Ikazuchi's: Fulfillment of the Daedalus concept?

[1st Border Red Devil]

Ok..

having thought about this quite a bit lately, Im convinced that the Ikazuchi's are brigade/division sized drop ships. Several things led me to the conclusion that the Ikazuchi is the Daedalus Concept taken to its logical conclusion.

1.) There are no cannon on the bottom. If the class of ship were designed purely for space operations, then why are there no guns to defend the undercarriage?

2.) The 'hourglass' structure at the front of the ship looks like it should fold down. While the upper one could be used to recover Alphas for reloading into the quick launch bays, the bottom structure is perfectly suited for lowering to disgorge troops onto a surface.

3.) If the ship was meant to be used in space alone and not to be used inside an atmosphere, why in The Invid Invasion were the Ikazuchi's of the 21st Mars Division even anywhere near Low Earth Orbit? Coming that close to the Invid controlled atmosphere would be inviting them to destroy the heaviest cruisers in the fleet.

No. Its apparent that the Ikazuchi is a troop ship/drop ship meant to move large amounts of troops and supplies quickly to a planetary surface. Of the ships seen in The New Generation only the SDF-4 Izumo wasn't designed to land on a planet's surface.

PS - According to The Sentinels script for the eps. Soft Sector (IIRC), the REF deployed an SDF-5 (Ikazuchi) to Tirol's surface for the purpose of landing 2 brigades to reinforce the GMU already there. While this is not proof in my eyes...as I wanna see The Sentinels burned for the most part....it does seem that others felt this way long before I did.

[Druna Skass]

I was always under the impression that it served the same purpose as the U.N. Spacy's Uraga-class.

Edited September 16, 2004 by Druna Skass

[Radd]

While I hate to rationalize wny of the shows' designs into a Robotech context, even for MOSPEADA it's not entirely out of the question that the ship is build to land. It would explain the otherwise unforgivable lack of lower weapon emplacements.

Mmm, I love that ship design. The MOSPEADA ship designs are one thing that has me looking forward to the new Robotech series.

[Phyrox]

Actually, there is a scene where we are shown the Ikazuchi's lower guns...I'll try to find it.

edit - hmm, seems the scene I was remembering shows turrets on the vertical sides of the hull, not the underside of the hull. I don't remember seeing these in any animation sheets, so there could also be turrets under the hull I suppose.

And simply because there is no evidence to contradict it, doesn't go very far to convince me that it is a lander...

Edited September 16, 2004 by Phyrox

[1st Border Red Devil]

Nope...sorry. There is visual proof that there are no turrets on the underside of an Ikazuchi. For your viewing pleasure (thanks to Olsonk for these pics)

[Druna Skass]

I don't know about landing on land, but it looks like it could float to me.

[Anubis]

I say it's a floater.

[Druna Skass]

I say it's a floater.

You make it sound like a turd...

[Wabbit]

Who cares about guns/turrets on de undercarriage, they're about to be destroyed anyway!