Anvil Aerospace

Company

Anvil Aerospace

Industry

• Spacecraft manufacture
• Vehicle manufacture
• Spacecraft component manufacture

Products

• Personal spacecraft
• Military spacecraft
• Ground vehicles
• Spacecraft components

Race

Human

Headquarters

Nova Kyiv, Terra, Terra system

People

Founder

J.Harris Arnold

Founded

SEY 2772 (2772)

Metadata

Manufacturer code

ANVL

External sites

Portfolio

RSI Portfolio

Galactapedia

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

History

Early history

Anvil Aerospace is one of the earliest Terran success stories. It was founded in 2772 by J.Harris Arnold. The initial Anvil skunkworks facility was located at 332 Yedilin Boulevard in 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.

Acquisition of Casse Aerospace

For the company Casse Aerospace, see Casse Aerospace.

When J. Harris Arnold was in school, he became absorbed in the works of 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.

Military contracts

Anvil has delivered military-grade equipment to the UEE Navy for almost two centuries. The company's name comes from a quote in Robert Calvin's early justification for 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 Hurricane, Osprey, Devastator, Hornet, and Gladiator. Few military campaigns in the last two centuries have been launched without Anvil spacecraft at the forefront, and most carriers in 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.

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 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 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.

Present

Anvil now has factories on three dozen UEE core worlds, but it continues to source all systems itself and requires that the standing CEO sign off on every spacecraft alteration.

Departments

Military development division

The military development division's production facility is located in MacArthur, Kilian system.

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 Vanduul attacks and pirate raids on the frontier worlds, Anvil has sought to place effective deterrents in the hands of everyday citizens. Its production facility is located in Sherman, Castra system.

Gallery

Trivia

• The name Anvil is a nod to Chris Roberts' company Digital Anvil, which developed Freelancer and Starlancer.