Logitran-class Drone Barge

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- Logitran-class Drone Barge -

MANUFACTURER/AFFILIATION -
Original hull design by Domel-Berger Yards, currently produced by BQM Drive Yards. Available to all.

MODEL -
Logitran-class Drone Barge.

CLASS -
Drone barge.

ROLE -
Automated heavy transport.

COMPOSITION -
Durasteel hull and fittings.

DIMENSIONS -
Length - 100 meters.
Width - 20 meters.
Height - 30 meters.

HANGAR CAPACITY -
N/A.

CREW -
1x pilot droid brain.

PASSENGER CAPACITY -
N/A.

CARGO CAPACITY -
1 standard kiloton.

CONSUMABLES -
N/A.

SPEED/MANEUVERABILITY -
Standard spec Logitran-class vessels can accelerate at 20 MGLT, and are fairly sluggish in the turn, although the latter is primarily due to their primitive droid control systems. They are actually capable of maneuverability on par with a corvette, if not comparable speed.

ARMAMENT -
- 2x light blaster cannon turret.
- 1x reinforced ram bow.

EQUIPMENT -
- Class 10 hyperdrive.
- Standard navicomputer.
- Standard communication suite.
- Standard sensor suite.
- Low-power deflector screen generator.

- INTENT -
To create the standard type of vessel representative of the drone barge category, which does not seem to have gotten much love in this time-line. Such vessels would be a major part of commerce in the Galaxy, and convoys of them would be a convenient target for pirates, a major boon for corporate factions looking to cut costs, and possibly even a sneaky way for characters to move around as stowaways.
They could also be used in pitched space battles as fire ships, if they were prepared ahead of time.
The most common use I foresee is as garnish in starport scenes, or as a disposable target in a space battle.
My personal intention is to use one as the basis for a droid character, an "orphaned" drone whose convoy was destroyed by Sith forces, and who now must make her own way in the Galaxy.


- DESCRIPTION -
The life cycle of a starship design is a long and complex one.
It takes time, effort and often millions of credits for a starship manufacturer to create a viable, spaceworthy ship design. Often, such vessels are intended for a specific role; however, the goal of most manufacturers is to make money off their product, and so even when a vessel is declared unsuitable or obsolete in its intended function, that is seldom the end of their story.
Old designs get recycled. What may have once, in another age, been the pinnacle of naval might, may in another be adapted to serve other, less glamorous tasks. Starfighters, for example, after being deemed too old and slow to engage others of their kind, often see service as close support starbombers, or as reconnaissance ships. What were once battleships can live out their twilight careers as tenders or transports.
A shipyard will seldom let a sound design go to waste, not before wringing every credit they can out of it by adapting it for different roles. Often each new iteration will have a smaller crew, less sophisticated systems...
...until, finally, this trend reaches its logical extreme.

Drone barges have been a part of Galactic commerce since prehistory.
Most spacefaring civilizations, before they put sentient beings or even animals into space, started their efforts with simple, automated spacecraft. Without crews, they were simpler, safer and easier to build; the first, almost invariably, were meant for exploration, a role which continues to this day, but as young civilizations began to exploit the resources of their home systems, freight hauling became another domain where such technology was employed.
Today, automated starships make up a respectable percentage of interstellar and in-system shipping in the Galaxy. Without the need for an organic crew, or any of the systems related to accommodating one, they are significantly cheaper to operate. Trillions of tons of cargo annually is transported by such vessels, never to be touched by organic hands at any point in the shipping process.
Drones of course have their disadvantages; while they are less costly to operate, they are also less secure and less reliable than crewed freighters. Drones are vulnerable to mechanical failures and navigational errors that an organic crew would be able to correct in flight; they are also far less capable of evading or resisting unexpected obstacles and outright piracy, and are often preyed upon by pirates for this reason. To mitigate these shortcomings, drones are usually only operated on well established and predictable shipping routes, and usually travel in convoys, sometimes shepherded by a crewed control/escort vessel.
Very often, drone vessels are not purpose-built as such. Although dedicated drone ships do exist, designed from the ground up with automation in mind, it is far more common for obsolete starship designs which once had crews to be adapted for the purpose. Old hulks, too, nearing the end of their spaceworthy careers, are often refitted as drones, which is often easier and cheaper than renewing a crew certification.

The Logitran drone barge is more or less typical as such vessels go. Far from being designed for automation, or even cargo service, the type started life as the Dorsai-class, a swift corvette designed and built by the venerable Domel-Berger Yards. Centuries ago, the Dorsai-class was considered to be state-of-the-art, fitted with heavy weapons and powerful engines, and capable of exceptional maneuverability for its size. Thousands were built, serving in the rounds of Sith-Jedi and Sith-Republic wars, proving themselves time and again in combat.
Unfortunately, time eventually caught up with the Dorsai-class. After about a century of service, the type was beginning to grow long-in-the-tooth, and was gradually replaced by more modern designs. Obsolete as a capital ship, the type was reworked by DBY as a blockade runner, but as the years passed, it was gradually downgraded to the role of an armed transport.
Finally, the Dorsai-class and its variations were dropped entirely from DBY's catalog. The basic design was sold, and various second-rate starship manufacturers passed it around for several decades, selling it most often in liner or bulk transport configurations.
Eventually, the design was acquired by Best Quality Mechanicals, an Outer Rim manufacturer specializing in budget priced droids. BQM, having found success with a number of products aimed at the shipboard market, was looking to branch out, and had acquired a failing starship production facility which was renamed BQM Drive Yards, and subsequently spun off as a subsidiary.
BQM Drive Yards was meant to produce low-cost vessels for the lucrative drone barge market. To this end, rather than investing in a purpose-built design, the company acquired an older design which could be converted. As the obsolete Dorsai-class was being sold at a bargain price by another starship manufacturer undergoing liquidation, it was snapped up as the company's new flagship product.

BQM renamed their version of the old Dorsai-class as the Logitran-class. The conversion was fairly straightforward; removal of unwanted systems, and the addition of equipment for drone operation.
After centuries of revisions toward civilian service, little remained of the Dorsai's original military armament or other equipment. The only weapons retained by the Logitran were a pair of light blaster turrets, one on each side, primarily meant for clearing space debris; of more dubious status was a reinforced ram bow, a holdover from the original design, but too heavily integrated into the structural elements to be easily removed.
The ship's original armor plating was long gone, replaced with cheaper durasteel hull panels by a previous manufacturer, although up to that point the type had still been equipped with relatively robust shields; these were done away with by BQM's datapad-pushers, with the original shield generator replaced by a less powerful, cheaper to source unit.
The most drastic alteration to the type was the gutting of all spaces and systems related to the ship's crew. The design's original tall bridge superstructure was removed entirely, and all crew and passenger quarters were deleted, making way for dramatically enlarged cargo bays. Even the life support systems were stripped out, removing even the option of carrying passengers entirely (although stowaways in vac suits regularly ride anyway).
Most of BQM's other changes to the design amounted to removing non-essential systems and interior spaces, and replacing required systems with cheaper versions than had been used previously. One of the few additions was the installation of a hard-wired pilot droid brain to fly the ship, derived from one of the company's budget astromech units. Out of the crate, this brain could pilot the ship on a prearranged course, perform hyperspace jumps with the aid of a peripheral navicomputer, land or dock at pre-assigned locations, and run diagnostics on the ship's systems and cargo. It was also able to raise or lower shields, and to fire the ship's weak blasters at obstacles or clearly hostile parties, although the criteria defining the latter were so rigid that the drone rarely got in the first shot, and fire control was sluggish.
Being based on an astromech platform, the control brains could also develop distinct personalities and creative abilities if not given regular memory wipes. Such wipes were suggested as standard operating procedure for owners of such vessels, as otherwise they could become unruly.
Though often hampered by its control brain, the ship did also retain a measure of its original mobility, having the potential to maneuver like a corvette, albeit without nearly the same speed.

The result of these changes was a lean, budget starship, priced at about a third of what the old Dorsai-derived transports had cost, with special bulk rates for fleet operators. They were, primarily by virtue of their low cost, a success for BQM Drive Yards, cementing their profitability. The Logitran-class remains a steady seller for the company, and they are a common sight in large spaceports across the Galaxy.
 
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Loco

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How potentially autonomous is the droid brain? Like, is one of these things going to develop a personality and elope like a ginormous R2 unit?
 

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@Loco

With regular memory wipes, these things would be as rigid and obedient as any other droid. But yeah, I sort of see them as giant astromechs; they can develop personalities and such. That's sort of the basis for the character I intend to make with one of these.
 

Loco

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The ship itself is Approved.

The use of a craft this large as a character may need to be a separate discussion with some of the Character Mods/RP Admins, though you can consider me intrigued.
 
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