Ropucha Type: Troop Carrier In class: 2 In service: 2699 Mass: 800,000 Sail Integrity: 5 Thrust: 2/3 Fuel: 2000 tons Structural Integrity: 70 Armor: 1120 tons of standard armor (74+7 fwd and aft, 75+7 fore and aft sides) Docking Collars: 0 Small Craft: 238 Vehicles: 108 battlemechs, 216 heavy tanks, 216 light tanks Infantry: 6,048 Crew: 300 Lifeboats: 750 Escape Pods: 750 Grav Decks: 6 250 meter Cargo: 92,000 Bay 1: Small Craft (238) 8 doors Bay 2: Vehicle Bay (see above) 8 doors Bay 3: Cargo (110,000) 8 doors Bay 4: Infantry (6,048) 8 door Weapons: Heatsinks: enough Fore Left/Fore Right 10 Naval Laser 35 3 White Shark Launchers Left Broadside/Right Broadside 20 Naval Laser 35 Aft Left/Aft Right 10 Naval Laser 45 2 White Shark Launchers Ammo 100 white shark Overview Based largely on the Terran Hegemony's County class transport, the Kurita built Ropucha was intended to do the same job as its progenitor, except better and cheaper. The Ropucha had a number of similarities to the County. The ship was of identical mass and had an identical armor profile. It also had the poor thrust capability typical of the County and most other transports. The weapons battery was also similar to the County if slightly smaller, a total of eighty naval lasers, and had a similar intended role, that of ground support fire. It is on transport capabilities that the Ropucha radically differs from the County. Whereas the County could transport a combined arms brigade totaling five ground regiments with aerospace support, the Ropucha could transport a staggering thirteen regiments. What's more, the Ropucha did it without using dropships. One hundred and thirty specially built dropshuttles, each capable of transporting a single mech or heavy tank, three light tanks, or four hundred and fifty infantrymen were used to deploy the ship's complement. Though it would take on average forty five minutes to launch all of these dropshuttles, even longer to load them all with troops in the first place, and at least five trips to deploy the entire troop complement, this had a number of advantages. In the first case, because the standard dropship docking collar tended to seriously drive up the cost of a warship, this method allowed for a transport capable to carrying large numbers of troops at a fairly low cost. Secondly the massive number of small transports allowed a Ropucha to respond to numerous threats across a planet more easily than a standard transport with a limited number of dropships. The main disadvantage, however, was the vunerability of the Ropucha and its dropshuttles during the long loading and unloading process. In order to carry the troops they were capable of carrying, the dropshuttles had to be unarmed, though they were fairly well protected, and the Ropucha could not always protect the small craft. To deal with this problem, cubicles for over a hundred aerofighters were included. To increase the versatility of these fighter bays, they were made large enough to accomodate dropshuttles if need be, allowing the ships to carry as many as two hundred and thirty eight of the transports if the need arose. Despite its incredible troop carrying capabilities, the Ropucha had a number of flaws. In the first case it was, by neccessity, huge. Though only eight hundred thousand tons, with twenty one decks devoted soely to troops and cargo, the ship was over 1.2 kilometers long. When these ships were damaged or needed maintenance only the largest shipyards could accomodate them. The Ropucha's biggest problem, however, was the main vehicle bay. The need to be able to load mechs and tanks into the ship's dropshuttles easily led the engineers to design each of the eight vehicle decks as largely open spaces with a minimum of compartmentalization to facilitate moving mechs and vehicles. Though small craft bays surround each of these decks and provide some protection, any breach of these decks would vent the ENTIRE deck into space rather than just a single compartment. Airlocks on each deck, originally intended to allow for mechs to be dropped on a planet directly from the transport, only exacerbate matters, creating weak points in the ship's hull. Even worse, massive lifts on each deck that allowed vehicles to be moved between the bays also created the possibility that multiple decks will suffer the same fate when one goes. The only sections of these decks safe from this is the central core, built around the KF-drive. This provided limited access to the rest of the ship, however the passages through the core were not large enough to accomodate more than people and the smallest of cargo. The eight cargo decks suffered similar problems, having been designed much the same way as the vehicle decks. The five infantry decks, on the other hand, were much better compartmentalized and protected from hull breaches. Of course they were also hideously crowded, with over six thousand troopers crammed into a relatively small space. To make up for this to an extent, the ships carried an extensive recreation facility on six massive grav decks. Another flaw existed simply in the ship's enormous transport capability. Quite simply it could be too dangerous at times to risk a Ropucha in combat. The destruction of a fully loaded Ropucha would also mean the loss of thirteen regiments of ground troops and over two hundred small craft and aerofighters. In other words the Ropucha was the ultimate example of putting all ones egg's in one basket. Though the Combine constructed two Ropuchas just before the dawn of the twenty-eight century, for these reasons they soon abandoned the idea. Both Ropuchas were put into reserve status after only forty years of service. Their poor performance during the Davion war of succession, including one nearly disastrous moment when the Ivan Rogov, carrying nine regiments to reinforce Kurita forces in the region, was nearly lost at Royal to Davion aerofighters, had convinced the high command that the ships were a bad idea. They were not reactivated until the start of the first succession war, and even then during most of the war they fulfillied transport duties in rear areas. As the fleets of each state dwindled, however, the need for warships soon outweighed the risk, and both Ropuchas were sent into the fray. The Ropucha was destroyed soon after, while the Ivan Rogov nearly lasted to the end of the first succesion war. The ship was reported lost to a Steiner task force while transporting six regiments of replacement troops to the steiner front.