Gloire Class Carrier
Glorie-Class Carriers are built on similar hulls as the Napoléon-Class Battleships, however unlike the battleships their role is to serve as carriers of fighters, bombers, gunboats, and shuttles. They are the main ship specialized for such a role in the Marine Nationale, and are prized units in the power projection strategies of the Republic. They are also important combat ships in their own right, with a powerful armament of defensive weaponry which enables them to stand alongside the Fleet in combat roles. However, they are somewhat rare overall, mostly deployed to important fleet units.
These ships owe their development to the extensive debates within the Marine Nationale over the usage of fighters. The faction that eventually perservered advocated a greater usage of fighters, for defense and offense, although not to the extent that was wished for by the most ardent fighter proponents. Glorie-Class ships reflected this view, battleship sized units that can deploy a large number of fighters, although still equipped with a reasonably armament. The ships might more properly be called "Battle Carriers", with their capabilities to fight in the line of battle. However, the main priority continues to be the deployment of large numbers of strike craft.
As a result of their original hull similarities to the Napoléon-Class Battleships, they retain the same structure with an octagonal structure, that has a rear flat portion and then slopes down to a frontal point. Both of these sections hold hangar bays for the fighters. The ship has a total length of approximately 6 kilometers, which it has a width of two kilometers and a height of 1.75 kilometers. Like other large naval ships the decks of the vessel are arrayed in the octagonal pattern, radiating out from the center, rather than in linear fashion. It incorporates the same widening of the rear decks, which provides for the same ability to launch ordnance more effectively ahead of the ship, as well as better carrier launch capabilities.
For armament, a mixed armament of various weapons was chosen. The preferred weapon of choice for broadside weaponry are lasers. These lasers have long range, and high accuracy, which well suits the role of the vessel in being extremely proficient at fleet defense. Meanwhile, it includes a large number of autocannons, and destroyer grade VLS tubes. The final defensive weapon onboard are laser clusters, which can effectively defeat enemy fighters and missiles, as well as providing for some additional short range firepower.
VLS tubes are the V/2-24/47 VLS variety. These were the units used on the destroyers of the Marine Nationale. The ship's greater focus on defensive weaponry ultimately facilitated the adoptation of smaller VLS tubes, that while unable to fit the massive long range shipkiller missiles of the Republic, could still use the lighter shorter ranged anti-fighter missiles. They can still fit respectable shipkiller ordnance as well, and a variety of other launchable weapons. There are some 2,400 of them onboard, arranged in 200 12 missile units. They are dispersed across the vessel, mixed in between the various fighter bays. Like all other VLS tubes of the navy they incorporate sealable heavy armored irises, and electromagnetic launch capabilities.
The lasers of the ship are however, cruiser grade. These are V63/-500-ASHLM, which are mostly designed to engage enemy ships, but do possess significant anti-fighter and missile capabilities with high tracking and accuracy levels. These are equipped with deployed onboard. The reason for the significant number of them is due to the smaller size of the cruiser grade missiles onboard the battlecruiser grade carrier. They still pack a highly significant punch though, and are capable of destroying many enemy warships. There are also smaller point defense lasers, of the same type as those found on the larger superdreadnoughts. These are V55-20-6/AFLMs. The ship carries proportionally a very large number of them, with 312 onboard. This helps to provide for significant anti-fighter capability.
Plasma weaponry uses the same Type65CS/P as on Jeanne d'Arc-Class Dreadnoughts. However, there are only 24 of these onboard, as it was not viewed as necessary to provide for heavy anti-ship killer ability. This still enable it to put up a respectable level of firepower.
Gun armament is composed of 100mm dual autocannons, as is common on Marine Nationale vessels, linear railguns and 600mm broadside cannons. The 100mm cannons are intended principally to be used against enemy missiles and fighters, although they also represent some anti-ship capability. Some 576 dual mounts are deployed onboard, which provides for a curtain of fire around the ship. Meanwhile, 36 600 mm cannons are provided per broadside. These artillery pieces are 800 meters long, which provides for a length to width ratio of 1,333 to 1. There is also the high velocity hull running railgun which is the typical modern feature of a French Naval Ship, in this case 6,000 millimeters. It is 5,500 meters long, which is a length to width ratio of 917 to 1. All of these weapons have similar protection systems to the V/2-24/47 VLS with frontal armored irises.
And on to the most important feature of the ship, the ability for it to deploy large numbers of strikecraft. It has a complement of fighters, medium fighters, bombers, shuttles, and gunboats. These can participate in space battles, or in planetary assault missiles. The hangars for the ship are heavily defended, with armor and shielding. Craft are either deployed into space off runways, or launched via the electromagnetic catapults deployed. To land, the side irises of the design open and enable them to land through these same runways, where electromagnetic devices halt their speed. There are also external magnetic devices to guide them in. Much of the mid region of the ship is devoted to the various fighter support regions, with each external deck of the ship mounting the launch mechanisms. Each of the ships carries a complement of 1,488 Voltigeur-Class medium fighters in general services, 7,200 Mirage-Class fighters, and 480 Cuirassier-Class bombers. There are also 120 Berthier-Class shuttles, and 288 Grenadier-Class assault shuttles.
Protection is still highly important for the ship, despite its wide array of active defenses and offensive firepower. Each Glorie has thick external armor of around 2,400 centimeters, enough to blunt most enemy attacks. They also have internal armor over magazines, command centers, fusion reactors, and internal support. This ranges in size, but in general can add up to many dozens more meters of protection against enemy attacks. There is also a distributed shield system that defends the ship's exterior against kinetic and energy attack, as well as against the normal pieces of debris and objects of space travel. Advanced damage control is provided via automated systems, especially important given the large number of moving fighters onboard. Each ship also is painted black externally to blend in with the stars, incorporates stealth materials and shapes, has a low emission design, and is fitted with decoy and countermeasure deployment measures. 192 D-400/2/EW countermeasures dispensors are provided, which provides the ship with high levels of protection against enemy guided ordnance and trackers. There are also 72 V48/CSH/EW-D drones, which mimic the ship's signature and provide for additional defense. Various electronic countermeasure systems are provided as well.
The sensor system for the ship is similar to that on the Napoléon-Class Battleships, with highly accurate active phased array systems of the MK64U-MH/AESA type with four of them, an onboard V67/N/BC-S(Neutrino sensor), thermal sensors, FTL sensors, passive radar detectors, Mk65/BNC Fire Control, and deployable drones. The ship also incorporates a dispersed network of fighter guidance radar systems, which help for guiding in the various deployed strikecraft of the ship. 48 Schulmeister-type Recon Drones can be deployed as well, which have highly sophisticated capabilities for surveillence as well as being quite stealthy. All of the systems have advanced shielding and what armor protection can be provided, like all Marine Nationale warships.
Computing systems for the ship are quite advanced, and resistant to enemy cyber warfare. This is after all, to be expected of one of the Union's larger warships. Heavy subdivision between computing systems and minimal links help to ensure that enemy electronic warfare will have minimal capability to be succesful, while it incorporates advanced cyber warfare offensive capabilities of its own. The system also has excellent redundancy, which prevents the defeat of the vessel despite heavy damage sustained.
Internal command capabilities are excellent. It houses four command decks, all of which are fully up to fleet standards for controlling the vessel and commmanding attached units. They also have the necessary room for command staffs, and extensive communications equipment. This makes them prized command ships in the navy, often with admirals flying their flag onboard the vessels when attached to fleets.
Power is provided by 8 onboard fusion reactors. There is a great degree of redundnacy for the reactors, with fewer being needed than provided. They are positioned in heavily armored areas with the dedicated shutdown, battle repair, damage containment, and if necessary ejection systems that have become standard fare on board all Marine Nationale warships. The advanced gravity and magnetic fields help to produce enough power for each ship to easily rival some smaller interstellar phenomena.
Many of the ship's functions are automated, however it still deploys a reasonably large onboard crew. There are some 25,000 crew, actually more than on the larger Jeanne d'Arc-Class Dreadnought. This was due to increased number of crew given roles with various support roles for the onboard fighter complement, although much of this incorporates robotics as well. It does however, ensure the capability of the ship to take even larger amounts of crew losses than the Dreadnoughts and still continue functioning. There is also an onboard Marine Division with full equipment needed for ground assault. These function in the support roles as well, manning weapons stations, serving in damage repair and medical teams, resisting any boarding attempts, so on and so forth.
Engines and acceleration are merely standard Battleship fare, identical to the Napoléon-Class. The ship is capable of only slow acceleration, although it can reach high speeds of .9C. Each of the ships incorporates large rear engines, and also a number of manuvering thrusters, which help to provide for its tactical mobility. There are also the necessary FTL systems required to make the transit across the stars, which is of course necessary for any modern space warship.
Length: 6,000 meters
Width: 2,000 meters
Height: 1,750 meters
Power Generation:
8 fusion reactors
Armor:
2,400cm armor plating external
2,40cm armor over magazines and fusion reactors
1,800cm internal bulkheads
2,000cm internal command bridges
1,800cm iris
Command Facilities:
4 internal command bridges
Shields:
Heavy shielding, distributed shield generation
Sensors:
MK64U-MH/AESA
V67/N/BC-S
Passive thermal sensors
FTL sensors
Passive radar systems
Mk65/BNC Fire Control
Electronic Warfare:
192 D-400/2/EW
72 V48/CSH/EW-D
Electronic Countermeasures
Armament:
Missiles:
2,400 V/2-24/47 VLS canisters
Lasers:
444 V63/-500-ASHLM
312 V55-20-6/AFLM
Guns:
576 Dual 100mm/96 point defense guns
36 600mm/1333Railguns
1 6,000mm/917 railgun
Plasma:
24 Type65CS/P
Complement:
25,000 personal
1 Marine Division
Acceleration:
Several dozen gravities
Endurance:
5 months
Complement of Space Vehicles:
336 Cuirassier-Class bombers
1,080 Voltigeur-Class Fighters
7,200 Mirage-Class Fighters
96 Berthier-Class shuttles
144 Grenadier-Class Assault Shuttles
These ships owe their development to the extensive debates within the Marine Nationale over the usage of fighters. The faction that eventually perservered advocated a greater usage of fighters, for defense and offense, although not to the extent that was wished for by the most ardent fighter proponents. Glorie-Class ships reflected this view, battleship sized units that can deploy a large number of fighters, although still equipped with a reasonably armament. The ships might more properly be called "Battle Carriers", with their capabilities to fight in the line of battle. However, the main priority continues to be the deployment of large numbers of strike craft.
As a result of their original hull similarities to the Napoléon-Class Battleships, they retain the same structure with an octagonal structure, that has a rear flat portion and then slopes down to a frontal point. Both of these sections hold hangar bays for the fighters. The ship has a total length of approximately 6 kilometers, which it has a width of two kilometers and a height of 1.75 kilometers. Like other large naval ships the decks of the vessel are arrayed in the octagonal pattern, radiating out from the center, rather than in linear fashion. It incorporates the same widening of the rear decks, which provides for the same ability to launch ordnance more effectively ahead of the ship, as well as better carrier launch capabilities.
For armament, a mixed armament of various weapons was chosen. The preferred weapon of choice for broadside weaponry are lasers. These lasers have long range, and high accuracy, which well suits the role of the vessel in being extremely proficient at fleet defense. Meanwhile, it includes a large number of autocannons, and destroyer grade VLS tubes. The final defensive weapon onboard are laser clusters, which can effectively defeat enemy fighters and missiles, as well as providing for some additional short range firepower.
VLS tubes are the V/2-24/47 VLS variety. These were the units used on the destroyers of the Marine Nationale. The ship's greater focus on defensive weaponry ultimately facilitated the adoptation of smaller VLS tubes, that while unable to fit the massive long range shipkiller missiles of the Republic, could still use the lighter shorter ranged anti-fighter missiles. They can still fit respectable shipkiller ordnance as well, and a variety of other launchable weapons. There are some 2,400 of them onboard, arranged in 200 12 missile units. They are dispersed across the vessel, mixed in between the various fighter bays. Like all other VLS tubes of the navy they incorporate sealable heavy armored irises, and electromagnetic launch capabilities.
The lasers of the ship are however, cruiser grade. These are V63/-500-ASHLM, which are mostly designed to engage enemy ships, but do possess significant anti-fighter and missile capabilities with high tracking and accuracy levels. These are equipped with deployed onboard. The reason for the significant number of them is due to the smaller size of the cruiser grade missiles onboard the battlecruiser grade carrier. They still pack a highly significant punch though, and are capable of destroying many enemy warships. There are also smaller point defense lasers, of the same type as those found on the larger superdreadnoughts. These are V55-20-6/AFLMs. The ship carries proportionally a very large number of them, with 312 onboard. This helps to provide for significant anti-fighter capability.
Plasma weaponry uses the same Type65CS/P as on Jeanne d'Arc-Class Dreadnoughts. However, there are only 24 of these onboard, as it was not viewed as necessary to provide for heavy anti-ship killer ability. This still enable it to put up a respectable level of firepower.
Gun armament is composed of 100mm dual autocannons, as is common on Marine Nationale vessels, linear railguns and 600mm broadside cannons. The 100mm cannons are intended principally to be used against enemy missiles and fighters, although they also represent some anti-ship capability. Some 576 dual mounts are deployed onboard, which provides for a curtain of fire around the ship. Meanwhile, 36 600 mm cannons are provided per broadside. These artillery pieces are 800 meters long, which provides for a length to width ratio of 1,333 to 1. There is also the high velocity hull running railgun which is the typical modern feature of a French Naval Ship, in this case 6,000 millimeters. It is 5,500 meters long, which is a length to width ratio of 917 to 1. All of these weapons have similar protection systems to the V/2-24/47 VLS with frontal armored irises.
And on to the most important feature of the ship, the ability for it to deploy large numbers of strikecraft. It has a complement of fighters, medium fighters, bombers, shuttles, and gunboats. These can participate in space battles, or in planetary assault missiles. The hangars for the ship are heavily defended, with armor and shielding. Craft are either deployed into space off runways, or launched via the electromagnetic catapults deployed. To land, the side irises of the design open and enable them to land through these same runways, where electromagnetic devices halt their speed. There are also external magnetic devices to guide them in. Much of the mid region of the ship is devoted to the various fighter support regions, with each external deck of the ship mounting the launch mechanisms. Each of the ships carries a complement of 1,488 Voltigeur-Class medium fighters in general services, 7,200 Mirage-Class fighters, and 480 Cuirassier-Class bombers. There are also 120 Berthier-Class shuttles, and 288 Grenadier-Class assault shuttles.
Protection is still highly important for the ship, despite its wide array of active defenses and offensive firepower. Each Glorie has thick external armor of around 2,400 centimeters, enough to blunt most enemy attacks. They also have internal armor over magazines, command centers, fusion reactors, and internal support. This ranges in size, but in general can add up to many dozens more meters of protection against enemy attacks. There is also a distributed shield system that defends the ship's exterior against kinetic and energy attack, as well as against the normal pieces of debris and objects of space travel. Advanced damage control is provided via automated systems, especially important given the large number of moving fighters onboard. Each ship also is painted black externally to blend in with the stars, incorporates stealth materials and shapes, has a low emission design, and is fitted with decoy and countermeasure deployment measures. 192 D-400/2/EW countermeasures dispensors are provided, which provides the ship with high levels of protection against enemy guided ordnance and trackers. There are also 72 V48/CSH/EW-D drones, which mimic the ship's signature and provide for additional defense. Various electronic countermeasure systems are provided as well.
The sensor system for the ship is similar to that on the Napoléon-Class Battleships, with highly accurate active phased array systems of the MK64U-MH/AESA type with four of them, an onboard V67/N/BC-S(Neutrino sensor), thermal sensors, FTL sensors, passive radar detectors, Mk65/BNC Fire Control, and deployable drones. The ship also incorporates a dispersed network of fighter guidance radar systems, which help for guiding in the various deployed strikecraft of the ship. 48 Schulmeister-type Recon Drones can be deployed as well, which have highly sophisticated capabilities for surveillence as well as being quite stealthy. All of the systems have advanced shielding and what armor protection can be provided, like all Marine Nationale warships.
Computing systems for the ship are quite advanced, and resistant to enemy cyber warfare. This is after all, to be expected of one of the Union's larger warships. Heavy subdivision between computing systems and minimal links help to ensure that enemy electronic warfare will have minimal capability to be succesful, while it incorporates advanced cyber warfare offensive capabilities of its own. The system also has excellent redundancy, which prevents the defeat of the vessel despite heavy damage sustained.
Internal command capabilities are excellent. It houses four command decks, all of which are fully up to fleet standards for controlling the vessel and commmanding attached units. They also have the necessary room for command staffs, and extensive communications equipment. This makes them prized command ships in the navy, often with admirals flying their flag onboard the vessels when attached to fleets.
Power is provided by 8 onboard fusion reactors. There is a great degree of redundnacy for the reactors, with fewer being needed than provided. They are positioned in heavily armored areas with the dedicated shutdown, battle repair, damage containment, and if necessary ejection systems that have become standard fare on board all Marine Nationale warships. The advanced gravity and magnetic fields help to produce enough power for each ship to easily rival some smaller interstellar phenomena.
Many of the ship's functions are automated, however it still deploys a reasonably large onboard crew. There are some 25,000 crew, actually more than on the larger Jeanne d'Arc-Class Dreadnought. This was due to increased number of crew given roles with various support roles for the onboard fighter complement, although much of this incorporates robotics as well. It does however, ensure the capability of the ship to take even larger amounts of crew losses than the Dreadnoughts and still continue functioning. There is also an onboard Marine Division with full equipment needed for ground assault. These function in the support roles as well, manning weapons stations, serving in damage repair and medical teams, resisting any boarding attempts, so on and so forth.
Engines and acceleration are merely standard Battleship fare, identical to the Napoléon-Class. The ship is capable of only slow acceleration, although it can reach high speeds of .9C. Each of the ships incorporates large rear engines, and also a number of manuvering thrusters, which help to provide for its tactical mobility. There are also the necessary FTL systems required to make the transit across the stars, which is of course necessary for any modern space warship.
Length: 6,000 meters
Width: 2,000 meters
Height: 1,750 meters
Power Generation:
8 fusion reactors
Armor:
2,400cm armor plating external
2,40cm armor over magazines and fusion reactors
1,800cm internal bulkheads
2,000cm internal command bridges
1,800cm iris
Command Facilities:
4 internal command bridges
Shields:
Heavy shielding, distributed shield generation
Sensors:
MK64U-MH/AESA
V67/N/BC-S
Passive thermal sensors
FTL sensors
Passive radar systems
Mk65/BNC Fire Control
Electronic Warfare:
192 D-400/2/EW
72 V48/CSH/EW-D
Electronic Countermeasures
Armament:
Missiles:
2,400 V/2-24/47 VLS canisters
Lasers:
444 V63/-500-ASHLM
312 V55-20-6/AFLM
Guns:
576 Dual 100mm/96 point defense guns
36 600mm/1333Railguns
1 6,000mm/917 railgun
Plasma:
24 Type65CS/P
Complement:
25,000 personal
1 Marine Division
Acceleration:
Several dozen gravities
Endurance:
5 months
Complement of Space Vehicles:
336 Cuirassier-Class bombers
1,080 Voltigeur-Class Fighters
7,200 Mirage-Class Fighters
96 Berthier-Class shuttles
144 Grenadier-Class Assault Shuttles
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