Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

In real-world Fleet Junkie news, it appears that the US Navy will stop building Littoral Combat Ships after 32 ships and instead focus on a new frigate design with greater survivability and combat capabilities. I for one an extremely happy about this news. I did get a chance to see the USS Fort Worth and USS Independence up close in San Diego this past week. There are uses for small ships of their size and capability, but if we built the original 52 ships they would constitute nearly 1/6th of the US Navy. That is too risky a venture, IMO, so the focus on a new frigate design seems worthwhile to me.

--Adm. Nick

 

The Darth Maul comic also has a fighter size Maruader Corvette.

I think some people just look at the design and assume it is a fighter.

No. I thought at fire that they might be corsairs - which have rounded bodies and turbolasers, which I imagine would look giant on a fighter - but apparently there is a picture of a corsair and it looks different enough.

 

Dangerous Covenants had some surprises. The run-down:

Starfighters
A-7 Hunter Interceptor
Preybird-class starfighter
Freighters/Transports
4R3 Light Assault Transport
Surronian Conqueror-class Assault Ship
YV-929 light freighter
YZ-775 medium transport
Capital Ships
Neutron Star-class bulk cruiser
Keldabe-class battleship
Starbolt assault carrier

 

Hey, Neutron Star! For such a supposedly common ship, we don't see enough of them.

Starbolt? where is that from?

 

No idea. It's a pre-Clone Wars CEC starship carrier.

 

It's a tiny Marauder lookalike. Can't wait for somebody to explain that one.

 

Yeah especially in a comic book series were the artist can't even draw human looking humans.

 

I am incredibly interested in details on the Starbolt-class assault carrier, especially if it has an image!

--Adm. Nick

 

I don't want to be insensitive, but do people have the X Wing covers in memory of Allston? By the way, Rest In Peace, Allston. (I was hoping for another series with a great start. yes, I did like LotF and FotJ)

Also, do we see NTB bombers in the movies?

 

CEC-built "integrated ship and weapons system" - introduced few years before the Clone Wars, sold to merc units, PDFs and similar units throughout the war. Discontinued post-war due to reduced sales thanks to the loss of military contracts and Imperial edicts limiting the sale of military-grade material. Still used by many star systems, merc units and the occasional pirate. 800 crew and troop support, 250 troops, 24 starfighters, 12 speeders, 2 shuttles. The image of a damaged ship on p. 63 might be an image (although it's in the section about speeders).

 

I'm not sold on the idea of a new frigate. The leading alternative I've seen (aside from procuring a foreign design, which the US will be loathe to do) is a militarized version of the Coast Guard's National Security Cutter. The problem is that NSCs cost $700 million at last check, and that's before you factor in the cost of design changes, added weapons and sensor systems, and other required equipment. Producing 24 ships on top of the USCG's 8 hulls may bring the price down a little, but you're potentially looking at a billion-dollar frigate after all the bells and whistles go on. The latest batch of DDG-51s were about $1.8 billion a pop; the price for an LCS hull differs depending on where in the production run you take it from but $400-$500 million is a rough ballpark figure.

Going the militarized NSC route reportedly gets you a vessel that has a 76-millimeter gun, 12 vertical launch missile cells, and 8 canisters for Harpoon antship missiles. That's still not a lot of armament to take into a really hot combat zone without serious backup; in practice I'd bet that those 12 VLS cells would all be quad-packed with self-defense SAMs. Harpoon is bordering on obsolescence (the cruisers and destroyers no longer carry them) and if you're exchanging cannon fire with other ships in this day and age, something's gone horribly wrong. So in short you have a vessel that can defend itself, but won't have much of an offensive bite or ability to protect other ships from a concentrated attack. It will also cost twice as much as LCS and be 17 knots slower, but have more than double the unrefueled range. Supposedly it will be more "survivable" if damaged, but in practice a 4,500 ton ship hit by a mine, torpedo, or missile is probably going to be badly crippled and out of the fight; if the attack is pressed and no help is available it will probably be sunk. It will still not be a ship one would send into a high-risk area without cover from a cruiser or destroyer.

The issue with LCS, I think, has really been that a lot of folks are locked into the idea that it must be a stand-up puncher on its own, charging into pitched battles against North Korean missile craft and Chinese frigates. That was never the idea. It was supposed to be a modifiable vessel that could take on a variety of second-line roles like minesweeper, sub-hunter, commando transport, etc. It's entirely possible that they could eventually beef up the weapons load. For a lot of the Navy's "presence" missions, LCS is completely suitable. Right now we have cruisers and destroyers designed to fight WWIII chasing pirates off Somalia, playing chicken with Iran's outboard navy, or hunting drug smugglers in the Caribbean. One of the more interesting trends I've noted in the last few years is how the USN is building up a fleet specifically for those kinds of missions; LCS is the most visible aspect but there's also the Joint High-Speed Vessels, Special Warfare Support Ships, and Mobile Landing Platforms crewed by Maritime Sealift Command that may take up a lot of the duties previously handled by the big amphibious warfare vessels. It's a good concept; have a lot of low-cost vessels that can be spread around to take care of the routine Third World brushfires and keep the capable, expensive ships on duty in areas where they might encounter something that merits their attention.

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/dfad249c4dfc

Back to the GFFA, this is something of a strategy we've seen with modified bulk cruisers and the ubiquitous CR90 corvette; use a lightly-armed variant on a civilian ship design to perform a military function in a low-risk area. Granted it's mostly seen either for reasons of subterfuge or lack of resources.

 

Any chance you can post a pic? Does the carrier have any CEC design attributes?

Also- any armaments on the vessel?

--Adm. Nick

 

Doesn't look particularly "CEC", but I don't have a scanner, unfortunately.

Weapons: 2 port and 2 starboard-mounted heavy turbolasers, two port and two starboard light turbolasers, 2 ventral turret-mounted heavy ion cannons, forward-mounted twin proton torpedo launcher, and forward-mounted heavy tractor beam emitter.

 

Kind of odd a designated carrier would have less fighters than an average cruiser.

 

The hull type is "frigate", so I assume it's smaller than your average cruiser.

 

Was there any new info on the Keldabe-class? I am guessing from above with respect to the Starbolt-class, it didn't exactly say how long any of them were?

 

No length, but cruiser hull. 6000 crew, 36 starfighters, 1000 troop capacity; 5 dorsal, 10 port and 10 starboard turret-mounted heavy turbolasers; 5 ventral, 5 port and 5 starboard heavy ion cannons; 2 forward mounted mass driver missile launchers, and 5 forward-mounted heavy tractor beam emitters.
The shield energy absorbers are said to be "difficult to construct, takes up an inordinate amount of space, and can cause critical overloads in systems".

 

I do, I am pretty sure Havac does as well, since he gave me the idea.

Seems to be more of a troop carrier.

 

Anything new or a pic of the A-7 Hunter? Not much out there on that fighter.

 

Yoda and R2 hijack this little fighter-craft on his arc ( it uses hyperspace rings); looks pretty cool.

 

Looks like the missing link between the Actis-class Jedi Starfighter and the TIE.

 

It didn't appear to be Yoda's specific fighter, so there's a good chance it's a newer Jedi fighter. It looks closer to an Actis, yeah, so perhaps a precursor to the ones we see in RotS. It seems like they're able to design and build small craft at a quick rate, so it wouldn't be out of place.

I think it looks particularly awesome with the large bubble hull and variable wings; even the dome of an R2 unit goes well with it. It's probably my favorite prequel-era fighter so far (it was the Nantex before this one).

 

Another Clone Wars Uglie design and it looks way to small for regular sized pilots

 

The size seems fine; like sitting in your computer chair and playing TIE Fighter.

They're basically an armed personal interstellar speeder for all intents. Whilst it doesn't appear to be required (did Obi-Wan need any on his way to Kamino and Geonosis?), cantina stops wouldn't be a problem.