CLASSIC BATTLETECH CATALYST game labs

  Despite being the closest thing that the Inner Sphere has to an actual representative democracy, and a peaceful-minded state with no imperial ambitions save to be left alone to prosper, the Free Rasalhague Republic never seems to catch a fair break.  Freed by Theodore Kurita to create a strategic buffer along most of the Lyran/Draconis border against the rising Federated Commonwealth, they were promptly hammered by mutinous DCMS units who resented such an act of 'weakness' and systematically screwed by the mercs whom they hired to protect them - mercs who exploited hastily and poorly negotiated contracts to bilk maximum cash from their 'employers' while doing as little actual fighting as they could get away with.  Even when that little débâcle was sorted out, they'd barely started to get their feet under themselves once more when the Clans came along and kneecapped 'em for fair.  With their military crushed by über-tech and all but a handful of their worlds occupied by the tank-borns, the current-day Free Rasalhague Republic is little more than a rump-state under ComStar protection (for as long as that will last after the final SLDF Conference ), destined to one day merge with their Clan occupiers(!) as the Ghost Bear Dominion.  Really, it's enough to make you weep.
  (Yeah, yeah, I know that it's BattleTech, not PeaceTech, and non-imperialistic nation-states are notoriously bad for generating open armed conflict.   Doesn't mean I think that our resident "The FRR got shafted!" lobby don't have a valid complaint - a nation-state with so much potential for RP and intrigue, struck down in its infancy.... )
  Nonetheless, their position on the Draconis/Lyran border also allowed the 'Haguers themselves all manner of opportunities - especially considering that Teddy K even employed 'loyal' DCMS troops to help put down the ronin, and that a surprising proportion of the departing DCMS troops (both in the original secession and the post-Ronin War withdrawal) somehow 'forgot' () to take their killware with them when they left.  It wasn't enough, of course - hence the less-than-satisfactory situation with the mercenaries - but they had the core of a pretty decent military building up... until Kerensky's Psychos ruined the party.
  Since that time, the Rasalhague Kungsarmé has been rebuilding frantically, and foreign states' aid packages of matériel (including starfighters) have actually put the RKA into a pretty healthy position for their size.  I should point out here that RKA doctrine uses flights of four fighters, not two - making their ASF squadrons the same size as real-life units and giving them a not-insignificant 2:1 numerical advantage against opponents used to (and using) the six-bird orthodoxy of the other Successor States.


RKA STARFIGHTERS c.3025

  Between Mystic's point about the amount of space it takes up, and the unexpected power-cut and system-freeze that cost me the last copy of this article , I'm going to save us all time and skip the 'full readouts' on all the RKA's fighters.  I'm certain that you can all muster the energy to look them up on chanman's list yourself if you need a refresher.    These are according mainly to the FM:U RATs, but I'll give the weightings some 'ink' in a moment or two.

  LIGHT:
* SBR-27 Sabre
* SYD-Z1 Seydlitz
* CNT-1D Centurion
* Sholagar - models SL-21, SL-21L
* F-10 Cheetah

  MEDIUM
* LTN-G15 Lightning
* SL-25 Samurai
* SL-17 Shilone
* LCF-R16K Lucifer II
* CSR-V12 Corsair

  HEAVY
* SL-15 Slayer
* STU-K5 Stuka
* F-100 Riever
* EGL-R6 Eagle
* THB-D36 Thunderbird

  Now, given the circumstances of the FRR's formation and 'procurement' process, I'd rather expect most of its equipment to come from the (excellent!) Draconis SL- series, with a leavening of captured Lyran gear (including the "generics", all of which were made in the LC!); the FWL and FS types are probably just a handful of oddballs picked up through, um, shall we say 'irregular channels'? 
  (If the Dracs had any sense, I'd imagine that the withdrawing garrison units which might have possessed Lucifer IIs left as many of them behind as they could get away with, so they could draw proper SL-17s as replacements - rather a 'with friends like these' move, albeit an entirely understandable one.  I still wouldn't expect to see huge numbers of them wearing the blue-dragon roundel, but the RKA would probably have a higher proportion of them.  If the RKA had any sense, they'd promptly take those Lucy Twos off-line and overhaul them, deleting one of the LLs for much-needed additional armour... assuming that they had a workshop which could do the job.  SHould they be lacking such a facility, they'd do well to consign them to dedicated ground-attack/bomber units)


FORCE POSITIVES:

  The RKA's inheriting much of its killware from the DCMS means that they got handed the keys to the only truly 'integrated' national starfighter arm of that technological epoch.  With Sholagars to occupy enemy interceptors, Samurai and Slayers 'mixing it up' in the dogfight - the SL-25s turning inside their opponents and ice-picking them to death with multiple MLs and SLs, while the slightly less nimble Slayers delivered the wicked clout of an AC/10 - and the multi-role Shilones either contributing fire-support or diving right into the brawl in their own right, a Rasalhague formation was well-equipped to give the other guy a rough go of things just on the basis of its 'national' equipment.  When you add ex-Lyran Sabres and Seydlitz to the interceptor wings, Dropper-chopping Lightnings and king-hitting brawler Eagles to the 6/9 bracket, and the daunting THB-D36 as their heavy 'fist', the RKA fighter arm could consider themselves the 'complete package'. 
  Many of the RKA's types are also well-known for their heat-efficiency, which means good things for their prolonged combat efficiency in the IS1 era, and the SL-15 and SL-25 both enjoy a great deal of fuel endurance, meaning that long patrols, extended engagements, or high-separation interceptions are all entirely viable options to such units.


FORCE NEGATIVES:

  Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge there are/were no starfighter factories in the territories released to the FRR, meaning that they had to rely almost exclusively on imports for their procurement.  Their pleasant relationship with the Combine meant that they could probably get SL- series birds without many hassles; however, rhetoric in certain Lyran circles about 'liberating' the FRR's former Tamar Pact worlds might prove a sticking point in acquiring Lyran-made 'generic' fighters.
  This lends into the other problem: while fighters with 'smasher'-style firepower were present in their line-up, they're not what you'd call overly common.  The Slayer was the backbone of their 'heavy' formations, and as much as I like that type for what it can do, it just doesn't have the 'blaster' capabilities of a Riever or a Chippewa - and building up an inventory of heavy spaceframes from non-Drac sources might be a little, um, 'complicated and delicate' in the pre-3049 strategic/political climate.


ADDITIONAL RKA STARFIGHTERS c.3067

  LIGHT:
* Seydlitz - models SYD-Z4, -Z3A
* SPR-6D Sparrowhawk
* S-4 Sai

  MEDIUM
* MIK-O Tatsu OmniFighter
* LCF-KR16 Lucifer II
* SL-17R Shilone

  HEAVY
* HSCL-1 Huscarl OmniFighter
* SL-15R Slayer

  Desperate to rebuild their military after the Clans devoured most of their country, the RKA apparently accepted military aid packages from everyone in sight.  Their primary supplier was still the Dracs, of course, and they seem to have picked up the original-mark Sai and the Tatsus in some sort of package deal... but there's also some front-line FedCom gear in there, and politics during the Great Family Spat of '63-'67 saw large quantities of Huscarls originally intended for ComStar formations painted in Rasalhague livery instead.  (One should note that no-one was actually complaining about this windfall... though the Holy Valkyries Wing of the 3rd Drakøns pointedly refused (and refuse) to exchange their ageing but beloved Shilones for newer hardware.  After all, SL-17s were quite good enough for their patron/martyr/namesake Kapten Tyra Miraborg, thankyouverymuch.  )
  Perhaps as a result of seeing so many WarShips poised on their borders, or maybe as an artifact of receiving so many Huscarls beyond their original purchases, this force has definitely corrected its 'smasher' deficiency - and almost gone overboard in doing so.  They appreciated and needed every such piece of killware, of course, but some more attention to their 6/9 fighter force might not go amiss.  The aforementioned SL-17s need overhauls rather more thorough-going than the distinctly lacklustre SL-17R, and getting some Eagles with upgrade kits similar to the TR-13A Transgressor would improve their standard dogfighter corps quite a good deal.  (The 'fast dogfighter' tasking is well-covered by the foundtech S-4s - though the situation surrounding the Wakizashi plant on Shuyler makes me wonder a little how they got them, unless the DCMS pensioned them off when the S-7 started coming out - and needs little redressing, though upgrading their Samurai as certainly wouldn't hurt them.)  Doing a little more for the Slayer would improve the maths a great deal as well, but properly-uprated Shilones and Eagles are the first priority.
  (Assuming that they can get the numbers and personnel in the first place, of course - after being reduced to so few worlds, their economic and manpower bases make for truly depressing reading compared to the other IS states.)

  Of course, all of this is probably moot these days; the upheavals of the Jihad mean that Rasalhague probably won't be able to do much about their fighter corps before their untimely engulfment by the Ghost Bear Dominion.  Dammit. 

Hehehe, nice to see I make a longer lasting impatct on things.

And Chan, you talking about the flying murder machine, the Eisenstrum?

But seriously, there is a nice mix, and I find it hard to find fault with the avalable designs the FRR has going for them. The only real negative I would see is anytime you have to use Lucifers...sorry, I just have a manic hate-on for those things. Too slow for the tonnage, only OK weapons, light armor on the wings, and NO EJECTION SEAT! If I were the FRR, or anyone for that matter who had to use Lucifers, the first thing I would install is an ejection seat.

Only other thing I would suggest for the FRR in the short term is similar to what I suggested when modifying a TR-10 Transit/Lightning for the Slayer. Yeah the SL-15 lacks the punch with its AC-10, but what if you swap the AC for a Gauss? Now, you have a heavy hitting weapon that can attack at range. And if you play with the number of sinks, one can also upgrade the medium lasers to ER, or even make one medium a ER Large for more long range punch.

But, yeah. the GBs do kind of kill things for the Rass'es. But its not all bad, by the time DA comes around, they pretty much start to go native anyway. So NOW one can say the "Dominion" will get the best of both worlds.

Y'know, I could've sworn someone already raised that point in this thread.  Oh, wait, here it is:



  Given their lack of domestic production and uneasy relationships with their neighbours, I'd lean more towards the former explanation than the latter.  Certainly a cold, logical analysis of the universe suggests that fighters can be crushingly decisive if unrestricted - several commentators have noted that in strict military terms, a properly-conducted invasion with CBT-level technology would involve no 'Mechs at all, but hordes upon hordes of ASFs to blast the defenders flat and masses of infantry to pry the survivors out of the craters to sign the surrender....  It's actually a pity that we didn't see all that much about the RKA's approach to combined-arms other than (AFAIK) a couple of short scenes in Lost Destiny - I would have liked to see how closely their 'Mech forces and fighters worked together.  Who knows - maybe the RKA has had the closest thing to the old 'cab-rank' CAS doctrine! 

  Of course, if someone can show me some solid proof that your latter case also pertains, I'll happily accept it. 

@ Mystic and chanman:
  Yep, those are pretty solid references to the Devil's Own Pie Goodness Machine (as some wit once put it ) - and I do so lament the fact that we are unlikely to ever see EST-R3s wearing the blue-shield emblem.  That would really put the wind up the Yogis....    Birds like the Eisensturm and the Dagger are a near-complete paradigm-shift for the Inner Sphere's ASF industry, and if Lockheed aren't working five shifts a day (desperately) trying to meet demand for 'Sturms, I would be very, very surprised.
  Then again, when this "Dominion" thingy rolls around we might yet get to see some Scythas painted up that way instead - sort of a "every silver lining has a cloud" thing, I guess.... 
  And as for the Lucifer?  According to the sources I can find, the FRR only gets the experimental Kuritan version - a failed experiment, AFAIK, which would readily explain how the RKA got them: the Dracs couldn't wait to be shot of them and left most of them behind during the withdrawals/gave them to the FRR in a very backhanded favour.  That said, if you apply the mod I suggested in the OP - drop one LL for armour - and install a proper ejection system, they do cross the dividing line from "truly sucky" to "borderline useful".    (Apply a little IS2 tech to 'em as well, and wonder of wonders, they even start to become truly competitive!    )

After the Ghost Bears "incorporate" the FRR, there is a scary possibility that the ex-FRR fighters get refitted with Clan weapons and sinks.........

I would agree, If they only have the one Omnifighter factory and all their Drac/Lyran/Generic fighters were imports, then why still import?
Just crank out your 1 fighter and from then on start using larger amounts of G-Bear equipment.
Transfer those old fighters to Militias and start using new stuff : )

Actually, the FRR uses the same organizational scheme as their former Drac masters:  2/6/12/36/108.  They, like the Dracs add the Company step to the standard configuration (unlike the Capellans who call it a Flight.. and add command elements).  It's also more likely that the Aero wing attached to Magnusson's First Drakons were only a double-strength Wing of 72 fighters (which would be analogous to a regular IS reinforced Regiment), as a full-strength double-strength Regiment would be an insane 216 fighters (which is likely more than the FRR even had to begin with)

They don't.  The First Drakons Aerowing apparently did, and that appears to be to provide more protection for Haakon Magnusson.  Why they couldn't just attach a couple wings to the Regiment instead of bloat a basic Wing is still beyond me. [shrug]