"Black Anvil" and "Black Anvil Heavy" Class Assault Landers

"Black Anvil" and "Black Anvil Heavy" Class Assault Landers

These small ships are the back bone of the Star Marines rapid deployment tactics. They are build tough as nails and armed to the teeth to punch through hard through the enemy defenses at meteoric speeds. Powerful magnetic screens protect the landers against the bulk of the heating caused by atmospheric reentries allowing the tough refractory armor shell to handle the the remaining heating.

The same screens controlled by ECM systems and actual movements of the lander inside gives ground side sensors a large but hard to hit target as the the lander moves around inside the constantly shifting magnetic shield. Further sensor confusion is sowed by the dozens of decoys and the electronic sensor ghosts created by ECM modules.

Once out of the plasma sheath of reentry the chin mounted turret can come into play. With outside targeting data and good laser communication links to receive it through the reentry plasma sheath (no way to punch a radio signal through the massive unstable electromagnetic fields generated) or maybe just targeting data based on prior Intel, the guns can probably blind fire all the way down to suppress some of the enemy fire.

Once out of the fireball phase of reentry it can start using its own sensors to find targets for its weapons. Rapid fire 12.5cm autocannons would make short work of most targets and even the most dug in defensive position would suffer under the plunging fire of the 40.6cm mortars. Even the laser turret on top can start hitting ground nearer to the horizon as well continue to cover the lander from air and space threats.

The massive oversize array of engines don't come into play till the last minutes before impact with the ground. To slow down to early could mean death to all on board so the landers stay as fast as possible all the way to the ground before doing a full power burn of all 8 oversized engines in a huge suicide burn. The Black Anvil Assault landers and its heavy cousin are built tough enough to smash into the ground at up to 30 meters per second.

Multiple large doors allow quick debarkation of vehicles and troops onto the battle field. Once on the ground they tend to stay grounded till after the battle as they can be easy targets for any surviving SAM sites while accelerating back out of the atmosphere. Instead provide mobile air defense and artillery support as they lumber slowly forward on their four legs (provided the pilots did not damage them to badly with a hard landing).

Black Anvil Class Assault Landers
Length: 16m (11m for the main hull)
Height: 9m (8m for the main hall. 1m ground clearance)
Armor: 1m to 25cm thick refractory ceramic and steel. 1cm fullerene weave inner shell.
Crew: 5 standard (pilot, co-pilot, 2 gunners, and loadmaster)
Drives: 8
Armament: 2 12.5cm gatlings and 2 40.6cm mortars in the lower turret; 4 point defense pulse-lasers in upper turret.
Cargo: 100 cubic meters. Standard load is 2 light armor vehicles with crews plus 14 star marines. Other loads include 30 star marines; 6 light armor vehicles with crews; 90 army troopers; or 500 tonnes of cargo

Black Anvil Heavy Class Assault Landers
Length: 24m (18m for the main hull)
Height: 9m (8m for the main hall. 1m ground clearance)
Armor: 1m to 25cm thick refractory ceramic and steel. 1cm Fullerene weave inner shell.
Crew: 5 standard (pilot, co-pilot, 2 gunners, and loadmaster)
Drives: 8
Armament: 2 12.5cm gatlings and 2 40.6cm mortars in the lower turret; 4 point defense pulse-lasers in upper turret.
Cargo: 212 cubic meters. Standard load is 4 light armor vehicles with 28 star marines. Other loads: 60 star marines; 12 light armor vehicles; 190 army troopers; or 400 tonnes of cargo. Later versions with larger cargo doors can deploy up to 4 heavy tanks.