The Military Landing Ship Infantry (MLSI) is built on a streamlined, wedge shaped hull that is thickly and fully armoured throughout making this ship incredibly survivable.

"The Landing Ship Infantry and the Mercenary Cruiser evolved out of a single prototype in response to an Imperial Naval Specification for a vessel able to land a marine company against hostile defenders in a moderate threat environment,"

Whilst other cruisers tend to use small craft such as modular cutters to actually ferry the troops and equipment from orbit to surface and vice versa, the MLSI makes the most of its tough hide and actually does this itself, its sleek hull ideal for atmospheric operations and its ship sized arsenal of weapons providing ideal cover of embarking or disembarking troops, the powerful laser battery (a combined array of 4 triple and double turrets) is controlled from the bridge so that firepower can be directed against ground foes and other nearby hostiles with the ship still on approach by visually sighting targets through the thick bridge view panels independent of telemetry or sensor readings (which may be inaccurate or damaged) making the area safe and clear for the departing or returning marines. Its four triple missile turrets are also ideal when combined with its longer range sensors allowing the ship to hit targets at a distance, and also make an effective bomber, taking out ground locations either from high in atmosphere or orbit.

In order to support long-range operations the MLSI is equipped with fuel scoops and a dedicated processor, so it can skim gas giants for fuel in addition to refuelling from any other water/hydrogen source.

This class of ship was designed by cautious engineers being reluctant to fully trust the newly 'discovered' thruster plates, hence it is fitted with a dual sub light drive, having unlimited endurance at 1G using the thrust plates, or 9 hours of 1G thrust using the more primitive Heplar Thruster and Combined Contragrav array, burning 8 tons of liquid hydrogen per hour of thrust (jump and power plant fuel can also be used to support this if desired.) If operating both drives together the ship can actually make 2G.

In order to further increase its durability it is also equipped with a second power plant, a primitive tl-8 fission reactor and sufficient radioactive fuels to last 4 weeks of continuous operations. Whilst insufficient to allow full operations, the fission plant will support all life support, missile armament and Heplar thrust. Its heavily shielded radioactive fuels are not considered a problem as they are confined correctly and rarely used; both power-plants can be operated together to provide additional electrical power though this is rarely needed.

The ship's hull is excellent cover for a retreating force, and able to shrug of, small arms, vehicle ordnance and all but the toughest starship sized weaponry all day long. The MLSI whilst thick skinned still requires protection and support by covering units as like most starships it is still vulnerable to spinal mount fire and meson attack thus they are normally deployed after local naval opposition or system defences have been crushed by allied Naval units and the ground assault has begun.

The interior of the ship, is stark and utilitarian as is typical of the navy though crew lounges are large and comfortable with ample galley space, the reason being is that it is difficult to garrison an entire marine company of men aboard a relatively small spacecraft hence each trooper is allocated 0.5 displacement tons of space aboard which contains a small locker and a low berth, as troops are kept frozen until needed for hostilities, their equipment and supplies are kept in storage lockers within the cargo hold being typically used to house weaponry, ammunitions, body armour, vacc suits and the like all tagged with the trooper's unique ID number or 'tac-code' mainly to prevent fights over who owns what.

Hence life aboard is at first a little disturbing until you get used to it as on each deck, the walls are literally lined with low berths, mounted upright to make best use of space, with dedicated crew staterooms and cabins installed in the centre of decks the open spaces around which are virtually all dedicated crew lounge or galley areas, that whilst they tend to be lonely when the troops are frozen rapidly fill up with hungry and anxious marines when awakened ready for duty.

Hence it is no surprise that the permanent naval 'care taking crew' enjoy the private use of small cabins, (considered sacrosanct) whilst the command crew (ship's captain and the marine force commander) enjoy the use of a standard stateroom.

It is naval tradition that when shipping frozen marines, their commander should remain awake and liase with the ship's crew in order to represent the interests of his frozen comrades.

Medical facilities aboard are excellent, as three dedicated physician's care for the crew and troopers and have the use of a dedicated sickbay.

Ships of this class are a fairly new development; former Sylean Federation assault forces would normally be garrisoned aboard, battleships or tenders and ferried to and from surface using available shuttles or Combat Landers. The use of a dedicated jump capable cruiser is still considered to be a promising trial, needless to say the Imperial Admiralty and other strategic planners are very interested to see how these craft perform.

Military Landing Ship - Infantry

Class: MSLI                        Ep Output: 23/27
Tech Level: 12                     Agility: 0
Size: (Medium 800 Tons)            Initiative: 0
Streamlining: Streamlined          AC: 22
Jump Range: 1 x Jump 2             Repulsors: None
Acceleration 1G Thruster           Nuclear Dampers: None
Also 1G Heplar (2G combined)
Fuel 257 Tons (Liquid Hydrogen)    Meson Screens: None
Duration: 4 weeks                  Black Globes: None
Fuel 4 Tons (radioactives)
Duration 4 weeks
Crew: 19 (161 including troops)    AR: 12
Staterooms: 2                      SI: 205
Small Cabins: 17                   Main Computer: Model 3Fib
Bunks: none                        Sensor Range: Medium (model 3)
Couches: none                      Comm. Range: Medium (model 3)
Low Berths: 124         
Cargo Space: 9.9 Tons              Cost: Mcr: 513.882 (Mcr 411.1056 in quantity)
Atmospheric speeds                 Noe= 875 kph
Cruising = 825 kph                 Maximum = 1100 kph

Other Equipment: Fuel Scoops & Purifier (refines 257 tons in 10 Hr 56 min) 
Emergency fission reactor (EP 4) radioactive fuel for 4 weeks in addition to 
(EP 23) fusion reactor and 4 weeks fuel
A back up Heplar Thruster supplies 1 G for 9 Hours using dedicated fuel tankage 
and combined with 1G Standard Imperial Thruster gives 2G thrust.

Price includes 2 x 30-ton ship's boats Tl-9+

1 x Beam Laser Battery USP=5, 4 x Missile Battery USP=2,

1 x Machine Shop, 1 x Electronics Shop, 1 x Sickbay.

Crew Detail: 19
2 x Command Crew, 2 x Bridge, 5 x Gunner, 3 x Medic, 3 x Engineer, 4 x Flight 
Crew, 142 x Troops

Costs & Revenues: (Per Operational Month)

Costs not listed, as this is a military design 

Revenues not listed, as this is not a commercial design.

Design Worksheet.

Installed Component        Tonnage     MCR     Ep      Notes.

Hull                       +800        96.0    ----    Wedge 
Bridge                       20         1.0    ----
Upgraded Armour             208        41.9    ----    AC/AR+12
Computer                      0.3      30.6    -1.0    Model 3 Fib
Avionics                      0.8      (1.8)   ----    Model 2
Sensors                       0.9      (1.8)   ----    Model 3
Commo                         0.6      (1.5)   ----    Model 3
M-Drive                      16.0      24.0    -8.0    1G Thruster
Heplar                        8.0       4.0    -4.0    1G Heplar
Heplar    Fuel               72.0      ----    ----    Endurance 9 Hours
Jump Drive                   24.0      96.0   -16.0    Jump=2
Jump Fuel                   160.0      ----    ----    1 x Jump 2
Power Plant                  34.5     103.5   +23.0    Fusion Tl-9
Fuel 4 weeks                 23.0      ----    ----    Liquid Hydrogen
Hardpoints                   ----       0.8    ----    8 Hardpoints
Fission Reactor               8.0      24.0      +4    Emergency Back up
Reactor fuel                  4.0      ----    ----    Radioactives 4 weeks
8 x Triple Turrets            8.0       8.0    ----    6 Batteries
Missile racks x 12           ----       8.8    ----    4 x USP=2
Beam Laser x 10              ----      10.0   -10.0    1 x USP=5
Missile Magazines x4          4.0       0.4    ----    160 missiles/13 rounds
Fuel Scoops                  ----       0.8    ----    
Purification Plant            6.0       0.032  ----    257 Tons in 10 Hrs 56 min
2 x Staterooms                8.0       1.0    ----    Command Crew
17 x Small Cabins            34.0       4.25   ----    Permanent Crew
124 x Low Berth              62.0       6.2    ----    Marine Accommodation
2 x Ship's Boat hangers      60.0       0.120  ----
2 x Ship's Boats             ----      43.48   ----    Tl 9 + Ship's boats     
1 x Electronics shop         10.0       2.0    ----
1 x Sick Bay                  8.0       5.0    ----
1 x Machine Shop             10.0       2.0    ----
Cargo                         9.9      ----    ----    Supplies & Ammo 
etc    
Totals                      800        ----    ----    
                                      513.882
Excess Power = none

Original T4 Design: George Herbert

Design re-designed for T20, by Mark Bridgeman.

Contact the Web Emperor to request $10/year hosting for your Traveller content on this site. No ads, no banners, no pop-ups, just a great web address!

® Traveller copyright by and trademark of Far Future Enterprises. In addition, any program/article/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.