Difference between revisions of "Roudland Space Force"

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The Roudland Space Force

The Roudland Space Force is the branch of the Roudland Military that deals with the defence of Roudland and the pursuit of its aims in the arena of space. To do this it employs a fleet of armed military spacecraft, literally hundreds of satellites, a ballistic missile protection system and several orbiting installations. Its expressed aim is to ‘further Roudland’s interests, whether on earth, in orbit of the earth or in wider space’. The Roudland Space Force was created from the Roudland Spacefleet, which itself was not a branch of the military per se, but a splinter of the Roudland Air Force. The Spacefleet was renamed and given its own branch of the military when the administration flooded money into the relatively overlooked area of space combat in the days and months following the Southern Gulf War. The war, in which almost half the Roudland space fleet was lost, proved that without adequate direction and funding, a space force was worthless, and nothing more than, in the words of a famous Kegmenistani commentator ‘an enormously priced lame duck’. To this end, the Roudland National Space Command Authority (NASCA) was set up, and with it was established the newly christened Roudland Space Force.

The Space Force comprises, at the present time, 4 Retribution Class Command Cruisers, 11 Vengeance Class Battleships, 3 Monitor Class Assault Carriers, 6 Serenity Class Maintenance Vessels, 1 Conciliator Class Test Ship. The fleet is supported by two large space docks, Atlantia Dock and Caprica Dock, as well as the three SMART command platforms, Einstein, Newton and Darwin.

The Fleet

Retribution Class

RSV Remorseless, RSV Retribution and RSV Repulse in formation

The Retribution Class Battleship is the heaviest class of starship that the Roudland Space Force operates. It sits between the Pheonix and Intrepid-Class Titans of the SRSC in terms of power, armour and speed. The Retribution was planned as a class of six, but so far four have been built; the Retribution, Repulse, Remorseless and Revenge. The fifth and sixth ships, tentatively named Resolution and Roslin, have been put on hold, awaiting funding. This may be given clearance during summer 2007, but nothing has been confirmed at this point. The Retribution Class were built at Caprica Dock along with the Monitor Class vessels and were the first fully-constructed vessels of the new fleet.

The Retribution Class was designed by Major Anthony Barrett of RMID’s famed Keppler Space Vehicle Design Unit. He presented this design to Roudland Space Command and it was later handed over to Avion Space Technologies, based in Whitefall, to adapt the design into structural schematics. The Retribution Class ships have been handed to the four seniormost commanders of the Conciliator fleet, and will be launched first of the new fleet.

Roudland Space Force mantra is vehemently one of anti-capital ship warfare, and the Retribution has been designed with this as its sole purpose. It houses only the bare minimum of fighters, has next to no troop deployment capability, and has the largest complement of weaponry of the entire fleet. It has been said that one Retribution Class could do the job of five Conciliator Class ships. The obvious centrepiece of the vessel is the MajoRail anti-capital ship cannon. Similar in size and displacement to a MAC cannon of the SRSC, it is a development of Roudland’s Rail Gun technology taken to a very large scale.

Dimensions:

Length: 1,450m

Height: 260m

Width: 600m

Crew: 3,800

Troops Carried: 180

Primary Weapons: 1 MajoRail Anti-Capital Ship Cannon, 200 66in Rail Guns

Secondary Weapons: 20 Envoy Missile Tubes, 300 Quad Barreled 25mm AA Batteries,

Air Group Compliment: 25 Viper Mk7

Vengeance Class

The Vengeance Class Heavy Destroyer is the primary class of ship operated by the Roudland Space Force, and is one of the most heavily armed and armoured ships of all the space-faring powers. Planned as a class of 15, these numbers were revised to 11 for the building process, and so far there are no immediate plans for any more in the class, although it has been said that 2 additional ships, the Vehement and Stormcloud, may be constructed if the original 11 prove their worth. The Vengeance Class vessels were constructed at Atlantia Dock, and the crew of the station is apparently very proud that in the time the equally-sized Caprica Dock built seven ships, Atlantia Dock built eleven.

Working with Major Anthony Barrett, Jean Roden-Bury of RMID based the Vengeance Class around the structural schematics of the Retribution Class (hence the similarly themed names for the classes). Roden-Bury adapted the designs to suit a closer-range and more multi-role vessel than the Retribution Class, and so the Vengeance Class has more fighters, more troop-carrying potential and more close-range armaments. Notable for its absence is the famed MajoRail Cannon, the supposed answer to the ‘MAC question’ that the RSF has been facing for some time. As of the January 2007, the MajoRail has been reserved for the heavier ships of the RSF, as the lack of any turning capability did not suit Roudland’s traditional focus on medium and close range space combat. In its place on the Vengeance Class are more of the new 66in guns, and a new class of anti-capital ship cannon, the 155in gun, also called the ‘Zeus’ model.

With survivability in mind when in close range combat, the Vengeance has even more armour than the Retribution class, with a full coating of MULSCATT II, as well as ablative armour and structural supports designed to support such heavy blows to the ship. As with all of Roudland’s space vessels, the Vengeance Class is a purely military ship, and has a honeycomb internal layout reminiscent of a submarine (albeit with more standing room, and a great deal more automation). The ship’s computer can isolate and contain areas of the ship that have been hit by enemy fire and threaten structural integrity, as well as areas in which a boarding party has landed, or those in which fires have broken out. This method of operation helped the Conciliators in battle, and with structural integrity vastly improved upon from the last generation, Vengeance Class Destroyers may be able to take much harder punishment.

Dimensions:

Length: 1,340m

Height: 240m

Width: 560m

Crew: 3,800

Troops Carried: 800

Primary Weapons: 32 Prow-Mounted 155in ‘Zeus’ Rail Guns, 240 66in Rail Guns

Secondary Weapons: 12 Envoy Missile Tubes, 300 Quad Barreled 25mm AA Batteries,

Air Group Compliment: 64 Viper Mk7, 16 ACB-70

Monitor Class

RSV Monitor preparing for a Pulse Drive burn

The Monitor Class Assault Carrier is the first move by Roudland from exclusively heavy anti-capital warships to medium-heavy carrier vessels that can deploy large numbers of fighters, bombers and dropships in a troop-deployment role. The Monitor Class Carriers are not only multi-role in the sense that they can deploy swarms of fighters as well as troops to the ground, but also in the fact that they have a compliment of heavy guns that are more than a match for most warships. The Monitor is also the fastest of the Roudland fleet, with a top speed of 87km/s when at full power to engines. Designed as a class of two troop ships to compliment the ‘Super’-Capital Carrier ‘Conqueror’, the Monitor Class and its role was rethought with the cancellation of the Conqueror project. The freeing-up of funds for the project was an unexpected boon for the Monitor Class, which received clearance for another ship, the Moore, to join the Monitor and Mobile, as well as a change in role; gone were the ideas of using the Monitor as a glorified Landing Platform Dock in space, replaced by the notion of ‘Command-Assault-Carrier’. The CAC concept was devised to give full coordination between operations on ground and in space; the Monitor Class is not only the command vessel for the spacefleet, but also a vital comms and control hub for operations on earth with a full Archer suite on board, as well as being able to provide communications and satellite support over enemy territory, as well as anti-satellite and ballistic missile coverage for ground troops.

The Monitor is less heavily armoured than the other two classes in the RSF, but this should not be misconstrued; the Monitor Class is easily as armoured as a Conciliator Class, if not moreso. The Guns carried on board are both quicker to fire and of a larger caliber than those on the Conciliators, and the Monitor Class is more than able to be used in an anti-capital ship context if the need should arrive. The Monitors were built alongside the Retribution Class Battleships at Caprica Dock.

Dimensions:

Length: 1.120m

Height: 310m

Width: 440m

Crew: 4,500

Troops Carried: 1,200

Primary Weapons: 6 Prow-Mounted 155in ‘Zeus’ Rail Guns, 90 66in Rail Guns

Secondary Weapons: 6 Envoy Missile Tubes, 400 Quad Barreled 25mm AA Batteries,

Air Group Compliment: 120 Viper Mk7, 48 ACB-70, 50 Rhino Mk6a VDOD

Deployments

Ships assigned to Atlantia Dock

1st Battlegroup:

RSV Monitor CRN 1106 (Flagship of fleet)

RSV Moore CRN 1307

RSV Retribution RCD 6112

RSV Remorseless RCD 6314

RSV Vanguard VCN-7105

RSV Victorious VCN-7106

RSV Merciless VCN-7210

RSV Furious VCN-7240

RSV Venomous VCN-7103

RSV Vigilant VCN-7107

Ships assigned to Caprica Dock

2nd Battlegroup:

RSV Mobile CRN 1206

RSV Repulse RCD-6213

RSV Revenge RCD-6415

RSV Vengeance VCN-7101

RSV Vanquisher VCN-7102

RSV Vindictive VCN-7104

RSV Tempest VCN-7230

RSV Ferocious VCN-7220

Atlantia Class Space Docks

The Atlantia Class Space Docks were commissioned out of necessity; supporting a fleet as large as Roudland currently has was impossible for the small ‘Roston Station’ that was in place before the Southern Gulf War (and which was subsequently scrapped). The two docks are the hubs of the Roudland fleet, and are capable of supporting a full battlegroup as well as maintaining them and providing adequate fire support if engagements should take place near to them. Atlantia is in geosynchronous orbit above the Retroit Metropolitan Area, and Caprica is in orbit above the Scott Islands (a Roudland Territory off the coast of McGranaghanataria) in the South Sea.

Both docks have over 5,500 crew, as well as a compliment of 4,000 Orbital Marines, and have been designed to support the maintenance of up to 6 ships simultaneously if needed. The docks are similar in shape to an egg crate, with six large docks connected by a support network of walkways and living quarters. On top of the docks there are both runways similar to those of a seaborne aircraft carrier, as well as gun decks, missile tubes and flak batteries. The CICs of the docks are located deep within the ‘egg crate’ part of the dock, and not on the surface.

The stations serve as the home bases of the fleet and are also an important stepping stone in Roudland’s efforts to place a military base on the surface of the moon.

Crew: 5,500

Troops Stationed: 4,000

Primary Weapons: 450 66in Rail Guns, 25 ‘Big Mother Blue’ 96in Anti-Capital Ship Rail Guns, 1 Pivoting MajoRail Anti-Capital Ship Cannon

Secondary Weapons: 900 Quad Barrelled 25mm AA Batteries, 60 ‘Envoy’ Missile Batteries

On-Board Fighter Compliment: 100 Viper Mk7, 25 OMBF-30 ‘Comet’