TTA: SSF 221D Cutlass
Possibly the best remembered ship of the war, the Cutlass won its laurels during the fiercely fought Battle for Mars in 2052 when the Proxima battlefleet broke through the Sentinel Line. Although of fairly simple construction it proved itself to be efficient and robust, with a legendary ability to absorb punishment.
The first Cutlass was built as long ago as 2023, being intended as a Federal Law Enforcement Authority patrol cruiser, and continued in production, virtually unchanged, up to 2048. The outbreak of war interrupted their manufacture for over a year, until the newly formed Terran Defence Authority elected to employ an uprated version as the basis for the Defence Force.
The production facilities were already in existence and the comparatively uncomplicated design enabled a high manufacturing speed which made the Cutlass a natural choice for a stop-gap fighter. In fact the massive demand for interstellar warships and the impressive way in which the Cutlass acquitted itself in the Battle for Mars resulted in it remaining in production for the greater part of the war, and certainly until Proxima had lost its long-range fighting potential.
Whereas the early Law Enforcement models were fitted with two nuclear powered solid-fuel engines and one liquid-hydrogen cruise unit, the military variant was uprated with two Avery high-thrust hydrogen drives and an Ion Ultradrive low-thrust engine for long-range cruising. An interesting feature of the Avery high-thrust units was the variable choke venturi tubes, which contracted and expanded with great rapidity to produce a pulsed jet of extremely high velocity by creating an intermittent back pressure. Although very effective, this could only be employed for brief periods as the tubes burned out quickly and had to be replaced.
The payload compartments originally intended to store rescue and emergency repair equipment were adapted as nuclear weapon bays and as housings for the OPA 8 Particle Accelerator and laserlances.
Major Sven Erikson, a Defence Force Commander, earned himself and his Cutlass a place in the history tapes during the Battle for Mars. The illustration here depicts his best known exploit. His fuelling bay was hit by a Proxima warhead and he launched under maximum drive before refuelling was completed, destroying two enemy ships and allowing the rest of the squadron to get into space to repel the attack. His Cutlass, R2, is shown with the markings of the 3rd Mars Interceptors, with whom he was serving in Syrtis Major.
After the war the Cutlass continued in service although no more were commissioned, and it is a testimony to their durabilitv that over eighty are still fully operational. Some of these have been leased to the Law Enforcement Authority as local patrol ships and can frequently be seen on patrol around the Solar System. It is interesting to note that in the current vogue for unusual private spacecraft, a number of replicas of the Cutlass have been produced from the original plans, though fitted with modern equipment.
Specification |
|
|
|
|
Manufacturer |
Various |
Classification |
Local Defence Interceptor |
Main Drive |
2 Avery Sunburst high high-output engines |
Personnel |
3 human crew |
Armament |
Assorted nuclear weapons |
Defense |
High-density Plastisteel armour 14 cm thick |