Lola III Class destroyer.Class - Destroyer
Mass 680,000 tonnes
Length - 653 meters.
Crew compliment - 250 in SLDF service, 288 in Clan service.
BackgroundThe Lola Class first entered production in 2345 with the Flight (or Block) I Lola DD, named after the now deceased Admiral Adelaide Lola the Lola I's were large warships for their time and for their class coming in at 680,000 tonnes per ship. This weight was due to a new armour scheme layout that seems to be more like the ancient surface ship 'torpedo bulkheads' where the outer hull was a thin layer of plating designed to take the initial impact or heat of a hit. Behind the outer hull was a small void space and then the projectile would encounter the main armoured hull.
The idea being that the initial impact with the outer hull would rob the hit of some of its momentum or energy before being denied or dissipated by the main hull's armour. Whilst the outer hull could be damaged the main hull would protect the ships vitals and leave only superficial damage on the exterior. This armour scheme whilst effective was both bulky and heavy which lead to the Destroyer massing as much as some light cruisers.
The Lola II was unfortunately a disaster, and whilst built on the same hull as the earlier block I's the II's experienced constant and in some cases catastrophic failures of their fueling systems which lead to the Block II's being decommissioned and either scrapped or used as target hulks.
Their replacement the Lola III was commissioned in 2662 and was again a variation of the classic Lola hull with its mass and size being near identical although to reach a suitable acceleration curve the designers at Blue Nosed Clipper Ships fitted the class with four massive Rolls Le Fay drives that were meant for cruisers. This in turn cut down on the space available for the crew as a good portion of the ship was filled with the engines and their associated systems making the Lola's cramped and uncomfortable to serve on, a fact only made worse by the fact that the Lola's as a whole lacked any form of grav deck's although they can create gravity by simply starting a roll or just accelerate to generate gravity.
Destroyers carry out a wide range of roles, whilst the SLDF used Frigates and Corvettes as either lone picket ships or border patrol squadrons Destroyers were general purpose workhorses acting as anything from glorified transports and convoy escorts or patrol vessels to part of a battle group screening a larger and more valuable capital ship to gunboats. It’s a personal feeling that with their lack of a grav deck the Lola’s are not really suited for long patrols despite their huge cargo bays (which I assume would be mostly full of ammo loads, fuel, foodstuffs and spares). This limits their use to either a gunboat role or that of part of a larger battleground where they would act as a screening unit for battleships and cruisers with other vessels of their class whilst Frigates and Corvettes with their enhanced sensor arrays would act as the eyes for the flotilla. In times of war you might also expect to see Lola’s grouped together in squadrons of their own that would operate in a hunter killer role.
Built in their hundreds the Lola III remained a frontline ship alongside the newer (if cheaper) Essex class destroyer until the fall of the Star League where their durability and large numbers saw the Lola III become one of the most common ships in the Exodus Fleet and then the Clans who did little to modify them save enlarging their aerospace capacity to 10 fighters and 4 small craft as well as fitting a LF Battery at a small cost to their massive cargo capacity.
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It should also be noted that the Lola hull was the basis for the M5 CASPAR drone, the main element of the Regan SDS and the cause of so many casualties amongst the SLDF. Without any requirements for crew aboard the M5 Drone was far more heavily armed than the standard Lola III hull with firepower comparable to a battlecruiser on a destroyer's hull whilst retaining the same protection, SI and thrust properties of the Lola III hull.
DesignTo be as protected, fast and well-armed as she is the Lola sacrifices a fair bit, she has no dropship collars and carries 6 aerospace fighters and a mere 4 small craft. Everything else is given over to the weapons and a somewhat massive 117,118 tonne cargo bay. With 322 tonnes of armour giving the ship 48 points on all locations she's better protected than the later Essex, Baron, Naga and Carson classes but this isn’t much and a mere 6 points of damage is needed to threshold her armour and start damaging her rather weak 50 points of structural integrity so the Lola III is definitely not well protected and you should not rely on her armour scheme to ensure her survivability..
The ships four massive engines work against her mass to give her a 4/6 movement profile which whilst not massive it does allow her to pivot, roll and flip far better than slower vessels who simply lack the ability to twist and turn to bring new arcs to bare as one is damaged and whilst not as ‘fast’ as more modern vessels the Lola has one of the highest thrust ratings of ships in Clan service.
The armament of the Lola III is where she really shines and she's not limited to broadside fighting either. The main long range punch comes from a fearsome battery of NL55's the largest of their type available. These are spread as following with two in the nose, three on the front left and right arcs and four firing astern. It should be noted that all the batteries are capable of bracketing fire and this makes the Lola quite a threat at long range if she managed to point her nose at you as she could then hit you with five NL55's. And whilst these are rather weak weapons the capacity to inflict damage at long range and still retain some bracketing ability whilst shooting and closing with a hostile target.
A pair of White Shark launchers, one fitted in the front left and right arc's respectively also add to the long range frontal firepower and give it a good chance of causing a crit with a hit as well as doing a heavy wallop to fighters inbound on the Lola.
Trying to avoid the frontal batteries also brings the ships broadside to bare and you then wander into the arc of its main and long ranged guns a quartet of NAC-10’s. Because they are mounted in a four strong battery you can bracket fire with them and get a -3 bonus to hit and still cause sold damage. These are the Lola’s real ship killing weapons and if she exposes her broadside she can bring two of these gun batteries into action as you will see in a moment.
The two broadside arc's each mount four NAC-10's as does the aft left and right arcs, again allowing for bracketing fire whilst delivering a fearsome punch when both batteries are brought to bare on targets. The left and right broadsides also feature a single NL45 and a pair of Barracuda launchers for added punch against fighters and this is really their main role, operating as long range SAM’s as their light damage and poor crit chance against warships limits their use against larger vessels.
The aft left and right as mentioned mount NAC-10's in a four-gun battery and another NL45 and truth be told I'm not sure what use the single NL is other than harassing fire or being a threat to a small dropship. Once again the quartet of NAC-10’s are the Lola’s main punch and when you angle her correctly you can subject a foe to the fury of all eight guns which would be unpleasant in any regard.
The aft arc mounts a meaty quartet of NL55's giving the Lola III a nasty tail sting whilst another Barracuda launcher rounds out the armament and adds some more anti-fighter punch.
Well.. not quite, there's the matter of the Lola's aerospace compliment. The SLDF version carried six fighters whilst in Clan service the launch bay was expanded to carry a full Star of ten fighters. Whilst you could use these as a long range striking weapon (depending on what fighters you loaded the ship with) they are probably best used as a roving CAP to protect her from hostile fighters and any nukes they might be carrying. The Lola like all SLDF warships is utterly lacking in point defence weapons (or they have small defensive weapons batteries that barely trouble an attacking craft) and unlike later built post Revival Warships they lack any form of AMS and in this case your best form of AMS is not letting fighters get close enough to launch a nuclear surprise at you and here the aerospace assets on a Lola represent its first line of defence against such attack.
Still despite her weak protection the Lola III can absorb multiple Alamo hits unless you’re unlucky and I’m told that the fighter of choice for a Lola should be the Hellcat II a medium fighter that was almost totally exclusive to the SLDF and who’s active probe could help reduce a hostile ECM bubble. This can improve the Lola’s targeting modifications by up to 3 and make it easier for her to hit a ship at long range with her NAC and NL batteries.
'Back in the day' when the SLDF was at its height, you would not ever see one Lola, it would be part of a screen defending important warships like battleships or transports and here the lack of short ranged defences does not really matter when three or four Lola's turn their guns on approaching fighters and start bracketing like mad whilst volleying missiles. In the modern era where ships operate for the most part as single units outside of major engagements a Lola is far more dependent on other escorting assets like friendly dropships or aerospace fighters.
Using and defeating one.The Lola's long range lasers mean that it can quite happily start plinking away from extreme range whilst still being able to bracket with its guns and whilst NL's are not the most powerful of weapons unless massed together in HUGE batteries *pointed looks at the Leviathan III* the weapons on the Lola can wear down a hostile ship and allow the Lola to get in a few early hits which could swing a battle in its favour. This can force an opponent into charging you to try close the range at which point their ECM and fire control systems become more exposed to crits making hitting harder and being easier targets for the Lola's guns. As the range then drops turn and start broadsiding. With eight NAC-10's, two NL45s and three NL55's in addition to a pair of Barracuda and single White Shark missile launcher not much is going to survive that kind of pounding especially as a Lola can safely bracket fire to get some rather nasty bonuses to hit. Even a cruiser has to be weary of the Lola's punch and even modern ships like the Tatsumaki are not going to come off well in a broadside slugging match with a Lola III.
The closest competitor in terms of size for its time was the DCMS Narukami (which you can read about here -
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,35904.msg0.html) and in theory the Narukami is the superior ship, its got a thicker hide and a heavier throw weight as well as being able to carry 12 fighters to the Lola’s 6 as well as three dropships but she lacks the ability to bracket with her guns to engage at range and her big weapons are shorter ranged than the Lola’s although if it gets in range it will rip a Lola to shreds.
I think defeating one is a matter of accepting that you're going to take a pounding on the approach and work to ensure the Lola can't dictate the distance of the engagement, if you let her flit around at extreme range blazing away with her NL55's then to quote a certain skeleton 'you're gonna have a bad time.' Especially if you’re in a slower vessel that simply can’t turn with the Lola or generate the thrust to match hers. The other obvious way of doing it is with aerospace fighters, all SLDF era vessels have issues with fighter swarms and the Lola's no exception, but this is boring, we want to see warships trading punches, not a rhino taken down by hornets!
Because SLDF ships were built and designed to operate in large squadrons, their vulnerability to small ships was covered by massed guns and their onboard fighter compliments, nowadays a lone Lola can be overwhelmed by hostile fighters and dropships who can take advantage of her thin armour and rather light structural integrity.
If you’re fighting back in SLDF times or a large scale battle then its not the one Lola you’ve got to worry about too much, its her three friends, and the capital ship they are escorting that you want to be really worried about.
The original Lola design as it was in service with the SLDF prior to the alteration's to the classes hull in Clan service.
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/b8/LolaIII.jpg http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/c/cf/CBS_Blood_Fury.jpgThe Lola III after the hull alterations made by the Clans when they swapped out their hull armour for lighter compounds as well as refitted their interiors and engines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemG0cvc4oU The song that gets in my head every time I see this ships name mentioned.
As always thoughts, ideas and feedback are most welcome! This is my first Warship of the Month article and i'd love to know what people think.
