NationStates Jolt Archive

Big guns have been, in the past, what define big ships especially the Dreadnaught and Super Dreadnaught classes. However the problem with this is that guns have both limited range and accuracy, unlike missiles which can be launched in large numbers. So while the age of guns bearing ships may not have passed, what seems to be missing is a Super Dreadnaught sized ship made exclusively for launching missiles. However the cost for a project like this is large, and support from other nations we fear that our dream may never become a reality. Thus we go to the international community looking for support, not only on the overall specification but also on subsystems. We have tentative intial specs, but these are subject to change as the project moves along. This ship is meant for deep water use only, as a lw profile will be its best defense. As all of the advanced ships are this is going to be a trimaran ship, so the shipyards who produce trimaran ships are most welcome here. If you have any suggestions as to any statics taht I have left off please post and they will be added.

Scellia-class Trimaran Guided Missile Battleship
Length: 1,190m
Beam: 307m
Draught: 102m
Hull Above Water: 3m
Displacement: 3.57 megatons full load
Armament:
~2500 VLS Cells(Specific System(s) Needed)
6 THEL (http://www.defense-update.com/directory/THEL.htm) CIWS
Armor: 1,500mm-2,000mm (Specific Type Needed)
Propulsion: 5 Nuclear Reactors(Specific Type Needed), (Rest of propulsion will be subcontracted out to particiapting nation)
Aircraft: 48, A small STOL runways is located on each side of the ship. Each runway has a below deck hanger for 24 aircraft.
Electronics: SLA-3 LADAR array(The rest will be subcontracted out)
Countermeasures: (Suggestions/Subcontracted)
Price: $420 Billion
Cost per Annum: $50 Billion

Each nation contributing will receive a completed Scellia-class after final construction. All systems used on the ship that are made by a certain nation are copyrighted and thus you cannot use them on other ships without permission. A storefront may buy the rights to the Scellia-class for $1.5 trillion, but the must also not use systems on the ship for their other ships. Because all persons donating money to the project will receive a Scellia the minimum donation is $500 billion. We reserve the right to refuse to accept the money of any nation we believe is conducting policy that our citizenry finds offensive.

Yeah the amount of nuclear reactors needed are way off! I would put maybe 5 Big Nuclear reactors. That should do.

IC:

To: Who It May Concern
From: President Harsimran Mann,
Technocratic Republic of Space Union
Subject: Donations

Hello my fine friends. SU sees that you are currently working on a new-class of super dreadnaughts. We are capable of helping you here. So we are willing to donate $4 trillion to your cause. If progress proves good, then we will open up more funding for this project. Thank You.

Signed,
President Harsimran Mann

ooc: way way way too many nuclear reactors. Even nimitz carriers only have 2 and their close to the same size if not armement

o_O A Nimitz?

Length, overall 1,092 feet (332.85 meters)
Flight Deck Width 252 feet (76.8 meters)
Beam 134 feet (40.84 meters)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/cvn-68-specs.htm

Length: 1,190m
Beam: 307m
Draught: 50m

About 3X longer, 4X wider, and 10 meters deeper draught than the Nimitz. This thing is over a kilometer long, several Nimitz class carriers could fit inside it. I don't think that people realize how much power is needed for a ship that big. Maybe something like 8, but it is MUCH larger than a Nimitz.

OOC: Thanks, thats the sort of comments I need. Plus I just realized that I need to add armor.

To: President Harsimran Mann
From: Scellian Naval Development Board
Technological Empire of Scellia
Re: Donations

We thank you for the size and sincerity of your donation, and look forward to putting it to good use in the R&D stages of this project as well as the deliverance of a Scellia-class Super Dreadnaught to your care.

ooc: blah I wasn't paying attention to the differences in units (his is meters the nimitz is feet) Sorry.....

OOC: One of the biggest problems with employing missiles for a SD is the fact that missiles have a very limited ability to penetrate armour. An Iowa-class battleship can shrug off a Harpoon missile since modern antiship missiles are designed to penetrate less than four inches of armour. If you're talking about a very heavily armoured SD, the problem is magnified.

Another problem with missiles is that most engineers have found that it's highly impractical to reload VLS launchers at sea. If you fire your missiles, you're going to have to put back into port to reload. That same problem doesn't happen with guns; that's why RL ships still use guns. That and gunfire is much harder to shoot down than missiles. It can be done, but don't bet the ranch on it.

Trimaran? Three hulls? That'd give you 3 Nuclear reactors, mabee 6 at best. And having a ship like that for military uses is pretty stupid. The connecting points for connecting each hull to teh center one is the weakes part. One fairly good shot and you have two ships.

As for the actual dimensions of it... You can fit that many aircraft on it... but not that many missile systems and do the same. And that's just the aircraft, not the aircraft fuel, weapons, repair crews, etc. You have to have an entire ship to do that, and thse ships are called Aircraft Carriers. The aircraft and their associated equipment would take up a good 1/2 of the ship, leaving no room for the VLS system. The VLS missile systems need a lot of not only deck space, but space below the deck.... where you say the aircraft hangars are going to be.

Going back to the reactors.... Nuclear reactors generate a LOT of power. 15 of the reactors on a Aircraft Carrier would be able to light a good portion of a city, probably the entire thing. Aircraft carriers require a LOT of power, for all their equipment and stuff that isn't in civilian use. And they have 2 reactors. I'd say 2 reactors for your ship, 3 at most.

Looking at the size again... you measured it in meters. A Nimitz, the largest aircraft carrier and the largest ships in the navy, is 1092 feet. A meter is about 3.25 feet. So you're looking at 3800+ feet long. Over a Kilometer long. That's too big for a battleship.

Something that big, you could fit a lot more than you already have on there. However, something over a klick long and over a third of a klick wide is a big target, and even the best defense systems can't defend that much space from a lot of incoming fire.

Let alone moving something that big would require a LOT more than 15 nuclear reactors. More like 25 or 40

Too big, and if it is a proper size, it's too small.

ISF Devastator, have you ever looked at any of the naval storefronts? Before you start a rant about trimaran hulls please note that ALL the major naval suppliers use unique trimaran designs. They are among the most stable in the world and most current militaries are looking at designing new trimaran ships. This is not a aircraft carrier, its a SUPER DREADNAUGHT, a Nimitz carries something like 100+ aircraft. This is FOUR times the size of a Nimitz and carries less then half the number of aircraft, plus if you have 5 reactors then you can have one in each outer hull and three in the main one.

Sarzonia, I just realized I need to double the draft. I plan on modifying whatever VLS is used so that it can be reloaded from the bottom. Nearly two below water decks are going to be dedicated to an automatic reloading system, plus the ship is going to have vast stores of reloads on board. After I post this I'm going back to edit it. As for penetration of missiles versus cannon rounds, all you need is the right warhead on an advanced missile. I use a special made anti-shipping missile for my navy, at least I will when it get delivered. I admit that it might not do as much damage as a heavy caliber naval artillery round, but more of them hit if not intercepted.

WNI will donate $5 trillion to this project, and will offer any other help required.

a Nimitz carries something like 100+ aircraft.

ooc: I don't meant to nag, but they can carry 85 aircraft. Custom designs can go way over that though.

Looking great! How would you reload from beneath though?

That is a large part, more then 50%, of your defense budget. Are you sure you don't want to spend 1 or 2 trillion on this project?

As a massive government, Ankhmet does have bank accounts. A portion of each budget per annum is moved to these accounts. The money I am donating comes from them.

Its your money, we are glad to accept the nation of Ankhmet in this project.

Sorry about the carrier numbers, its still only half the size of the Nimitz complement and only STOL aircraft, so it will take up much less space then even half a Nimitz complement. If the bottom of each tube opens like a trap door a new missile could be loaded from the bottom, then a current could be run through each section that opened creating an electronmagnet with each side having opposite poles. This would magnetically seal the bottom for missile launch.

Bump

Too big to be realistically used.. Also i'm not convinced of the fact it has NO guns.

I'm trying to keep the profile as low as possible, if I start adding turrets it will take room away from VLS Cells and provide a much better target. If you want guns get a battleship or regular super dreadnaught. It is so big because it can fire massive salvo, provide more air defense then you can shake a stick at and be a C&C vessel for an entire fleet. Its like an supersize arsenal ship. It could be realistically used, just some people may not want a ship that big. It is, of course, your choice.

Bump

OOC: The problem remains that there has yet to be a feasible method by which a ship can reload missiles at sea. As a result, if you fire missiles and they miss or are diverted off target and you don't have anything else to use as weapons, you will be in a very big predicament.

Secondly, if you're planning to use missiles against a trimaran-hulled warship (or even a well-protected monohull), they're going to need to be tactical nukes or they're going to have to have all of the following three traits: Speed, penetrating power, and explosive power. Artitsa builds and I use ships that he calls Theatre Area Missile Defence ships that are designed to defend against missile saturation attacks. If there are enough of those in a fleet and they can effectively counter your missile attacks, you won't have an effective way to hit an enemy SD.

Another thing, your draught is WAY too deep. Even the biggest SDs don't get near 30 metres, which is in the neighbourhood of 100 FEET. Even in the heavily wanked NS world, that's going to be too great a problem for you to solve.

OOC: I did solve the reload problem, it is reloadable from the bottom of the tubes using the system I described. I just need a a system to modify so that it can be reloaded from the bottom. The draft is so deep, thought I admit it might be a little deep right now, because it has to reload from the bottom and carry on the order of 10-15k missiles underneath the water. It will have to be reloaded either from platforms at sea or other ships. The missiles could be inserted through the VLS tubes and carried by the autoloader back tot he storage rooms. I would like a link to the ship that you named, otherwise I can construct no arguement against it. The missiles have what you describe, as should all anti-shipping missiles.