Civilian Craft

UEE

Anvil’s civilian line is relatively new, a decision that many at the company initially resisted. The general feeling was that producing civilian grade versions of dedicated military spacecraft would dilute the brand: Anvil’s carefully maintained position as the tip of the spear would be in danger. Debate over the issue became so protracted that it threatened to split the company into two separate groups, with the civilian wing formally licensing the military designs. This was ultimately all for naught, as thegovernment stepped into the debate with a surprising resolution: they actually favored the concept of supplying military-styled weaponry to civilians, especially on the distant frontiers. A home defense militia squadron of slightly-less-than-milspec but still fearsome Hornets, it was reasoned, would make a better deterrent than a squad of Drake Cutlasses.

The process of civilianizing a design like the Hornet is more complex than it seems: UEE military secrecy laws mean that, on average, 60% of the hardware in a given spacecraft simply cannot be offered to the public. Some of these replacements — like milspec Gatling guns — would be expected and relatively easy to re-source in a modern modular design … but these requirements also govern systems as innocuous as rudder pedal boot locks or rubber cockpit sealing strips. Design teams must effectively work double-blind, replacing existing systems without being given access to their military equivalents.In some cases, designers must reconstruct subsystems based solely on publicly available holographs … while the team that designed the original systems operates next door, wholly unaware.

Civilianizing top-of-the-line military spacecraft is a frustrating process, but one that has proved ultimately valuable for Anvil: company profits rose 34% after the first civilian model Hornet (the F7C) was made available, with no perceptible tarnishing of the Anvil brand. Rather, the idea that you could own a “military” ship immediately became something of a status symbol, driving the resale value of Hornets and successive conversions; civilian Hornets have essentially (and unexpectedly) become a luxury brand. Anvil’s civilian equivalents sell both to actual paramilitary units on the frontier desperately in need of rugged hardware and to rich homeworlds industrialists who believe that flying a Hornet makes them top gun fighter pilots.

The Future

Terra, home of Anvil Aerospace.

With both military and civilian spacecraft spending at an all-time high, Anvil’s prospects look bright. As the UEE continues to face off against a seemingly growing Vanduul threat, orders for Hornet space superiority fighters and Gladiator bombers continue to spike. Several thousand of each are delivered to front-line carriers every month, at a rate that continues to rise as additional factories can be brought online. On the civilian side, the Hornet is holding steady as the third best-selling single-seat spacecraft design available, trumped only by the Aurora and 300i.The recent civilian conversion of the Gladiator looks to be a similar success story, as the first model (Gladiator I) becomes available to the general public in the next three months.