More Robot Wars Technical and Military Notes

Solar Federation

The Solar Federation operates a two-tier military, broken down between the Solar Federation Fleet/Army and INTACT. The former operates an immense fleet of mass produced craft ranging from one-man fighters and mecha to battleships. Such are the resources of the Solar Federation that even these are comparable to some of the better strike craft produced in the Outer Rim and, of course, the Solar Federation's fleet of warships outnumbers any possible competitor tenfold. Furthermore, most pilots are ranked A-class (or sometimes talented B-class), meaning they have an intrinsic edge against baseline humans in reaction time. During wartime, SolFleet and the Solar Army can be expected to shoulder the brunt of the fighting, taking and holding both space and ground.

By contrast, INTACT is the small, elite component of the two-tier system. Equipped with an array of high-end equipment they are the first-in force and consequently see much higher operational tempo during peacetime against the many small, dispersed enemies of the Federation. All pilots are a minimum of A-class, with S-class preferred. Almost all are Manifested Alephs as well, and those that are not universally make up for this deficiency with superlative skills and natural talent. During wartime or other major operations, INTACT can be expected to act as a pathfinder and commando role; while powerful and skilled their small numbers makes them brittle to the attrition that would barely slow down a SolFleet Task Division.

Ground Troops

Most Solfed infantry wear one or another kind of powered battlesuit. This ranges from articulated plate and muscles for standard line infantry to massive Fafnir and Fenris battlesuits for elite units such as Espatiers, Marines, and assault troops. These suits are almost small mobile suits in their own rights, and are armed with heavy cannon and missile launchers.

Ground Vehicles

The System War was three and a half years of hard fighting in both space and on planets and armor was in the thick of it. Cheaper and less complex than mobile suits, tanks of all make and classification carried the ground war forward across dozens of worlds, brother pitter against brother. By the official surrender more than fifty thousand tanks and many times that other AFVs had been built, vastly more than any peacetime military needed. Thus contemporary Solar Army ground vehicles are essentially the same as the ones used a generation ago, maintained with the mountains of spare parts available as of the peace. Many were even originally built by Jovian seperatists.

Aircraft

As a polity spread across many inhabited worlds, the Solar Federation has a self-evident need for a large aerospace force for both offense and defense. While aircraft have been replaced in some roles by flight-capable mobile suits, high-speed attack and atmospheric intercept remain the sole domain of aerodynamic fighter jetcraft. The Solar Fleet employs several large carriers dedicated to transatmospheric fighter operations for 'door-clearing' operations and to support landing operations, but most aircraft are surfaced-based and operated by local PDFs, the 'Air Guard'. In the aftermath of the System War there was also an unspoken policy to limit both the number and quality of weapons in Air Guards to levels merely sufficient to deter raiders and thus, by extention, those available to any would-be rebels. The concern has faded but the policy has not, which has led to various charges of neglect on the part of SolFed high command. It for this reason that there often a strong rivalry between Solar Fleet mecha pilots and Air Guard fighter jocks. It doesn't help that the latter are also washouts who couldn't achieve a mobile suit pilot position.

Mobile Suits

The darlings of the Solar Federation's military, mobile suits not only fill the role of space attackers but aviation gunships and high-speed ground armor. Development and acquisitions recieve a lion's share of the total budget, matched only by the fleet's warships. In general, SolFed mobile suits are the standard against which others are measured. The end of the System War meant that the Solar Fleet inherited huge numbers of ex-Jovian models to bolster its forces and it has only been in the past decade that the Federation has undergone a huge block replacement program to finally clear the war-era designs out of its inventories. Those in the best condition were sold to friendly governments or corporations, while the others were dissasembled for spares and or scrapped.

Warships

As a transtellar power, the Federation's ability to project power is dependent upon its warships. Thus the fleet is taken very seriously and progressive updates are common, along with senate-mandated force minimums. Not even the Jovians during the System War could match the Solar Fleet in sheer warship tonnage. All mid to large sized warships have integral mobile suit handling facilities, with older pre-war era ships being decommissioned or sold to friendly powers for local defense. Warships originally designed for INTACT service (such as the London class) are also capable of reasonably rapid atmospheric landings and surface-effect hover travel, though they are not rated for 'hot' landings like proper assault ships.

League of Outer Stars

The League has neither the seemingly bottomless resources nor the elite transhuman pilots of the Solar Federation and no ability to meaningfully make up the gap via technological means. The only solution that seemed viable was the adoption of an attritionary strategy for the space theatre and an unforgiving production rationalizing process to support this. Huge swarms of remotely-managed robotic drones would swamp the enemy in so many mobile units that any individual superiority would be negated. Consequently most League warships are little more than cavernous hangas for Raptors and similar mass-produced drone attack craft. While this has worked against various local threats, the march of technology in the Solar Federation and unreported skimishes against INTACT mobile units have proven worrying for the League.

Ground Troops

Cyborgs!

Ground Vehicles

Aircraft

Mobile Suits

Warships

Sagittan Union

Like the League, the Sagittan Union has an economy that pales next to that of the Solar Federation. However they do have the advantage of a substantial transhuman population and, after the System War, the bolstering of their technical bureaus with Jovian talent and prototypes. These allowed them to close the technical gap between the Rim and the Inner Sphere and today the Union can boast some of the most sophisticated and powerful designs outside of the Solar Federation. In fact, a typical Sagittan Alpha-type manned frame will exceed an INTACT frame in speed and firepower, by the expedient of loading it down with booster backpacks filled with thrusters, added missiles, oversized two-handed beam cannon and other methods to augment the individual effectiveness of each frame; Sagittan mecha almost always give the impression of being weighed down with excess gear. These 'command' types will normally be escorted by Beta and Gamma type unmanned frames. The Union has also been aggressive in developing mobile armors, pushing the limits of aeronautics. Despite all this though, the Union has no Alephs or related technology and like the League, compensates with AI subprocessors and the like.

Ground Troops

Ground Vehicles

Aircraft

Mobile Suits

Like the League of Outer Stars, the Sagittan Union operates a large fleet of lightweight automated mobile suits ('mobile dolls') cheaply mass-produced on less-advanced colonies, however unlike the League, the Union also operates manned mobile suits. These makes heavy use of external equipment, colloquially known as 'Command Armor' by Federation pilots. These turn what would otherwise be fairly mediocre frames into fast and lethal attackers, armed with a plethora of weapons and flying on overpowered thrusters. (Un)fortunately, they are almost always designed for non-atmospheric work and consequently Sagittan mecha are often at a disadvantage in atmosphere once they shed their augmentation units. On the field, the manned command frames operate as squad leaders to the less powerful unmanned craft; a typical squadron would be four command frames and sixteen unmanned, four per command frame.

Warships

Union warships are built around tho concepts; massive missile barrage systems and spacious mecha hangar facilities. These synergize for the Union's prefered tactics of long-range missile bombardment 'escorted' by mobile suits, forcing the defenders to counter one or the other and (hopefully) spread fire unwisely. Powerful electronics hunt out enemy ships, ensuring that Sagittan warships are not surprised by a cunning foe and also guide missiles unneringly towards their target at long range. On top of this, Sagittan ships are fitted with external pallet racks, giving them the ability to fit various mission modules. This comes at a price however, and Sagittan warships forgo many of the amenities of SolFed ships, such as mobile suit catapults.

White Rose Kingdom

As a polity friendly to the Solar Federation, the White Rose has had little need to invest in a substantial military-industrial complex, instead buying and/or license-building older SolFed models to supplement home-brewed designs mostly intended for planetary defense. A few elite units of impeccable political reliability have also been outfitted with modern SolFed weapons. Recent political turmoil has thrown the Kingdom into a state of panic though, and signs point towards a military buildup in the near future.

Ground Troops

White Rose ground troops are, at least by the standards of the veterans of the System War, lightly equipped with locally-produced arms. While heavy weapons such as smart anti-armor missiles and assault power suits do exist they are normally retained mostly for training purposes; until recently the White Rose saw itself as unthreatened by outside military force.

Ground Vehicles

The Kingdom maintains a stable of armored fighting vehicles, mostly of SolFed make. Many are capable of water travel, a necessity on Godford, and the White Rose also operates a large number of small coastal gunboats in the 50-1000 ton range, the larger of which are often built to support a small complement of naval infantry. In one of the few cases of reversed outsourcing, the White Rose exports over half of the gunboats it builds to SolFed which ships them offworld to its own colonies.

Aircraft

Like vehicles, the majority of the combat aircraft the White Rose operates are from SolFed manufacturers, though overall the White Rose attaches greater value to planetary-based interceptors than its patron. Fixed-wing and aviation transport are quite common, allowing for rapid inter-island mobility. Harwood & Singh is one of the major domestic producers of vertol transports, having entered the market during the System War. While definately inferior to SolFed designs and accused of being derivative, they have succeeded in capturing a solid market share and compete ruthlessly on price.

Mobile Suits

The Kingdom only maintained a token force of old mobile suits until the chaos of the System War, whereapon they were supplied large quantities of prewar Hylas mobile suits by the Solar Federation. Rapidly outclassed by the remoseless R&D of the war, they nonetheless posed enough of a threat to dissuade the Jovian seperatists from raiding White Rose worlds. They soldiered on for another two decades, eventually replaced by late-war Otrera mobile suits that now serve as the backbone of the White Rose's mobile suit force, with the least worn refitted for support roles.

Warships

The White Rose Starfleet's warships are entirely foreign-made, consisting mostly of Kilimanjaro and Astute battleships and escorts of equivalent generation. Ironically enough, the White Rose is much more top-heavy than the Solar Fleet as until relatively recently it only had a small number of systems all connected by wormholes to cover, thus the need for many small to midsized craft was limited. The White Rose Starfleet also operates a large number of Vespuci supply ships refitted to carrier motherships for its mobile suits. The White Rose also operates a small fleet of space denial submersibles, their special GTO laser cannons one of the few triumphs of domestic technology. The first of these were hurridly put into service during the System War and played a major role in keeping Jovian raiders out of planetary orbit.

Outremonde Republic

Outremonde was isolated from much of the military developments in the solar system and nearby until relatively late in its history and consequently developed some of its own theories on warfare. Having kept a political distance from the Solar Federation they began to invest in a more substantial military to provide a credible deterrent in case the Federation chose to use its expanding military in a hostile fashion. When the System War splintered the Federation, Outremonde closed its borders and turned back all non-refugee ships exiting wormholes passing through its territory. While this was diplomatically unpopular, it saved Outremonde from any significant retaliatory raids like the ones that disrupted League and Union industry.

Outremonde does not rely on mobile suits and fighters nearly as heavily as other major powers, instead deploying its large (for a nation that's not the Solar Federation anyhow) fleet of warships. Dismissed as obselete by Solar Federation forces, in the aftermath of the Odessa Incident Outremonde has been quietly upgrading its warships to better deal with the Solar Federation's mobile suits.

Ground Troops

Ground Vehicles

Aircraft

Mobile Suits

Warships

Warships are the premier striking arm of the Outremonde Republic and consequently recieve the greatest prestige and resources. The impressive Outremonde space fleet was built in the old EU orbital docks, a collection of shipyards almost unique outside of Sol. Several generations of warships have came out of the Outremonde spaceyards, the oldest having long since been relegated to local patrol or disarmed for civilian cargo hauling. More recent models have all undergone multiple refits to keep them current. Outremonde maintains no purpose-built space carriers though

Seraphim

Blurring the line between an NGO, a corporation and a state, the Seraphim operate their own private military organization to protect their many small outposts against the various threats and dangers of the outer rim.

Ground Troops

Generally acting more as security guards than soldiers, Seraphim troopers are typically lightly equipped and in a defensive posture. They are not expected to take the offensive.

Ground Vehicles

Seraphim ground vehicles are mostly civilian frontier grade, with a scattering of lightweight military-rated jeeps and trucks for patrol around those installations deemed high priority. Generally however, any real need for ground combat vehicles will be filled by mecha, of which the Seraphim build a number of sophisticated models of.

Aircraft

Military aircraft are rare in Seraphim service, mostly models purchased from the Solar Federation. V/STOL transport craft are quite common though, as many Seraphim outposts are on scarcely surveyed worlds with few or no roads.

Mobile Suits

As the Seraphim have designed and built many new mobile suit models for the Federation, it is no surprise that they have no shortage in their own service. Sleek and advanced, all are equipped with an Aleph Matrix control system and sophisticated modern energy weapons. Most also carry Aleph-controlled bits.

Warships

The Seraphim do not operate any warships, though they have a fairly large fleet of long-range exploration and cargo craft, a handful of which have been fitted with some armament. Mostly though in the case of hostility, Seraphim ships would launch mobile suits to defend the ship until it could escape.