With the technology salvaged from the crashed SDF-1, the people of Earth were able to jump technological hurdles that would have taken decades and centuries to match normally. The arrival of the SDF-1 Macross, and the technological renaissance that the event caused, brought the people of Earth up to a level of technology where they became an actual threat to the Zentraedi. The main failing of the people of Earth is that much of the technology was so new that they had little experience in using it and some parts could not be replaced, such as the Fold Drives. While the level of technology did not change drastically for the people of Earth following the end of the First Robotech War, the secrets of the alien technology, dubbed Robotechnology by some, were slowly revealed to researchers across the planet. Unfortunately, it was not until the end of the Third Robotech War that the Humans really began to understand the technology that they used in their ships and mecha. This document describes the ship systems used by the people of Earth and it uses the information in the Standard Ship Systems document. Technology concerning missiles is covered in the Early Human Missiles document.
From computers to shields to electronic counter measures, combat systems are vital to protect a ship from attacks and to allow a ship to hit a target. The people of Earth have developed some highly advanced combat systems by adapting the technology and tactics they used prior to the arrival of the SDF-1 with the advanced technology taken from that ship. While these advances were relatively insignificant when compared against the might of the Zentraedi armada or the Robotech Masters' fleet, in small encounters, the people of Earth often had a small advantage over their enemies.
A Human development, Electronic Warfare Systems provided an edge that the Zentraedi, the Robotech Masters, and the Invid could not match. Using these systems, Human ships and mecha were harder to hit then their enemies. See Early Human Ships for more details on how much ECM and ECCM each ship class can produce and see Electronic Warfare and EWSs for more details on Electronic Warfare and Electronic Warfare Systems.
All Human ships are equipped with some level of armor that protects the ship from damage. The type of armor used by the people of Earth is a special ceramic-steel mix that results in an ultra-hard metallic alloy. This alloy is an M.D.C. structure and is the basis of all ship armor, mecha armor, fighter armor, vehicle armor, and body armor used by the people of Earth and is based off of technology taken from the crashed SDF-1.
All large Human spaceships are equipped with jamming equipment. While the system is active conventional radar, gravity-wave sensors, and missile guidance systems that rely on those sensors will not be able to function properly in the area affected. The jamming also effects communications systems that rely on radio waves. Affected sensor and communication systems will have their ranges reduced to 25% of normal and sensors have a penalty of -60% to all Read Sensory rolls, including the chance of detecting any targets in the area of the jamming within their reduced range, which also includes the ship carrying the active jamming system. If detected, there is a bonus of +25% to a Read Sensory Equipment skill roll to determine which detected ship is the source of the jamming.
This system is a reconstruction of the Hexagonal Force Field System on the original Macross vessel. While the hexagonal system was destroyed, enough of the system remained that Doctor Lang and his research department was able to develop a new system to help defend the ship from attack. Unfortunately, this system is quite primitive and while all incoming attacks hit the shield normally, all attacks from inside the shield, such as from the ship that created the shield, will also damage the shield. This prevents those from within the shield from attacking those outside the shield as long as it remains active. Even worse, as the shield takes damage it begins to overload and once it reaches 0 M.D.C. it will violently explode. The resulting explosion will do 1D4 million M.D. to everything within a 1D4x10 mile area, 1D4x1000 M.D. to everything in a 5 mile (8 km) radius beyond that, and 1D4x100 M.D. to everything 10 miles (16 km) beyond that. The barrier system regenerates at a rate of 100 M.D.C. per minute that it is active and 10,000 M.D.C. per hour that it is inactive. Both the SDF-1 Macross and the SDF-3 Pioneer were equipped with a shield system of this type.
This system, also based on the Tirolian's Hexagonal Force Field System, generates a number small disc shaped force fields, usually three or four, that can be positioned and moved anywhere along the ship to deflect missiles, energy beams, or projectiles. Each pinpoint barrier is 197' (60 m) in diameter and can absorb up to 5000 M.D.C. before it is temporarily disabled. The barriers can also be placed on top of each other to provide additional protection against a single attack. The barriers completely regenerate all damage every five seconds or three melee attacks no matter how damaged they were. To deflect an attack, each barrier attempting must make a successful parry roll, with a bonus of +7. If the parry is successful then the attack damages the barrier first. Each barrier can deflect up to 8 attacks per melee. Any excess damage done by a beam or projectile attack will continue to damage the ship, but missile attacks are completely deflected, even if they overwhelm the barrier system.
The people of Earth developed the same type of Hull Region distributions that the Tirolians used by analyzing the armor of the crashed alien ship. When a ship is attacked, the type and strength of an attack determines whether an attack damages only a single Hull Region or whether it damages the ship's Main Body. For more details on the rules concerning Hull Regions please see Revised Rules for Ship Armor and how it applies to the ship's used by the Humans in Early Human Ships.
Developed alongside the mecha version, the SF-X Shadow Cloaking Device has only one purpose: to prevent any Protoculture emissions from escaping a ship. With an active shadow device, a ship is basically rendered invisible to the Invid's most powerful sensor system and most Invid brains will ignore a target that they can see on their subspace mass sensors, but not on their protoculture sensors. Unfortuntaely, the device is not very stable and there is a 50% chance that the device will fail when the ship loses at least 50% of its main body; roll for the first time it is reduced past this point and for each subsequent attack that inflicts at least 1% of the main body's M.D.C. in a single attack or a volley.
While the Tirolians possessed advanced technology in many areas, in the area of computers, the people of Earth were pretty close to the same level as the Tirolians. Connecting the ship's sensor systems with the weapon systems is the Targeting Computer System. The system is designed to control all of the weapons currently equipped on the ship. To control additional weapons, the system must be modified by computer technicians, which can be easily accomplished with a successful use of the Computer Programming skill, although a targeting computer can generally only be made to support up to 200% more weapons then the original, unmodified system could. The number of ships that can be targeted simultaneously depends on the size and complexity of the system, but generally this is not a problem because a ship can easily switch between targets, the only problem is that many ships can detect when they are being targeted by a ship using systems that they are familiar with. The targeting computer is able to identify friendly targets by using an IFF (Identify Friend / Foe) system; these systems are also useful for identifying enemy vessels with information stored in the targeting computer. With targeting computers, ships receive bonuses to strike for both its direct fire weapons, such as energy weapons, and for missile systems. The bonuses provided depend on ship class, see Early Human Ships for specific strike bonuses.
When the scientists, engineers, and technicians finished analyzing the crashed alien ship, they were amazed to discover that many of the technologies used on Earth were also used on the alien ship, although in slightly different ways. For example, the alien ship used a form of radio and laser systems to send transmission short distances, although the format used by the alien ship was quite different then the systems used on Earth. The most significant difference was the presence of an FTL communication system, which the people of Earth only understood the basic principles of.
Based on the same technology as the Fold Drive, the Hyperspace Communications Relay allows faster than light communication between two objects. However, Hyperspace Communication is still not instantaneous. Audio/Video communication travels through Hyperspace at a rate of about one light-year every 5 seconds, so messages communicated over vast distances can still take days, weeks, or even months to arrive. Unlike most types of communications, the Hyperspace Communications Relay can communicate through planets and other obstructions unhindered. While extremely difficult to intercept, it is possible and the intercepting unit must be either close to the source or the destination of the communication, however, Hyperspace Communications are impossible to jam and the only way to stop an object from sending this type of communications is to destroy the antennas that are needed for the relay to function properly.
Laser communications are much more efficient then radio waves and can be much harder to detect. Lasers can be set for different widths, and narrower beams are much harder to detect, but they also require the origin of the beam to know precisely where the target will be once the beam gets to its destination. With that restriction, narrow beams are usually only used when the destination is not moving, but the only way to detect or intercept such a beam is to physically get in the way of the laser beam. It is very difficult to block laser communications, but it is possible to do so by releasing chaff in the path that the beam much travel through, although the wider the beam, the larger the area that needs to be covered by chaff. Laser communications can be bounced off of satellites to greatly extend their range.
The people of Earth use Radio communications extensively on their ships and it is the basis of all of their normal communications. Radio communications are easy to jam and intercept, which makes them less then perfect for military operations, but they can be heavily scrambled and encrypted. Radio communications travel at the speed of light, but they cannot travel through obstacles like planets. Radio waves are also relatively easy to detect with other radio equipment, as long as the communication passes within range of the ship's radio equipment. Radio communications can be bounced off of satellites to greatly extend their range.
This category of ship systems do not fit into any of the other categories and are generally related to life support and command and control facilities. The systems in this category are found on nearly all ships.
The people of Earth use two different source of energy on their ships. The first is a fusion reactor, which generates energy and does not require any alien technology to operate and was used as a backup reactor on the SDF-1 and as the only source of power for most of the ships used by the Armies of the Southern Cross and the original Pioneer Mission's ships. The second reactor type is a Protoculture Reactor, which the Humans had no idea how to build until after the end of the Third Robotech War. Until that time, all Protoculture Reactors were taken from old Zentraedi ships and powered by draining several other old reactors, creating a less then perfect reactor, but at least it still worked. All Protoculture Reactors operate by forcing the seeds of the Flower of Life to undergo a special process, which causes the seeds to release a huge amount of energy that is harnessed by the reactor and distributed.
Using Tirolian technology gleaned from the crashed alien ship, the people of Earth learned how to create artificial gravity generators on their own ships to simulate the gravitational conditions on Earth. These systems are not sophisticated enough to alter gravity within the ship to different levels, so the entire ship must have the same gravitational conditions.
Life Support is the most critical system on a ship or space station and keeps everyone on the ship alive with the environmental conditions that allow them to function. For Humans, this means that the Life Support system consumes carbon dioxide, produces oxygen, processes bodily waste, and keeps the ship at a comfortable temperature. Life Support systems are generally designed to accommodate at least 10% more then their regular crew and troop complement. In emergency conditions, the maximum number of people that can be supported by a Life Support system can usually be exceeded, but not indefinitely.
With propulsion systems, the people of Earth did their best to use the technology taken from the crashed alien ship, unfortunately, they were less then perfect. The first attempt to use the anti-gravity units on the SDF-1 Macross saw those units rip right through the ship's armor, forcing it to use only its chemical rockets for the rest of its time in service. The people of Earth continued to improve their knowledge of the alien technology, and by the time of the Pioneer Mission's launch in 2022 most problems had been fixed and the technology was better understood. Another area where the people of Earth struggled was with the Fold Drives. Scientists and engineers had poured over the Fold Drive on the SDF-1 for a decade but came no closer to understanding how it worked, even worse, the ship's drive disappeared after its first use at the beginning of the First Robotech War. Even at the time of the Pioneer Mission's launch, the people of Earth had no idea how the Fold Drives really worked and they had to salvage all of their drives from derelict Zentraedi vessels in Earth's orbit.
Using the drive on the SDF-1 as a base, the RDF was eventually able to duplicate this interesting drive system. The anti-gravity units located throughout the ship decrease its effective mass so that the chemical rockets do not need to propel the ship's entire mass. The overall effect is that a ship has a much higher rate of acceleration then the power of its chemical rockets would otherwise indicate. The downside of this drive is that the chemical rockets do need a source of fuel that must be replenished.
Not fully able to rely on the adapted Tirolian technology, the people of Earth continued to use chemical rockets as the main source of propulsion in many of their fighters, mecha, and ships up until the end of the Third Robotech War.
One of the most significant achievements of the Tirolian people was the development of the Fold Drive, a system that allows a ship to effectively travel at speeds faster then light by folding space around the ship. This technology, which is also critical in several sensor systems and the hyperspace communications relay, baffled Human scientists for years and during that time, Humans could not build new Fold Drives, they were forced to salvage old drives from derelict Zentraedi ships in Earth orbit. It was not until the REF had access to the libraries on Tirol did Fold Drives and the science behind them become available. The Fold Drive allows a ship to effectively travel at a rate of 10 light-years per hour, or 1 light-year every six minutes, but the hyperspace navigational equipment that is part of the system cannot safely execute a fold jump of distances greater then 1 kiloparsec (3260 light-years). If the destination is further away, the ship must execute multiple jumps. The only significant improvement that the people of Earth developed for their Fold Drives was the ability to create a Fold Bubble around a ship or station executing a fold operation. This bubble, a perfect sphere with a radius determined by the power and size of the Fold Drive, could envelope whole ships and bring them along with the fold operation, although there was a maximum mass that the Fold Drive could transport in such a bubble, also determined by the drive's power and size. A ship executing a fold operation can be tracked by a Hyperspace Mass Sensor, but it is impossible to intercept a ship that is in the middle of a fold operation. The early, salvaged Fold Drives used by the people of Earth can only be activated once every four weeks, but the later Fold Drives can be activated once per hour.
While the people of Earth still possessed useful sensor systems, the Tirolians had developed more advanced sensors and the Humans were able to duplicate most of it, even if they didn't fully understand the science behind the technology. The people of Earth used both active and passive sensors and often deployed "pinging" with their active sensors to prevent the ship from being picked up very easily. Passive sensors do not emit any energy and cannot be detected, but many of them are less accurate then an active sensor.
For each sensor, a table is provided that shows the typical ranges for sensor systems equipped on ships used by the people of Earth. Each table is comprised of a sensor class and the maximum range they can detect tiny, small, medium, or large objects. Class I sensors are equipped on shuttles, class II sensors are equipped on frigate-sized ships or smaller, class III sensors are equipped on destroyer-sized ships, class IV sensors are equipped on Cruiser or Battlecruiser-sized ships, and class V sensors are equipped on Battleship-sized ships or larger. See Early Human Ships for specific sensor classes on ships used by the people of Earth. A tiny object is any object that is less then 150' (45.7 m) or Less then 1000 tons (907.2 metric tons). A small object is any object that is between 150' (45.7 m) and 1000' (305 m) long or between 1000 tons (907.2 metric tons) and 400,000 tons (362,874 metric tons). A medium object is any object that is between 1000' (305 m) and 5000' (1524 m) long or between 400,000 tons (362,874 metric tons) and 18 million tons (16.3 million metric tons). A large object is any object that is greater then 5000' (1524 m) long or greater then 18 million tons (16.3 million metric tons).
Ships used by the people of Earth are designed with the ability to detect Radar, Laser, Microwave, Radio, and all other electromagnetic frequencies. This can be done at 200% of the range of the transmitter. For example, if a ship is in the path of an active radar transmitter without any major obstacles between the two and the transmitter has a maximum range of 27 million miles (43.5 million km), then this sensor system could detect the transmitter at a range of 54 million miles (86.9 million km). One all signals, the ship attempting to detect the signals must be hit by the signal or it will be unable to detect those signals. This means that a wide beam radar cannot be detected on the other side of a planet from the detecting equipment and tight beam signals, such as laser communications, can only be detected if the ship attempting to detect them is in the middle of the beam. This sensor provides a modifier of +100% to detect targets, +80% to track targets, and no modifier to identify targets.
A very large and powerful sensor system, the Hyperspace Mass Sensor can detect and track ships that are using their Fold Drives. The Hyperspace Mass Sensors have a base chance of 75% to detect an active Fold Drive. The location of a detected space fold is limited to an area with a radius of 1.5 light-years, but once a ship is detected, the sensors will continue to track the ship until it arrives at its destination or leaves the detection range of the sensor. The sensors can narrow down the end point or the origin of a fold jump to an area with a radius of only 0.25 light-years. This sensor provides a modifier of +15% to detect targets, +100% to track targets, and -10% to identify targets.
| Sensor Class | Tiny | Small | Medium | Large |
| Class V | 6 parsecs (19.56 light-years) | 30 parsecs (97.8 light-years) | 60 parsecs (195.6 light-years) | 90 parsecs (293.4 light-years) |
The powerful radar arrays used by the people of Earth use radio waves to send emissions out from the ship where they will bounce off of all targets within range. The bounced waves become signals that the sensor can track with a high degree of precision. Unfortunately, radar systems travel at the speed of light, so at long ranges the information returned to a ship can be out-of-date. Also, like radio communications, the radio waves used by the a radar system can be easily jammed with the right equipment, although it is obvious when a radar array is being jammed. This sensor provides a modifier of +30% to detect targets, +30% to track targets, and +15% to identify targets.
| Sensor Class | Tiny | Small | Medium | Large |
| Class I | 3000 miles (4828 km) | 30,000 miles (48,280 km) | 60,000 miles (96,561 km) | 90,000 miles (144,841 km) |
| Class II | 150,000 miles (241,402 km) | 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km) | 3 million miles (4.8 million km) | 4.5 million miles (7.2 million km) |
| Class III | 450,000 miles (724,205 km) | 4.5 million miles (7.2 million km) | 9 million miles (14.5 million km) | 13.5 million miles (21.7 million km) |
| Class IV | 750,000 miles (1,207,008 km) | 7.5 million miles (12.1 million km) | 15 million miles (24.1 million km) | 22.5 million miles (36.2 million km) |
| Class V | 900,000 miles (1,448,410 km) | 9 million miles (14.5 million km) | 18 million miles (29 million km) | 27 million miles (43.5 million km) |
Along with most of their advanced technology, the people of Earth acquired the ability to build the Subspace Mass Sensor, which is a primitive gravity sensor, by examining the remains of the crashed alien ship. The Subspace Mass Sensor detects the gravity signatures created by an object and can track the movements of those objects. This sensor uses technology related to the Fold Drive, giving the sensor special properties that most gravity sensors do not possess. The Subspace Mass Sensor is not tricked by the presence of strong gravity sources, such as placing a ship near a planet, but its readings are not very details and ships have a penalty of -25% to identify any detected targets. A major advantage of a gravity-based sensor is that it is instantaneous across huge distances and this sensor can compensate for large gravity sources, such as planets and stars, allowing a ship to "see" past such obstacles, which would blind most gravity sensors. This sensor provides a modifier of +40% to detect targets, +40% to track targets, and no modifier to identify targets, which includes the penalty mentioned above.
| Sensor Class | Tiny | Small | Medium | Large |
| Class II | 100,000 miles (160,934 km) | 1 million miles (1.6 million km) | 2 million miles (3.2 million km) | 3 million miles (4.8 million km) |
| Class III | 500,000 miles (804,672 km) | 5 million miles (8 million km) | 10 million miles (16.1 million km) | 15 million miles (24.1 million km) |
| Class IV | 1 million miles (1.6 million km) | 10 million miles (16.1 million km) | 20 million miles (32.2 million km) | 30 million miles (48.3 million km) |
| Class V | 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km) | 15 million miles (24.1 million km) | 30 million miles (48.3 million km) | 45 million miles (72.4 million km) |
While only having a basic understanding of the Tirolians advanced weapon systems, the people of Earth used their own ingenuity to develop a wide variety of weapons. Most of the direct fire weapons were developed directly from designs taken from the crashed alien ship, but aside from the powerful warheads, all missile technology was developed on Earth.
All Heavy Reflex Cannons inflict damage based on the equivalent power in tons of TNT, similar to real nuclear weapons. Each kT (kiloton) of TNT that the weapon inflicts causes 1D4x50 M.D., with a Weapon Rating of 100, and has a base beam diameter of 0.5" (1.27 cm), minimum beam diameter is 10' (3 m). If used against a planetary object, the weapon will leave a crater with a diameter of 1' (30.5 cm) and a depth of 0.1' (1.2" / 3 cm) per kT of TNT that the weapon inflicts, with a minimum diameter of 10' (3 m) and a minimum depth of 1' (30.5 cm). In addition to inflicting the damage listed above to everything within the weapon's beam diameter, the weapon also causes damage to objects near the beam. Objects within two times the beam's width take 10% of the listed damage, objects within five times the beam's width take 1% of the listed damage, objects within ten times the beam's width take 0.1% of the listed damage, and objects within twenty times the beam's width take 0.01% of the listed damage. At all ranges, the beam maintains its weapon rating of 100.
For example, the SDF-1 Macross's Heavy Reflex Cannon is very powerful and each blast is equivalent to 60 Megatons of TNT (60 MT or 60,000 kT), which allows the weapon to inflict 3D4x1,000,000 M.D. (1D4x50x60,000 = 1D4x3,000,000 = 3D4x1,000,000) and has a beam diameter of 2500' (762 m); if the cannon was fired against a planetary target, it would leave a crater with a diameter of 60,000' (11.4 miles / 18.3 km) and a depth of 6000' (1.1 miles / 1.8 km). Also, the SDF-1's Main Cannon would inflict normal damage to everything within its beam diameter of 2500' (762 m), while object between 2500' (762 m) and 5000' (1524 m) of the beam's direct center take 3D4x100,000 M.D., object between 5000' (1524 m) and 12,500' (3810 m) of the beam's direct center take 3D4x10,000 M.D., object between 12,500' (3810 m) and 25,000' (7620 m) of the beam's direct center take 3D4x1000 M.D., and object between 25,000' and 50,000' (15,240 m) of the beam's direct center take 3D4x100 M.D., and at all ranges the beam maintains its Weapon Rating of 100.
Heavy Reflex Cannons have two firing modes, the first is the normal mode listed above and the second is a wide spread mode, which doubles the weapon's beam width but only inflicts 10% of the normal damage. If a beam from a Heavy Reflex Cannon passes into, out of, or through a planetary atmosphere, reduce the damage it inflicts to 25% of its normal damage. Also, if the beam hits an energy shield of any type, it inflicts 1000 times less damage, so a beam that inflicts 1D4x50,000 M.D. would only inflict 1D4x50 against an energy shield.