The Kerbal People's Militia!

[Wait- Was That Important?]

Well Ladies and Gentlekerbs, it seems that Kongress has finally gotten bored of going to space. To be fair, the fact that most Kerbals who went up there never came back was pretty bad for morale, and towards the end there we were practically locking those guys in there so the couldn't get out on the way up.

But no matter! With an inflated budget and no dreams of stellar exploration to fritter it away on, the Kerbal government has decided to become a despotic military state (who elected these turds? Oh wait, that's right...) with a powerful fighting force that spans the solar system.

You've survived the purges that took place at the Kerbal Space Center after this shift in attitudes, and are now the premier engineer for the newly formed Kerbal People's Militia. The Kerbal State has been calling itself a "military powerhouse" for about two months now and those jerks over at KSC-2 have been actually asking questions, and nobody likes those. So before they decide to pop over here and actually check to see if we have a military, you need to build one for us.

What? That's not ridiculous. Why are you laughing? Seriously, we only have like a month to do this. It's your head if everyone is laughing at us in a month's time. Why are you crying now? Geez, are you bipolar or something? Stop being so emotional and get to work! You have an entire military to build!

The Kerbal People's Militia

Challenge: Alright, listen up. We have a limited time to do this in, but thankfully sport a huge budget and large pool of test subjects available manpower to abuse utilize. The plan is broken down into a few "stages" for you to achieve, I'll break them down for you below. But first, there are a few limitations imposed by those Kongressmen on what you can do. First, we realize that most of the parts you have to work with are made for peaceful exploration, which aren't so conducive to making imposing-looking war craft. So, in the interest of saving time and face, mods are allowed, even encouraged. Now, obviously, as a newly despotic state, nobody really wants to sell us pre-made military craft. But no matter! Part packs like B9 (especially the D12 expansion!) and KW Rocketry have all the parts we could ever need to make a fighting force, but feel free to use any other mod that's NOT a military replica craft. Other than that, try to avoid crashing your things into the VAB- it's expensive and we don't have many spares.

Stage One: We Shall Call it the "Fair" Force

Summary: In the name of justice, equality, happiness, and the empowerment of all Kerbals everywhere, it's your job to make an oppressive air force for one Kerbal nation. Don't look at me like that. We need a few craft that can do all sorts of roles, that I'll list below:

TOP SPEED: How fast can you go? Floor it, and make sure you meet these requirements below a certain altitude.

HANDLING: Put 'er hard over and see how she goes! You can check this by pressing F3. Warning: this voids the warranty of all parts and may cause unconsciousness, structural failure, or unplanned disassembly.

RANGE: Can it blow up those buttheads over at KSC-2? You don't actually have to fly it that far: Take your full fuel capacity and divide it by your consumption per second. Then, multiply this by your top speed in meters per second, and divide by 1000 to find your range in kilometers.

SIZE: We don't have the best runways. We can't have hundred-ton behemoths taking off from here every other day. Keep it kompact, Kerbal!

PAYLOAD: This is not included in the vessel size. You can actually slap missiles and such on here if you have a mod for it, but otherwise, use fuel tanks or other heavy items (you CANNOT use fuel from these!). These can also be kept in internal bays.

REWARD: This is how you're scored! While technically you don't have to meet all these criteria, it's highly recommended.

1. Fighter Jet

Sleek. Sexy. Savage. Our jet fighter needs to be none of these things. If it works, then that's fine by us. It can look like a flying version of Bill's Butt as far as we care, just make something that can blow a good sized portion of the sky out of the... umm, sky.

TOP SPEED: Greater than 500m/s below 15km

HANDLING: Greater than 5g

RANGE: Greater than 2000km

SIZE: Less than 10 tons

PAYLOAD: Greater than 2.5 tons

REWARD: Up to 5 points, one for each criteria being met

2. Ground Attack Craft

Much like the old Space Program, we here at the Kerbal People's Militia greatly dislike the ground. Those old guys spent all their time trying (and usually failing) to get away from it. We think running is for chumps: we plan to blow it up instead. No, obviously not the whole ground. Did you even go to school? Whatever, don't answer that. Just make us a fast jet that can frag a certain portion of the ground somewhere far far away.

TOP SPEED: Greater than 500m/s below 15km

HANDLING: Greater than 3g

RANGE: Greater than 2000km

SIZE: Less than 15 tons

PAYLOAD: Greater than 5 tons

REWARD: Up to 5 points, one for each criteria being met

3. Supersonic Bomber

Bomber jackets are cool, right? Yes, I know that the advent of pressurized cockpits and interiors means that we don't need bomber jackets any longer. But they just look so awesome! We need an excuse to give these out to pilots, as a PR thing. I know that we're a despotic state, yes. That doesn't mean we can't look cool once and awhile. Give us a big plane than can turn those darn guys at KSC-2 into slag. Handling? Ehh... if it goes fast enough, it doesn't need to outmaneuver anybody, right?

TOP SPEED: Greater than 1000m/s below 20km

HANDLING: Greater than 1g

RANGE: Greater than 4000km

SIZE: Less than 75 tons

PAYLOAD: Greater than 25 tons

REWARD: Up to 10 points, two for each criteria being met

4. Cargo Transport

Ah, yes. The inglorious but necessary logistical backbone of any Kerbal operation. How hard can this be? Try to make it look cool so young and newly-drafted Kerbal pilots won't get depressed when they're told they actually have to fly the darn thing. Oh, and make sure it can carry some of their friends too, at least that way they won't get bored.

TOP SPEED: Greater than 250m/s below 15km

HANDLING: Meh

RANGE: Greater than 5000km

SIZE: Less than 50 tons

PAYLOAD: Greater than 25 tons, including 2 Kerbal passengers

REWARD: Up to 10 points, two for each criteria being met

5. High Altitude Reconnaissance Plane

No, High Altitude does not mean "in space". We don't really have available satellites, they crashed, remember? Yes, all of them. Why is that hard to believe? Okay, maybe we did shoot a few down as target practice... okay, more than a few. That's not the point. We need a plane now that can fly high over the battlefield and take pictures. No, not selfies. Sometimes I honestly can't tell if you're slow or just sarcastic...

TOP SPEED: Greater than 2500m/s above 25km

HANDLING: Meh

RANGE: Greater than 4000km

SIZE: Less than 60 tons

PAYLOAD: Greater than 5 tons

REWARD: Up to 15 points, three for each criteria being met

Points total for Stage One: 45 points

More stages to come if there's interest in this challenge!

Spoiler from Stage 3:

Okay, so you've proved yourself with this whole aerospace engineering thing. Don't worry, take a break now, we don't need more planes. Why do you have that face? I- okay, yes, you're right, I do have something else for you. So you remember that Laythe colony we started awhile back? Yeah, of course you do, you were supposed to go out there before the Space Program closed down. They've decided that they're not in to the whole "despotic" thing we're doing... trouble is, the whole point of being despotic is that you can't just decide not to be despotic. So we need you to build a craft that's a little... extreme...

Edited July 14, 2014 by Wait, Was That Important?

[austinwelser]

Mods encouraged? I cant wait to try this challenge

[ihtoit]

where do I sign?? Behemoth-52 Global. 28t payload, multiple hardpoints, 27km ceiling, Mach 2.

Edited July 14, 2014 by ihtoit

[Wait- Was That Important?]

May I present, The Kerbal People's Militia of Wait, Was That Important?!

Dagger Fighter Jet

Sporting two cruise missiles and four air-to-air missiles, this fast jet can strike from afar or in close. Its maneuverability is hard to beat, but as a result, it burns through vomit bags nearly as quickly as it does jet fuel.

TOP SPEED: 880m/s @ 15km

HANDLING: 6.7g

RANGE: 4,450km

SIZE: 9,970kg

PAYLOAD: 4 tons

Mace Ground Strike Jet

Two cruise missiles for long-range attacks are coupled with 12 highly accurate ground-attack missiles to produce a craft which can obliterate an entire squadron on the ground. A single engine leaves the craft somewhat lacking in regards to flat-out speed, but its 10,100km range makes up for it.

TOP SPEED: 505m/s @ 15km

HANDLING: 5g

RANGE: 10,100km

SIZE: 13,050kg

PAYLOAD: 7 tons

War Axe Supersonic Bomber

The War Axe comes in two variants. Mark 1 holds 24 ground-attack missiles, making it a formidable opponent for any ground force. Mark 2 sports 16 cruise missiles with over 100km of range each, giving this incredibly fast plane a formidable strike capability. Able to fly up to 25km and hit speeds of up to 1250m/s, you'd be best not to wind up underneath the War Axe.

TOP SPEED: 1,160m/s @ 20km

HANDLING: 4.1g

RANGE: 3,880km

SIZE: 53,250kg

PAYLOAD: 25 tons

Pike Transport

The Pike's unique wing shape gives it a large amount of lift and a surprising agility for its size and girth. Carrying two cargo engineers inside its bay, it is primarily used for fuel transport, a role it excels at. Some Kerbals have been known to stuff sizeable Surface-to-Air missiles adapted for air launch into its bay, along with powerful radar systems, as a kind of airborne Q-ship, but this voids the warranty and more often than not leads to violent explosions in and around the cargo bay.

TOP SPEED: 290m/s @ 10km

HANDLING: 3.9g

RANGE: 9,280km

SIZE: 58,280kg

PAYLOAD: 40 tons

Halberd High Altitude Reconnaissance

A miracle of modern engineering, the Halberd is a marvelous craft. Replacing the role of the old Space Program's light lifter series, this craft can lift small payloads that are of a definitely-not-military-oriented-but-still-classified nature into low orbit for reasons. It's also a very fast atmospheric plane, able to both reach and exit orbit and serve as a recon plane in one flight. If versatility owned a plane, this would be it.

TOP SPEED: 1730m/s @ 28km

HANDLING: 4.1g

RANGE: 2,362km plus 75x75km orbit

SIZE: 18,890kg

PAYLOAD: 5 tons

Edited July 15, 2014 by Wait, Was That Important?

[OrtwinS]

The requested ranges are a bit small eh?

I think you can easily triple them. 2500 km isn't much for a supersonic bomber.

[Hodo]

F-21

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2 30mm cannons

6 2klb bombs and 4 AIM-9X Sidewinder A2A missiles.

Top speed- Orbital

Range- 100km x 100km orbit

(weapons provided by Skillful)

Weighs more then 10tons but it can pull 10.4gs in FAR without a problem.

[JebThePilot]

I'll go for the fighter challenge with my Fyresturm (to be posted) and my as-of-yet unfinished Bloodhawk VTOL GA jet.

[Wait- Was That Important?]

The requested ranges are a bit small eh?

I think you can easily triple them. 2500 km isn't much for a supersonic bomber.

Yeah, that's a good point. As I'm making my way through this I'm realizing that the way KSP's jet engines work it's really easy to get planes with absurd ranges.

[Hodo]

Yeah, that's a good point. As I'm making my way through this I'm realizing that the way KSP's jet engines work it's really easy to get planes with absurd ranges.

If you were to make this a RO challenge with AJE jets, 2500km combat radius is a challenge.

[ihtoit]

1 stock jet, 150 fuel, 2 lasers (optional wingtip payload) and you got yourself a deadly kills-anything, fully tracking weapon platform that runs for as long as there's fuel flow.

Oh, and: 2400+km range (suborbital skipping), 11.3g tested banking at mach 3, and unclassified maximum speed@21km of 1610.1m/s. TOW: 4.48t

(question: how *do* you score Romfarer lasers?)

Edited July 14, 2014 by ihtoit

[Wait- Was That Important?]

I like the entries so far guys! I wish the real F-22 was a SSTO, that'd be the coolest thing!

1 stock jet, 150 fuel, 2 lasers (optional wingtip payload) and you got yourself a deadly kills-anything, fully tracking weapon platform that runs for as long as there's fuel flow.

http://i.imgur.com/sEABgEP.png

Oh, and: 2400+km range (suborbital skipping), 11.3g tested banking at mach 3, and unclassified maximum speed@21km of 1610.1m/s. TOW: 4.48t

(question: how *do* you score Romfarer lasers?)

Err... I hadn't really imagined people using lasers. The whole idea of the "payload" requirement was assuming missiles and bombs as weapons. I guess call each laser 2 ton equivalent (about 6 missiles) or such. Those are impressive statistics for such a small jet! I guess simple really is better.

---

I finished my entry, proving that the first tier is attainable. I'll do the second tier tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy a message from your politikal sponsor over at Kongress:

"So you actually managed to do it? And meet all of the design criteria as well? I'm impressed. I knew you could do it all along! What betting circle? I don't know what you're talking- oh, that betting circle. Darn loose-lipped interns. Okay, so maybe we were taking bets on your failure. Just a bit of harmless fun. And besides, I bet on you too! Oh, he told you that as well? That intern is a security risk I tell you, but he makes the best koffee I've ever drank.

Interns aside, you've proven yourself and have now earned the title of... er... Dedicated Engineer! No, I didn't just make that up on the spot, thank you very much. As the very first Dedicated Engineer of the Kerbal People's Military, it would be unfitting for you to toil away on measly Tier 1 projects. You've earned the privilege to take on the even more challenging Tier 2 projects! Do you have a facial tick? Why is your lip quivering? Chin up man, what's the worst that could happen? Oh... I guess you're right, execution as an enemy of the state is pretty bad. I guess you'll just have to succeed again! Good luck!"

Tier 2 Coming Tomorrow!

Edited July 15, 2014 by Wait, Was That Important?