REF MONTGOLIFIER-CLASS CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR SHIP (ARS).

UGC Clariont Flag.

REF MONTGOLIFIER-Class
Construction and Repair Ship (ARS).

UGC Clariont Flag.

Fleet Salvage/Repair Ships are used to tow stricken ships, as platforms for salvage, to aid in providing fire fighting assistance, and to provide battle damage repair, maintenance, and logistics

A Typical MONTGOLIFIER-Class Construction Ship.

support, assisting and salvaging disabled ships.

Named for Joseph and Etienne MONTGOLIFIER (paper manufacturers from France, Terra), the REF began manufacturing five of these ships after the capture of two manufacturing satellites as space habitats and production centers to fill a void in fleet-level support for the fleet, which now was making far greater voyages than originally envisioned. They served throughout the war with the Regent well and faithfully, and are still serving in the REF and other UGC space services as repair ships. They are usually stationed in deep space, supporting the fleet, especially as scout vessels looking for belligerents. To start with the production as soon as possible, the MONTGOLIFIER-Class was based on an existing design, the TOKUGAWA-Class. This design's combat power was virtually eliminated by the deletion of the hangar bays, retaining only enough Veritechs for self-defense. The freed-up space was then used for storage holds, and for enlarged berthing areas for greater crew. In addition, an Earth-simulation system identical in function to that used on board of the SDF-01 MACROSS during its long return voyage was installed, giving the main living holds a blue sky and the illusion of a planetside stay. (To enhance the effect, heaters were installed to simulate the sun's warmth and the AC system was set up to give intermittent breezes that simulate winds.) To accommodate ships that had been damaged or needed a minor refit, a retractable scaffolding was added under the hull. When extended, this formed an open-space drydock which could accommodate even the largest REF vessels.

The ships load up to capacity, fold from one of the factory satellites to a central point in empty space (roughly two-thirds the distance between the satellites and the fleet). There they remain as the various groups fold to them to obtain critical, can't-survive-without repairs needed to get them back to the Robotech Factories. They occasionally bring supplies to ships from the rear along with fresh/replacement personnel. Occasionally the ship would fold to a new location as the fleets advanced. After a 6 month patrol, the tender would fold back to a factory for its own refit and maintenance.

Increasingly, the MONTGOLIFIER Captains (a Lt Commander) are taking more direct action, folding all the way INTO the system where the conflict is raging- This places them in potential danger of being directly attacked, but allows them the respond faster (and therefore to greater effect) to ships in need of assistance. (MONTGOLIFIER crews compare this to a medic running into a raging firefight to drag wounded marines and sailors, rather than waiting for them at a base camp- And if they had their way about it they'd be riding right into the battle within gun range of the enemy with no more protection than their armor, shields, and perhaps to hide behind the warships.)

If necessary, the tenders could also fold towards damaged ships and make emergency critical repairs (usually patching hulls ONLY in critical spaces and putting out raging infernos) and towing the stricken vsl off the battle line. This was shown for example UES BLERIOT-Class rendezvoused with the IKAZUCHI-Class Battle Carrier VALIANT after she was severely damaged by Invid kamikazes. The BLERIOT stabilized the VALLIANT'S main engines, which had become dangerously irregular, closed up many of the breaches in her hull and repaired the badly-damaged life-support system. After a week in this improvised space dock, the BLERIOT fold-towed VALIANT to Space Station Equality, were she was fully repaired and refitted.

An additional note: MONTGOLIFIER-Class vsls are known to "usually" have a MULE-Class Tug assigned to them; These are generally rigged for remote handling, if necessary. Treat them as a single fighter (even though they are significantly larger than any Veritech, and most Destroids).
Name: MONTGOLIFIER-Class ATFRS
Model Type: Fleet Salvage/Repair Ship
Crew:

Ships Officers: 20

Engineering Section: 32

Operations Department: 10

Deck Force: 40

Repair Division: Varies over time, but generally about 200, 10% of which would be officers and another 10% civilian contractors.
Passengers: Up to another 500 persons can be embarked; Typically, these are all specialists of one type or another.
MDC By Location:

Hull-
Bridge-
External Hatches (about 200)-
Internal Hatches (up to 10,000)-

50,000
5,000
150 each
100 each

Repair Armature (up to 10)-
Thrusters (10)-
Solar Panels-
Sensory Arrays (up to 05)-

1,000 each
700 each
100
500 each

Speed and Statistical Data:

Spacefold: Mk3b spacefold.
FTL: Factor 5
Cruising Speed: Mach 3
In Atmosphere: Mach 3
Clearance: 1,172 feet with scaffolding retracted, 2,789 feet with scaffolding extended.
Beam: 1,477 feet with scaffolding retracted, 1,560 feet with scaffolding extended.
Length: 3,675 feet
Weight: 12.5 million tons.
Cargo: 100,000 million tons.
Power Systems:

Primary: Solar Panels; Output: 100 KHh (more than enough for station keeping and ship's work); Range: 50 light years. Note: No combat can be sustained on solar panel alone.

Secondary: RRG mk 14 Protoculture-fueled Reflex furnace; Output: 51.8 Petawatts of power; Lifespan: 20 years; However, the systems can only run for forty-seven minutes at maximum power before overheating automatically shuts down the reactor, ruining it.

Tertiary: Emergency Batteries (100,000) Lifespan: 100,000 hours on emergency power status.

Thrust Systems:

Primary: RTT 416 Tractioning Drives; Output: 100 million lbs; Range: Unlimited.

Secondary: 8 Fusion-plasma reaction thrusters around the hull; Output: Output: 22 million lbs (enough to keep up with the fleet); Range: 20 hours at full power before overheat.

Tertiary: Quad Sparrowhawk HSP-24 Fusion-plasma Thrusters for emergency use, mounted as a quadruple bank in the central engine bay, directly behind the hull; Output: 10,000 lbs (enough for ships operations); Range: 200 hours.
Flight System: Standard grav pods.
Cost and Availability: 10 million credits, plus agripods (500,000 credits each); Always available.
Black Market: Not available; Even re-habed T'sentraedi warships are worth more. The REF couldn't even sell captured ones as warehouses, and would be forced to scrap them out.

Weapons Systems:

1. DS-1 Pinpoint Barrier Defense System: A smaller defensive system which uses four movable force field disks, conformal to the ship's surface, to repel light missile attacks, or energy beam fire. It serves as a back up to the DS-2 system. This system is substantially inferior to those used in the IKAZUCHI-Class refits.
MDC: 300.
Attacks/Actions per Melee: Per operators attacks per melee plus bonuses (generally 4 to 6 per melee).
Range: 20 feet.
Payload: Unlimited.
Restrictions/Penalties: None.

2. DS-8 Variable Barrier Defense System: An advanced force field system which covers the entire ship with what appears to be a single yellow-greenish force field; However this is an illusion. The "single" barrier field is actually 6, fixed-aspect pinpoint barriers, to which power can be increased or decreased as necessary. This field will stop all solids and directed energy weapons. Excess energy is shunted from the field to large onboard capacitators, which is eventually discharged through the defensive laser batteries; In theory, this will occur in combat only, though occasional discharges happen even during Charlie periods (in port for repairs and maintenance). The storage wattage is high but not infinite, and the energy MUST be discharged BEFORE the stored energy overloads the field causing the equivalent of a nuclear missile-explosion ONBOARD and well inside the hull. Most of this damage will be to equipment surrounding the shield generators itself, so the vessel should survive; She will suffer severe damage to its internal electronics and power systems, and the systems affected will be inoperable until repairs are made.
MDC: 4,000.
Attacks/Actions per Melee: Per operators attacks per melee plus bonuses (generally 4 to 6 per melee).
Range: 200 feet.
Payload: Unlimited.
Restrictions/Penalties: None.

3. Defensive Laser Batteries (15): A battery of defensive lasers dot the hull of these vessels. Mostly for anti-missile and meteorite defense.
MD: 5D6 per blast.
Rate of Fire: Per gunners attacks per melee plus bonuses (generally 4 or 5 per melee).
Range: 500 feet.
Payload: Unlimited.

4. DS-2 Full-Force Barrier System: An advanced force field system which covers the entire ship with a single yellow-greenish force field. This field will stop all solids and directed energy weapons. Excess energy is shunted from the field to large onboard capacitators, which is eventually discharged through the defensive laser batteries; In theory, this will occur in combat only, though occasional discharges happen even during Charlie periods (in port for repairs and maintenance). The storage wattage is high but not infinite, and the energy MUST be discharged BEFORE the stored energy overloads the field causing the equivalent of a nuclear missile-explosion ONBOARD and well inside the hull. Most of this damage will be to equipment surrounding the shield generators itself, so the vessel should survive; She will suffer severe damage to its internal electronics and power systems, and the systems affected will be inoperable until repairs are made.
MDC: 2,000.
Attacks/Actions per Melee: Per operators attacks per melee plus bonuses (generally 4 to 6 per melee).
Range: 2,000 feet.
Payload: Unlimited.
Bonuses: Unlimited.
Restrictions/Penalties: Unlimited.

5. Defensive Missile Batteries (2): A pair of Mini- or Short-Range Missile Launchers, one on either side of the hull, to discourage fighters and break up meteorites and comets.
MD and Range: Varies by missile type.
Missile Type: Any Mini-Missile or SRM, though SRM is preferred as it is easier to launch.
Rate of Fire: Per gunners attacks per melee plus bonuses (generally 4 or 5 per melee).
Payload: 2,000 SRMs or Mini-Missiles or combination thereof; There is no increase in capacity.

6. Ships, Fighters, Power Armor, and Robots: Each MONTGOLIFIER Repair Ship has a few robots and etc, mostly to forcibly muscle materials around.
Shuttles- 02
Mecha and Fighters- Up to 12 Veritech Fighters are assigned to each as a defensive force.
Robots- Each ship has up to 100 MPS MarkV's and another 45-50 Widerul's.

Features:

Stealth Systems: Makes the vessel virtually invisible to radar; So much so, in fact, that the vsl has to have Racons (roughly 2 foot long by 8 inch wide tubes that send out an active radar signal) so that other vsls can find them safely. NOTE: Space is a REALLY BIG place, and all UGC vsls have racons; Only the MONTGOLIFIER-Class and a very few others USE them, however.
Shadow Drive: The vessels of this Class were all fitted with the supra-sophisticated Shadow Drive as they came in for refittings during the Regent War. During these refits they were also equipped with a Protoculture sensor tuned to detect Invid energizer configurations at distances of over 2 AU. Though substantially inferior to those used in the IKAZUCHI-Class refits, the system has performed flawlessly for the purposes of the MONTGOLIFIER-Class.
ESM: Radar Detector. Passively detects other radars being operated.
Radar: Combat grade radar. Range 100 miles, can track up to 50 individual targets. 95% reliability (24% against unfriendly stealthed vehicles).
Blue Force Tracker: Identifies friend from foe. Overlays the information on both the radar and HUD, ensuring that friendly forces are not accidentally targeted.
GPS: Standard tracking device. Ties into the Blue Force Tracker.
Anti-Jamming System: Reduces Electronics Countermeasure by 3/4 (decrease skill level appropriately).
HUD: Displays maps, radar, targeting information, and any OTHER information the wearer wants directly in front of the user.
FLIR/SLIR: Forward and Side Looking Infrared. Allows pilot to get visuals on targets at night.
Recorders: Records from various ships sensors, etc; 500 hours of recording available.
Full range optic sensory suite: Infrared, ultra violet, Magnification, night sight, color filters, thermal imager.
Range: About 200 miles.
Repair Armature: The ship has 5 pairs of armatures that can be extended up to 5 TIMES their normal length; Between each, force fields can be erected, allowing crews to work without spacesuits and in zero gravity.
ESM: Radar Detector. Passively detects other radars being operated.
Radar: Combat grade radar. Range 100 miles, can track up to 50 individual targets. 95% reliability (24% against unfriendly stealthed vehicles).
Blue Force Tracker: Identifies friend from foe. Overlays the information on both the radar and HUD, ensuring that friendly forces are not accidentally targeted.
GPS: Standard tracking device. Ties into the Blue Force Tracker.
Anti-Jamming System: Reduces Electronics Countermeasure by 3/4 (decrease skill level appropriately).
HUD: Displays maps, radar, targeting information, and any OTHER information the wearer wants directly in front of the user.
FLIR/SLIR: Forward and Side Looking Infrared. Allows pilot to get visuals on targets at night.
Recorders: Records from various ships sensors, etc; 500 hours of recording available.
Full range optic sensory suite: Infrared, ultra violet, Magnification, night sight, color filters, thermal imager.
Range: About 200 miles.
Repair Armature: The ship has 5 pairs of armatures that can be extended up to 5 TIMES their normal length; Between each, force fields can be erected, allowing crews to work without spacesuits and in zero gravity.
Telescoping Armatures: Telescoping armatures for grappling for repairing other vsls. Reach is 20 feet; Not sufficient for combat operations. NOTE: This is NOT the same as the repair armatures, with are MUCH more substantial.
Grapples: 2,000 foot cables, equipped with grav pods, for grappling with other vsls. Tensile Strength: 20,000 tons.
Motion Detector: Activates a loud wailing when an object is coming at the user fast, and a soft ringing if it's coming slowly. Activation ranges must be specified by the operator.
Fire resistance: Fires external to the platform are not felt at all.
Oxygen Rebreather System: Extends air supply to triple the ships air supply. Cartridge MUST be replaced periodically, however.
Internal temperature and humidity control: Automatically maintains crew's desired heat, humidity, and other personal comfort settings.
Spacesuit: Protects the wearer in space for up to 200 hours IF not damaged; Can be repaired for SMALL breaches only (included with the suit), and sacks for holding survival kits are built into the spacesuits. MDC: 30, AR: 20.
Escape Pods: 20 escape pods can each carry 20; Each pod carries 30 additional survival packs.
Heat And Radiation Shielding: Special shielding prevents the penetration of life threatening heat and radiation.
MRA 6 Radios: Allows real time, continuous radio link up with friendly forces in the area via satellite relay over laser radio signals, preventing jamming, and automatically encrypts/decrypts same to prevent eavesdropping.
Type-11 wide band radios: Effective 10 mile range, auto encrypt/decrypt. Works on standard radio band wavelengths, so it can still be jammed (if the enemy knows the frequencies).

1 MC (loudspeaker): Internal loudspeaker (naval and spaceships).
Vacuum Seal: Permits use in hard vacuum (such as outer space), and other hostile environments.
Spotlight: To see and reapir other ships. Useful Range: 20,000 feet. Covers an area about 200² feet effectively.
AJP: Active Jamming Pod. Causes -25% to detection but when it is active, other vehicles/bases can detect that it is jamming, and some missiles will home in on jamming signals. Jamming also causes a -4 penalty to all radar guided weapons.
Survival Pack: Each crew member is required to keep a survival pack on their person at all times; Additional packs are kept at various locations around the ship, including escape pods. Infantry carry their survival packs with them in their backpacks, and tank and RPA crews keep them in their rides, usually stowed under a seat or etc. Pilots have them in packs attached to their legs. Each kit contains a half tent, Sleeping bag, Black light, GPS, first aid kit (bandages, gauze, bandage tape, pads, antiseptic/analgesic), Plasma torch (for small repairs and starting fires), Repair kit (with MDC Repair Spray), Sewing kit (a small spool of thread and 5 needles), 14 Star flares (250 foot apogee), 500 feet of green, black, brown, or olive-drab Parachute cord (150 lbs tensile strength), 10 days emergency rations, 5 gallons emergency distilled water and purification kit (good for about 200 gallons), survival radio (10 mile range, and can not be scrambled or secured, so enemies can listen in on and jam the signal, and a 25 lbs Type 3 (general purpose) inflatable life vest, all in a single pouch on the small of the back of the spacesuit.
Variable Tint Cockpit Canopy/Faceshield: Adjusts tinting to light conditions, up to an including a black dot if the sun is directly on the viewers face (only covers eyes). Ties into HUD.
CBR Protection: Complete chemical, biohazard, and radiological protection. Absolutely impervious to radiation, poisons, gases, and biological agents. Additionally, acids do half damage, and lasers do half damage in laser resistant models.
AMC/FD (2): Anti-Missile Chaff/Flare Dispensers. Actually launches a glob of burning magnesium/aluminum alloy to confuse both radar AND heat sensory systems. Fires off 04 chaff/flares each time it is activated. The system is KNOWN to work on all KNOWN radar and infrared systems except Protoculture sensors, but concerns continue that somewhere out there their MIGHT be a system that will be totally unaffected by the system. Reduce effects by 20% against smart missiles (add +20% to rolls for smart missiles).
Effect:
01-50 Enemy missile or missile volley detonates in chaff cloud- Missiles are all destroyed.
51-75 Enemy missile or missile volley loses track of real target and veers away in wrong direction (may lock onto another target).
76-00 No effect, missile is still on target.
Also note that the chaff cloud will also blind nearby heat sensors (and optically based sensors at night) for 1 melee. They will suffer the following penalties: Reduce melee attacks/actions, and combat bonuses by half.
Duration: 1D4 melee rounds.
Payload: 60 chaff/flares. Each time the system is engaged, the system fires off 04 chaff/flares.
Launched Decoy Pods: Located on the dorsal amidships main hull. Each is a specially designed radar lure that creates a radar image to mimic the machine. If decoys are not destroyed, they can be recovered and repaired. This system has been successfully deployed against SEVERAL alien radar-type sensors (including one that works off of sound).
MDC: 5
Effects: The decoy has a 98% chance of fooling ordinary non military radars and non smart guided missiles, and a 90% chance of fooling military grade radars and advanced smart missiles.
Range: Released to go wherever it wants; Can fly independently for about 30 minutes.
Rate of Fire: Up to 10 times per melee.
Payload: 20 Decoys each pod (10 pods; 200 total).
Anti-Jamming System: Reduces Electronics Countermeasure by 3/4 (decrease skill level appropriately).
Holographic and Plasma Display Screens: A collection of over-sized displays set around the vessel at several strategic places allow the crew to know whatever information is required; One battery is set into the bridge for dedicated ship's operations; Another set a ventral compartment overlooking whatever ship is being repaired.
XTNDR V RADAR/Radio Antenna Extender Pod: A simple, 20³ pod, containing a pod 100 lbs, connected to the ship by a fiber-optic cable that relays the data collected from the Pod to the vessels computers.
MDC By Location:
Pod: 50
Fiber Optic Cable: 10
Effect: Extends range of any sensors 10 times (or defeats other penalties in a 5 mile area).
CS/A-013(a) Communications Satellite: Each vsl carries up to 20 of these disposable satellites for extended communications and radar range.
MDC By Location:
Hull: 500
Short-Range communications Array (antenna to mothership): 10
Effect: Extends range of radios, etc 10,000 times.

Combat Bonuses from REF MONTGOLIFIER-Class Combat Elite:

2 additional attack per melee.

One additional Attack Per melee at levels 6 and 12 with any additional bonuses for the pilot.

+5 entangle/snare/grab, Parry, Dodge, and Roll.

+2 dodge.