Big Transport, Small Transport

[Borealis4x (OP)]

I've got two designs for Assault Transports, one the size of a standard Destroyers (30,000 tons) and one the size of a cruiser (100,000 tons).
Big Transport
The bigger transport can carry a full brigade and all its support companies and comes with a full defense suite of AMMs and Gauss PD as well as 10,000 tons of Hangar capacity to store Ground Attack Fighters to support the troops. It is meant to act as an invasion mothership, able to launch small invasions by itself without any support from Auxiliary Carriers or the like.

Code: [Select]

Big Transport class Assault Transport      100,000 tons       1,635 Crew       13,945 BP       TCS 2,000    TH 10,000    EM 0
5000 km/s      Armour 10-191       Shields 0-0       HTK 391      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 130      PPV 138
Maint Life 1.29 Years     MSP 14,715    AFR 800%    IFR 11.1%    1YR 9,257    5YR 138,859    Max Repair 5000 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 10,000 tons     Troop Capacity 25,000 tons     Drop Capable    Magazine 1,020   
Line Captain    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   PFC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 200    Morale Check Required   

20000M 125% (1)    Power 10000    Fuel Use 11.05%    Signature 10000    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 12,007,000 Litres    Range 195.6 billion km (452 days at full power)

Quad Gauss Cannon 25.00 Turret (12x20)    Range 50,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
Gauss PD Fire Control (4)     Max Range: 57,600 km   TS: 25,000 km/s     83 65 48 31 13 0 0 0 0 0

Size 1 Missile Launcher (80)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 25
AMM Fire Control (4)     Range 28.7m km    Resolution 1

Small Point-Defense Active Sensor Suite (1)     GPS 36     Range 14.4m km    MCR 1.3m km    Resolution 1
Milspec EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Milspec Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Compact ECCM-3 (8)         ECM 40

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Small Transport
The second smaller transport though is, admittedly, my favored of the two. While it sacrifices AMMs and most of the troop capacity of its bigger sister, it is faster and has a lower profile as a result of its smaller engine and size. I even consider the ability to only carry 1 Battalion at a time to have a silver lining; if a ship gets killed its far less of a big deal losing 1 instead of 5. However cost wise the bigger transport is more efficient at carrying troops.

Code: [Select]

Small Transport class Assault Transport      30,000 tons       568 Crew       5,416.1 BP       TCS 600    TH 5,000    EM 0
8333 km/s      Armour 10-86       Shields 0-0       HTK 135      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 60      PPV 60
Maint Life 1.23 Years     MSP 3,385    AFR 240%    IFR 3.3%    1YR 2,333    5YR 34,989    Max Repair 2500 MSP
Troop Capacity 5,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Line Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

10000M 125% (1)    Power 5000    Fuel Use 15.62%    Signature 5000    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 4,408,000 Litres    Range 169.3 billion km (235 days at full power)

Quad Gauss Cannon 25.00 Turret (8x20)    Range 50,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
Gauss PD Fire Control (2)     Max Range: 57,600 km   TS: 25,000 km/s     83 65 48 31 13 0 0 0 0 0

Small Point-Defense Active Sensor Suite (1)     GPS 36     Range 14.4m km    MCR 1.3m km    Resolution 1
Milspec EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Milspec Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Compact ECCM-3 (2)         ECM 40

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Small Transport class Assault Transport      30,000 tons       568 Crew       5,416.1 BP       TCS 600    TH 5,000    EM 0
8333 km/s      Armour 10-86       Shields 0-0       HTK 135      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 60      PPV 60
Maint Life 1.23 Years     MSP 3,385    AFR 240%    IFR 3.3%    1YR 2,333    5YR 34,989    Max Repair 2500 MSP
Troop Capacity 5,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Line Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

10000M 125% (1)    Power 5000    Fuel Use 15.62%    Signature 5000    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 4,408,000 Litres    Range 169.3 billion km (235 days at full power)

Quad Gauss Cannon 25.00 Turret (8x20)    Range 50,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
Gauss PD Fire Control (2)     Max Range: 57,600 km   TS: 25,000 km/s     83 65 48 31 13 0 0 0 0 0

Small Point-Defense Active Sensor Suite (1)     GPS 36     Range 14.4m km    MCR 1.3m km    Resolution 1
Milspec EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Milspec Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Compact ECCM-3 (2)         ECM 40

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

EDIT: I think I might have overdesigns these ships somewhat to be honest. Far too much emphasis on protection, speed and range at the cost of pure transport capability which is what these ships are meant to be. Still, its nice being able to send an assault force from your capital to the enemy planet in one go and be confident they will get there in one piece and without stopping. Here is a more 'pure' transport using CIWIS and Commercial Engines to save a lot of space, allowing me to double the amount of transport bays for the Big Transport.

Pure Transport

Code: [Select]

Pure Transport class Assault Transport      99,998 tons       1,131 Crew       7,444.7 BP       TCS 2,000    TH 4,000    EM 0
2000 km/s      Armour 10-191       Shields 0-0       HTK 326      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 129      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.32 Years     MSP 4,606    AFR 808%    IFR 11.2%    1YR 2,792    5YR 41,878    Max Repair 1000 MSP
Troop Capacity 50,000 tons     Drop Capable   
Line Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

20000C (1)    Power 4000    Fuel Use 1.12%    Signature 4000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 161 billion km (931 days at full power)

CIWS-250 (12x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Milspec EM Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Milspec Thermal Sensor Suite (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

ECM 40

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Garfunkel]

Missile defences are somewhat pointless as all enemy ships should be destroyed long before your transports get close to their target but a GC turret or two is of course always useful for emergency situations. However, since you don't have shields, I'd double the armour from 10 layers to 20 because the enemy STO will hit you on your way in. Unless you plan to always do orbital bombardment to snuff them out. So that's why your design looks little strange - it's as if the transport has to fight its way through enemy fleet - where 10 layers is probably more than enough combined with your active defences - but then can land in peace without getting struck by STOs.

[Blogaugis]

Numerous smaller ones, or 1 large to do it all?

Do You plan to use the large assault transport to attack the NPR homeworlds, or just outposts?
I guess I could see some sense in using 1 big transport and a fleet of smaller ones, but... it seems rather uneconomical:
100,000 ship tons for 25,000 ground force tons; 1:4 ratio.
30,000 ship tons for 5,000 ground force tons; 1:6 ratio.
The last one seems to be sort of the best 100,000 ship tons for 50,000 ground force tons; 1:2 ratio.

Even if I do sort of lean to a giant-ish ship designs, I still would prefer more dedication - I agree with giving an assault transport some rudimentary means to defend itself, but not much more than that.
I think I'll dismiss air support in my run, with focus mostly on orbital bombardment; which should be achieved with fairly versatile main combat ships.
As for other stuff - I think more of a large transport, to operate in peace time, with commercial setting and just CIWS; and assault transport for going into more dangerous zones.

Also, You sure that you need so much deployment time?
Do You need so powerful sensors?

I guess I can see trying to make extra-fast assault transport which drops off troops before combat in space actually begins... But I doubt that's going to happen.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Numerous smaller ones, or 1 large to do it all?

Do You plan to use the large assault transport to attack the NPR homeworlds, or just outposts?
I guess I could see some sense in using 1 big transport and a fleet of smaller ones, but... it seems rather uneconomical:
100,000 ship tons for 25,000 ground force tons; 1:4 ratio.
30,000 ship tons for 5,000 ground force tons; 1:6 ratio.
The last one seems to be sort of the best 100,000 ship tons for 50,000 ground force tons; 1:2 ratio.

Even if I do sort of lean to a giant-ish ship designs, I still would prefer more dedication - I agree with giving an assault transport some rudimentary means to defend itself, but not much more than that.
I think I'll dismiss air support in my run, with focus mostly on orbital bombardment; which should be achieved with fairly versatile main combat ships.
As for other stuff - I think more of a large transport, to operate in peace time, with commercial setting and just CIWS; and assault transport for going into more dangerous zones.

Also, You sure that you need so much deployment time?
Do You need so powerful sensors?

I guess I can see trying to make extra-fast assault transport which drops off troops before combat in space actually begins... But I doubt that's going to happen.

I have civilian transports to use during peacetime or when I'm just moving armies around. They are based on my main freighter and don't have drop bays. These are Assault Transports meant to land on hostile planets.

The civilian transports dump the army on a friendly population en-masse and then the Assault Transports bring them to the actual battlefield safely.

[Blogaugis]

I have civilian transports to use during peacetime or when I'm just moving armies around. They are based on my main freighter and don't have drop bays. These are Assault Transports meant to land on hostile planets.

The civilian transports dump the army on a friendly population en-masse and then the Assault Transports bring them to the actual battlefield safely.

They kinda look like that they are designed to operate on their own, without orbital support.

Considering that You actually have civilian ships sending them closer to battle... Are You sure You need that high deployment time and so much fuel?
Are You planning them to make several back-and-forth moves, before refueling? Or are these just insane distances that You're dealing with?