Restated B-66A Early Light Bomber Design. (Yr 167) Revision 3.

This is a 2 space bomber, Speed 8, 2 type VI 1/2 space drone rails (and drones) mounted on wings, 2 photon torpedo launchers (mounted externally as in the B52, A-20 and A-10 designs) and no phaser (as at the time it was designed it was assumed phasers were not necessary) and a 2 space weapons bay that could hold 2 spaces of drones, or 2 spaces of fighter pods, or 2 spaces worth of cargo, or a single (2 space) transporter bomb/small mine, YIS 167.

The B-66B variant was an upgrade that was materially the same as the type A model, except that it added a single Chaff Pack, a RA phaser 3, and 2 standard drone rails(on the wings). speed 10. YIS 173.

The Model B-66C variant was materially the same as the model B, plus a second Chaff Pack, the RA phaser 3 was upgraded to a phaser 2 RA and speed increased to 12. YIS 178.

The Model B-66D variant was a model C that upgraded the RA phaser 2 to 2 RA phaser 3's, and speed increased to 15. YIS 184+

There was an ECM version of the B-66. (change from last revision, drops the MRS abilities.)

Comments:

The Model A was the prototype and proof of concept craft that competed against the A-6 for the carrier assault shuttle contract. Disqualified as it was too large to fit in the carriers of the time, political influence was exerted to adopt the type as a early bomber design to supplement the B-52 program.

The Model B was the emergency upgrade to B-66 Bomber squadrons deployed in combat against coalition forces in the early years of the Federation involvement of the General War. This was the most capable version that actually saw combat.

The Model C was a proposed but unbuilt variant that was obsolete at the time of the proposal (yr 178).(this design included provision for adding special rails to the B-66 to allow the use of Type IV drones (total of 2 per bomber)).

The Model D was a cheap planetary attrition unit for the post war defense needs of the UFP. Cheaper than the B1 and B2 types, it was far less capable and never considered as a viable substitute for modern designs. (a design proposal to add 2 more modular photons in the weapons bay (as was done for the B1 and B2 types) to increase the number of photons opperated by each B-66 to a total of 4 photons was judged to be too much stress on a fighter shuttle fram that was never intended to handle the increased load.)

(paraphrase of SPP comments)
"A "design proposal" that was eventually dropped when it was found impossible to make the technology work. It would take several years to develop the special drone rails and modular photon systems, and by then the B-66 design itself was obsolecent. No more than two or three production mock-ups were constructed (of the B-66C and B-66D versions), none of them capable of exo-atmospheric flight. One of these is currently on display in the Federation Space Museum on Mars."

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 22, 2019 - 11:54 pm: Edit

Limit it to one photon

No phaser 2

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - 04:54 pm: Edit

I edited the proposal to change "chaff POD" to "chaff PACK." Pretty sure that is what was intended and wanted to make it clear.

Note that it lacks the built-in electronic warfare pod found on most bombers and two-space fighters.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - 12:39 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick:

note this is the Nerfed retconed proposal. iirc this was the proposed bomber MRS edition that was to have HAD most of the abilities of a MRS built on a bomber frame. (the exception being the bomber had drone rails in stead of the MRS drone system.) having a built in ECM pod plus MRS abilities would have been redundant, which is why this proposed bomber didnt the get the built in ECM pod.

when the MRS thing failed, this reverted back to being a failed light bomber program. (and i guess no one noticed the absence of the biult in pods.)

the inspiration for this was the real world us airforce B-66 used as ECM support aircraft in the Vietnam War bomber campaign "Rolling Thunder".