Overview

The B-176 Hammerhead is the newest addition Marine Aerospace's arsenal. Given the designation B for bomber, The Hammerhead is a high speed, two manned bomber specialized for both space or atmospheric high speed low altitude precision bombing attacks. The Hammerhead is the first medium bomber of its class allowing it to fill the gap between the F/B-274 Peregrine and B-237 Titan. While some consider traditional small craft ineffective against large installation or capital ships, The Hammerhead is designed to destroy given targets alone or in a set of three known as a squadron flight. This allows the hammerhead to slip past enemy sensors and strike the given target without the need of a fighter escort for defense as the heavier bombers require such as the B-237 Titan.

Design Statistics

The Hammerhead is the first bomber of it's kind designed to operate in both space and atmospheric conditions giving this bomber great versibility. It can carry a far heavier payload than the F/B-274 Peregrine. Being able to carry a heavier payload does come at a cost. The Hammerhead is far less maneuverable then the Peregrine. However the designers took this in mind, giving it two overpowered engines allowing the Hammerhead's crew to make up for this by using fast precision attacks on both moving and stationary targets, regardless if it is ground targets on a planet, or an orbital platform. The crew of a Hammerhead consisting of the pilot and the RIO or Radio Intercept Officer as known in the 21st century, but is more accuurately defined as a Sensor Array Officer. Through tradition the name RIO has been kept and the role though updated is still the same. The pilot's role is to fly the bomber to it's intended target, handle all evasive maneuvers, and any offesnive attacks against enemy craft that attack it. The RIO also has multiple roles just as his predessor did. The RIO is responsible for plotting navagation routes to the target as well as releasing the bomber's payload once the target has been reached. The RIO is also responsible for helping the pilot in assessing sensor data and IFF signatures. During combat the RIO operates all of the defensive systems to allow the pilot to concentrate on combat maneuvers. Both the pilot and RIO are picked from the highly elite F/I-375 Valkyrie Fighter pilots. Once chosen for the Hammerhead program they go through a exensive training program of six months learning how not only to operate the Hammerhead, but also to work as a tight knit team. Most pilots after completion are sent to the SF-238 - Red Knights Squadron while a chosen few are sent back to their original squadrons in order to allow squadrons to have flexiblity to handle any mission that maybe assigned to them.

Dimensions

• Length: 26.3 meters

• Width: 16.7 meters

• Draft: 6.4 meters

• Displacement: 81.2 metric tons

Propulsion Systems

• Impulse Engines: Twin Fighter Micro engines. Single impulse deck

• Warp Engines: Twin Cochrane MARA II Fixed geometry internal warp core drive.

• Crusing Impluse speed: 0.25c (1/4 Lightspeed)

• Maximum Impluse speed: .50c (1/2 Lightspeed)

• Cruising Warp speed: Warp 2.5

• Maximum Warp speed: Warp 5 (seven hours sustained)

• Maximum efficiency: Warp 2=94%

Armament

• Phaser Systems: (2) Standard Type VI Shuttle-type Phasers operating on rotating frequencies.

• Torpedo Systems: (2) Independent munitions bay for carrying multiple types of ordnance. Though the Hammerhead can carry multiple types of munitions, due to weight constraints it can only hold one type of munition in each of it's two weapon bays.

• Defense Systems: (1) self-protection electronic jamming equipment, Sensor warning receiver (SLQ-161) and expendable countermeasures (chaff, flare, or the new deployable Spider decoy drone) system complements its low-sensor cross-section to form an integrated, robust onboard defense system that supports penetration of hostile airspace. The SLQ-161 electronic countermeasures system detects and identifies the full spectrum of adversary threat emitters then applies the appropriate jamming technique either automatically or through operator manual inputs. Chaff and flares are employed against sensors, conventional radar, and infrared threat systems. The spider decoy drone is a drone that is deployed and controlled by the RIO to counter any torpedoes or missiles locked on to the bomber. Hammerheads can carry only a limited number of these at a time.

• Hull: 8 cm thick Ablative Armor

• Shielding System: N/A

Ordnance

• Torpedoes: (40) Mark XXV Micro-Photon Torpedoes

• Torpedoes: (20) Photon Torpedoes

• Air to Ground: (24) Precision Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (AGM-1178 ASSM).

• Bombs: (10) Orbital Bomb Unit (OBU-106 WCMDs)

• Bombs: (8) Planetary Bomb Unit (PBU-31 SPDAMs)