CIG recently shared the official Q&A page for Drake Ironclad, revealing more details about the base and Assault variants of the upcoming cargo hauler, including the cargo bay dimensions that hints at the ships that can fit inside.
According to CIG, the current maximum cargo bay dimensions are 40x21x7.5m, and that’s just enough for an RSI Mantis to fit inside. You can also fit in a Nomad if you keep the the roof open.
That being said, CIG also warned that the retractable roof will not provide access to full interior dimensions of the cargo bay, which probably means a portion of the cargo area will remain under the roof at either ends of the ship. Since the ship’s design is not fully done, this shortcoming could be fixed in the final version of Ironclad.
All Ships That Fit Inside Ironclad Cargo Bay
Overall, based on the raw dimensions, here are the list of ships that fit inside the cargo bay of Ironclad:
- Aegis Avenger Series
- Aegis Gladius Series
- Anvil C8 Pisces Series
- Anvil Gladiator
- Anvil Arrow
- Anvil Hawk
- Anvil Terrapin
- Argo MPUV Series
- CO Mustang Series
- CO Nomad (Roof open)
- Drake Buccaneer
- Drake Cutter Series
- Drake Herald (Roof open)
- Drake Vulture (Roof Open)
- Esperia Blade
- Esperia Talon (Roof open)
- All Kruger Ships
- All Mirai Ships
- Misc Hull-A (Roof open)
- Misc Prospector (Roof open)
- Misc Reliant Series
- Origin 100 Series
- Origin 300 Series (Roof open)
- Origin M50 Interceptor
- Origin 85X
- RSI Aurora Series
- RSI Mantis
While Ironclad is not supposed to feature a hangar, but it does have the ability to carry a wide variety of ships. Bear in mind that these are based on raw dimensions, and we have not considered the actual dimensions of the retractable roof in our calculations.
So, in the end, some of the ships above might not be able to land inside Ironclad’s cargo bay. However, most of the light fighters like Arrow will likely have an easy time landing and taking off from Ironclad.
Also revealed through the Q&A page, the Assault variant of Ironclad will also feature a retractable roof, though the tractor-beams on top will be sacrificed for more turrets.
Moreover, CIG revealed that the Command Module between Caterpillar and Ironclad is interchangeable, but the Ironclad version will come with a bunch of slight improvements. Similar to Caterpillar, Ironclad’s cargo bay will lose the ability to fly once the Command Module is detached, though all the systems inside the bigger body of the ship will still remain operational.
Currently there is no release schedule for Drake Ironclad, as the developers are mostly focused on Zeus Mk 2 series as well as Polaris as the next major drops.
