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RGF Independent Cruiser

The concept of cruiser in the Robotic Galactic Flotilla (LRR space navy) has always meant a heavy fighting ship. While in more recent times the cruiser has become a much more independent and more capable, multirole vessel, even the most modern classes can trace their lineage back to a common ancestor.

Early Designs

The first cruiser operated by the RGF was the 'Avatar' class vessel. First constructed to serve as the core of the new fighting fleets, the Avatar was a relatively mediocre vessel, with light armement and spartan, single-purpose construction. Although sporting a good shield and heavy armor, the Avatar was unsuited for its intended function, and was used mostly for combatting small pirate sects and criminal squabbles.

The next design put foreward by the state shipyards was the Perestroika class vessel. The Perestroika attempted to provide some kind of in-built protective feature with its long, flat shape designed to deflect broadside shots while providing a stable gunnery platform with a wide field of view. The Perestroika class proved much more successful than the Avatar class, and remained in RGF service for nearly a century, participating in numerous fleet engagements.

Intermediate Designs

After the Perestroika became obsolete, the RGF ran through a line of what could be described as intermediate designs for cruiser warships. Double-hulled, cylindrical, and spearhead designs were all tried, with some success, and served with the new heavy fleets, based around the Baba O'Riley class of fleet dreadnaught.

These intermediate designs presided over a period of increased military activity, owing to the volume of civil wars and strife in friendly territories.

Current Designs

After the passing of the heavy fleets came the carrier stage, where the RGF operated more mobile fleets based around large wings of fighters, bombers, and corvettes, carried in new specialized carrier ships. The new cruiser class, known as the Leon Russel series, was perhaps the most extravagant class of vessel deployed by the RGF. It featured a foreward twin-boom assembly with two rear engine pylons housing antimatter reactors. While this design was fast and easy to produce, once the shield was breeched the ship itself could be broken up very easily, owing to the weakly-connected components.

This led first to the cylinders, and then, finally, to the current RGF cruiser design, the sphere.

The sphere was chosen because of its solidity. There are no weak points in the structure that can be exploited by the heavy weaponry of opposing ships. One is compelled to blow away a significant portion of the ship's structure before affecting its overall integrity. This means that a spherical ship, on top of possessing very large surface area and internal volume, is very robust and difficult to knock out in combat.

The downside to this is the fact that a spherical ship costs much more than a traditional ship to build. This fact has caused the recycling of most of the old heavy fleets, and has also caused the cruiser design to become truly a jack of all trades. Designed to be trade ships, scientific ships, exploratory ships, repair ships, and formidable combat ships all in one, the LRR cruiser, known as the Letter Type series, ranging from .5 to 1 km in diameter, is one of the best vessels currently flying in the Milky Way Galaxy.