StarCitizen:Anvil Aerospace

Anvil Aerospace is a StarCitizen:human spacecraft manufacturer based in StarCitizen:Nova Kyiv on Terra in the StarCitizen:Terra system. Founded in StarCitizen:2772 by spacecraft designer StarCitizen:J.Harris Arnold, it produces both military and civilian craft, supplying the StarCitizen:United Empire of Earth (UEE) military as well as private citizens. Its earliest ship, the StarCitizen:Osprey, was directly inspired by the work of the ship designer StarCitizen:Leonard Casse, and Casse's signature curves and circles appear in the silhouettes of most Anvil ships. The F7 Hornet and the StarCitizen:F8 Lightning are among the Anvil spacecraft currently produced for all branches of the UEE military.<ref name="galactapedia">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

History

Early history

Anvil Aerospace is one of the earliest Terran success stories. It was founded in StarCitizen:2772 by StarCitizen:J.Harris Arnold. The initial Anvil skunkworks facility was located at 332 Yedilin Boulevard in StarCitizen:Nova Kyiv on Terra, and the company's headquarters are still there. For the first seventy-odd years of Anvil's existence, every design project was personally led by company founder J. Harris Arnold. Arnold, a spacecraft designer of the old school who insisted on signing off on every part of his designs' subsystems, was a respected figure in an otherwise cutthroat industry.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

Acquisition of Casse Aerospace

Template:For When J. Harris Arnold was in school, he became absorbed in the works of StarCitizen:Leonard Casse. To him, the largely forgotten engineer represented everything he valued about ship design. When he eventually started Anvil, Arnold drew on Casse's business model and ships for his own designs, adopting such signature elements as the curved wings and open circle signet. The similarities were such that Arnold and Anvil were sued by the holding firm that had bought the rights to Casse's designs. Arnold settled the case by purchasing all of Casse Aerospace's portfolio himself.<ref name="jumppoint">StarCitizen:Will Weissbaum, StarCitizen:David Ladyman and StarCitizen:Ben Lesnick, Portfolio: Casse Aerospace, Jump Point, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 30-33, 2017-03-18.</ref>

Military contracts

Anvil has delivered military-grade equipment to the StarCitizen:UEE Navy for almost two centuries. The company's name comes from a quote in StarCitizen:Robert Calvin's early justification for StarCitizen:UEE expansion, which explained that military spending "fuels the furnaces of expansion and strikes the anvils of innovation." The company has produced dozens of military spacecraft over the years, including the StarCitizen:Hurricane, StarCitizen:Osprey, StarCitizen:Devastator, Hornet, and StarCitizen:Gladiator. Few military campaigns in the last two centuries have been launched without Anvil spacecraft at the forefront, and most carriers in StarCitizen:UEE space operate with at least a squadron of Anvil-designed fighters. Anvil designs have historically scored more space-to-space kills than any other military spacecraft, and Hornets in particular have destroyed more enemy hardware, measured in star credits, than all other current Navy space fighter designs combined.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Civilianization

Anvil's civilian line is relatively new, a decision that many at the company initially resisted. The prevailing view was that producing civilian-grade versions of dedicated military spacecraft would dilute the brand and endanger Anvil's position as the tip of the spear. Debate over the issue became so protracted that it threatened to split the company into two groups, with the civilian wing formally licensing the military designs. The matter was resolved when the StarCitizen:UEE government favored the concept of supplying military-styled craft to civilians, especially on the distant frontiers. A home defense militia squadron of slightly-less-than-milspec but still capable Hornets, it was reasoned, would make a better deterrent than a squad of Drake StarCitizen:Cutlasses.

The process of civilianizing a design such as the Hornet is more complex than it appears. UEE military secrecy laws mean that, on average, 60 percent of the hardware in a given spacecraft cannot be offered to the public. Some of these replacements, such as milspec Gatling guns, are expected and relatively easy to re-source in a modern modular design, but the requirements also govern systems as innocuous as rudder pedal boot locks and rubber cockpit sealing strips. Design teams must 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, unaware.

Civilianizing top-of-the-line military spacecraft is a difficult process, but one that has proved valuable for Anvil. Company profits rose 34 percent after the first civilian model Hornet (the F7C) was made available, with no perceptible damage to the Anvil brand. Instead, the idea that a buyer could own a "military" ship became a status symbol, driving the resale value of Hornets and successive conversions, so that civilian Hornets became something of a luxury brand. Anvil's civilian equivalents sell both to paramilitary units on the frontier in need of rugged hardware and to wealthy homeworld industrialists who believe that flying a Hornet makes them top-gun fighter pilots.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Present

Anvil now has factories on three dozen StarCitizen:UEE core worlds, but it continues to source all systems itself and requires that the standing CEO sign off on every spacecraft alteration.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Departments

Military development division

The military development division's production facility is located in StarCitizen:MacArthur, StarCitizen:Kilian system.<ref name="jp1102">Template:Cite Jump Point</ref>

Civilian development division

Anvil's civilian development division was founded to allow private enterprise to take advantage of military-grade technology. In response to increasing StarCitizen:Vanduul attacks and pirate raids on the frontier worlds, Anvil has sought to place effective deterrents in the hands of everyday citizens.<ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref> Its production facility is located in StarCitizen:Sherman, StarCitizen:Castra system.<ref name="jp1102"/>

Trivia

• The name Anvil is a nod to StarCitizen:Chris Roberts' company StarCitizen:Digital Anvil, which developed Freelancer and Starlancer.<ref>Star Citizen: ATV Anniversary Special - Anvil Aerospace & Hawk Reveal, YouTube, 24 Nov 2017</ref>

References

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