Meteor
Sarna News
 | This article needs to be updated with material from Technical Readout: Prototypes. Once these titles clear the Moratorium period, or if they already have, please consider revisiting this article and updating it with the new material. |
| |
| Meteor Heavy Strike Fighter | |
| Production information | |
| Manufacturer | Jalastar Aerospace |
| Equipment Rating | |
| Use | ??? |
| Tech Base | Inner Sphere |
| Cost | ??? |
| Introduced | Star League era |
| Technical specifications | |
| Mass | 45 tons |
| Engine (Type) | GM 225 Atmo-Fusion |
| Fuel | 480 - 3 tons |
| Armament | 1 x Autocannon/10 2 x SRM-4 |
| Armor | StarGuard II |
| Crew | 1 |
| BV (1.0) | ??? |
| BV (2.0) | 451[1] |
Description
The Federated Suns designed 'Meteor Heavy Strike Fighter is the standard against which all heavy Conventional Fighters in the Inner Sphere and Periphery are judged.
Seeking to claim a slice of the same military niche of for-export conventional fighters as Andurien Aerotech's Angel and Imstar Aerospace's Defender, rather than digressive sales tactics Federated Suns based Jalastar Aerospace of Panpour chose to focus almost entirely on planetary militias in the Terran Hegemony. Third-party sales during the Star League era and examples captured as the Hegemony was sliced up after the League's collapse made the Meteor the template for all heavy strike fighters across the human inhabited space.[1]
While more expensive than Turbine Engine powered designs, the wealthy and technologically advanced Terran Hegemony buyers welcomed Jalastar's choice of a GM 225 Atmo-Fusion Engine to power the Meteor, which gave the fighter both a respectable airspeed, heavy weapons load-out and two and half tons of armor. Three tons of fuel gave the design good endurance for its role. [1]
Armament
The Meteor's primary weapon is a single nose-mounted Mydron Model B Autocannon/10 supplied with two tons of ammo, providing sustained medium range firepower. Backing up this up are two wing-mounted Holly SRM-4 with two tons of ammo, ideal for ground attack. [1]
Cargo
Often billed as a bomber-fighter, the Meteor frequently flew into combat with its nine external hardpoints laden with enough ordance to threaten even the toughest foes.[1]
Variants
- Inseki - Japanese for Meteorite, the Inseki is a carbon-copy of the Meteor produced by House Kurita.[1]
- Inseki II - An after-market upgrade of the original, the Inseki II replaces the autocannon with a Hellstar PPC and swaps the SRM racks for Telos DecaCluster LRM-10 launchers. Retaining the ton of reloads for each missile launcher, a Machine Gun with half a ton of ammo guarded the fighter's rear. [1]
- Bat Hawk - Taurian made variant replaced the fusion engine with a locally manufactured 225-rating turbine engine. While the autocannon was retained, the heavier engine forced both SRM-4 racks to be replaced with a single nose-mounted Harvester SRM-2, both weapons only supplied with a single ton of reloads each.[1]
- Meteor-G - Manufactured by Gutierrez Aerospace in the 3060s, the so-called Meteor-G trades damage for range by swapping the autocannon for a Corean Light Gauss Rifle, retaining the two tons of reloads, and upgrading the SRMs to more efficient Guided Technologies Streak SRM-4 racks sharing a single ton of missiles. The more advanced but heavier weaponry forced Gutierrez's designers to drop one ton of fuel.[1]
- Meteor-U - A FedCom Civil War era Davion variant, the Meteor-U upgraded the standard autocannon to Ultra model and replaced both SRMs with a pair Intek Medium Lasers and two extra heat sinks. While able to inflict nearly double the damage of the standard model, the extra weight required reduced the G's fuel load by one ton.[1]