NationStates Jolt Archive

Vulture Class Trimaran Arsenal Ship

Length: 284m
Beam: 76m
Draught: 4.1m
Crew:: 102 Naval; 12 Marines
Displacement: 32,632 tonnes
Speed:: 31knts (cruise) 35knts (max)
Range: Limited only by nuclear fuel
Armament: 2x 8”/56 ETC Naval Cannon (A and Y positions in Single Turrets); 4x 128cell Ballista VLS (along the entire hull; SSM, Lance, 1024 missiles); 16cell Ballista VLS (forecastle; SAM, Javelin, 32 missiles); 16cell Ballista VLS (aft; AMM, Discus, 64 missiles) 4 Testudo CIWS (including gun, light missiles and countermeasure suite); 1x 30mm cannon (amidships; port and starboard in single mounts)
Armour: Titanium Composites and Ballistic Ceramics, void spaces, anti-torpedo bulges, bulkhead sections (especially around magazines) and built in protection provided by Trimaran design. Most areas proof from Harpoon missile fire and shells upto 8”. The ship is also double-hulled and the VLS batteries are shaped to direct explosions upwards as much as possible.
Air Search Radar: GO-82 A ‘Causa’ Active / Passive Phased Array
Surface Search Radar: GO-82 B ‘Causa’ Active / Passive Phased Array
Fire Control Radar: GO-83 ‘Simplex’ Phased Array
Propulsion: Two GNO-01 Nuclear Engines, each attached to a single shaft, each with two five bladed propellers
Running Costs: $120,000,000 per year

The Vulture Class is the culmination of several years’ research and several billion Praefelis of funds into the Arsenal Ship concept. The Vulture Class combines huge firepower with a sleek, stealth design. It is capable of decimating entire fleets in a single volley. It is, however, poorly equipped against aircraft and has no ASW equipment. The large magazines of the Vulture are also a weakness inherent in the concept. A ‘Vulture Mk II’, or possibly a whole new class, aiming to fix these problems is in the pipelines. The Vulture does, however, perform admirably in the right conditions, and fills a niche well.

Cost: $2.75bn

OOC: Critisism etc is appreciated. Note that I designed this just now with only half an hour of research (both on RL and contemporary NS designs). Im also fairly tired, so dont knock it too much... I might put in specific armour values tomorrow.

Very nice, I'm actually working on a similar design for myself right now, a little bit smaller with a few less missiles, but same basic design minus the above deck cannons, but very nice... I don't have a problem with it, but then I am no naval engineer...

Drop the guns, add Anti-missile defences. Aresenal ships = pure missile pwnage. Slap another 500 Missiles on there, and more CIWS... even a millenium gun or six.

Also, drop the surface search radar and stick in that helo we were talking about. Airborne radar platforms have so much more range it's really not funny.

There's also no reason to have such a large crew. That can be safely chopped.

No, keep surface search. Helicopters can be brought down by a forward high-speed boat with a long range SAM.... then your blind. Why don't you use the Surface Search, with an uplink to multiple UAV's for over the horizon targeting, plus the ability to connect to an AWACs aircraft. Consider UUV's to carry torpedoes and small guns to fend off larger aggressors as well. I say this because I may be interested in purchasing a few of these.

Point taken with the helecopters and UAVs... but instead of a UAV, have you considered a tethered balloon? UUVs... unmand underwater vehicles? run into fairly signifigant endurance and communications problems.

or just UWV's whatever. UAV's get range though, and can travel in land or further than a balloon for scouting purposes. Could always just use both?

Looks very good... I'd say keep the guns and use extended range ammunition (i.e. rocket assisted and guided). That way, you have the ability to bombard inland targets with cheaper rounds (than a cruise missile or other surface to surface missile). Also, with guns, you can fire rocket assisted UAVs or other intelligence gathering devices that take pictures, coordinates, whatever, as they rocket over enemy positions, in order to program missiles.


Otherwise, it looks great. Protection for these is a bitch isn't it? Yeah, I avoided that problem by giving my Torrent class the ability to submerge up to 200 hundred feet. That way, she can fire off her missiles and then submerge, to avoid potential air threats or anti-shipping missiles. But I did that only because the Torrent is big... Very big, a big target that would make a very big explosion...

Soiunds like an SSGN to me =)

Many thanks for the helpful comments. UAVs - that means a runway. That takes up lots of space. I'd rather have a helicopter, but Artitsa is right - I need a back-up. The main targetting method I invisioned this having was from satellite via microwave radio firing GPS guided missiles.

SB: I think I'll ditch one of the guns and add more cells. Im not really sure if I want to use a $2.75bn arsenal ship to do a shore bombardment operation with just two 8" guns, but it's nice to have a gun if you want to use them.

As for Artitsa's suggestion on adding more cells... how many do you think this ship could realistically take? Another 512? Or maybe just 256?

EDIT: On the missile protection thing - this does have 4 CIWS guns, their ajoined rocket racks and 64 anti-missile missiles.

i imagine that you could in theory add many hundreds more VLS cells if you wanted, the problem would be is that you would need to continually brace the structure further away from the engines due to the nature of the torque exerted while turning. I don't know what any realistic limitation on such structural modifications would be, but i would suppose in theory you could build a ship a mile long, cram as many VLS cells as you want on there... the problem just becomes cost. Missiles cost money, the ship costs money, and I assume you have more than one fleet, do you want all your financial resources tied up into one uber-death-missile ship, or several while-individually-less-potent-it's-still-quite-a-kick-ass-missile ships spread out amongst all your fleets.

Personally I'd say stick with what you have and use the differential in cost between this design and a design with an extra 500 missiles or so to help fund second and third ships. But that's just me... and what the hell do I know...

I meant without extending the ship, which I dont really want to do.

256 VLS tubes at each end of the ship. Add more CIWS, and then buy four TAMD Mk III's for every ship you plan to build, from me. I'll give you a hefty discount.

(Theatre Air / Missile Defence)

It already has 512 cells :/ and thanks, but I have my own anti-missile and SAM systems. It already has four CIWS, and to be perfectly honest CIWS guns aren't even that good... but I suppose I can add some more.

Vulture Class Trimaran Arsenal Ship [REFIT] (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v387/Praetonia/VultureClassArsenalShip.gif)
^^Click for a Picture^^

Length: 284m
Beam: 76m
Draught: 4.1m
Crew:: 48 Naval; 32 Marines
Displacement: 32,234 tonnes
Speed:: 31knts (cruise) 35knts (max)
Range: Limited only by nuclear fuel and consumables
Armament: 2x 8”/56 ETC Naval Cannon (A and Y positions in Single Turrets); 6x 128 cell Ballista VLS (along the entire hull; SSM, Lance, 1536 missiles); 16 cell Ballista VLS (forecastle; SAM, Javelin, 32 missiles); 16 cell Ballista VLS (aft; AMM, Discus, 64 missiles); 10 Testudo CIWS (including gun, light missiles and countermeasure suite); 2x 30mm cannon (amidships; port and starboard in single mounts)
Armour: Titanium Composites and Ballistic Ceramics, void spaces, anti-torpedo bulges, bulkhead sections (especially around magazines) and built in protection provided by Trimaran design. Most areas proof from Harpoon missile fire and shells upto 8”. The ship is also double-hulled and the VLS batteries are shaped to direct explosions upwards as much as possible.
Aircraft: 2x Helicopters (usually 1x EW Helicopter and 1x ASW Helicopter); 4x Small UAVs; 2x RADAR Balloon systems
Air Search Radar: GO-82 A ‘Causa’ Active / Passive Phased Array
Surface Search Radar: GO-82 B ‘Causa’ Active / Passive Phased Array
Fire Control Radar: GO-83 ‘Simplex’ Phased Array
Propulsion: Two GNO-01 Nuclear Engines, each attached to a single shaft, each with two five bladed propellers
Running Costs: $125,000,000 per year

The Vulture Class refit is a major upgrade from the original. Two more banks of 128 cell VLS systems have been added, and increased autonomy has been implemented for ship systems. Most of the freed up space has been used for extra storage, but some has been converted into increased marine barracking. The first Vulture Class refit vessel is expected to enter service with the Imperial Navy within 3 years.

Cost: $3.25bn

I have conflicting feelings about this ship.
1. It's awesome. That many missiles could destroy a fleet in one shot, no kidding. Or a city or something.
2. RPs in which huge numbers of missile fly at once aren't very fun. "I launch 1000 missiles at your flagship" just ruins the RP. (I recently had an excellent Destroyer duel with Lindim, and even though we both could have launched all of our missiles at each other and kill the other ship instantly, we instead launched 10, 15, 20, or 25 at a time, gradually damaging the other ship, and then we came into gun range. MUCH more interesting than "we launch our missiles at the same time and all of us die")
3. It's got some serious advantages over other ships of this class.
4. RPing advantages of your ships just leads to OOC problems and a general lack of fun in the RP

I guess to sum it up, it's a really good, really effective ship. And those, unfortunately, don't often make for good RP, because destroying their fleet before they get a shot off, even if you really could do that, ruins the story. I might buy one of these, as a last-ditch weapon, in case someone is pwnzing me badly and my IC survival depends on vaporizing their fleet. I'll figure it out.

I know. Personally I hate them, but it's a nice secret weapon to unleash occasionally.

It could lead to a pretty cool Death Star-esque rp, with a large fleet of small ships tyin desparatly to take it out before it obliterates their homes

This isnt designed to launch massive cruise missile strikes, although it probably could be used that way/

To: Imperial Praetonian Shipyards
From: Josiah Humphreys
Chief of Naval Design Integration, Incorporated Sarzonian Navy
Subject: Vulture-class arsenal ships

The Incorporated Sarzonian Navy has seen a profound lack in the availablity of arsenal ships in our own navy and in the Portland Iron Works catalogue and we have turned to our friends in Praetonia to solve that inadequacy. We would like to place an order for 20 Vulture-class ships. The amount of $65 billion will be wired to you upon confirmation of this order.

Should this class exceed our expectations as each of your previous designs has done, it will be one of the officially sanctioned exceptions to our new policy of using Sarzonian-built ships for our Navy. We look forward to employing the Vulture and to the continued friendship between our two countries.

To: Imperial Praetonian Shipyards
From: Rear Admiral E. Lakeland, ICN
Subject: Vulture class Arsenal Ship

The Empire of Cotland wish to purchase a total of 10 Vulture Class Trimaran Arsenal Ships for use in conjunction with the domestically produced "Greyeye" class Arsenal Ships. We will transmit the total sum of $32,5 billion immediately, and also wish to sponsor further production of the Vulture class. Therefor, we will transmit a further $15 billion when the ships are being transfered to the Imperial Cottish Navy.

Sincerely,
RAdm E. Lakeland
Operational Command
Imperial Cottish Navy