author: These designs are so old that I actually made them in heavy metal aero, so I figured I'd port them over to MML and repost them
The Imperator was one of several designs submitted to the SLDF for consideration as a replacement for the venerable Monsoon, developed jointly by Mitchell Vehicles (who handled most of the design work) and Imperator Automatic Weaponry (which provided most of the funding and some design assistance with the planned weapon array). Though dismissed by many in the media as a blatant attempt by IAW to secure additional SLDF contracts (the weapon array was designed around over fifty of IAW's own class twenty naval cannon), the vessel proved impressive enough to make it to the final round of the design competition.
Compared to the ship it was meant to replace, the advantages of the Imperator are obvious. Though actually slightly smaller than its predecessor, the Imperator is better protected, faster, and tremendously better armed. Its massed cannon batteries gave it a broadside nearly unmatched in the Inner Sphere, while its integral fighter complement was itself comparable to the handful of dedicated carrier warships then in operation.
Unfortunately, it was the only area that the designers has skimped on that led to the design's initial rejection. The Imperator carried only two docking collars, compared to the six collars of the closest rival design from Krester's Ship Construction. The extra collars gave the Krester's design significant strategic flexibility compared to the Imperator, allowing it to handle a wide variety of roles beyond ship to ship combat, and making it better suited to the needs of the post-Reunification War SLDF. Mitchel Vehicles and IAW had produced a superlative ship-killer, but as a flagship, peace keeper, and response vessel, it proved lacking, thus, the SLDF rejected it in favor of the Krester's design, which would become the famous Texas class.
Despite the Imperator's formal rejection however, the design impressed enough of the SLDF high command that, with the additional push of heavy lobbying from IAW, they saw fit to order two ships of the class built for further evaluation. The SLS Imperator and SLS Primate began construction in 2622, with both vessels entering service two years later. In SLDF service, the two vessels essentially took on the role of oversized frigates, acting as screening ships for the line squadrons as well as command ships for escort squadrons of frigates and destroyers. Their performance in this role, particularly the SLS Primate's destruction of a "pirate" cruiser of unknown origins in 2640, is widely considered the impetus for the Star League's revival of the Battlecruiser concept. Seeing an opportunity, Mitchell vehicles presented a slightly modified version (removing half the fighter complement) of the original Imperator plans for consideration as a battlecruiser in 2675, only to be beaten again by Dassault-Shimon's Cameron, and completely disregarded in favor of Boeing Interstellar's Black Lion following the Cameron's failure.
By the time of the Periphery Uprising, the Imperator and Primate had been deemed obsolete and slated for the shipbreakers to make way for new battleships of the Royal Sovereign class. The end of 2766 found two ships in the Nirasaki system in company with the two new battleships Royal Sovereign and Royal Oak, as well as the equally new carrier Gilgamesh. The Imperator and Primate, though granted a brief reprieve due to the current crisis, had already had the bulk of their fighter groups reassigned, while their brand new counterparts had yet to receive any substantial supporting elements, and all were short on munitions. Thus none of the ships were ready for combat when they were engaged by a large force of Rim Worlds WarShips and fighters, signaling the beginning of the Amaris Coup. Even so, the powerful squadron gave an excellent accounting of itself, destroying or crippling half a dozen ships in the engagement before being forced to withdraw, with the Imperator and Gilgamesh sacrificing themselves in grand fashion buying time for the other ships to escape. The survivors would successfully join up with Admiral McTiernan's secret fleet and eventually link up with Kerensky's forces as they began the campaign to retake the Hegemony. The Primate would survive the war against Amaris, though records indicate that the vessel was decommissioned shortly after the Liberation of Terra. The vessel is not mentioned in any accounts after that point.
Imperator Battleship
Mass: 1,300,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2750
Mass: 1,300,000
Battle Value: 334,012
Tech Rating/Availability: E/F-X-F-F
Cost: 13,693,452,000 C-bills
Fuel: 6,000 tons (15,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 6
KF Drive Integrity: 26
Heat Sinks: 2200 (4400)
Structural Integrity: 90
Armor
Nose: 259
Fore Sides: 232/232
Aft Sides: 232/232
Aft: 209
Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (72) 4 Doors
Bay 2: Small Craft (20) 4 Doors
Bay 3: Cargo (126637.0 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
240 rounds of AR10 Killer Whale ammunition (12,000 tons),
240 rounds of AR10 Barracuda ammunition (7,200 tons),
240 rounds of AR10 White Shark ammunition (9,600 tons),
1,620 rounds of NAC/20 ammunition (648 tons)
Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 2 (150 m, 150 m)
Escape Pods: 50
Life Boats: 100
Crew: 71 officers, 244 enlisted/non-rated, 102 gunners, 244 bay personnel, 220 passengers, 252 marines
Notes: Equipped with
1 Mobile Hyperpulse Generators (Mobile HPG)
2,237 tons of improved ferro-aluminum armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (420 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 340 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) Capital Laser
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
FRS/FLS (1,140 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 340 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) Capital Laser
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
RBS/LBS (1,140 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 340 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) Capital Laser
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
Aft (780 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 340 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) 22(220) Capital Laser
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (90 shots)
Even after just the first two years of redesigns and changing requirements from the SLDF Admiralty, it had quickly become apparent that the new Enterprise class carrier was shaping up to be a boondoggle beyond compare, putting even the fiasco surrounding the Cameron to shame. Though the Enterprise had garnered all the inertia that politics and public perception could give it and was simply too politically big to kill, those in the Admiralty who believed the SLDF needed a large carrier to answer future potential threats were unwilling to let the inevitable failure of the Enterprise drag the entire program down. Though they couldn't convince the League to embark on a second parallel program to build another entirely new carrier from the keel up, they had enough pull to investigate modifying an existing design to meet these needs. Combing through the Star League's massive naval archives led them to the Imperator class Battleship, a design that had originally been developed in the competition to replace the Monsoon. Though it had ultimately lost out to the Texas, two Imperator class ships had still been constructed for further evaluation, and were found to be powerful, reliable ships with, most importantly, a roomy, extensive flight deck readily able to support expansion. Seeing the promise of the design, the SLDF Admiralty submitted a request to Mitchell Vehicles to modify their battleship for use as a dedicated carrier.
What they got back was certainly a more modest design than the Enterprise, capable of carrying and supporting a "mere" nine wings of aerospace fighters. Though only about thirty percent of the Enterprise's projected complement (as of the then most recent design change, the final design for the enterprise was planned to carry nearly a thousand aerofighters) it was considered more than enough to engage any potential threat the new carrier might face for the forseable future, and sufficient to provide fighter cover for an entire line squadron. More importantly, this complement was small enough for the ship's crew to easily handle, both from a traffic control standpoint and from a logistical standpoint, with the ship able to carry over two hundred thousand tons of fuel and cargo to support her aerospace complement, while the Enterprise would have to support far more fighters with only marginally more space to do so.
The ship's armament was likewise simpler and more straightforward than the Enterprise, built around a mixture of naval lasers and missile tubes geared for engaging fighters and small craft that might get through the ship's screening vessels. The complete removal of the Imperator's original complement of naval autocannons caused some legal trouble for Mitchell vehicles, when Imperator Automatic Weaponry (Mitchell Vehicles' original partners in the Imperator class Battleship over a century before) filed suit claimed that completely removing the Imperator-20 naval guns from the redesign constituted a breach of contract. A subtle threat from the SLDF Admiralty to switch from Imperator to Whirlwind guns on their next batch of Sovettski Soyuz class cruisers quickly silenced Imperator's complaints.
The new carrier, designated the Ranger Class, was announced with little fanfare, and in official releases was described as an escort and support vessel for the Enterprise class, intended to handle those targets too small to justify employing an Enterprise's massive aerowing or the massive firepower of a McKenna. The first vessels were launched a year after the catastrophic launching of the Enterprise, and with that ship proving an absolute, unrecoverable catastrophe, were quietly redesignated as the SLDF's new standard fleet carrier. Some armchair admirals loudly decried this, claiming that the Ranger was a poor substitute for the Enterprise and insisting that the monies spent on the Ranger would be better served correcting the "minor bugs" that had crippled the Enterprise, some going so far as to claim a conspiracy from those opposed to the Star League was attempting to sabotage the fleet with an inferior carrier.
Despite these claims, the Ranger quickly proved an impressive asset to the SLDF fleet, operating singly or in pairs in line squadrons across the Star League (those line squadrons operating more than one Ranger were often called carrier squadrons, even though they remained primarily composed of non-carrier warships). Twenty two ships were completed before the Amaris Coup began. Two incomplete hulls were sabotaged at the Graham IV yards to prevent their capture, and three additional ships operating in the Hegemony were lost in the early days of the Coup. One of these, SLS Hornet, fought one of the largest pure carrier engagements in the history of space travel, surprising and engaging three Samarkand class carriers captured by Amaris forces at a naval base in the outskirts of the Helen system. Having only just taken on pilots to man their captured fighters, the flight crews of the three Samarkands were badly disorganized and uncoordinated when the Hornet's aerowings descended on them, quickly crippling two of the ships. As the third Samarkand fled, the Hornet moved in to board both the base and the two crippled vessels, rescuing imprisoned personnel and stripping critical materials before destroying what remained with naval gunfire. Unexpectedly, the third Samarkand mounted its own fighter strike against the Hornet. Though badly outnumbered and still poorly coordinated, the Rim Worlders were able to utilize a small number of nuclear warheads to inflict moderate damage against the Hornet. While this was happening, however, three wings of aerofighters already launched from the Hornet descended on the unprotected Samarkand, quickly destroying it.
Though it had won the engagement, the Hornet had suffered crippling damage to its jump drive, making it unable to leave the system. Meeting up with other loyal vessels beyond the proximity limit, the captain of the Hornet had whatever personnel and equipment they could (including two thirds of the ship's remaining fighters) transferred to these other ships, and ordered them out of the system, planning to follow once they had completed repairs on the ship's jump drive. Unfortunately, two more Rimworlds vessels, a Monsoon class battleship and Avatar class cruiser jumped in soon after and moved to engage. Though the Hornet and her remaining fighters fought well, nearly destroying the Avatar and inflicting moderate damage to the Monsoon, they were unable to overcome their enemies, and the ship was destroyed after three hours of fierce fighting.
Of the nineteen remaining Ranger class Carriers in SLDF service, one was lost during the periphery uprising (destroyed by a tactical nuclear weapon smuggled aboard by periphery sympathizers), and an additional seventeen would be destroyed during the campaign to retake the Hegemony (several were destroyed inbound to Terra, due to their inability to rely on their fighter groups during the high speed burn insystem). The last of these, SLS Indomitable, accompanied the Exodus and was mothballed upon reaching the pentagon worlds. It was generally ignored both by the pentagon powers and the clans, due to its relatively light firepower and the lack of sufficient fighters to make such a large ship worthwhile. At last report, it still remains in one of the mothball fleets in and around the Pentagon.
Ranger Carrier
Mass: 1,300,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2750
Mass: 1,300,000
Battle Value: 99,339
Tech Rating/Availability: E/F-X-F-F
Cost: 13,219,640,000 C-bills
Fuel: 14,000 tons (35,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 6
KF Drive Integrity: 26
Heat Sinks: 2200 (4400)
Structural Integrity: 90
Armor
Nose: 259
Fore Sides: 232/232
Aft Sides: 232/232
Aft: 209
Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (162) 8 Doors
Bay 2: Small Craft (40) 3 Doors
Bay 3: Cargo (196180.0 tons) 10 Doors
Ammunition:
240 rounds of AR10 Killer Whale ammunition (12,000 tons),
240 rounds of AR10 Barracuda ammunition (7,200 tons),
240 rounds of AR10 White Shark ammunition (9,600 tons)
Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 2 (150 m, 150 m)
Escape Pods: 50
Life Boats: 100
Crew: 72 officers, 243 enlisted/non-rated, 108 gunners, 524 bay personnel, 252 marines
Notes: Equipped with
1 Mobile Hyperpulse Generators (Mobile HPG)
2,237 tons of improved ferro-aluminum armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (940 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 860 57(570) 57(570) 57(570) 22(220) Capital Laser
10 Naval Laser 35
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
FRS/FLS (940 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 860 57(570) 57(570) 57(570) 22(220) Capital Laser
10 Naval Laser 35
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
RBS/LBS (940 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 860 57(570) 57(570) 57(570) 22(220) Capital Laser
10 Naval Laser 35
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
Aft (940 Heat)
4 Naval Laser 55 860 57(570) 57(570) 57(570) 22(220) Capital Laser
10 Naval Laser 35
4 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 80 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) 8(80) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (40 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (40 shots)
