Titan Class Carrier
The Titan Class Carrier is one of the oldest aerial ships still in service, and this small class represents the transition from not just a wet navy to air/sea navy, but also the changing position of the carrier in relation to the gunship. The Titan was designed from a naval philosophy that had been dominated by the aircraft carrier for several centuries, and as such was a flying aircraft carrier. The ship was large, with what was considered ample armor for a ship that was not intended to go into gun battles with other ships or fighters. The Titan class was designed to carry an impressive 45 aerospace fighters or 60 conventional atmospheric fighters, and was protected by several computer controlled gun emplacements around the perimeter of the ship.
During the formation of the Atlantic Federation, the Titan class warships AFS Titan, AFS Atlantic, AFS Olympus, and AFS Asgard proved instrumental in containing the territorial ambitions of the USSA and consolidating power and control over the Federation's claim on Africa. These craft were large, and once more ambitious warships came into service, along with heavily armored air capable mecha, the Titan class proved to be vulnerable to these new weapons, and were eventually phased out of front line service. The AFS Asgard is a museum in Germany, while the Olympus is a military training ship. The other ships of the Titan class have since been consigned to scrap.
The Titan II class replaced the original Titan class, and maintained the same performance profile as the original ships, but did so with 15% less mass, and 10% better armor. The AFS Federation and AFS Churchill were sold to India and rechristened the INS Indra and INS Nirvana. The AFS Kearsarge was commandeered and is now better known as the USS George Washington.
Marvel Class Gun Cruiser
The Marvel Class Gun Cruiser was developed along the same time as the Titan class, and was intended to function as a patrol craft, making long duration runs through contested areas, bringing their big guns and heavy armor to bear against a target while enjoying the umbrella of air cover from the Titan carriers. This didn't work out so well in practice as maintaining air superiority with electrojets and helocraft from relatively slow moving carriers across an expanse as large as the Atlantic ocean was largely an exercise in theory. The Marvel class was built to be tough, which allowed the ships to survive heavy damage, and return to their bases. The effectiveness of the class in engaging in ground support, oceanic destroyer, and other offensive roles kept the ship in service for a long time. The Marvel Class was upgrades through the Marvel IV series before being phased out in favor of newer ships. A number of the older ships were sold to secondary contractors, such as vetted MegaCorp navies, or the militaries of nations friendly to the Atlantic Federation. Most Marvels still in service are in the fleets of India, Scandinavia, D.F. Mexico, Caribbean League Fleet, and Australia.
The Marvel Class was built in relatively large numbers, 27 of them were completed. Of these, 6 were lost in combat, 1 in Africa, 5 in the Caribbean. Being heavily armed and armored, most Marvels were given powerful, forceful names, and some of these names and ships have taken on personas of their own. The AFS Ransom survived being severely damaged 8 times, but always returned, regardless of how heavy the fighting was, and the exploits of the AFS Murderer, and her Captain are the stuff of Federation propaganda.
The original Marvel class had a single forward turret with twin mounted naval autocannons. This would remain the standard configuration through the Marvel II class. The Marvel III class added a second forward turret, as well as a trio of small turrets with defensive weapons on the side and rear of the ship. The last built Marvel IV class had three full sized turrets, two forward one aft, and six small turrets around the edge of the ship. This came at a cost, as the Marvel IV was easily 10 times more expensive as the original Marvel I's were. The AFS Murderer (Marvel II) is the best known ship in the class, and was armed with two medium naval grade rail cannons, but was retrofit with a single forward firing heavy plasma cannon, and several guided missile systems.
Furious Class Assault Ship
The Furious Class Destroyer was built with the ambition of being a combined arms assault ship, carrying a mix of naval grade weaponry as well as a small contingent of aircraft, and ground forces. The Furious mounted a flat top deck and had the ability to carry and service a squadron of VTOL or helocraft, with ground attack gunships being favored. It could alternately handle a squad of air capable mecha, though at reduced ability, and increased stress on the deck plating. Internally it could carry and deploy a full company of power armor, 2 companies of conventional infantry, or with mounted 'revolver' style racks, 4 companies of skeletrons. On the big guns side, the Furious Class fell short, mounting only a single light naval cannon.
The Furious Class is one of the older ships in service and has been refit no less than seven times to keep them abreast of advancing technology. The Furious Class replaced the German designed and built W Class Destroyer of the early second renaissance.
Atlantic Class Aerospace Carrier
Galleon looking monster capable of supporting large fixed wing aircraft. Massive ships that were once the pride of the fleet, now serve as tenders and aerial aerodromes for aircraft transiting the Atlantic Ocean. Can support large craft, and has the ability to assist, resupply, and repair damaged warships. No longer used in frontline combat, the Atlantic class is the backbone of the logistic and strategic command. (Atlantic class favors greek names: 7 in service: Agamemnon, Achilles, Hesperus, Daedalus, Leviathan, Behemoth, and Prometheu.
The Atlantic Class superstructure remains in limited production, though no longer in any sort of military service. The new frames are used for civilian cruise ships, passenger craft, and bulk cargo carriers. To retain the service life of their frames, most never reenter atmosphere after their launches. Smaller ships carry cargo to and from space station hubs down to planets, and for bulk cargo, most Atlantic Heavy and super heavy freighters dock with small moon bases.
Constellation Class Frigate
Medium warship designed for anti-aircraft, ECM and Radar picket duty. While equipped with a small number of anti-ship weapons, the Frigate is designed to support and defend the fleet from small attackers like fighters, jet pack armor, and aerial mecha. Most Constellations have either names after constellations or mythical monsters, like Minotaur, Hydra, Scorpio, Libra, etc. Those named after constellations are G1, while the monsters are G2. Roman numerals after a name indicate refits, thus AFS Taurus III has been refit twice. Large aerospace contingent.
Sentinel Class Destroyer
Medium warship designed for ship to ship combat, armed with heavier weaponry than a frigate, and reduced small target screening ability. Sentinel class ships are noted for their uniform hulls and oversized engines, making them fast ships capable of running down and either capturing or destroying enemy ships. Sentinels are dated, but remain in service after upgrades and refits. They are cramped and unpopular assignments. Class is named after mythic heroes, states and provinces of the Federation. Small Aerospace contingent.
Aerofortress Class Cruiser
Designed as an oversized long range long duration destroyer, the Aerofortress Cruiser has the same firepower as a frigate and a destroyer combined, with a strong aerospace asset. An effective and functional but not aesthetic design, the Aerofortress is also known as the SkyCamper, the Airstream, and the armored winnebago. Also, AeroFattie. It is a good, but very unglamorous ship. Aerofortresses have very impressive sounding names, Victorious, Impervious, Warspite, Trumpeteer, Glorious, Resolute, Defiant, etc.
Aerofortress class ships remain in production both as cargo ships and heavily modified as personal craft used by megacorps. There are large numbers of variants used around the world, but these all differ in being unarmored and lightly armed or unarmed.
Shadow Class Electronics Warfare Ship
The Shadow Class is a small group of Frigates designed with cutting edge technology for recon, surveillance, and limited strike ability. Shadow class ships have optical and EM cloaking devices and can effectively vanish and observe unnoticed. They are lightly armed, and do most of their work through military hacking and cyberwarfare. Shadows are classified and the Federation denies their existence.
Automatic Class Frigate
A smaller ship, the Automatic class has a reduced crew requirement and makes large use of automation, droids, and A-pod equipped probe droids to keep it running. Automatics are common ships, and most are not named, but rather have a service designation number. Most Automatic class ships are deployed in space ops, typically in the asteroid belt, jovian moons, and on the Earth/Mars corridor.
Dreadnought Class Battleship
The Dreadnought debuted not long after the Titan and was a very large, very slow heavily armored warship. The ship had a twin hull, and proved to be excessively expensive to operate, leading to the cancellation of further ships in the line. AFS Dreadnought is in mothballs in the Commonwealth of New England, New Nuyork Yards.
Federation Class BattlestarThe pinnacle of warship development, the Federation class is a large vessel with substantial armor, impressive firepower, and a large contingent of aerospace craft. In addition to carrying two wings of aerospace craft, the ship can carry and deploy a regiment of mecha, and either a division of infantry or a regiment of power armor troops. The Federation Class Battlestar is designed to be used as a diplomatic tool, bringing a full compliment of ground troops, full aerospace support, and heavy firepower enough to shatter bunkers and topple arcos. The Federation class has it's own dedicated CogNet systems, and has the ability to transition from atmosphere to orbit under its own power.
The Federation Class is brutally expensive and even the economic might of the Atlantic Federation can only support a small number of them. There are currently 7 Federations in service, including the Enterprise, Challenger, Discovery, Columbia, Endeavor, Excelsior, and Federation. Six more ships are varying states of construction, but it is estimated that the ships won't be delivered to service for another two years, and then two years to the next launch for the next 12 years.
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? Responses (2)
I wish that I hadn't read this sub now! It's good, really good, but I just want to grab a couple of the ideas and work them into the 30 Starships sub that's been in my to-do folder the last 3 months. Guess I'll come back to that one once this has left my grey cells.
More good stuff from you Scrasamax :)
A nice set of ships. Very detailed. Love this kind of stuff.