How about this: At TL7 and TL8, attack helicopters were valuable support forces for the troopers on the ground. At early TL8, the US Army even designated them maneuver forces. But helicopter gunships have serious limitations as well. Their rotors are large, difficult to armor, and noisy. Unless they touch down, which leaves them vulnerable to sudden attack, they can't stay long in an ambush position. While modern tactics encourage the use of terrain for cover, there are still limits how low a helicopter can go -- the rotor shouldn't touch branches or power lines.
These limitations will actually be LESS severe at TL9 than they were at TL8 or TL7, but TL9 might offer a system to complement or replace the attack helicopter forces: the Attack Walker. This mecha would be roughly 1,000 cf and 20 tons, armed with a pair of autocannon, a bunch of ATGMs, and perhaps point defense lasers. The DR would be in the low hundreds, not much by tank standards but on par with contemporary attack helicopters. To make optimum use of cover, it has two legs which are usually crouching like frog legs. Full extension is not used for jump but rather to rise above trees or small houses to fire from ambush positions. The arms with autocannon, sensors, and laser designators can be used even higher and faster to fire over two-story buildings. At full stretch of the legs, it can also cross gaps of several meters or wade through modest rivers. There are two crewmembers, the pilot and the missile/sensor operator, with identical computerized controls but usually sharing the workload. Two competing systems are VTOL 'bricks', which avoid the rotor problem but share the fuel/endurance and noise problems of helicopters, and wheeled or tracked vehicles with elevated missile platforms, which are less flexible in broken or urban terrain. Any major holes in the concept? Could you suspend disbelief on my reasoning? _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
