[gurps] Heinlein Battlesuits

[Onno Meyer]

I'm picking two paragraphs from Travis' mail because they are
(in my view) the essence of his opinion.

> Then again the bits I remember seemed to be mostly form a
> 'raid' type attack where they remove the ability of a rebellious world
> to put up any real sort of defense.

Which puts battlesuits into a specific tactical niche, rather than 
making them the ultimate ground weapon as Heinlein's viewpoint
character monologized 'ex cathedra'.

> I doubt that many tanks will have much of an opportunity to target
> raiders moving at 100+km/h during a surprise attack unless they are
> very very lucky.

Why that doubt? We're talking about tanks from the same TL, 
not plain old M1A2 MBTs. 

* All other things being equal, the GURPS rules give tracks higher
  speed and stability and legs higher agility and acceleration. 

* All other things being equal, larger vehicles have a lower area
  per unit of volume. That allows them more armor and more 
  expensive stealth. 

* Sensor weight is linear with sensor range, while covered area 
  goes with the square of sensor range. Bigger sensors cover an
  area for a lower cost.

MBT v1.0 (TL10)
  Copyright 2003 by Onno Meyer

  This far-future Main Battle Tank provides shock action on a mechanized 
battlefield. It has a conventional layout with a sloped hull, two tracks 
and a flat turret. Commander, driver and gunner sit in the hull. The MBT 
is powered by a fusion reactor and armed with particle beams and a small 
vertical launch system for recon/anti-armor UAVs. It takes 15 minutes to 
recharge one main gun shot if the tank is moving, or 10 minutes if it is 
standing still. 
  A full load of UAVs is $310,500.

Subassemblies: Body +4, full-rotation Turret +4, Tracks +3. 
Powertrain: 1,600-kW tracked drivetrain; 5,000-kW fusion reactor; 300 
  360,000-kWs rechargeable power cells. 
Occ: 3 NCS.   Cargo: 25 cf

Armor                 F            RL       B       T       U
Body:         6/1,800 + 0/6,000   5/900   4/600   4/600   4/600
Turret:       6/1,800 + 0/4,500   4/600   4/600   4/600
Tracks:             4/400         4/400   4/400   4/400   4/400

1.44-GJ Blaster Cannon [Tur:F] (36 shots) +9.
Four 640-kJ Gatling Blasters [Tur:FRLB] (843 shots each) +9.
200mm 9-cell VLS [Tur:T].

Equipment
  Body: Two 50,000-mile radios with scrambler; six 1,000-mile neutrino 
communicators; four 5x LLTVs (+2/+4) [Bod:FRLB]; two inertial navigation 
systems; military GPS; three HUDWACs with pupil scanners; four C6 
hardened, robotic microframes; three terminals; C5 damage control (+5); 
C1 database (1 GB manuals); C1 datalink; C5 Driving (Tracked) [8]-13; C5 
Electronics Operation (Commo) [8]-24; C5 Electronics Operation (Sensors) 
[8]-24; C5 Gunner (Beams) [8]-13; C5 Tactics [8]-23; two C6 targeting 
(+7); C3 transmission profiling; three socket interfaces; compact fire 
suppression system; 3-man NBC kit; 3x1 man-day limited life system; 
three crashwebs. Turret: Full stabilization and universal mount for 
Blaster Cannon; full stabilization and cyberslave mounts for Gatling 
Blasters; four 10,000-mile laser communicators; four 160-mile LPI AESAs 
(scan 24) [Tur:FRLB]; 480-mile thermograph (scan 27) [Tur:F]; three 160-
mile thermographs (scan 24) [Tur:RLB]; 160-mile multiscanner (scan 24);  
level-10 surveillance sound detector; two IFF; deceptive jammer (rating 
6); 12 decoy dischargers (blackout gas); 10-mile laser optics detector. 
External: Radical emission cloaking; basic sound baffling; radical 
stealth; instant chameleon; hitch; pin.

Statistics
Size: 24'x12'x9'   Payload: 1 ton         Lwt.: 50 tons
Volume: 2,000 cf   Maint.: 14 man-hours   Price: $8,543,975

HT: 12.   HPs: 3,600 Body, 2,400 Tur, 1,500 each Track

gSpeed: 75   gAccel: 5   gDecel: 20   gMR: 1   gSR: 7
Ground Pressure Low. 2/3 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes
  Body is 1,000 cf with 60 degree F and 30 degree RL slopes. Turret is 
400 cf with 60 degree F slope. Tracks are 600 cf. Structure is robotic, 
extra-heavy, with total compartmentalization, smart tracks and improved 
suspension. Armor is expensive laminate over advanced ablative on body 
and turret front, expensive laminate on all other facings. Self-sealing 
structure. Computerized controls with triple maneuver controls. There 
are 33.83 cf of empty space in the body and 7.87 cf of empty space in 
the turret. Empty weight is 98,000 lbs. The weapons are neutral particle 
beams with the tight-beam option.

Weapon                 Weight Volume Cost     PPS       WPS VPS CPS  TL
1.44-GJ Blaster Cannon 7,500  150    $770,000 2,880,000  -   -   -   10
640-kJ Gatling Blaster    30    0.6   $18,000     1,280  -   -   -   10
200mm 9-cell VLS         420   26.4    $3,875        -  100 N/A Var. 10

Weapon                 Malf Type Damage    SS Acc 1/2D   Max    RoF
1.44-GJ Blaster Cannon Ver. Imp. 6d*158(4) 30 25  22,000 66,000 1/2
640-kJ Gatling Blaster Ver. Imp. 6d*2(4)   20 18   1,700  3,400 20*

  The TL10 vehicle uses the design rules from Vehicles [2nd edition, 3rd 
printing, July '02 errata], Vehicles Expansions 1 and 2 and Ultra-Tech 2 
with the text format from Vehicles Lite.

Evyn wrote:
> One of the things I have noticed on the tank side is the failure to compare
> equitably. For this argument to to be valid both sides need to agree on the
> physical limits of the device they are building towards. i.e. size, weight,
> cost, manipulative function (hands), Primary mission and other tactical
> considerations.

For a spacemobile force, the issues are volume, mass, cost, and crew size. 
For a ground force, volume and mass are less important except insofar as 
they affect mobility and stealth.

Four of the tanks listed above, with a conservative $200k training cost 
per crewmember, are 150 tons, 12 crew and $27M.

As far as price is concerned, they could face a platoon of 30 heavy suits
at $700k per unit or a short company of 90 medium suits at $100k per 
unit. The Powered Armor listed below doesn't have the proper look and 
feel, so we'd better go with heavy suits ...

Powered Armor v1.0 (TL10)
  Copyright 2004 by Onno Meyer

  Powered armor allows spacemobile troopers to operate on a variety of 
worlds. It has oxygen for 36 hours, 8mm armor plates, advanced sensors 
and communications and enough strength to carry a heavy weapons load. 
A typical payload includes a 180-lb. trooper, a heavy gauss rifle with 
3,000 rounds and a few anti-armor rockets against heavier targets.

Subassemblies: Body +0, limited-rotation Turret -2, two Arms -2, two 
  Legs -1.
Powertrain: 1.25-kW leg drivetrain [Legs]; two 360,000-kWs rechargeable 
  E power cells [Legs]. 
Occ: Form-fitting battlesuit system for 180-lbs. pilot, quick access.

Armor     F      RL       B       T       U
All:    4/125   4/125   4/125   4/125   4/125

Equipment
  Body: Medium-range radio with scrambler; 10-level surveillance sound 
detector; inertial navigation system; global positioning system; 1.5-
man/day limited life system. Turret: short-range laser communicator; 2-
mi. thermograph; 1.5-mi. radscanner; IFF; hardened, small computer (C4); 
socket interface. Arms: ST 60 arm motors. External: Basic emission 
cloaking; Basic sound baffling; modest stealth; instant chameleon; two 
35-lb. hardpoints.

Statistics
Size: 2'x3'x8'   Payload: 280 lbs.   Lwt.: 1,000 lbs.
Volume: 8 cf     Maint.: 67 hours    Price: $87,913.25

HT: 12.   HPs: 48 Body, 18 Turret, 24 each Arm, 21 each Leg

gSpeed: 13    gAccel: 7   gDecel: 20   gMR: 2.75   gSR: 1
Ground Pressure Very Low. Full Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes
  Body is 4 cf. Turret is 0.8 cf. Arms are 0.4 cf. Legs are 1.2 cf. 
Structure is heavy, expensive. Armor is expensive laminate. Self-
sealing. Empty weight is 720 lbs. 
  The TL10 vehicle uses the design rules from Vehicles [2nd edition,  
3rd printing, July '02 errata], VXi and VXii (including the optional 
armor volume rule) with the text format from VEL.

Heavy Gauss Rifle, 5mm (TL10)
  For unpowered infantry, this electromag weapon would be a crew-served 
machine gun. Spacemobile troopers in powered armor carry it as a rifle. 
The heavy gauss rifle fires APS rounds. It has HUD and laser sights. 
Type Damage  SS Acc 1/2D  Max    Wt aWt RoF Shots   ST Rcl Cost   TL
Cr.  6d*4(2) 17 14  3,000 11,000 30 12  16* 500/5rC 13 -1  $6,175 10

> The primary mission is the real design characteristic that has been missing
> in these discussions. In Starship Troopers the MI are the arm of restraint,
> or the arm where a polity could use that didn't entail sever damage to a
> planets entire biosphere.

IIRC (my copy is in my parents' attic) Rico claims that MI could kill all
the redheads of a population. A wee bit exaggerated, I'd say. Suits are 
so fragile that they must lash out. They cannot defend all that well.

Troy asked:
> Now that we're talking about it, HOW could the Skinnies be fighting allied 
> with the Bugs?  The Bugs are xenocidal.  They attempt to wipe out all 
> non-Bug intelligent life.

If I remember the book correctly, that was way from certain. They're 
alien. They're at war with mankind. That doesn't mean they're the bad
guys of the piece, even if Heinlein's viewpoint character sees them that
way. Read Haldeman as an antidote. 

Hal wrote:
> Too bad we don't know the gravity level of the world in which a jump can
> last 15 seconds.  If we knew that, how difficult would it be to determine
> how fast the suit went up, and how fast gravity would overcome that
> initial velocity, and then bring the suit back to the surface?

Unless that was a jet-assisted hop, or there were hardwired altitude 
governors, or whatever. 

Onno