UCS Ark Royal - carrier concept
Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:52 pm
So lately I've been kind of mulling over the use of battleships and fighters in my Coalition universe.
As things stand, the battleships in the Coalition universe are not battleships as we know them, but are rather hybrid battleship/carriers. The Kororra class (which was 'patient zero' of Coalition designs, the ship every other stems from in one way or another) carries 21 large AMP cannon. But it also carries some 7,000 fighter and attack craft.
So what I'm thinking is this : how much sense does that really make? Something like a third of the ship's total volume is given over to fighters. If it were built as a pure battleship, that space and mass could be saved. The battleship would be lighter and faster. Or it could have more guns to give more firepower off the same mobility.
Similarly, if it were built as a pure carrier, with all the heavy weapons removed, it would be a lighter and faster ship too. Or again, carry more subships with the same mobility.
Of course neither ship alone would be as powerful as a hybrid of the two. But that's not a real comparison. A real comparison is to have both a pure battleship and a pure carrier operating side by side, versus one hybrid ship. The two ships would be more flexible, and each could be a master of its role when compared to a "jack of all trades, master of none" solution.
There are pros and cons to the idea. But what I'm knocking up here is a pure carrier concept design, just to see how it looks and feels.
The large bays in the nose are landing bays; they run the entire length of the ship. They're deliberately large, because coming in with battle damage means you may not fly the straightest course! You fly in at the rear and land much like you do on any runway. Then somewhere near the nose, to the sides, would be places you can pull off and ride elevators down to the hangars and such below.
The Ark Royal beside a Kororra class. Currently all the fighters on a Kororra are in that large curved hull section at the upper front. The apertures you can see in the nose are landing traps, just like those on the carrier only far smaller. And the row of tiny apertures along the side of that curved hull are the launch catapults. Actually the carrier traps are too large, I'm going to redesign them to be smaller. And I will rework the launch bays to be a series of smaller tubes as well, kind of like on Galactica.
If I decide to go with this, the fighter area on the Kororra will become torpedo stowage, with the torpedo tubes in the nose. That will let me lop a whole bulky hull section off the bottom of the ship. Could add more tubes, too. And it would make for better commonality of design, because that's where the torpedo stowage is on ships like Frigates and Destroyers, which don't have fighters.
As things stand, the battleships in the Coalition universe are not battleships as we know them, but are rather hybrid battleship/carriers. The Kororra class (which was 'patient zero' of Coalition designs, the ship every other stems from in one way or another) carries 21 large AMP cannon. But it also carries some 7,000 fighter and attack craft.
So what I'm thinking is this : how much sense does that really make? Something like a third of the ship's total volume is given over to fighters. If it were built as a pure battleship, that space and mass could be saved. The battleship would be lighter and faster. Or it could have more guns to give more firepower off the same mobility.
Similarly, if it were built as a pure carrier, with all the heavy weapons removed, it would be a lighter and faster ship too. Or again, carry more subships with the same mobility.
Of course neither ship alone would be as powerful as a hybrid of the two. But that's not a real comparison. A real comparison is to have both a pure battleship and a pure carrier operating side by side, versus one hybrid ship. The two ships would be more flexible, and each could be a master of its role when compared to a "jack of all trades, master of none" solution.
There are pros and cons to the idea. But what I'm knocking up here is a pure carrier concept design, just to see how it looks and feels.
The large bays in the nose are landing bays; they run the entire length of the ship. They're deliberately large, because coming in with battle damage means you may not fly the straightest course! You fly in at the rear and land much like you do on any runway. Then somewhere near the nose, to the sides, would be places you can pull off and ride elevators down to the hangars and such below.
The Ark Royal beside a Kororra class. Currently all the fighters on a Kororra are in that large curved hull section at the upper front. The apertures you can see in the nose are landing traps, just like those on the carrier only far smaller. And the row of tiny apertures along the side of that curved hull are the launch catapults. Actually the carrier traps are too large, I'm going to redesign them to be smaller. And I will rework the launch bays to be a series of smaller tubes as well, kind of like on Galactica.
If I decide to go with this, the fighter area on the Kororra will become torpedo stowage, with the torpedo tubes in the nose. That will let me lop a whole bulky hull section off the bottom of the ship. Could add more tubes, too. And it would make for better commonality of design, because that's where the torpedo stowage is on ships like Frigates and Destroyers, which don't have fighters.