Titan: TRO2750, TRO3057,TRO Proto
Whenever one discusses the Star League’s navy one has to mention the Titan class DropShip. For over one hundred years this defined the heavy fighter carrier and provided the SLDF with its primary aerospace fighter transport. Seemingly rendered extinct during the Succession Wars, many survived with the Clans and still patrol the space ways.
The Reunification War (2577-2597), was a big deal for the SLDF. Not only did the Star League get to fight as the Star League for the first time, but it got to play with a whole new generation of toys and doctrines that separated it from those of the Great Houses. This was the last hurrah of the old style battleships typified by the Farragut. The new generation of LF battery cruisers like the Avatar, Kimigure, and refitted Aegis would prove the concepts leading to the profligate McKenna sixty years later. The newly introduced Congress would be the last frigate built by the Star League. A generation of Nagas would replace the ancient Essex. The needs of supply would see the introduction of the Carrack and Potemkin. Bracketing technology was moving ship armaments away from single heavy weapons. Real combat worthy transport DropShips like the Lion and Dictator would enter service and combat would inspire the Fortress, Colossus, Intruder, Confederate, Fury, Triumph, and Achilles. And most importantly aerospace fighters got real. Platforms like the Eagle, Hammerhead, Lightning, Lucifer, Sabre, Seydlitz, Sparrowhawk, Stuka, and Thunderbird had matured to a point that they were a credible threat to capital units. The Sphere was about to change.
Introduced in 2647 the Titan had fifty years to absorb the lessons of war. For the Star League the most important was that they no longer had to fight at close ranges. Close combat was something to be avoided as the Taurian Confederation resorted to asymmetric warfare. Aerospace fighters and DropShips were used in their thousands to form an insulating layer between the fleet and the Taurians. After the Reunification War the question became how best to deploy those aerospace fighters.
Influences from several directions pushed the Star League to DropShips. On one hand they had just seen three New Syrtis carriers outfought by the Taurians while the SLDF’s own Leopards had proved competent alongside the fleet’s Pentagons and Achilles. Most importantly, they were able to keep non-capital forces away from the core of the fleet while WarShip carried fighters inevitably allowed hostile fighters into range. The Titan took these lessons and applied them in a single powerful package.
It is sometimes said that the SLDF made its ships effective by making them big. With the Titan it is certainly the case. But what they got was a balanced package. In combat terms the Titan is formidable, with only the Pentagon and Achilles able to defeat it amongst its peers. A full wing of aerospace fighters is carried. Small compared to the later Vengeances two wings, more importantly it is well within the capabilities of the Titan to support. Utilising its cargo bay and fuel storage the Titan can manage a sortie rate unmatched by any carrier DropShip until its own Monitor variant in the 3080s. Crew facilities were so good pilots requested service on board and the ship employed special facilities on the bridge for guiding the aerospace fighters in combat. The Titan was a complete, self-contained package. This cannot be stated enough.
I am going to take a moment to compare the Titan to the Vengeance, its only real competitor in the era. The Vengeance has been retconned to a 2682 introduction date making it of a similar vintage to the Titan. Notably where the Vengeance was built in the Draconis Combine, Federated Suns and Free Worlds League, the Titan was only ever produced by Di Tron Heavy Industries (Terra, Sirius V) in Hegemony space. While the Vengeance offered twice the aerospace fighters the Titan could support literally nine times as many sorties. This leads me to view the Vengeance as a defensive platform for the member states, unable to range far from their parent WarShips. On the other hand Titans could stay on station for extended periods without support or vulnerable tenders. Throw in the Hegemony’s more advanced fighters and the disparity is less than one might think.
The other major role of the Titan was as transport for the SLDF’s integral fighter wings. While the ‘Mech elements were carried in a Dictator, the fighters would be carried in a Titan. The Titan could then operate in orbit separately from the surface elements and be applied as needed. This role suggests just how many Titans served the Star League. With roughly 486 Divisions, each fielding a Ground Aero Wing of 54 fighters this means a minimum of 1500 Titans, not counting maintenance cycles, reserves, independent regiments, and the needs of the navy.
Of course the Amaris War was not kind to the Titan. Most of the survivors left the Inner Sphere with the SLDF, with the last remaining Titan being destroyed at Cholame in 2790. In the Pentagon Worlds more Titans would be destroyed during the internecine warfare and Operation Klondike. With peace restored the surviving Titans would be refitted to field 30 aerospace fighters at the cost of cargo space. This and their rarity limited their use as independent units amongst the Clans. It has been stated that Clan ships received computer and HarJel upgrades as a matter of course, making the Clan Titans mixed tech, though this only applies when using the HarJel rules in Tactical Operations.
Along with the Carrier the Titan served as the Clan’s primary aerospace transport when they returned to the Inner Sphere. Overshadowed by the Clan’s WarShips there is little evidence that they saw much combat. The Clan Titan remained remarkably competitive compared to the 3050s’ Miraborg. Both ships have remarkably similar sortie rates but with more armour the aerodyne Titan is slightly superior as a combat platform.
The Jihad would see the final evolution of the Titan. Faced with mounting losses of WarShips and aerospace pilots Clan Snow Raven turned to the Titan as a response to the lack of both. Reducing the aerospace complement to 10 the Ravens increased the armour, revamped the weapons, and added a quartet of Killer Whale capital missiles in the nose. The result is a mid-range assault ship roughly comparable to an Overlord A3. The Ravens have liked the Titan Monitor enough to seek out more Titans for conversion, especially as their fleet went into mothballs.
So how do we use a Titan? Depends upon how much you want to risk it. After all a Titan is basically an assault DropShip on its own. Otherwise keep it back out of battle and let the fighters do the dirty work. If a friendly WarShip is keep close and act as point defence. The same basic rules to the Titan Monitor. Frankly the choice of capital weapon is wasteful in the extreme. Unless using Bearings-Only Launches the Killer Whales will not be hitting anything at any great range. That said the bay should kill any fighter it hits, offering potential as a quick way of breaking up a fighter attack.
Killing a Titan is a question of whether it not it lets itself be killed. With 5/8 thrust it can choose to disengage with just about anything while all of the variants’ armour is strong enough to withstand an extended pounding. My advice would be to hit the Titan hard before it has a chance to think about retreat, hopefully preventing it getting a chance to build up speeds where it becomes unsafe for smaller craft to follow.