Warships

Confederacy Warships

   Not all of the vessels in a Navy are classed as warships, some are described as support vessels often belonging to the Fleet Auxiliary or Merchant fleets whilst others are identified as small craft. The major warships are divided by mission type and may carry various [[Small Craft|small craft on their complement. Examples of these vessels are given below:-

Combatants

Carriers

• Presidential Class Attack Carriers - The Confederacy Navy's first successful 'big' carrier design and the center of many task forces in the first decade of the war.
• Illustrious Class Attack Carriers - Developed at Jutland as third-generation ships.

Battleships

• Vesuvius Class Battleship - Forced into combat before the design had all the bugs worked out, this design was tough enough to survive its baptism of fire and became the anchor for many of the Confederacy's fleets.  Its development was a major plot arc in Ending This Mess by Zen Master which concerns Month 164 and beyond in the Timeline
• Ersatz Battleships - The Battle of Tulakat was fought by light units, with the two largest ships on the Confederacy side being Aurora transports which had been armored and reinforced, then given as many weapon systems as possible.  The two 'battleships' did their jobs but one was lost and the other scrapped as unrepairable afterwards.  This battle proved the need for well-designed main combatants with real armor.

Battlecruisers

• Hero Strike or Assault Cruiser - At 250 meters and over 90,000 tons, these behemoths were largest capital ship in the Confederacy Navy for years.  Their immense size was forced by the decision to make their primary armament a pair of 200-meter spinal railguns.
• Goddess Support Cruiser - Smaller than their better known cousins class they were 210 meter balls massing 70,000 tons. They were armed with small turrets able to move around on the hull to support massed fire in any direction.
• Kongo Battlecruiser - The Kongo was a developmental design intended to be able to stand up to whatever the Sa'arm could dish out.  The design failed in combat, but the lessons learned allowed the Vesuvius Battleships to be a success.  It is described in Ending This Mess
• Emperor Battlecruiser - An improved Kongo, the Confederacy Navy's standard Battlecruiser design for a decade.

Cruisers

• Europa Class Light Cruiser - Our first large warship design, built to train as well as fight.  Given a wide range of weapon systems to allow us to determine which ones worked best in different circumstances.  Able to assume many roles including battleline support and small task force command.
• Raphael Semmes Missile Cruiser - The Semmes is primarily a standoff weapon that depends on distance and screening ships for its primary defense.  It comes in at 180 meters and 60,000 tons.
• Raptor Class Medium Cruiser - An escort cruiser that bridges the classes of 'cruiser' and 'battlecruiser.'
• Atlanta - Escort cruisers based on the Raptor hull but intended as a close-in defender of larger warships.
• Kent - Heavy cruisers from developed on Beerat as third-generation ships.
• Snake - "Assault cruisers" developed on Beerat as third-generation ships.
• Sirius - An improved Kent, the Confederacy Navy's standard Heavy Cruiser design for a decade.

Destroyers

• Africa - Designed with the Europa and Asian, they are best described as the little man with the nasty bite these 120 meter ships pack a heavy punch but they must close to land it.
• Asian - Designed with the Europa and Africa, the Asians are a 120 meter multi-purpose design able to do anything, but nothing very well.
• Shimakaze - A heavy torpedo destroyer optimized for attacking large capital ships, but lacking in significant weaponry to effectively engage smaller ships.  The design came from the Japanese colony at Kuniumi.

Frigates

• Minekaze Class Frigate A small patrol ship carrying a few small light railguns and three torpedo launchers on either side. Intended for scouting and reconnaissance, and specific to the Japanese colony at Kuniumi.
• Shiro Class Frigate Heavy patrol ship on the order of a Castle or Patrician but massing nearly double and with heavier firepower, higher speeds. Available nearly six years later than the Castle.

Corvettes

• Castle-Class Corvette - Simple little ships, the Castles and variants were produced in bucket loads.  Not really suitable for participating in major battles but found throughout Confederacy space.
• Ainsworth-Class Corvette - Also called "Improved Castles", they had the identical equipment in a smaller, more survivable package.  Excelled at patrol functions.  More than 2000 had been built by war's end.
• Patrician-Class Corvette - Slightly smaller than the Castle class these 60-meter ships carry a standard crew of 5 officers and 23 ratings.

Other

• Archerfish Patrol Combatant - Small patrol ships designed to be easy to build and incredibly stealthy.  Utilizes typical submarine "ambush predator" tactics.
• Oxford Technical Research Ship - The Oxford design is a small experimental electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare vessel with a limited crew, somewhat like the US Navy P-3 maritime series of aircraft but with an attempt at stealth.
• Lawrence Patrol Bomber Mobile Base - The "Larrys" were a support system for the PBY series of patrol bombers.  They were analogous to the Sa'arm "bomber roost" structures but they were hyper-capable and thus could be sent to another system where their wing of low-observable patrol craft could support the fleet with surveying and scouting.  Unlike real Carriers the Larrys had no armor and only minimal defenses; they were intended to remain far from any enemies and never get detected.

Ground Combat Support

• Tarawa Assault ship - The first major class designed to transport, deliver, and supply Marines in the field.
• Sir Lancelot Assault ship - Really a modified ferry, the class carries a reinforced company of Marines and has lift capacity to put them on the deck in one drop.
• Haskell Assault Transport - Lightly armed, purpose-built troop transport, capable of carrying 1,500 troops (about 1-3 battalions).  No assault shuttles; uses up to 250 Kitten self-transporting transporter nexuses delivered by unmanned vehicles.
  
• Mercury Small Assault Transport - Originally designed as a small freighter capable of landing on a planet.  Carries one company of Marines.  Replaced as quickly as possible by larger ships which could deliver their Marines by armed and armored shuttles.
• Absecon Fire Support Ship - Provides orbital artillery support for planetside troops.
• Midway Marine Close Support Carrier - The Midways transport and support the Marines Air Wings.
• Nurse Hospital Ship - The Nurses are modified Auroras that have been dedicated to provide full medical support to ground operations.

See Also

• Warship Generations to understand the development of these platforms
• Warship Weapons to learn more about their combat systems

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