Condor (DropShip class)

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Condor
Production information
Manufacturer	Hinsdale Elec, Nimakachi Fusion Products Limited
Production Year	2801
Use	Troop carrier
Type	Military Aerodyne
Tech Base	Inner Sphere
Technical specifications
Mass	4,500 tons
Structural Integrity	9
Length	104 meters
Width	97.4 meters
Height	36.1 meters
Safe Thrust
Max Thrust
Fuel (tons)
Fuel (days)
BV (2.0)	2,579

Description

One of the largest DropShip designed purely to transport infantry, the Condor-class is able to deliver a fully equipped infantry battalion to the battlefield.

The Condor is a military aerodyne ships. Its wings are extremely sturdy and less susceptible to control surface damage than those of other aerodyne DropShips. The wings are crisscrossed with structural bracing and contain fuel bunks, weapon bays and landing gear, but also considerable "dead" space, accessible via a series of passageways, which Condor crew rarely reveal to non-crew and reserve for up to ten tons of "off the record" cargo.

As infantry carriers go, the Condor features unusually spacious barracks-style quarters for its infantry troops, as well as a very well equipped medical facility for the ship's size which can handle six emergency cases simultaneously.

Armament

Like many troop carriers, the Condor features a merely adequate weapons array, with a single PPC, LRM-15, AC/5 and twin Medium Lasers mounted in the nose, with a AC/5, two Large Lasers and two medium lasers carried in forward facing mounts in each wing. A single large laser and two more mediums ward the rear, while four tons of autocannon munitions and three tons of missile reloads provide reasonable endurance during combat.

Cargo

On paper, the Condor features total four-hundred ton cargo capacity, divided between facilities to carry 336 infantrymen, 12 Platoons, and up to twenty light Combat Vehicles to carry them, with ten tons of "off the record" storage capacity in the wings.

Variants

• Dove 

  After the Fourth Succession War, about two dozen Condors have been converted to hospital ships, with the cargo bays replaced with treatment wards for 150 patients and 75 medical staff and the operating theaters expanded to allow up to ten surgeries performed simultaneously. Of these vessels, which have been nicknamed Doves, ComStar fields twelve, while the remainder is distributed among the various Successor State fleets.

• Stork 

  Prior to the upheavals of the Word of Blake Jihad, Nimakachi was scheduled to release a purpose-built civilian cargo carrying version of the Condor to be named the Stork. By 3079 the Stork was in production at their Dalton factory.

• Upgrade 

  First introduced in 3054 by Nimakachi, the upgraded Condor switches the PPC and Large Laser for extended range models and adds Artemis IV FCS to the LRM launcher. While the heat sinks were replaced with Double Heat Sinks, the proximity of the PPC to the missile launcher caused the Artemis system to malfunction, resulting in the movement of the heat sinks to cope in models launched after late 3055. BV (1.0) = 2,549, BV (2.0)= 2,841

See Also

• Category:Individual Condor-class DropShips

Condor Ship Gallery

• 

  Condor-class DropShip

Bibliography

• AeroTech 2 Record Sheets
• DropShips and JumpShips, pp 34-35
• Handbook: House Marik
• Technical Readout: 3057, pp 40-41
• Technical Readout: 3057 Revised, pp 38-39
• Objectives: Free Worlds League