work, carries HARMs, jammers, and e-bomb warhead missiles (basically those EMP missiles the US army has been testing in Iraq, except more refined and compact)
-cargo: big cargo pods, lots of room, fairly slow. 'Nuff said.
Quick and dirty profiles of a few AN GEVs (ground effect vehicles)
Combat car: Serves as an armored cavalry vehicle; very fast and maneuverable. Variants as follows. All versions have standard equipment, including datalinks, short-range radar, radios, and RPV/UAV control equipment. All versions have 12 lift and drive fans, and can
operate on as few as 6. Top speed is 120 km/hour (though they will usually go slower, to stay more maneuverable). Max lift is 1 meter.
-Standard: armed with an anti-tank missile launcher, a 35mm autocannon, and two 12mm machineguns.
-Support: replaces missile launcher and autocannon with a 120mm mortar.
-Cannon: mounts a 112mm smoothbore cannon that can use various types of rounds (HEAT, SABOT, HESH, flechette)
-Command: Unarmed, has a lot of radios and electronics instead
-APC: Has 4 12mm machineguns and no missile launcher/autocannon; also has firing ports. Carries up to 12 men.
Hovertank: Axis Nova main battle tank. Mounts 14 lift/drive fans, and can operate on as few as 8. Top speed is 110 km/hour, max lift is 0.5 meters. This vehicle, unlike the combat cars, is NOT amphibious (it is too heavily armored and too heavy). Main gun is a 145mm smoothbore, standard ammo types (HEAT, SABOT, HESH, flechette). A 12mm heavy machinegun is mounted on the commander's cupola, and two 35mm autocannons are in small remote turrets on the front hull. On the back deck is a VLS micromissile system, with 24 cells. It is usually loaded with anti-air missiles, but can be loaded with other types. The tank is heavily
armored, with an advanced titanium/DU composite, and is almost completely immune to shoulder-fired antitank weapons. Variants on the chasssis as below.
-Artillery: Though Axis Nova doctrine relies heavily on UAVs and the air navy to do it's job against ground targets, they do have a self-propelled artillery vehicle based on the tank chassis. This is as above, except the forward autocannons are removed and the main gun is a 15cm howitzer that fires rocket-assisted rounds. (Conventional HE, penetrator, cluster,
mines, and smoke are available.)
-Recovery: Since GEVs cannot be towed for long without damaging the plenum chamber, they must be picked up with a heavy crane and placed onto a flatbed for transport. This combat engineering vehicle based off of the tank chassis serves that purpose, with a large crane for lifting disabled tanks and combat cars, and a short-barrel cannon for clearing
obstacles.
Other GEVs: Stuff that doesn't fall into other categories. Most of these are thin skinned vehicles.
-Calliope: A dedicated anti-air vehicle, with both medium-range anti-air missiles (20 km) and an 8-barreled super high speed gun system. Almost any aircraft that gets within two kilometers of a calliope will be knocked out of the sky within seconds.
-Hover jeep: Infantry vehicle, with a wide variety of uses and equipment loadouts. Fulfills a similar function to the US Army's Hum-Vee. There is a civilian version that is quite popular.
-4 ton hovertruck: Just as it sounds. A large hovertruck with a large cargo capacity. Also in wide-spread civilian use.
-Flatbed hovertruck: For transporting damaged armored vehicles and other large cargo. Can carry two combat cars or one hovertank. Also in widespread civilian use.
Naval (Air)
Axis Nova has a diverse air navy. At it's founding, it mostly used lighter than air craft, but with the development of fusion technology, large airships of immense size and power became possible. Axis Nova remains unique in the NS world as the only nation to use large-scale air battleships. I won't get too specific as to stats as it would take too long-- I'll just list some of the pertinent stuff. Most Axis Nova air battleships are comparable in price to major naval vessels. I'll add more if neccesary. Note that most of them do NOT have top speeds over 300 km/hour for saftey reasons. (Even the destroyer can only go 400 km/hour!)
-Air dreadnaughtp: Definitely the king crab of Axis Nova's aerial navy. Carries dozens of missile launchers, calliope guns, flak batteries, and cannons in blister turrets all over the hull. In addition, it's armor is comparable to almost twice that of a main battle tank, rendering it incredibly tough and difficult to damage with most conventional anti-aircraft weapons. The downside, of course, is that it is not very maneuverable. As with all Axis Nova aerial craft, it has RPV/UAV launching and recovery facilities, though these are for local defense and recon. Has an advanced sensor suite and EWAC capabilities. Unfortunately, all these capabilites render it enourmously expensive; it's price and size are comparable to that of a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Due to it's flying wing shape, many have mistaken it for a stealth bomber close to the ground or a UFO when first seeing it... until they realize just how large it actually is.
-Carrier: Armed with close-range anti-air defenses only and no missile launchers, and it's armor is not anywhere near as tough as an air battleship; however, it makes up for this by it's gigantic amount of RPVs/UAVs and control facilities for same.
-Strike Carrier: An experiment in airship building, this vessel is a new addition to Axis Nova's fleet. It carries a third the complement of a normal carrier, and has twice the armament of a destroyer. It is hoped that this new type of craft will increase flexibility.
-Destroyer: Faster than the air battleships and carries, and relatively well armored, these craft make up the bulk of Axis Nova's aerial navy. Their armament is equally split between ground attack and anti-air.
-Cargo: A gigantic cargo vessel, this is quite slow but can carry many tons of supplies.
-Dropship: Designed to land in a hot landing zone and decant a regiment of troops, this vessel has only local anti-aircraft defenses and requires an escort to do it's job properly, though it is quite heavily armored to protect itself from ground fire.
AN Infantry Equipment
-Rifles
Axis Nova's standard infantry rifle is a modified version of the Tyrandis Systems ACW Multipurpose Assault Rifle; we purchased the production rights from them some time ago. Details on the original version are in this thread: http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=131357&highlight=
The modifications Axis Nova has made are as follows:
-Entire weapon slightly changed to allow use of AN standard caseless rounds
-Changed magazine attachment point allows attachement of a drum magazine if neccesary
-Added support for an under-barrel gyrojet rocket launcher
(stub: will add info on 2 types of sniper rifle and anti-armor weapons later)
Axis Nova
update: added info on AN standard infantry rifle
Quick and dirty profiles of important Axis Nova vehicles
Note: Axis Nova airships use fusion reaction drives; these work by sucking air in, heating it with the reactor, and blasting it out the back to provide propulsion. GEVs just use the power from the reactor to run electric motors. Same with ships.
Edit: I decided that the UAVs will instead use high efficiency jet engines-- a fusion powered airship or GEV is plausible, but a fusion powered fighter plane is not. (At least, not at the tech level I claim...)
-recon version: made mostly out of plastic and radar-absorbing materiels. Has a lot of passive sensors, cameras, LIDAR, etc. Has a laser designator.
-ground attack version: heavily armored, fairly slow, has several internal weapons bays that can be customized for the mission. Has wing hardpoints for various sorts of equipment (weapons or otherwise).
-air combat version: Extremely fast (Mach 2+) and maneuverable; more so than a human body could stand, but since there's no pilot, no big deal. Has twin 25mm vulcan guns and two types of AA missiles (radar lock and IR lock).
-wild weasel: Designed for anti-electronics work, carries HARMs, jammers, and e-bomb warhead missiles (basically those EMP missiles the US army has been testing in Iraq, except more refined and compact)
-cargo: big cargo pods, lots of room, fairly slow. 'Nuff said.
Quick and dirty profiles of a few AN GEVs (ground effect vehicles)
Combat car: Serves as an armored cavalry vehicle; very fast and maneuverable. Variants as follows. All versions have standard equipment, including datalinks, short-range radar, radios, and RPV/UAV control equipment. All versions have 12 lift and drive fans, and can
operate on as few as 6. Top speed is 120 km/hour (though they will usually go slower, to stay more maneuverable). Max lift is 1 meter.
-Standard: armed with an anti-tank missile launcher, a 35mm autocannon, and two 12mm machineguns.
-Support: replaces missile launcher and autocannon with a 120mm mortar.
-Cannon: mounts a 112mm smoothbore cannon that can use various types of rounds (HEAT, SABOT, HESH, flechette)
-Command: Unarmed, has a lot of radios and electronics instead
-APC: Has 4 12mm machineguns and no missile launcher/autocannon; also has firing ports. Carries up to 12 men.
Hovertank: Axis Nova main battle tank. Mounts 14 lift/drive fans, and can operate on as few as 8. Top speed is 110 km/hour, max lift is 0.5 meters. This vehicle, unlike the combat cars, is NOT amphibious (it is too heavily armored and too heavy). Main gun is a 145mm smoothbore, standard ammo types (HEAT, SABOT, HESH, flechette). A 12mm heavy machinegun is mounted on the commander's cupola, and two 35mm autocannons are in small remote turrets on the front hull. On the back deck is a VLS micromissile system, with 24 cells. It is usually loaded with anti-air missiles, but can be loaded with other types. The tank is heavily
armored, with an advanced titanium/DU composite, and is almost completely immune to shoulder-fired antitank weapons. Variants on the chasssis as below.
-Artillery: Though Axis Nova doctrine relies heavily on UAVs and the air navy to do it's job against ground targets, they do have a self-propelled artillery vehicle based on the tank chassis. This is as above, except the forward autocannons are removed and the main gun is a 15cm howitzer that fires rocket-assisted rounds. (Conventional HE, penetrator, cluster,
mines, and smoke are available.)
-Recovery: Since GEVs cannot be towed for long without damaging the plenum chamber, they must be picked up with a heavy crane and placed onto a flatbed for transport. This combat engineering vehicle based off of the tank chassis serves that purpose, with a large crane for lifting disabled tanks and combat cars, and a short-barrel cannon for clearing
obstacles.
Other GEVs: Stuff that doesn't fall into other categories. Most of these are thin skinned vehicles.
-Calliope: A dedicated anti-air vehicle, with both medium-range anti-air missiles (20 km) and an 8-barreled super high speed gun system. Almost any aircraft that gets within two kilometers of a calliope will be knocked out of the sky within seconds.
-Hover jeep: Infantry vehicle, with a wide variety of uses and equipment loadouts. Fulfills a similar function to the US Army's Hum-Vee. There is a civilian version that is quite popular.
-4 ton hovertruck: Just as it sounds. A large hovertruck with a large cargo capacity. Also in wide-spread civilian use.
-Flatbed hovertruck: For transporting damaged armored vehicles and other large cargo. Can carry two combat cars or one hovertank. Also in widespread civilian use.
Naval (Air)
Axis Nova has a diverse air navy. At it's founding, it mostly used lighter than air craft, but with the development of fusion technology, large airships of immense size and power became possible. Axis Nova remains unique in the NS world as the only nation to use large-scale air battleships. I won't get too specific as to stats as it would take too long-- I'll just list some of the pertinent stuff. Most Axis Nova air battleships are comparable in price to major naval vessels. I'll add more if neccesary. Note that most of them do NOT have top speeds over 300 km/hour for saftey reasons. (Even the destroyer can only go 400 km/hour!)
-Air dreadnaughtp: Definitely the king crab of Axis Nova's aerial navy. Carries dozens of missile launchers, calliope guns, flak batteries, and cannons in blister turrets all over the hull. In addition, it's armor is comparable to almost twice that of a main battle tank, rendering it incredibly tough and difficult to damage with most conventional anti-aircraft weapons. The downside, of course, is that it is not very maneuverable. As with all Axis Nova aerial craft, it has RPV/UAV launching and recovery facilities, though these are for local defense and recon. Has an advanced sensor suite and EWAC capabilities. Unfortunately, all these capabilites render it enourmously expensive; it's price and size are comparable to that of a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Due to it's flying wing shape, many have mistaken it for a stealth bomber close to the ground or a UFO when first seeing it... until they realize just how large it actually is.
-Carrier: Armed with close-range anti-air defenses only and no missile launchers, and it's armor is not anywhere near as tough as an air battleship; however, it makes up for this by it's gigantic amount of RPVs/UAVs and control facilities for same.
-Strike Carrier: An experiment in airship building, this vessel is a new addition to Axis Nova's fleet. It carries a third the complement of a normal carrier, and has twice the armament of a destroyer. It is hoped that this new type of craft will increase flexibility.
-Destroyer: Faster than the air battleships and carries, and relatively well armored, these craft make up the bulk of Axis Nova's aerial navy. Their armament is equally split between ground attack and anti-air.
-Cargo: A gigantic cargo vessel, this is quite slow but can carry many tons of supplies.
-Dropship: Designed to land in a hot landing zone and decant a regiment of troops, this vessel has only local anti-aircraft defenses and requires an escort to do it's job properly, though it is quite heavily armored to protect itself from ground fire.
AN Infantry Equipment
-Rifles
Axis Nova's standard infantry rifle is a modified version of the Tyrandis Systems ACW Multipurpose Assault Rifle; we purchased the production rights from them some time ago. Details on the original version are in this thread: http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=131357&highlight=
The modifications Axis Nova has made are as follows:
-Entire weapon slightly changed to allow use of AN standard caseless rounds
-Changed magazine attachment point allows attachement of a drum magazine if neccesary
-Added support for an under-barrel gyrojet rocket launcher
(stub: will add info on 2 types of sniper rifle and anti-armor weapons later)
Axis Nova