The Newbie and Short Questions thread

[Seto Kaiba]

3 hours ago, cheemingwan1234 said:

So, okay, what changes would be made to the YF-21 if it won Project Super Nova? I was thinking they would need to scale back BDI/BDS and use manual controls as the main control option for the VF-21 again since well, BDS has a tendency to pick up stray thoughts from the pilot.

Without any other changes to the story of Macross Plus?  It'd just be the same VF-22 we got in Macross 7.

[DeltaE27]

The description (and decals) of the Hasegawa VF-0C state these valkyries were assigned to the SLV-111 Daedalus (the same that would eventually become the SDF-1’s punching arm full of destroids) before being phased out. 

My understanding is the Daedalus is an assault ship, not an aircraft carrier. 
 

I’d assume a model kit’s description isn’t exactly primary canon, but it does have me curious. Does the Daedalus have the ability to launch non-helicopter aircraft? Did the VF-0C pilots just always use GERWALK to take off or something?

[twich]

1 hour ago, DeltaE27 said:

The description (and decals) of the Hasegawa VF-0C state these valkyries were assigned to the SLV-111 Daedalus (the same that would eventually become the SDF-1’s punching arm full of destroids) before being phased out. 

My understanding is the Daedalus is an assault ship, not an aircraft carrier. 
 

I’d assume a model kit’s description isn’t exactly primary canon, but it does have me curious. Does the Daedalus have the ability to launch non-helicopter aircraft? Did the VF-0C pilots just always use GERWALK to take off or something?

You could think of it like the US Marine Amphibious Assault Ship. It does the deployment of Marines, but also hovercraft, landing craft, vehicles, tanks, Artillery and Helicopters and Harriers. If the deck is coated with the heat resistant material, even F-35B’s

Twich

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, DeltaE27 said:

The description (and decals) of the Hasegawa VF-0C state these valkyries were assigned to the SLV-111 Daedalus (the same that would eventually become the SDF-1’s punching arm full of destroids) before being phased out. 

My understanding is the Daedalus is an assault ship, not an aircraft carrier. 

@twich is completely correct.

The UN Forces SLV-111 Daedalus is an amphibious assault ship in the style of a modern marine amphibious assault ship... just much bigger.  Its oldest technical writeup actually says it was designed by the US Navy and US Marine Corps.  Like a modern amphibious assault ship, it does support a modest number of aircraft for its size (mainly helicopters) which are used for a variety of purposes including logistical support, anti-submarine warfare, close air support of ground troops, and combat air patrols.  Daedalus's upper hull is configured as a flight deck which, due to the ship's incredible size for its role, is said to be able to simultaneously support either 22 regular-sized helicopters, 12 Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopters, or 12 VF-1 Battroids for VTOL takeoff.

As the ship spent most of its very brief actual service life in space, it had very little opportunity to put those capabilities to use.

 

2 hours ago, DeltaE27 said:

I’d assume a model kit’s description isn’t exactly primary canon, but it does have me curious. Does the Daedalus have the ability to launch non-helicopter aircraft? Did the VF-0C pilots just always use GERWALK to take off or something?

Based on the oldest versions of its technical writeup from series mechanical setting coordinator Masahiro Chiba, yes it can.  Not many, but it can.  The description provided says Battroids for VTOL takeoff, so presumably they're stored as Battroids too.

The only source to actually discuss the VF-0C's operations is the non-official setting Variable Fighter Master File, which acknowledges the Hasegawa kit and provides some minor details related to it.  Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix describes all twelve production VF-0Cs having been delivered to the UN Marine Corps VMFAT-203 Hawks in Hawaii for evaluation and model conversion training before "about eight" of those aircraft were sent to the SLV-111 Daedalus at South Ataria island.  They operated there as patrol aircraft and provided direct air cover for UN Navy ships during an Anti-Unification Alliance attack on the island (though it doesn't say when, possibly the final Christmas offensive of 2008 depicted in the Macross the First manga, which also had participation of VF-0s from the CVN-99 Asuka II's sister ship CVN-100 Graf Zeppelin II).  Nothing is said about how exactly they operated from the Daedalus's flight deck, though it may be simply that they used the length of the flight deck and their V/STOL capability to save fuel rather than go full VTOL.

[DeltaE27]

Thank you both! That all absolutely makes sense, and the comparison to US Marine assault ships does help. I was mainly wondering because I was having a hard time visualizing the Daedalus’ upper hull as a flight deck, but I forgot just how long that ship is. 

[Seto Kaiba]

46 minutes ago, DeltaE27 said:

Thank you both! That all absolutely makes sense, and the comparison to US Marine assault ships does help. I was mainly wondering because I was having a hard time visualizing the Daedalus’ upper hull as a flight deck, but I forgot just how long that ship is. 

Yeah, it's easy to forget the Daedalus-class and Prometheus-class are 50% larger than the largest modern aircraft carriers at the time the original series was made (the Nimitz-class) and that that's still broadly true with the new and only slightly larger Gerald R. Ford-class.  The Daedalus-class in particular is about twice the size of the next-largest marine amphibious assault ship (Wasp-class).

The overkill was intentional on the UN Forces' part... the combination of a Prometheus-class supercarrier and Daedalus-class amphibious assault ship (with escorts) were meant to basically be a self-contained mobile army able to crush any enemy force that landed within their area of operations.  (Master File asserts that there were supposed to be five pairs, each roving a specific stretch of coastline around the world.)

[pengbuzz]

47 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Yeah, it's easy to forget the Daedalus-class and Prometheus-class are 50% larger than the largest modern aircraft carriers at the time the original series was made (the Nimitz-class) and that that's still broadly true with the new and only slightly larger Gerald R. Ford-class.  The Daedalus-class in particular is about twice the size of the next-largest marine amphibious assault ship (Wasp-class).

The overkill was intentional on the UN Forces' part... the combination of a Prometheus-class supercarrier and Daedalus-class amphibious assault ship (with escorts) were meant to basically be a self-contained mobile army able to crush any enemy force that landed within their area of operations.  (Master File asserts that there were supposed to be five pairs, each roving a specific stretch of coastline around the world.)

And then remember that Daedalus  and Prometheus were the arms of the SDF-1 should give folks pause as to the actual dimensions of the Battle Fortress.

It's one thing to think of the ship in meters or feet; it's another thing entirely to consider just how big it is in comparison to objects in real life that we see and know everyday.

One of my favorite videos (SDF-1 @ 5:14, and the Macross Cannon @ 5:39):

 

Edited August 10 by pengbuzz

[JB0]

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Its oldest technical writeup actually says it was designed by the US Navy and US Marine Corps.

USMC... well, that explains the Daedalus attack. The marines probably submitted a proposal to punch enemies out of the sky with their pride and joy less than a day after the first transformation.

[Raktus]

Is there anywhere to watch Macross Fufonfia?

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Raktus said:

Is there anywhere to watch Macross Fufonfia?

I believe it's an extra feature on the Macross Frontier digitally remastered edition box set.

[Raktus]

Does that have English subs?

[Seto Kaiba]

11 hours ago, Raktus said:

Does that have English subs?

No.

[pengbuzz]

19 hours ago, Raktus said:

Is there anywhere to watch Macross Fufonfia?

I think Dailymotion has at least one episode of it there.

[RaisingCane]

Were the captains of the Daedalus and Prometheus ever named or shown in the original series?  I'd assume they outranked Misa (and probably everyone else besides Global).

Edited October 19 by RaisingCane

[Seto Kaiba]

2 minutes ago, RaisingCane said:

Were the captains of the Daedalus and Prometheus ever named or shown in the original series?  I'd assume they outranked Misa (and probably everyone else besides Global).

No, they were not. 

It's unknown if they were among the crew who perished when the ship was transported into deep space by the Macross's fold jump or if they were simply off screen for the duration.

To the best of my knowledge, the only time either commanding officer has appeared is in the manga Macross the First. The captain of the Daedalus is briefly seen and named in the flashback chapters. His name is John Morton.

[George Yamamori]

How wealthy is the Earth compared to the 7 and Frontier fleets?

[sketchley]

12 minutes ago, George Yamamori said:

How wealthy is the Earth compared to the 7 and Frontier fleets?

While it is essentially an impossible question to answer, one way to look at it is the big purchases made by the Earth government.  In short: in addition to fully funding the ongoing costs to repair the environmental damages to the Earth, the Earth is able to fund the creation of dozens upon dozens of fleets at the same scale as the 7 and Frontier fleets, at the rate of 1 to 2 per year.

[George Yamamori]

1 hour ago, sketchley said:

While it is essentially an impossible question to answer, one way to look at it is the big purchases made by the Earth government.  In short: in addition to fully funding the ongoing costs to repair the environmental damages to the Earth, the Earth is able to fund the creation of dozens upon dozens of fleets at the same scale as the 7 and Frontier fleets, at the rate of 1 to 2 per year.

Is Earth still creating Macross fleets as of Delta?

[Master Dex]

Unclear but we know some fleets started launching from Eden as well as seen from the map in Frontier's opening. 

Though that all likely happened in the 30s and 40s too. There's a point where Earth might have slowed down it's own emigrant move because the expansion machine was self sustaining in a way.