The General War design challenge and poll: The Terran Hegemony's next Battleship

[Liam's Ghost]

Your mission (as of 2579), to design the next generation of Terran Hegemony battleships, which will replace the existing Monsoon class as the primary battle line element of the fleet.

Parameters:
1) The ship needs to be bigger than the Monsoon, however maximum mass is capped at 1,700,000 tons. Allegedly the Lyrans are trying to build a monster ship even bigger than that, but Hegemony intelligence isn't taking that too seriously.
2) More mobility than the Monsoon
3) More protection than the Farragut. 
4) Similar transport capacity to the Monsoon
5) The finest technology available to the Terran Hegemony (as of 2582) is not only available, but encouraged. Show these upstarts what the technical and industrial might of the Terran Hegemony can do.

Current building projections are to have the design plans ready for the first keels to be laid under the 2582 building program, allowing three years to develop and finalize the design.

Finally, the name. The Hegemony high command has chosen to name the lead ship and the class after a famous historical warship, specifically to demonstrate that the Hegemony navy are the true successors of the great navies of the past. A short list of names has been prepared, but suggestions are welcomed, on the condition that the name suggested must honor a successful warship. None of this Yamato or Bismarck nonsense, it must be a ship that came home safe and operated alongside a victorious great naval power of the past. The Hegemony does not make valiant last stands. The Hegemony's enemies make valiant last stands.

Have fun!

[idea weenie]

Deciding the steel fist in a velvet glove was appropriate, this class was merely named the 'Monsoon 2'.  The minor change tot he name hid a far nastier vessel though.

First change was to make the Monsoon 2 a bit more maneuverable by increasing the engine thrust by 50%, going from T/OT of 2/3 to 3/5.

Second was that all of its heat sinks were upgraded to the Double heat standard.  This allows the Battleship to fire all of its weapons at max rate while not worrying about heat buildup.  By reducing the number of heat sinks carried it also saved ~1400 tons of mass.

The next step was changing the armor from the 'standard' armor currently in use to the newest Ferro-Carbide armor, and increasing the mass of the armor to just over 3000 tons.  Although the mass of the armor merely went up by ~25%, the better armor materials changed the total armor protection from just under 1000 pts to ~2500 armor pts.

The three existing Grav decks were increased, the first changed to 240 meters in diameter, and the other two increased to 95 meters in diameter.  This reduced the rotation speed needed to provide the same effective Gs making them far more comfortable to be on.

For weaponry most of the weapons were left standard, except that the Medium NPPC were all upgraded to HNPPC.

A Large Naval Comm-Scanner Suite was added to provide the ship better command capabilities.

Nearly everything else was left standard, including the 280,000 tons of upgrade slots.  These upgrade slots could be used for well-protected cargo, or used to add in various weapon packages depending on the ship's mission.

Changing out the NAC/30 and NAC/35 to HNGauss was not done as the HNGauss did equal damage to the NAC/30, but only had 33% more range and massed twice as much.  Several people have grumbled about this lack change due to the potential explosion risk of the existing autocannon shells.  An evaluation of changing the NAC/35 to NAC/30 was performed to see if making all the NAC use the same ammunition was practical, but the existing two-barrel waist turret design meant that there was no way to squeeze in a third cannon.

Surprisingly the cost only went up by roughly 4 billion C-Bills, from just over 27 billion C-Bills to just over 30 billion C-Bills.  The BV went from ~135,000 to over 200,000.  As usual, the primary cost centers for this vessel were the KF Drive (9.36 B) and the KF Drive Support systems (4.4 B), while the main engine (~300M), the LNCSS (250M), and the armor (229M) added less than a billion in total before the Warship cost multiplier.


Stats:

Code: [Select]

Monsoon 2 (Liam's Ghost)
Mass: 1,700,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2574
Mass: 1,700,000
Battle Value: 209,640
Tech Rating/Availability: E/E-X-E-F
Cost: 30,164,836,000 C-bills

Fuel: 6,000 tons (15,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 7
KF Drive Integrity: 33
Heat Sinks: 3500 (7000)
Structural Integrity: 90

Armor
    Nose: 549
    Fore Sides: 450/450
    Aft Sides: 400/400
    Aft: 253

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (18)            2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (8)         2 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (280,000 tons)    2 Doors   
    Bay 4:  Nooks & Crannies (1,124 tons)    0 Doors

Ammunition:
    60 rounds of White Shark ammunition (2,400 tons),
    240 rounds of NAC/35 ammunition (240 tons),
    240 rounds of NAC/30 ammunition (192 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 6
Grav Decks: 3 (240 m, 95 m, 95 m)
Escape Pods: 150
Life Boats: 150
Crew:  102 officers, 523 enlisted/non-rated, 55 gunners, 76 bay personnel

Notes: Equipped with
    lithium-fusion battery system
    1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
3,060 tons of ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                      Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (1,015 Heat)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)               100  30(300) 30(300) 30(300)   0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/30 Ammo (30 shots)
1 Capital Missile Launcher (White Shark)  15   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)    3(30)   Capital Missile
    White Shark Ammo (20 shots)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                       900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC
FRS/FLS (890 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)               200  60(600) 60(600) 60(600)   0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/30 Ammo (50 shots)
1 Capital Missile Launcher (White Shark)  15   3(30)   3(30)   3(30)    3(30)   Capital Missile
    White Shark Ammo (20 shots)
3 Naval PPC (Heavy)                       675  45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450)  Capital PPC
RBS/LBS (720 Heat)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/35)               240  70(700) 70(700)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/35 Ammo (40 shots)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/35)               240  70(700) 70(700)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/35 Ammo (40 shots)
2 Naval Autocannon (NAC/35)               240  70(700) 70(700)  0(0)     0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/35 Ammo (40 shots)
ARS/ALS (775 Heat)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)               100  30(300) 30(300) 30(300)   0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/30 Ammo (40 shots)
3 Naval PPC (Heavy)                       675  45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450)  Capital PPC
Aft (1,000 Heat)
1 Naval Autocannon (NAC/30)               100  30(300) 30(300) 30(300)   0(0)   Capital AC 
    NAC/30 Ammo (30 shots)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                       900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC


[Vehrec]

So let's see, what does this actually require?

1) The ship needs to be bigger than the Monsoon, however maximum mass is capped at 1,700,000 tons. Allegedly the Lyrans are trying to build a monster ship even bigger than that, but Hegemony intelligence isn't taking that too seriously.
2) More mobility than the Monsoon
3) More protection than the Farragut.
4) Similar transport capacity to the Monsoon
5) The finest technology available to the Terran Hegemony (as of 2582) is not only available, but encouraged. Show these upstarts what the technical and industrial might of the Terran Hegemony can do.

1 means 1,310,000 tons to 1.7 Million, a reasonable tonnage range for battleships.  Notably, the Farragut is already a 1,680kTon ship, so coming in under that displacement would be a feather in your cap.
2 means a Farragut class engine...but also combined with 5 suggests that this should be our first L-F battleship.  No Farragut has that ability, and while ten Monsoons were historically refitted, there is no proof that's been done here.  The need for cargo and
3 means we are using ferro-carbide for sure, since that's what the Farragut already uses, but more of it.  Maybe more SI too, but since the Farragut is already well protected...yeah, you can't do a lot here without cutting damage output.
4 means a lot of cargo space 'almost three hundred thousand tons', but also at least 6 dropships, 8 smallcraft, and 36 fighters.  A Farragut also carries 10 smallcraft and 36 fighters, for reference.
5 means...well, not a hell of a lot.  There's no recent developments in naval weaponry to take advantage of.  It's all gonna be the electronics suite, outside of that LF battery.  AMS don't exist yet and Hegemony doctrine doesn't put them on capital ships yet anyways.  What we might put on display are next-gen small scale weapons, by building for but not with pulse-lasers, gauss rifles and other gee-wiz systems.  Oh, and that LF battery.

As is my remit, I'll try to make a minimalist design here, something that can be mistaken for an actual Monsoon.

edit: It can't be mistaken for a Monsoon.

Code: [Select]

Mistral Warship
Mass: 1,520,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2579
Mass: 1,520,000
Battle Value: 91,344
Tech Rating/Availability: E/E-X-E-X
Cost: 28,862,039,000 C-bills

Fuel: 6,000 tons (15,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 7
KF Drive Integrity: 30
Heat Sinks: 2266 (4532)
Structural Integrity: 95

Armor
    Nose: 250
    Fore Sides: 275/275
    Aft Sides: 275/275
    Aft: 200

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (36)            2 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (10)        1 Door   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (280000.0 tons)   2 Doors   

Ammunition:
    90 rounds of AR10 Killer Whale ammunition (150 tons),
    90 rounds of AR10 Barracuda ammunition (90 tons),
    90 rounds of Heavy N-Gauss ammunition (45 tons),
    90 rounds of AR10 White Shark ammunition (120 tons),
    180 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (6 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 6
Grav Decks: 2 (100 m, 100 m)
Escape Pods: 50
Life Boats: 75
Crew:  66 officers, 349 enlisted/non-rated, 33 gunners, 122 bay personnel

Notes: Equipped with
    lithium-fusion battery system
    1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
1,863 tons of ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                        Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                  Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (50 Heat)
2 AC/20                                     14   4(40)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AC         
    AC/20 Ammo (30 shots)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                       36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (90 shots)
FRS/FLS (749 Heat)
2 AC/20                                     14   4(40)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AC         
    AC/20 Ammo (30 shots)
3 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher)  60   6(60)   6(60)   6(60)    6(60)   AR10       
    AR10 Barracuda Ammo (30 shots)
    AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (30 shots)
    AR10 White Shark Ammo (30 shots)
3 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         675  45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450)  Capital PPC
RBS/LBS (900 Heat)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC
ARS/ALS (689 Heat)
2 AC/20                                     14   4(40)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AC         
    AC/20 Ammo (30 shots)
3 Naval PPC (Heavy)                         675  45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450)  Capital PPC
Aft (74 Heat)
2 AC/20                                     14   4(40)    0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   AC         
    AC/20 Ammo (30 shots)
3 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher)  60   6(60)   6(60)   6(60)    6(60)   AR10       
    AR10 Barracuda Ammo (30 shots)
    AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (30 shots)
    AR10 White Shark Ammo (30 shots)


I started out with a Monsoon-sized hull, cribbing weapons from the Farragut when I could but the NPPC battery despite being rather light for capital weapons,  broke my weight budget after the 280000 ton cargo bay I cribbed off the above design.  The missile launcher trios were upgraded to AR-10s, but they were also left with only 3 tripples overall, and my tertiary battery is just 12 AC/20s standing by to be upgraded to Gauss Rifles.

[Daryk]

That's certainly one way to do an anti-aircraft battery! 

[Taron Storm]

Design Name:  Sovereign
First Ship: Elizabeth II

[Wrangler]

I'm all in for the Royal Sovereign, its such a historical name.  Its not been used in any current canon designs or assign hull of any I know of.
its most fitting to be assigned to a Battleship.

[Tyler Jorgensson]

EDIT: Here's my version of the design: I like armor so its covered in slabs of it. I surprised myself by having less weapons overall but better cargo. Support craft are about average between its competitors. I spread the weapons around to give it better coverage, and added the LCSS and LF-B. Admittedly I would have loved to use AMS. I did have it initially about 250,000 tons less, but then my cargo on that version wasn't acceptable. ONCE Again MML doesn't like me and ammo weight.... so subtract from cargo.

Code: [Select]

Royal Sovereign-class Battleship
Mass: 1,660,000
Battle Value: 170,923
Tech Rating/Availability: F/X-X-X-X
Cost: 30,585,498,000 C-bills

Weapons
- 64x ER Large Lasers
- 20x Heavy Naval PPC's
- 16x Naval Laser 45's
- 8x Naval Heavy Gauss Rifles (20x Rounds Each)
- 4x Killer Whale Capital Missile Launchers (20x Missiles Each)

Fuel: 10,000 tons (25,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 7
KF Drive Integrity: 33
Heat Sinks: 4,000 (8,000)
Structural Integrity: 100

Armor
    Nose: 700
    Fore Sides: 590/590
    Aft Sides: 500/500
    Aft: 500

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (36)            6 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (12)        6 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (235,079 tons)   1 Door   

Ammunition:
    160 rounds of Heavy N-Gauss ammunition (2 tons),
    80 rounds of Killer Whale ammunition (100 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 6
Grav Decks: 4 (100 m, 100 m, 100 m, 100 m)
Escape Pods: 40
Life Boats: 40
Crew:  80 officers, 319 enlisted/non-rated, 59 gunners, 132 bay personnel, 100 marines

Notes: Equipped with
    1 Lithium-Fusion Battery
    1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
3,320 tons of lamellor ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                       Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                                 Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       

Nose (1,276 Heat)
8 ER Large Laser                           96   6(64)   6(64)   6(64)     0(0)   Laser       
4 Naval Laser 45                           280  18(180) 18(180) 18(180) 18(180)  Capital Laser
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC

FRS/FLS (172 Heat)
2 Capital Missile Launcher (Killer Whale)  40   8(80)   8(80)   8(80)    8(80)   Capital Missile
    Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
8 ER Large Laser                           96   6(64)   6(64)   6(64)     0(0)   Laser       
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)

RBS/LBS (1,726 Heat)
8 ER Large Laser                           96   6(64)   6(64)   6(64)     0(0)   Laser       
4 Naval Laser 45                           280  18(180) 18(180) 18(180) 18(180)  Capital Laser
3 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        675  45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450)  Capital PPC
3 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        675  45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450)  Capital PPC

ARS/ALS (132 Heat)
8 ER Large Laser                           96   6(64)   6(64)   6(64)     0(0)   Laser       
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy)                      36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)

Aft (1,276 Heat)
8 ER Large Laser                           96   6(64)   6(64)   6(64)     0(0)   Laser       
4 Naval Laser 45                           280  18(180) 18(180) 18(180) 18(180)  Capital Laser
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                        900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC

[Daryk]

You're using NL-45s, so you get my vote! 

[Tyler Jorgensson]

I like NL-45's over the other two classes: any class that has a variety of laser types i usually try to standardize to the middle... unless i have rear mounted Naval Lasers which may be a different model (usually to save some weight/ HS Capacity). With this I tried to mimic the same type of weapons (even if i changed the layout to suit my preferences: i like having uniform armament) with upgrades. So in this case NL-35's easily became NL-45's with the weight difference.

[Liam's Ghost]

So I'm planning on making a decision here about this time next week, so anybody else who's got an idea is welcome to submit up to that point.

Currently Royal Sovereign is the leading name, which caught me a little bit by surprise, since the first three options were pretty much neck and neck for I think a couple of days, and before that it was lagging behind Warspite and Texas.

(And yes, Elizabeth II will be a name of one of the ships in the class if the Royal Sovereign name wins out. Can't fight fate)

[Liam's Ghost]

The winning name is Royal Sovereign.

*doot doot*

The winning design... still thinking about it.

[Wrangler]

Huzzah!

[Lagrange]

I came across this and ended up and am irrationally attracted to thinking about designs.  Don't worry about considering it---that's not the irrational attraction     I just enjoy thinking about what can be done under a set of constraints not previously considered.   The Quaker is designed to meet or exceed the Farragut and Monsoon in all dimensions: strategic and tactical movement, armor, ranged and close combat power, and sensors as well as transport of dropships, smallcraft, aerospace fighters, cargo, and fuel.  All of this is setup for a battleship role (so I avoided excessive uses of ASF). 

Fluff (such as it is):
The Quaker battleship is built to lead fleets and break enemy naval formations. 

The Quaker's exceptional transport capacity provides the capacity to supply large formations while the new Lithium Fusion battery provides strategic maneuverability.   The large crew of 1120, including marines and flight crews have 3 grav decks and quarters for all enabling long cruises.  Complementing all of this is maximal sensor coverage to discover enemy formations as early as possable.

The primary armament is 16 new Light Naval Gauss Guns chosen for their exceptional range, beyond the that of all other capital weapons save capital missiles.  These relatively inefficient weapons are maximized with a spinal mount enabling all of them to fire on a single target, potentially eliminating an enemy battleship before they can even return fire.  The vulnerabilities of a spinal mount are remediated with a groundbreaking armoring over the nose.  The armor and weapons together enable the Quaker to whether high speed engagements while dishing out overwhelming damage.

Complementing the primary armament is 4 Heavy Naval PPCs with a slightly smaller range while providing capacity for indefinite fire and orbital bombardment.  An array of 20 Barracuda's provides over-the-horizon strike capability while deterring small craft at extreme range.

The focus on range and capital weapons might lead foes to close  with ASF.  It'a trap.   The side arcs are each serviced by ~350 PPCs in hex mounts capable of disintegrating small craft and large craft alike.  In the broadside arc, these combine to provide  over 700(!) PPCs on target.   All 1400+ PPCs are serviced by an array of double heat sinks supporting sustained fire.

Since the ship cannot be surprised, rushed by large or small craft, has excessive range, extensive logistical capacity, and overwhelming close-assault firepower, a creative enemy might try to use  massed missile fire from long range on ASF platforms.  This is effectively defended against using arrays of 350 hex-mount small lasers on all flanks and aft while the ASF complement can provide similar protection in the nose.   In addition, the ASF complement can use more powerful weapons to directly attack capital missiles fired from enemy warships.

Code: [Select]

Quaker Warship
Mass: 1,700,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2582
Mass: 1,700,000
Battle Value: 281,796
Tech Rating/Availability: E/E-X-E-X
Cost: 30,635,839,000 C-bills

Fuel: 10,000 tons (25,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 7
KF Drive Integrity: 33
Heat Sinks: 8050 (16100)
Structural Integrity: 80

Armor
    Nose: 899
    Fore Sides: 300/300
    Aft Sides: 250/250
    Aft: 225

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (40)            18 Doors 
    Bay 2:  Small Craft (10)        5 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (299858.5 tons)   2 Doors   

Ammunition:
    320 rounds of Light N-Gauss ammunition (64 tons),
    200 rounds of Barracuda ammunition (6,000 tons)

Dropship Capacity: 6
Grav Decks: 3 (100 m, 100 m, 100 m)
Escape Pods: 100
Life Boats: 100
Crew:  142 officers, 255 enlisted/non-rated, 485 gunners, 130 bay personnel, 130 passengers, 108 marines

Notes: Equipped with
    lithium-fusion battery system
    1 Satellite Imager [Infrared Imager]
    1 Satellite Imager [High-Resolution (Hi-Res) Imager]
    1 Satellite Imager [Look-Down Radar]
    1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
    1 Space Mine Dispenser
2,720 tons of ferro-carbide armor.

Weapons:                                     Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)                               Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV      ERV    Class       
Nose (1,044 Heat)
4 Naval PPC (Heavy)                      900  60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital PPC
4 Naval Gauss (Light)                    36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Light N-Gauss Ammo (80 shots)
4 Naval Gauss (Light)                    36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Light N-Gauss Ammo (80 shots)
4 Naval Gauss (Light)                    36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Light N-Gauss Ammo (80 shots)
4 Naval Gauss (Light)                    36   60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600)  Capital Gauss
    Light N-Gauss Ammo (80 shots)
FRS/FLS (3,580 Heat)
58x 6 PPC                                   60  6(60) 6(60)  0(0)     0(0)   PPC         
10x Capital Missile Launcher (Barracuda)  10  2(20) 2(20) 2(20) 2(20)  Capital Missile
    Barracuda Ammo (100 shots)
RBS/LBS (354 Heat)
59x 6 Small Laser                          6  2(18)  0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense
ARS/ALS (3,540 Heat)
59x 6 PPC                                   60  6(60) 6(60)  0(0)     0(0)   PPC         
Aft (354 Heat)
59x 6 Small Laser                          6  2(18)  0(0)    0(0)     0(0)   Point Defense