In 3049 and knowing that all the IS nations - including Terra - had and were building WarShips, and in the case of Terra and of the FWL - thanks to the now Word of Blake - larger and more powerful ones than those owned by the TDF, a new construction plan was decided for the Navy.
The admirals wanted Battleships or at least Battle Cruisers and a substantial modernization of the Concordat Frigates, that were still under construction.
The realities of the budget quickly put an end to these dreams of greatness.
Ships larger than the Concordat were out of the question, not only because they were prohibitively expensive, but they took too long to build, which would lead to very few ships available.
After several heated discussions, a construction plan was decided that would allow a (relatively) versatile Navy with a reasonable number of ships without breaking the Concordat budget.
The Concordat Frigate would be improved to mod.III, even if it was not as much as the Navy wanted.
The armor would be replaced by improved ferrous-aluminum and not by lamelor ferro-carbide - too expensive - and it would not receive a mobile HPG. However, it would receive 24 AMS, 6 Arrow IV SAM, the LRM get Artemis IV, the Large and Medium lasers were upgraded to pulse models, 12 ASF were added and the 7 Naval Lasers would be all of the NL55 model. They also received 2 AR-10 launchers, and the Taurians being the Taurians, every ship would carry some 'special' warheads for the capital missiles.
All these upgrades came at the cost of reducing the cargo capacity, the cargo could 'only' carry 30k tons, instead of the just over 50k tons on the standard model.
Using the same base design - to save on costs, research, and construction speed - a carrier version would be built. Removing the NAC/20 and the respective ammo allowed it to receive a total of 36 internal Fighters. The modifications also included CAG installations, flagship installations, advanced communications and sensors, and a mobile HPG while armor, naval lasers and defensive systems equaled those of the Mod.III. The fuel capacity was doubled, and spares, ammo and fuel reserves for the ASF greatly increased.
The complement of DropShips would be 4 Lee-CV, which together with the internal ASF would give this carrier a staggering 196 ASF, more than enough to dominate any adversary force. And if that was not enough, you could always add the 36 extra ASF from the three escorting Concordat Frigates. And any ASF that the DropShips loaded in said frigates could carry.
To complement these ships, it was decided that a modernized version of the Pinto class Corvette - with the 80 MG replaced by 24 AMS and the 800 SHS by 600 DHS - would be produced in large quantities.
The main purpose of this ship would be to patrol Concordat systems as it was more than capable of dealing with any pirate or any force not accompanied by WarShips, which would free the other ships for other duties.
The result of Dr. Murad's team ingenuity (in reality heavily based on a design from Nebfer at SB), the Mriya was a fast armed military transport. Incredibly expensive, it was to be only for use by the TDF and took two years to be completed, the first to be delivered in 3052. Because of the price, only a few were ordered, enough to move a quick reaction team the size of a reinforced combined arms brigade.
Mriya JumpShip – Fast Military Transport
Weight: 400,000 tons
Cost: 2,274,159,434 C-bills
Heat Sinks: 142 DHS [284]
Fuel Points: 742 (297.0 tons)
Armor: 100 (Capital Scale) (Improved Ferrous-Aluminum) – 167 tons.
Equipped with lithium-fusion battery system.
Armed with 12 ER LL,8 ERPPC,12 MPL and 12 AMS
Carrying Capacity
Aerospace Fighter (2 doors) - 2 units (2 recovery open)
Small Craft (2 doors) - 4 units (2 recovery open)
Cargo Space (2 doors) - 724 tons
Dropship Capacity: 4
Grav Decks: 1 (100 m)
Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 19
With all the changes and alterations needed on the shipyards, none of these new ships – the Concordat Mod.III, the Concordat Carrier, the Pinto and the Mriya – was planned to start construction before mid 3051 at least.
At 200 tons, the Flanker was a replacement for the Tigress, an enlarged, much more advanced one. Using the latest technologies available, it was armed with 3 ERPPC in the nose, 1 Gauss Rifle on each wing, with 2 tons of ammo each, 2 rear facing Medium Lasers and 1 AMS with 2 tons of ammo. It was also equipped with a Beagle Active Probe and a Guardian ECM while being protected by 20.5 tons of Ferro-Aluminum, and using 18 DHS. It could also carry externally, under the wings, 6 Arrow IV AShM/AAM or 2 Alamos.
Its production would start in mid 3049. This TDF only unit would be deployed at the zenith and nadir jump points.
The integration in the Concordat led to the production of Griffins in Mechdur and Jenners in Detroit being modernized.
The Griffin -1N production line was upgraded to the -2N model (Royal) and the Jenner was redesigned with an Endo-Steel chassis, Ferro-Fibrous armor, 10 DHS, its SRM-4 being replaced by 2 Streak-2 and CASE to protect the ammo.
The Leclerc series of vehicles received a new variant. In the fusion engine ones, the AC/5 and LRM15 were replaced by a Gauss Rifle with 4 tons of ammo.
In 3049, although the full production of the PA(L) specializing in infiltration / stealth had not started, some had been built. Like those from Comstar / Terra / WoB, they were extremely expensive and had to be produced manually by specialized technicians, however ours were extensive modifications of the standard models and not personally customized. The main utility of the two built was to be used as OpFor for sensor tests capable of defeating their advanced stealth systems, or for counter infiltration training by organizations that had this technology. At first TMI was very interested in some stealth PA(L), but they balked at the price and maintenance hours. This was a very maintenance intensive 'toy', after all. After some complains, they managed to get their hands on some of them, as they were ideally suited for their black ops.
An interesting side of PA(L)s production was that it greatly helped solving several problems affecting other battle armor models. The new Jack-II included several improvements and corrections and it was superior in all aspects to the previous models. Unlike the old one, the Jack-II could to use the new Light TAG that was coming into service on the TDF in 3049.