As part of General Rebecca Fredasa’s New Arms Order the Sovietskii Soyuz class began production in 2735 and quickly moved to mass production in 2738. Designed from the onset to be simple to manufacture and repair, multiple parts of the ship could be built at different yards with the sections being mated together at a yard to be completed. This modular construction allowed the cruiser to be built in large numbers and meant it was easy to repair and upgrade.
This modular nature was noted by some Admirals who pushed for a more flexible fleet, citing that the Sovietskii Soyuz when compared to its predecessors, the Avatar and Aegis was comparatively under-gunned for a ship its size. The disagreement became public and then political with the yards (and Politicians) at Caph offering several modified versions of the class. The first, the ‘Sovremenny’ was a direct upgrade of the classes firepower to make them a more formidable design, the second was the Kiev class carrier.
The main change to the Kiev class was a significantly altered central core section to the ship which reduced the rather graceful ‘cobra hood’ of the forward section of the ship to a more truncated wedge. This considerably increased the ships internal space, as did the additional widening of the midships and side sections. A pair of 200-meter grav-decks were wrapped round the jump-drive and the original weapons load was significantly altered. The heavy autocannons were removed, as were the particle cannons, whilst additional triple mountings for 45cm lasers were installed along the ships flanks, bow and stern. The missile battery was also augmented with the installation of extra silo’s for Barracuda missiles and their ammunition storage was considerably increased.
An extensive array of particle cannons, lasers and missiles were also installed for anti-fighter defences as well as small pulse lasers to engage hostile missile strikes. These changes (as well as the installation of a 35-meter long ‘plug’ amidships to increase the ships length) all freed up considerable internal volume and allowed for the fitting of a trio of hangars, each capable of holding 24 fighters of all sizes giving the ship a total of 72 fighters onboard. A smaller sub-hanger is used to dock ten small craft, usually a mix of in-flight refuelling, SAR, and stores delivery craft as well as a few EW shuttles. The quarters for the flight crews was oversized, and at full load a Kiev class could carry an additional full flight crew for her fighters and shuttles to allow for high-tempo operations.
Due to the new hull layout the DropShip capacity was halved, with the two collars relocated on the dorsal hull of the ship to reduce interference between the hangar launch bay doors and any obstructions. The removal of the energy hungry particle cannons and many of the systems associated with weapon usage was reallocated to the engines which were also refitted with the original drives being replaced with those found on the Luxor class. The result was a considerably higher thrust rating with the ship being able to sustain a maximum of 2.5g of thrust.
Unfortunately these changes were so significant that they could not be simply worked into the current design, unlike the Sovremenny class, and instead the Kiev sections had to be built specifically for that sub-class. There was also wrangling over the distribution of the design and several complaints about the additional strain it would put on the SLDF’s fighter academies. But despite this, and with considerable political support the Kiev was authorised for production. And of the Sovetskii Soyuz class, for every six cruisers built, a carrier was also constructed with sixty-six in construction at the start of the Amaris crisis.
General Kerensky took the survivors with him into his exodus and none remained in the Inner Sphere until the SLS Bon Homme Richard was salvaged by House Davion with the ship later being destroyed during the Second Succession War after only spending eight months under Davion colours.
Class/Model/Name: Kiev Class Battle Carrier
Tech: Inner Sphere
Ship Cost: $9,027,740,000.00
Magazine Cost: $12,840,000.00
BV2: 28,061
Mass: 830,000
K-F Drive System: Compact
Power Plant: Maneuvering Drive
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-Aluminum
Armament:
2 Capital Launcher Killer Whale
10 Capital Launcher Barracuda
21 Naval Laser 45
24 LRM 20 (IS)
16 PPC
16 Laser Large Pulse (IS)
16 Laser Medium
24 Laser Small Pulse (IS)
Class/Model/Name: Kiev Class Battle Carrier
Mass: 830,000
Equipment: Mass
Drive: 149,400.00
Thrust
Safe: 3
Maximum: 5
Controls: 2,075.00
K-F Hyperdrive: Compact (18 Integrity) 375,575.00
Jump Sail: (5 Integrity) 72.00
Structural Integrity: 80 66,400.00
Total Heat Sinks: 1091(2182) Double 500.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 18750 points 7,650.00
Fire Control Computers: 93.34
Armor: 497 pts Improved Ferro-Aluminum 828.00
Fore: 74
Fore-Left/Right: 88/88
Aft-Left/Right: 88/88
Aft: 71
Dropship Capacity: 2 2,000.00
Grav Decks:
Small: 0
Medium: 2 200.00
Large: 0
Escape Pods: 60 420.00
Life Boats: 50 350.00
Crew And Passengers:
46 Officers in Steerage Quarters 230.00
165 Crew in Steerage Quarters 825.00
55 Gunners and Others in Steerage Quarters 275.00
194 Bay Personnel
224 (194 Pilots, 30 Marines.) 1,120.00
# Weapons Loc Heat Damage Range Mass
2 Capital Launcher Killer Whale Nose 40 80 (8-C) Extreme-C 300.00
2 Capital Launcher Barracuda Nose 20 40 (4-C) 180.00
4 Laser Large Pulse (IS) Nose 40 36 (3.6-C) 28.00
4 PPC Nose 40 40 (4-C) 28.00
8 Laser Medium Nose 24 40 (4-C) 8.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) Nose 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
3 Naval Laser 45 FL 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
2 Capital Launcher Barracuda FL 20 40 (4-C) 180.00
4 LRM 20 (IS) FL 24 48 (4.8-C) 40.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) FL 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
3 Naval Laser 45 FR 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
2 Capital Launcher Barracuda FR 20 40 (4-C) 180.00
4 LRM 20 (IS) FR 24 48 (4.8-C) 40.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) FR 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
3 Naval Laser 45 LBS 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
3 Naval Laser 45 LBS 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
4 PPC LBS 40 40 (4-C) 28.00
4 Laser Large Pulse (IS) LBS 40 36 (3.6-C) 28.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) LBS 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
3 Naval Laser 45 RBS 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
3 Naval Laser 45 RBS 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
4 PPC RBS 40 40 (4-C) 28.00
4 Laser Large Pulse (IS) RBS 40 36 (3.6-C) 28.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) RBS 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
2 Capital Launcher Barracuda AL 20 40 (4-C) 180.00
4 LRM 20 (IS) AL 24 48 (4.8-C) 40.00
4 LRM 20 (IS) AL 24 48 (4.8-C) 40.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) AL 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
2 Capital Launcher Barracuda AR 20 40 (4-C) 180.00
4 LRM 20 (IS) AR 24 48 (4.8-C) 40.00
4 LRM 20 (IS) AR 24 48 (4.8-C) 40.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) AR 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
3 Naval Laser 45 Aft 210 135 (13.5-C) 2,700.00
4 Laser Large Pulse (IS) Aft 40 36 (3.6-C) 28.00
4 PPC Aft 40 40 (4-C) 28.00
8 Laser Medium Aft 24 40 (4-C) 8.00
3 Laser Small Pulse (IS) Aft 6 9 (0.9-C) 3.00
Aerospace Group
72 x Fighters
10 x Small Craft
2 x DropShip Collars
Additional Equipment
1 x Small NCSS
Ammo Rounds
Capital Launcher Killer Whale Ammo 50
Capital Launcher Barracuda Ammo 400
LRM 20 (IS) Ammo 1,728
Cargo - 165,452 tons
As always, thoughts/comments are most welcome.