NationStates Jolt Archive

Named after the nigh-impenetrable fortress whose defenders held out against the Roman Legions for two years straight, this huge ship is meant to inspire fear and awe. While not powerful in the traditional way of comparing warships, its ability to launch huge waves of people and vehicles in an amphibious assault means that all but the heaviest shore defenses can be overrun with relative ease where the backbone of an assault fleet are these ships.

Masada class Nuclear-Powered Heavy Assault Ship
Displacement: 210,000 tons
Dimensions: 452M L x 67M W x 13.2M D
Propulsion:
2 x Pebblebed reactors rated at 175Mw each
2 x Pebblebed reactors rated at 50Mw each
4 x Water jets
Speed: 29 knots (top speed)
Crew: 760
Endurance: Limited to crew endurance only.
Radar:
APAR-12E Air/Surface (Long Range Air/Surface Search/Targeting)
PDI AEWR-1 Early Warning (Long Range Air Search/Tracking)
PDI ASL-1 (Mod 1) (Short Range/CIWS Air Search/Tracking LIDAR)
G04 Navigation
Fire Control:
Falltech GSWDC Control Bloc (Ship Control)
Falltech NG05 (Gunfire Control)
Host arrays for multilink combat systems (such as AEGIS)
EW:
Falltech Mk603 Intercept/Jamming Unit
6 x Falltech Type 5 MR Chaff/Flare Dispensers
Host arrays for ELINT equipment
LIDAR:
PDI NSL-1A (Hull mounted, medium range)
PDI NSL-2A (Multiple line towed LIDAR array, medium range)
Aviation: Two flight decks, 60 Helos or VTOL aircraft
Assault: 12 Tigershark LCACs, 8 LCVs, 3,200 Marines, and 35,000 tons worth of vehicles
Armament:
4 x Oto Melera 76mm/62 Super Rapid ETC (Dual Mounts)
13 x Mk45 CAMDS
8 x 25mm BI M/C Cannons (Dual Mounts)
2 x 500Kw Carbon Dioxide Lasers
4 x 16-cell Mk72 Strategic Single-Load VLS
7 x 8-cell Mk72 Tactical Single-Load VLS
8 x Torpedo Intercept Systems (64 Light Torpedoes)
4 x Mk2 12-Cell Unguided ASW Mortars
Armour: To Be Declassified

These ships will be built in blocks of 48, with four total blocks and one block beginning each year for four years. Unfortunately this means not only spending the entire peace time procurement budget for four years straight, but also butting into the R&D budget a bit for that same period of time. However, upgrading the assault fleets is seen as an urgent priority, so allowances are being made for what would normally be an unacceptable excess.

It looks like a mighty fine assault ship. Of course, now we are immediately going to pour millions of dollars into our R&D budget to find;

1) How to improve on the design for our own
2) How to improve the Great Wall to try and foil the use of these.

[Millions? Methinks you're going to fail, then. I can't remember exactly what I poured into FDI to help fund the developement of these ships, but adding that to what I'm building here and I've put over 1.5 trillion into these ships.]