Měngqín

Description
Despite its troubled birth, the Měngqín is a relatively successful heavy-weight Aerospace Fighter produced by the Capellan Confederation and Magistracy of Canopus.

While benefiting from heavy DropShip sales after the conclusion of the Jihad, Rashpur-Owens Incorporated of Capella revived its pre-Jihad interest in expanding into Aerospace Fighter manufacture in an attempt to diversify its product lines and maintain a strong financial footing. Incorrectly assuming its experience in Assault DropShips would assist it in developing a new fighter, a seemingly endless number of R&D delays and problematic sub-component negotiations culminated in lackluster interest, save for the Magistracy which successfully secured the rights to produce the design on Detroit. The finished result would finally overcome these problems, the positively received fighter seeing heavy service in the CCAF, MAF and a number of mercenary units.

Intended as a cost-effective design, the Měngqín uses a standard Pitban 285 Fusion Engine clad in a respectable fourteen and half tons of Detroit Ferro-Aluminum Special armor. Five tons of fuel give the fighter average battlefield endurance at best, but more than adequate given the design's role and small ammunition supplies.

Weapons and Equipment
Featuring a mixed rather than focused weapons array, the Měngqín features two Ceres Arms Crusher Plasma Rifles and a Sian/Ceres Cougar SRM-6 in its nose, supported by another SRM-6 rack, two Ceres Arms ER Medium Lasers and a Delta Dart LRM-15 in each wing, its armament rounded out by a rear facing pair of Diverse Optics Type 2 ER Medium Lasers and a Magna 200P Small Pulse Laser. The Měngqín does not reward pilots who do not take careful consideration of its abilities, a frontal Alpha Strike exceeds the ability of its seventeen Double Heat Sinks to dissipate, while its two tons of plasma reloads, two tons of SRM missiles and three of LRM munitions barely meets what most observers consider the minimum required for its weight.