UCS Askad-Tarell

[Graham Kennedy]

The Askad-Tarell class is a group of planetary surface bombardment units built to support Coalition ground forces on captured territory. Any AMP weapon can be used against the surface of a planet, but even the small anti-fighter weapons on Coalition Naval units are too powerful to be used in proximity to friendly light infantry forces, or within populated areas such as cities. The majority of the Tarell's weapons are therefore designed to fulfill this role.

At 1,596 metres long the Tarell is in the Destroyer/Frigate size range. It is designed along the lines of a typical Coalition support/amphibious unit, with the midspace shunts in the bow, with power and fuel systems below and the rest of the vessel aft. The underside of the Tarell is studded with 64 single barreled plasma cannon, each capable of firing rounds ranging from 5 MJ up to 500 GJ. Rate of fire is one round per second per cannon.

In addition to the plasma cannon, the Tarell is fitted with 50 cm missile packs. Each pack comprises 324 quad stacked silos, for 1,296 missiles. With 36 packs the Tarell has a total of 46,656 missiles on board. These missiles are of various types, designed to engage a variety of surface targets.

For self defence purposes the Tarell is fitted with a twin Mark 6 AMP turret.

That Tarell is not a fast ship, with a top cruise speed of 22 kc.

[Mikey]

I guess the lack of need for closing speed, etc., explains the "cut-out" on the rear hull?

I like this a lot, GK. Most sci-fi tries to make ships that do everything well, or at least can do anything in a pinch. It's nice to see this sort of specialization, because that's really what a Navy would demand.

[Graham Kennedy]

On Coalition designs the stepped terrace-lke structures under the hull are usually used for mounting weapons like AMP cannon and torpedoes. AMP cannon usually have a lot of structure under the hull, so the steps have to be quite deep to accommodate them. Here most of the weapons are plasma cannon, which compared to AMP cannon is like mounting a bunch of BB guns. There's little internal structure required, so the terraces holding them are shallow. The way the terraces are angled also means that shallow ones are broad, which allows more of them to be mounted. The idea of the design is to have lots of big flat downward facing hull area to mount surface bombardment cannon on.

The thing is basically a big artillery base, but in SPAAAAAACE!

As for roles, virtually every ship I design has a single role, or at least is optimised for one or two roles. Larger ships tend to be able to fulfil a few roles, largely because the Coalition uses hybrid Battleship/carrier types rather than splitting that role. Battleships can also carry a division of Marines and a division of Paratroops, and can land and support them if needed - but the vast majority of their space is given over to fighters and BFGs for attacking other battleships.

But one of the big things I wanted to do with the Coalition Navy was to have a force that had tankers, and tugs, and salvage ships, and troopships, and all that good stuff. As you say, we so rarely see such things in science fiction.

[MetalHead]

One of my favourite designs so far, I love surface bombardments, really brutal, like artillery from HELL. well done again.

[Sonic Glitch]

One of my favourite designs so far, I love surface bombardments, really brutal, like artillery from HELL. well done again.

You mean like This?

[Monroe]

I like this a lot. Something a real navy would demand in their arsenol.