62

Factory by factory, world by world, the Concordat had been upgrading and expanding their industrial capability in the last decades.

That was helped by the continuous production of Snowden and Snowden-L mine stations, which provided said factories with raw materials and were by mid 40s present in almost all the systems in the Concordat and Reach that had a rich asteroid belt. Some ere even start to appear in Oort Clouds in the Taurus and New Vandenberg systems.

That also led to the expansion of the internal market and the overall growth of the Taurian economy.

While many of the other nations had followed a similar path, the Concordat was still ahead thanks to its early start and having access to almost every blueprints of every factory and products (civil and military) of the Star League, Very few outside the Concordat knew its real economic power, they knew that the Concordat can produce advanced tech since it was selling them on the open market but not the volumes it can produce.

One area in special started to benefit from that – big, advanced DropShips.

While before the Concordat Navy only used standard Union models to reduce costs and improve the availability of spare parts, now after a nasty "war" for securing the defense budget, the Lee was selected as the new standard DropShips for the TDF / Navy. It was an incredibly expensive DropShip (hence the "war"), and very high-tech, but the benefits were also great, mostly because of the different variants available

When compared to the Overlord, the mainstay of almost all other States, the 'Mech Transport variant could carry 4 extra 'Mechs, about 900 tons more of cargo, had better armor and weapons, all this with a better acceleration.

The ordered variants were 'Mech Transport, Aerospace Carrier, Vehicle Transport, Cargo Transport and Pocket Warship. Except for the latest one, all others were late SLDF models, and the blueprints are already available.

The Pocket Warship configuration replaced the cargo space that normally carried 40 'Mechs and 6 ASFs with 6 AR10 tubes in the nose and 78 Killer Whale and 12 Barracuda in the standard load-out but could be any mix of Barracuda (30t), White Shark (40t) and/or Killer Whale (50t) up to 4.260 tons.

The Navy was a deciding factor in selecting the Lee over less expensive solutions in the budget wars as what a Concordat Frigate could do with a pair of PW and another of CV (or any combination of the two types) was a wet dream for all the admirals and all that at for less money and faster production time than any traditional bigger WarShips, something they were eager to explain over and over.

With these expensive DropShips starting production for the TDF / Navy, the production of Unions and Overlords switched to being sold only to foreign powers or to mercenary. With the increasing tension all over the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, the demand was there.

In the civilian market, the long time pet project of Dr. Murad also entered in production in late 3046. The Starlifter, heavily inspired by the massive Mammoth DropShips, had all its components produced by VMI in Illiushin, where the assembly was also done. Like the Lee for the military and the Union before, it was to be produced in several variants, Standard cargo, Heavy cargo, Liquid transport;, Liquid gas transport, Passenger transport and Troop transport (which a more streamlined sub-variant of the Passenger transport one). While each taken individually was expensive , the fact was that with them entering in service the number of needed collars was reduced dramatically.

That the Concordat could start both projects in the mid to late 40s, was a demonstration of both the advanced technology it had mastered as well as power and capability of its industry.

In January 3045 a representative of the Wolf's Dragoons visited VMI Headquarters in New Vandenberg. His purpose was simple, Jaime Wolf wanted to start the production of the Shogun Assault 'Mech and proposed this business to VMI. If on the one hand the company was very interested in producing the model, on the other hand the intransigence of the Wolf's Dragoons that it would be produced exclusively for them killed the deal. Even at best, with 5 regiments and two independent battalions, the number of 'Mechs produced would not be enough to offset the expense. Too bad as I was interested in deepening relations with the Wolf's Dragoons, but not at the expense of a bad business that would also affect my CEO position.

Between 3045 and 3047, I was involved in two other VMI matters.

The first was related to the prototype of the second assault 'Mech model to be produced by the company and the first totally original of the company. Continuing the 'zombie' 'Mech line that was the signature of the latest VMI original product series, the Hellfire was going to be a scary machine for anyone facing it and a wonder of technology.

HEL-TC2 Hellfire

Technical specifications

Weight: 85 tons

Cost: 8,454,685 C-bills

Movement: 3/5

Engine: 255

Heat Sinks: 20 DHS / Freezers

Armor: 16 tons

Weapons: 2 ER PPC (LT and RT), 2 LPL (LA and RA), 1 TAG (Head), 1 Guardian ECM (CT) and 2 SL (RL and LL).

As usual,it was only proposed to the TDF, which accepted it with open arms after thoroughly testing the prototype.

The following subject had to do with the Tornado PA(L) wreckage captured in the VMI attack in 3041. The Stealth / Adaptative Camo System was very advanced and out of VMI production capabilities. , even though research continued. The models were clearly tailored to the users personally, something that was also considered inefficient if reasonable production and non-astronomical cost were to be desired. In the end, after 5 years of research and testing, a similar model (without advanced camouflage), and slightly less capable in other areas but that could be mass-produced entered testing. Of course, both the TDF and the TMI were very interested in this project.

How did the TC achieve these capabilities ? 

For starters, they were the only nation to get the Helm AND New Dallas data cores. 

The others got access to the Helm one but would need about 10 years to decrypt it while the TC got it fully decrypt from the start. 

The New Dallas Core not only had a lot of Royal / late SLDF blueprints / designs but more importantly (in this universe) was a repository of industrial espionage, with an immense collection of data, blueprints on all kinds of industrial goodies - from factories to tools to final products - military and civilian, from the time of the Terran Hegemony to the late SL days - just before the Amaris Crisis. 

Another factor was that like the Terran Hegemony, it invested a lot in space extraction industries - Snowden and alike. 

In this universe, Thomas was not that maniac against the Federated Suns and because Edward survived, the relations with FS / FC were much better. 

The result was that in the second half of the 40s that they were very advanced and that these advanced industries could produce a lot of shinny things. 

It took them about 20 years, but they did it years before other nations.