Ark Royal Class heavy fleet carrier.
The Reunification war showed that fighters in large numbers could be a serious threat to warships of all sizes and large enough strikes could overwhelm any defending fighters. And all it took was one strike craft with a nuclear missile to spell the doom for a multi-thousand-ton ship and all its crew.
In the Reunification war, even with their technological advantages this happened far too many times to the House and SLDF forces, especially those engaged on the Taurian front and it was felt that something had to be done.
The ‘quick fix’ was to deploy as many carrier dropships as possible but these came with their own logistics needs and were cramped and uncomfortable to serve on for any period of time. Attaching such vessels to a Warship also imposed a logistics strain on them. Trials with the Monsoon class Battleship Imperio, giving her a full complement of 6 of the newly developed Titan class dropships (these 6 were the initial prototypes) proved to be a huge drain on her logistics as well as imposing a considerable hardship on the crew who now had to find bunks for the 552 crew of the dropships. Converting cargo holds into barracks was not ideal and this decrease in habitability as well as serviceability of the carriers and their crew made the experiment a short lived failure.
Following the Reunification War, the Admiralty sought to redress what was seen as a serious potential flaw and weakness that could be exploited. The obvious solution was to resurrect the old blue water aircraft carrier concept and adopt it for the black water of space and this was then put out to tender.
The contract was won by Krester Ship Construction and they in turn produced two designs one larger ‘heavy fleet carrier’ design and the smaller but visually identical ‘battle carrier’ that was smaller and cheaper to produce.
The Admiralty naturally went for the heavy carrier design,
To carry a suitable number of fighters as well as their ordnance, fuel, stores, spare fighters and crew, as well as being able to defend itself the ship would need to be large and Krester didn’t disappoint on that regard. What emerged was a design capable of carrying an unprecedented 216 fighters, or four full regiments worth. There was also 20 support craft and six dropship collars that would carry assault dropships to provide additional protection.
With such a huge mass of aerospace fighters the carrier was seen as a command ship and was fitted as a flagship with large quarters for any visiting Admiral and his or her staff. A large and powerful communications suite allowed the ship to guide and control other fleet elements whilst batteries of missiles, autocannons and lasers provided protection against fighter strikes.
Anti-shipping firepower was limited though, with lasers and missiles being the order of the day, again mainly as an anti-fighter focused defence. Finally, four large turrets mounting a trio of heavy naval PPCs provided the main anti-ship punch if needed. But the carrier was envisioned to operate at the heart of a battlegroup, surrounded by destroyers, cruisers and battleships so heavy anti-ship firepower was seen as not needed. Protection was not weak and was roughly equal to the Monsoon class battleships. When asked about this Krester replied that the ship was a strategic asset and needed a high level of protection.
To house the ships large crew the carrier was well appointed with large grav-decks whilst fuel and ammunition storage was plentiful allowing the ship to remain in the field for extended periods of time. Krester even spent time talking with ship CAG’s and fighter pilots to try and figure out the best possible launching and landing arrangements. The arrangement that was accepted would see the fighters land on the lower rear flanks of the ships, away from any drive plume. A series of electromagnetic rails would then bring the fighters along the lower interior hull to be repaired and refuelled in the huge hangar bay area forwards of the main grav-deck before having the fighters launched out of the bow section with launch bays being under the ships ‘chin’. There was also an emergency ‘flight deck’ on the upper hull next to the dropship collars. This ‘deck’ was layered with electro-magnets and a damaged fighter could use this if they were worried they could not land safely. The flight decks magnets would slow and stop a damaged fighter. It could then be moved to an elevator to be recovered.
The first ship the SLS Ark Royal entered service and her first tour of duty with the 2nd Fleet was a 12-month long deployment through the Periphery hunting pirates with elements of the 222nd Battlegroup with the Carrier acting as flagship.
During this period the 222nd engaged several pirate bands as well as engaging in convoy escort and two major exercises. The Ark Royal performed well but concerns were raised about the vulnerability of the internal rail system as well as the ship being rather unpleasant to land on whilst underway. It was feared that damage to the ships dorsal area could adversely affect the internal rail system bringing fighters up from their landing bays. Whilst heavily protected concerns about shock damage were taken to heart and alterations were made to all subsequent ships.
Unfortunately the biggest problem with the class was their sheer cost, they were expensive to crew, man and keep supplied and despite large internal stores they still required supply ships and tankers to keep them in the field and this logistics tail was in turn vulnerable. Faced with tightening budgets and competing requirements, the carrier program was severely curtailed with eighteen entering service before production was halted. This was out of a planned 36 to be constructed.
The smaller ‘battle carrier’ and its 108 fighters was looked at but even this was seen as too expensive, and funding was very tight following the Cameron class fiasco, with the navy eventually choosing to purchase the cheaper Black Lion class of battlecruiser. The disasterous mismanagement of the SLS Enterprise Super Carrier also cooled the beauracracy's respect for the Carrier as an operational concept despite protests from the Admiralty.
Because of their huge value all 18 ships were kept in service and were generally popular ships although there was a friendly rivalry between the carrier commanders and their ‘black shoe’ counterparts on the fleets battleships. The Amaris Civil War was hard on the class with only three surviving to see the liberation of Terra, and one of those the SLS Ranger had to be scuttled following the liberation when her battle damage proved uneconomical to repair. The two survivors the SLS Formidable and SLS Yorktown both vanished with the SLDF when it went into exile, their fate since is unknown.
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
VALIDATED
Class/Model/Name: Ark Royal Class Heavy Carrier v2
Tech: Inner Sphere / 2368
Vessel Type: WarShip
Rules: Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2
Mass: 1.400.000 tons
K-F Drive System: (Unknown)
Length: 1.200 meters
Sail Diameter: 1.400 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament:
12 NL45
40 LB 10-X AC
40 LRM 20
32 AMS
12 White Shark
12 Barracuda
12 Heavy NPPC
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Class/Model/Name: Ark Royal Class Heavy Carrier v2
Mass: 1.400.000 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 252.000,00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive: Compact (Integrity = 27) 633.500,00
Lithium Fusion Battery 14.000,00
Jump Sail: (Integrity = 6) 100,00
Structural Integrity: 81 113.400,00
Total Heat Sinks: 4.200 Single 3.446,00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 10.200,00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 3.500,00
Fire Control Computers: ,00
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum (1.409 total armor pts) 2.268,00
Capital Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 204
Fore-Left/Right: 251/251
Aft-Left/Right: 251/251
Aft: 201
Cargo:
Bay 1: Fighters (216) with 8 doors 32.400,00
Bay 2: Small Craft (32) 6.400,00
Cargo (1) with 8 doors 252.193,00
Bay 3: Large Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (1) 500,00
DropShip Capacity: 6 Docking Hardpoints 6.000,00
Grav Decks #1 - 4: (95-meter diameter) 200,00
Life Boats: 80 (7 tons each) 560,00
Escape Pods: 80 (7 tons each) 560,00
Crew and Passengers:
90 Officers (73 minimum) 900,00
300 Crew (235 minimum) 2.100,00
67 Gunners (67 minimum) 469,00
50 1st Class Passengers 500,00
700 2nd Class Passengers 4,900,00
144 Marines 1,008.00
592 Bay Personnel ,00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 NL45 Nose 27 27 27 27 420 5.400,00
5 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) Nose 3(30) 3(30) -- -- 10 65,00
5 LRM 20(120 rounds) Nose 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) -- 30 70,00
4 AMS(120 rounds) Nose -- -- -- -- 4 12,00
3 White Shark(30 msls) FL/R 9 9 9 9 90 3.120,00
3 Barracuda(30 msls) FL/R 6 6 6 6 60 2.340,00
5 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) FL/R 3(30) 3(30) -- -- 20 130,00
5 LRM 20(120 rounds) FL/R 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) -- 60 140,00
4 AMS(120 rounds) FL/R -- -- -- -- 8 24,00
3 Heavy NPPC L/RBS 45 45 45 45 1350 18.000,00
3 Heavy NPPC L/RBS 45 45 45 45 1350 18.000,00
5 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) L/RBS 3(30) 3(30) -- -- 20 130,00
5 LRM 20(120 rounds) L/RBS 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) -- 60 140,00
4 AMS(120 rounds) L/RBS -- -- -- -- 8 24,00
3 White Shark(30 msls) AL/R 9 9 9 9 90 3.120,00
3 Barracuda(30 msls) AL/R 6 6 6 6 60 2.340,00
5 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) AL/R 3(30) 3(30) -- -- 20 130,00
5 LRM 20(120 rounds) AL/R 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) -- 60 140,00
4 AMS(120 rounds) AL/R -- -- -- -- 8 24,00
6 NL45 Aft 27 27 27 27 420 5.400,00
5 LB 10-X AC(100 rounds) Aft 3(30) 3(30) -- -- 10 65,00
5 LRM 20(120 rounds) Aft 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) -- 30 70,00
4 AMS(120 rounds) Aft -- -- -- -- 4 12,00
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TOTALS: Heat: 4.192 1.400.000,00
Tons Left: ,00
Art by Matt Plog, ship stats by Dragoncat.