What Does the Imperial Navy Need?

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Greeting, Space Warriors!

Having just returned from the Core, I have had the opportunity to go faciliate the sale of more ship designs from our miltary shipyard.

I ask you, Most Gracious Lords, what new types of ships would you like to see put into the service of our beloved Emperor? Is there a particular area of the fleet that needs bolstering? What would aid in the defense of our nuturing state?

Eh?

 

[Madarin Dude]

A 1000 ton Q-Ship. A cargo ship that is modified to be a warship to lure unsuspecting pirates to their doom. Lets see what you have in the cargo hold. You got it bud a 100 ton missile bay take that!!!! That is a good ship for adventurers too. i like the idea. Could b a lot of fun.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

We produced the highly successful Dimetrodon Class, a antipiracy vessel back in 1104. If your interested, its at the SHDC link below...

What about some form of Carrier or Spinal Mount Line Ship?

 

[Drakon]

Carriers or some form of "Space Control Ship" I am thinking of something like a battles star or base ship for hundreds of fighters, organized in such a way that it could control a large area of space and serve as a base to control and coordinate military operations over say, an entire sector.

But then, one has to ask what are the military or diplomatic goals of the Imperium before investing in the means to accomplish those goals.

 

[robject]

An entire sector?!

That's quite a ship ya got there, Mister...

Imagine the administrative nightmare of refuelling a small moon-sized battle station.

 

[mike wightman]

I'd like to see some examples of support ships.
By that I mean fuelers, stores/ordnance transports, troop transports, engineering/recovery vessels and the like.
The battleship/cruiser/destroyer type ship have enough examples in print already. I would like to see the ships that allow the Navy to do its job.

 

[plop101]

I'm assuming all this will be in T20 format.

1. Gunned Cruisers. I love em. Something where you have a spinal mount gun and the rest of the ship is just an add-on. 20k dt or less in size. Basically your space cruiser version of the A-10 warthog.

2. A decent fleet repair dock.

3. Have Assault Ships been done yet? Lets see what you got to fill in those Assault Rons.

 

[Drakon]

Also, a spec ops boat. Stealthy, fast, able to get anywhere and deliver a small team (5 to 12 troopers) to any point on any planet in range without being seen. LONG legs (Jump 6?). Something for those missions where if any of your team or caught or killed, the Imperium will disavow any knowledge of your existence.

Possibly with this caveat. As low a tech as possible. That way if the ship is ever captured, nothing aboard points back to the Emperor. Maybe even a confusion of technologies, (Varg, Zhodian, Aslan, etc.)

 

[MrMorden]

What I've been working on lately is a Scout vessel to fill the gap between the multi-mission Type-S and the more pure science functionality of the Donosev. I've been tweaking it using a T20 design spreadsheet (sorry, can't remember which one).

So far it's 300 tons and has a crew of eight, three of whom are science personnel cross-trained as medics. The ship includes a small lab and adjoining sickbay. Performance is Jump-3, 3G. Hull is a streamlined close structure. The ship is being called the Balboa Class scout.

The envisioned mission is survey and science missions on the frontiers, and operations beyond Imperial borders. It has a seconday mission in intelligence gathering, and its sensors are beefed-up accordingly.

 

[maitrejeanth]

Hi,
>What I've been working on lately is a Scout >vessel to fill the gap between the multi-mission >Type-S and the more pure science functionality >of the Donosev. I've been tweaking it using a >T20 design spreadsheet (sorry, can't remember >which one).

You might want to look up at the Snowbird (I can't remember the class name) scout ship. It appeared in White Dwarf back in the mid-80s. I dont't have the stats right here, but it was 300 or 400 t displacement. It was a very modular modular designs, with scout, naval (courrier or intel versions) and merchant versions. In the latter configuration, it was meant to be used a scaled-down version of the Leviathan-class exploratory merchant cruiser. Several scout PCs could also pool their "ship" mustering-out benefits to get it instead of several Suleimans.
All in all, a very interesting and versatile design. I could look it up tonight if you wish.

 

[maitrejeanth]

1) Naval support ships would indeed be very useful : tankers, tenders, rescue/salvage ships, hospital ships...all the ships without which the more glamorous battleships would grind to a halt.

2) Training/school ships for naval cadets, in the spirit of the french Jeanne D'arc.

3) Intel/EW platforms. Specialised sensor ships.

4) Stealthy, special ops ships used for the insertion of SpecFor, Intel teams.

5) Q-ships

6) Really huge warships, like the 1.000.000 T fleet carrier Gorodish refered to in CT supplement Fighting ships

7) New warships or prototypes about to be released. The real hi-tech stuff (with some TL 16 systems ?), like the new battleship hinted at in Gurps Traveller .

8) Warships in the 3000-5000 T range. They should pack more punch than the so-called 1000T destroyers, but me more flexible than the Midu Agashaam class 3kt destroyer (see CT supplement Fighting ships). There should also be a versatile, lower cost modular version, a bit like the real-world MEKO class of destroyers built in germany and sold very succesfully all over the world.

 

[MrMorden]

Originally posted by Thierry Maitrejean:
Hi,
>What I've been working on lately is a Scout >vessel to fill the gap between the multi-mission >Type-S and the more pure science functionality >of the Donosev. I've been tweaking it using a >T20 design spreadsheet (sorry, can't remember >which one).

You might want to look up at the Snowbird (I can't remember the class name) scout ship. It appeared in White Dwarf back in the mid-80s. I dont't have the stats right here, but it was 300 or 400 t displacement. It was a very modular modular designs, with scout, naval (courrier or intel versions) and merchant versions. In the latter configuration, it was meant to be used a scaled-down version of the Leviathan-class exploratory merchant cruiser. Several scout PCs could also pool their "ship" mustering-out benefits to get it instead of several Suleimans.
All in all, a very interesting and versatile design. I could look it up tonight if you wish.

I don't have the old WD stuff; if you could look it up, that would be great!

Andy

 

[Hecateus]

Are there tugs to wrastle in recoverable vessels?

 

[vermeylenhans]

"Also, a spec ops boat. Stealthy, fast, able to get anywhere and deliver a small team (5 to 12 troopers) to any point on any planet in range without being seen. LONG legs (Jump 6?). Something for those missions where if any of your team or caught or killed, the Imperium will disavow any knowledge of your existence.
Possibly with this caveat. As low a tech as possible. That way if the ship is ever captured, nothing aboard points back to the Emperor. Maybe even a confusion of technologies, (Varg, Zhodian, Aslan, etc.)" (Drakon)

"3) Intel/EW platforms. Specialised sensor ships.
4) Stealthy, special ops ships used for the insertion of SpecFor, Intel teams." (Thierry Maitrejean)

Got some ideas about this. Hopefully enough to be worth a new topic. Lets go to "Experimental intelligence gathering ship"

 

[kliner]

Gorodish Class Fleet Tender

see Gorodish Class Fleet Tender at http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Gorodish_Class_Fleet_Tender

 

[Garyius2003]

1. A ten to twenty thousand ton field repair ship, damper and some slight defense, but cheap enough to purchase enough to trail behind fleets advancing, when they get called up out from the Depots.

2. A ship class that can kill destroyers and below, and is cheap. Meaningful convoy escort.

3. A real amphib, one sized for the landing of whatever the Empire calls a MEU (Battalion of infantry, arty bty, tank platoon, APC company, air support and transport).

4. Long duration stealthy surveillance ship

 

[warwizard]

Like the WWII AA cruisers, a cruiser class filled with point defense missiles and laser clusters optimized for the anti missile role.

(In FF&S T4 I have designed point defense missiles at TL 15 with volume < 1 m3 30+ G's and a blast fragmentation warhead, I do not know T20's design sequences, but the point defense missile would be a thing to engage missiles with (fighters as well)).

A point defense fighter with point defense missiles in box launchers and a point defense laser cluster. No reason to wait for the missiles to even get close to the mother-ship.

J-5 and J-6 craft for a communications grid network like the one proposed in the regency source book, however this one is not planet based, it's deep space based, so you can get details on enemy movements behind the front lines. You should be able to spot the Zho's massing fleet elements prior to the 6th frontier war and have some intelligence on fleet units and dispositions a few days to a few weeks prior to the ball dropping.