Lancer Heavy Bomber

A notable absence amongst the arsenal of most militaries is the heavy bomber. Many chose to forgo the construction of such craft, choosing instead to either send capital ships or swarms of lighter fighter/bombers. MMA has decided to resurrect this type of craft, pointing out that capital ships are expensive and standard fighters sometimes lack the range for deep strikes, necessitating a carrier craft. The Lancer Heavy Bomber provides heavy, deep strike capability at the fraction of the cost of a capital ship and is more than able to defend itself from starfighter attack.

Capabilities
The Lancer almost qualifies as a light capital warship instead of a fighter. At over 42 meters long, it dwarfs most standard fighters and is nearly twice the length of a Skipray Blastboat. It carries heavy armor and shielding, but is not particularly nimble or fast.

The bomber has a crew of thirteen; a pilot and co-pilot; a bombardier, who controls the craft's offensive arsenal; a navigator; a flight engineer, who doubles as the electronic warfare officer and also serves as a gunner; and six gunners that man the bomber's various turrets.

To protect the huge craft from attack, designers added eight turrets, six containing dual laser cannon and two containing concussion missile launchers. The laser cannon turrets can either be manned or computer controlled, though accuracy suffers, while the concussion missile turrets are remotely controlled by the flight engineer. The turrets enable the bomber to protect itself from almost every direction. Two more laser cannons and three ion cannons are fixed forward and and are controlled by the co-pilot. An internal bomb bay holds the bomber's offensive weaponry, with fifty hardpoints, arranged on rotary launchers, for ordinance or equipment. The payload enables a single squadron of bombers to carry more firepower than eight squadrons of X-wings or four squadrons of B-wings.