Okay, so you all must have seen that I’ve been working an awful lot of overtime, lately, as tends to happen from time to time in my line of work. This has messed up my workflow, leading to a bunch of late comics over the past few weeks, which isn’t great. So in an attempt to get back on track, I’m pushing this week’s page to next week, and instead, as I like to do, am going to regale you with some more technical info from the 6-Commando universe. I hope you can understand why I’m doing this, and thank you for being so patient with me. I’m sure that lesser people would have long since given up on me for it!
And so, here’s the one you may or may not have been waiting for, the “Howler” GEV, which our beloved Major Bronniford is trained to fly. The text is as follows:
HOWLER ARMORED WING-IN-GROUND EFFECT VEHICLE
AFFILIATION: United Nations Alliance
YEAR IN SERVICE: 1976 (Model A)
NATION OF ORIGIN: Republic of Quebec
DESIGNER: SOMUA A.d.N.
MANUFACTURER: V.T. Aerodyne/SOMUA A.d.N.
UNIT COST: CA$22,730,000 (1997)
The SOMUA HS-49 hovercraft is unique on the modern battlefield, as it fills a role it has essentially created for itself, as a light multirole armored vehicle and gunship, which the UNA uses extensively for power-projection, force reconnaissance, and high-speed forward support. The Howler is highly unusual in that it spans the gap between an armored ground vehicle and an air cavalry gunship, roles which prior to its intorduction had been filled by separate light tanks and helicopter units. Making use of a hybridized flying-wing-in-ground-effect shape as well as direct thrust vectoring from its single bifurcated turbofan, the Howler is able to attain high speed and performance characteristics on the ground as a hovercraft, as well as limited low-altitude flight for short periods under directly-vectored thrust. This makes it a particularly useful vehicle for supporting amphibious operations, and several UNA navies have equipped light carriers as landing docks for Howler GEVs to support marine landing operations. Although it can reach unprecedented speeds of over 150 MPH in open terrain, the vehicle’s airframe and complicated avionics have precluded the use of a single large weapon, requiring an array of several smaller weapons instead. This varied load can often be hard to use, yet no practical variants have yet been produced, in contrast to most other UNA vehicles.
The Howler is one of the most interesting vehicles in the comic
Yeah, it’s one of my favorites. Definitely one of the weirdest year still vaguely practical designs. Note my use of the word “vaguely.”
You truly created a lot of cool and really realistic looking verhicles in your amazing universe. Now I am also wondering what kind of vehicles and aircrafts the other non-major factions have (aside UNA and Socialists I mean ). Like what sort of interesting things are the Suds using to defend their nations, or what did the Arabs use to repell the Socialist insurgence in Oman that was mentioned quite a while ago.
Anyhow, keep up your great work and don’t worry about postponing the comic for a bit. Better you put it back a bit and concentrate on your work and to keep your mind sane, rather than trying too hard and overloading your mind.
Hmm. South American battlesuits have appeared in the comic but nothing more. I have hinted at some Arab League VTOLs though. Maybe…
Oh, goody! I was hoping that you would profile the Howler eventually; thanks! Oh yeah, and GO PATRIOTS! ‘Nuff said. 😉
I didn’t see the game but I gather it was a good one!
You might say that. As a great man once said…
As I once said – such fillers only help feel the universe better, make it “more real” (at least it works like that for me). Thus, they are great, and I don’t mind at all.
And if it helps you keep healthy workflow and schedule, and catch some breath in the meantime, is there anything more we can ask for? 🙂
Not much breath catching but I hope I can get back on track! Thanks man!
I have no choice but to unconditionally agree with this. Just because its filler, doesn’t mean it doesn’t add depth to the work or the world. In addition to selling a book of the story, you can include maybe a spiral bound Technical Hardware Identification Guide as a different level in the kickstarter. About the only thing I would add to any of these pages would be a small Black identification silhouette based off the drawing. That type of thing was in most of the handbooks from our 70’s
Oh, nifty, an Ekranoplan! And in Dutch markings to boot.
Hm, two things that jump out at me, looking at the tech specs:
-the Enfeld rotary might produce an aysmetric loading when fired, but at only .50 it’s probably something that can be automatically compensated for by vectored thrust.
-The ZAK-4… I’m not quite sure what you mean by “1.7-cal” for its size. The “.50 calibre” and “.30 calibre” machine guns are an exception in terminology – the meaning being “the calibre is .50 inches/.30 inches”. (There was also an experimental .60 MG once but it never saw production). Usually “calibre” refers to the /length/ of the gun barrel, not its diameter – hence the main guns of the Iowa class battleship, for instance, beign “16”/50″ (or 16″L50 in some notations), meaning the length of the gun is nominally 50 times its diameter.
Given the .50-cal MG, “1.7-cal” would presumably be 1.7 inches, which is 43.2mm, which eyeballing it looks about right. I’m just wondering how that particular notation came to be used for that large a gun.
…also, occured to me while writing this: the notation that the Enfeld AW is a ‘machine /cannon/’ is interesting, as – by usual useage – a “cannon” differs from a “machine gun” through firing explosive shells, and that would mean the .50 in Commandoverse is NOT barred by international convention from using such ammunition, which in OTL was established in 1868.
(…technically it’s bullet weight, not calibre, that forms the boundary where an explosive filling becomes ‘legal for use against personnel’ – 400 grams – but you can only make a 12.7mm bullet so large…)
Mane, see, this is why I love you guys – you actually think about these things! You’re making my day here, really.
In the Fommandoverse, the advent of powered armor has pushed the classification of “small arms” well into the range of what we would call heavy weaponry. Caliber rated firearms are shorthand for weapons denoted primarily for antipersonnel (read: anti-battle suited infantry), and run about as high as 1.9cal. This refers to the diameter of the effective round, since there are a number of different feed mechanisms of variable length, including gauss, boosted-gauss hybrid, binary propellant caseless, solid caseless, and conventionally cased.
This is also how they get around prohibitions against explosive and incendiary bullets. They have their cake and eat it too hard claiming that battlesuits are actually light vehicles and use machine cannon against them. If the conventional infantry,an gets in the way, that’s tough teddy.
Small arms, usually weapons up to 20 mm, above that, starts the realm of artillery.
I would suggest using proper terminology to flesh out the world.
And those should be automatic cannons, not machine cannons.
Unless you are aiming to create a new pulpy, nomenclature. There were machine rifles when automatic weapons were becoming widespread, before the were renamed machine guns (from first succesful small caliber rapid firing guns, so called then “pom-poms”.
Maybe you could post a small article about in-universe evolution of warfare and weapons?
I’ll let the UNA Security Council know, but I’m not sure they’ll agree. Old habits die hard. 😉
Hmm. Looking at the data here, I’m kinda wondering what these things can do that an attack helicopter wouldn’t provide with less hassle?
Kind of a violation of K.I.S.S. as written, unfortunately.
Well for starters it can maneuver at ground level, allowing it to act like s light tank without exposing itself to AAA lasers, which are big trouble on the Commandoverse battlefield. But it retains the ability to make place-to-place transitions at high speed, giving it a similar advantage to a helicopter. Also, not as visible is the fact that the ground effect has a major effect on increased fuel efficiency, allowing them to operate for longer combat times than a chopper, which relies on fueled continuous thrust from its rotors to stay aloft. In transit, the Howler can use the ground effect to keep itself aloft for less engine power and consequently less fuel.
Also it’s the first step on the path to Hammer’s Slammers hovertanks, so I can only approve.
(Plus, they have ekranoplans now. Ekranoplans are cool.)
Not a step on the road for hover tanks, but rather small niche vechicle. Useful for scouting in the universe where sattelite and UAV technologies are way behind and most things that fly too high get fried by lasers.
I would like to point out that Howlers would be a logistical nightmare, due to complexity of design and raid wear off of engines and air filters.
Not to mention the problem of effective use of badly balanced turret (I do not know why there is a 43 mm automatic cannon, tribarrel 12,7 mm gatling and ATGM pod) layout.
Missile armament and a mechinegun for self defense would be sufficient. Automatic cannon does not fit into the design.
It would be wise to treat it as a harrasser or dedicated tank hunter. Or ASW platform and for litoral warfare.
Certainly not something to put on the first line.
P.S. Days of light tanks are a way behind. Unless here, due to the fact that Second World War did not happen, the theory of manouver warfare is underdeveloped, at least on the UNA side, it would seem.
I’ll send your notes to the people at VT Aerodyne. 😉
Can’t argue on logistics though. Which is why they have to be based from carriers (as seen in Chapter 5) or sophisticated support bases (as seen in… the whole comic.) Using them like tanks for an armored advance would be a bad idea – no way they would stand up to T-90PG tanks, with the railguns. Still I think they suit the idiom if the comic’s universe, where the tactics are developed from World War I experience and the dominant doctrine is “MOBAS” or “Mobile Armored Strongpoint.”
Do you have an article detailing foundations of the MOBAS doctrine?
For you, I’ll make one. A data card on battle doctrine will be next up.
I feel honored. Thank you.
The turret is basically the same sort of concept as a M2 Bradley – autocannon, coaxial machine gun, and anti-tank missiles.
There is no coaxially mounted weapon, and pod’s weight would not allow to properly hold balance while firing.
Not counting large caliber autocannon which would throw the vehicle off balance while moving.
You do not have to arm it so excessively. Machinegun for self defense will suffice.
For what reason you need automatic cannon for that? That craft won’t survive long enough to make use of it. For that reasons you have guided missiles, to destroy targets from relatively safe range. And a machinegun for disencouraging infantry from keeping heads up, before you reposition somewhere else.
Unless Howler is basically ekranoplan version of cavalry fighting vechicle, then it would have some sense.
It looks like more like one of those high-tech, expensive contraptions that have very small niche and beyond that are of doubious utility, becouse new versions of existing hardware are more efficicent and cheaper. That is why in real world nobody have dedicated combat hovercrafts, ekranoplans and other such things. Conventional designs are much more mature and efficient, And cheaper and easier to train people on them.
It appears that here procurement system was less conventional.
Howler is not properly armored to be of use for direct fire support, have too varied weapons loadout which are awkwardly mounted in large turret and main gun will couse stability issues.
Unless the 43 mm would be mounted inside the hull and would be used for strafing runs when craft would use the low flying mode, jumping up into the air for several moments and firing while gliding down.
Still strafing runs went out of fashion the moment when Shilkas came online, and when Tunguskas arrived, become suicidal.
To sum up, the Howler, tries to be an attack helicopter, scout and cavalry fighting vehicle and a litoral patrol/missile craft. In the end came up military mash-up machine, that cannot survive machinegun fire, carry not enough ammunition be helpful in a firefight and is mainanence heavy, thus reducing it’s operational aviability.
But looks good o propaganda TV.
And now I, accidentaly, created premise for in-universe eqivalent of “Pentagon Wars”.
Military procurement at it’s finest.
A 43mm cannon is considered small damn it out guns an Apache.
Oy vey.
Apache’s main role is tank hunting, that is why it can carry up to 16 anti-tank guided missiles. Nobody sane will try to fly and park helicopter near the enemy to start peppering them with the pop gun. Hellfires aren’t cheap, that is why you are picking up individual bushmen with the 30 mm. It gives you ability to precisely engage enemy personel near friendly troops, also, but is not main type of offensive armament.
I do love these info-cards. And the Howler is definitely “the” iconic conventional vehicle of 6-Commando. About time! P.S.: typo in the second sentence: intorduction ??
Just passing by to note that Mike and Sarah have reached the point where they know what the other is thinking and see the same stuff at the same time…I knew it…
When will the wedding take place? 😀
Life happens. This is an interesting placeholder, and I really like worldbuilding. ^^