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Starlog Blueprints
Catacombs Reference Library
Starlog 32 (March 1980) in the Gerry Anderson's Space Report column featured the Hawk blueprint. Mandel also did the Eagle blueprints in Starlog 7 (1977) and Starlog's Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook (1977). He is mis-credited here as "Mandell". This blueprint first appeared in the 1978 convention book.
Technical Schema: "HAWK- GENERAL LAYOUT"
TS - 1194
Drawn by: Geoffrey Mandell
Moonbase Alpha
11 May, 2000
Designers: Martin Bower, Brian Johnson
Technical Consultant: David Hirsch
| Length: | 61.52 ft (18.75 m) |
| Width: | 19.52 ft (5.95 m) |
| Height: | 7.21 ft (2.2 m) |
| Gross Weight: | 128 tons |
| Propulsion: | Nuclear Fusion Engine 8 Chemical Fuel Vertical Rockets 2 Strap-on Booster Units |
| Fuel: | Compressed Hydrogen |
| Maximum Velocity: | 0.22 c |
| Maximum Range: | 4 billion miles (6.44 billion km) |
| Armament: | 3 Laser Batteries 16 Space-to-Space Missiles 2 Fusion Torpedoes |
| Ship's Power: | 2 Nuclear Power Packs |
| Complement: | Pilot-Navigator Gunner |
The Mark IX Hawk is a small, medium- to-long-range fighter craft developed as a deterrent to possible extraterrestrial attack. There was a need for such a spacecraft during the UFO offensive of the mid-1980s, when Earth's main line of defence was compact, one-man fighters operated from the lunar base of Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization (SHADO), which is now part of Moonbase Alpha.
It became increasingly apparent that such short-range craft would be inadequate in the event of a massive, concentrated attack, and plans for a larger and more heavily armed fighter were drafted. This new attack craft, the Mark X Hawk, was tested successfully in 1996, and eight such vessels were commissioned by the Global Defence Command in 1997. To cut launch time to the barest minimum, the eight Hawks were maintained aboard the Centuri space dock, Which was positioned between Earth and the Moon.
Shortly after the Hawk Support Base on the space dock was completed, the UFO attacks mysteriously stopped. After two years of silence, in mid-1999, plans for a Hawk Support Base on Moonbase Alpha were scrapped and the International Lunar Commission began to imply that the Mark IX Hawk, which had never been used against a UFO attack, was a gross waste of limited funds. Plans were made to disassemble at least half the fleet and utilize their components for other craft. It seemed the aliens who had been attacking Earth for so long had given up, but, for whatever reason, the remaining Hawks were destroyed on September 13, 1999, when the Centuri blew up during the breakaway of the Moon.
The Mark IX Hawk is essentially a two- man cockpit and life-support system mounted on a single fusion engine and fuel tank. Strap-on boosters provide acceleration of up to 20g, and dual weapon pods house computer-targeted laser batteries, 16 independently activated missile silos and two self-guiding torpedoes housing fusion warheads. All weapons are operated manually by the gunner, or programmed to follow a predetermined attack plan. In an emergency, the weapons pods and engine assembly can be jettisoned and the command module used as a lifeboat.
-Geoffrey Mandell