NationStates Jolt Archive

Republican Space Force

Introduction:

The Republican Space Force is the fifth branch of the Grand Republics military, and has only recently been formed in comparison to the other four branches; the RSF was formed less than a decade ago upon the orders of the President himself, seeing the need for the Grand Republic to expand into the region of space itself and expand the influence of its military.
As such, the RSF was formed under Major-General Nathaniel Warner and based at Cape Dowland, where today it still exists, but in a much larger role than was first envisioned. The RSF has three main priorities; to protect the Grand Republic from space-based attacks; to explore the region of space around Earth itself; and to acquire technology that will allow the Grand Republic to defend itself from its enemies more effectively through any means possible.
The Republican Space Force is controlled from Cape Dowland, although secondary and Tertiary Command Structures are located in New Kaylee and Lewis Island.

Republican Space Force Details:

Commander: Major-General Nathaniel Warner (COMRSF)

RSF Personnel Details:

Support Personnel: 75,000
Armed Personnel: 150,000

Vessel Classes/Details :

Republicana Class : Three: RSS Republicana, Calypso, Heron
Saertach Class: Five: RSS Hunter, Venus, Mars, Indigo, Jupiter
Centurion Class: Numbers Classified, NOFORN Level Three

Space-Based Structure Classes/Details

Praetonia-Class Construction Station: One, RCS Praetonia

Republican Space Force Vessel-Class Details

Republicana Class

The Republicana Class has been described in many words; however, the words 'Ramshackle', 'Crude' and 'Rushed' generally sum up this class. The Republicana Class was not a long nor particularly well-thought out project; in the words of the class' first test pilot, Maj. Gregory Taft, “The Republicana was not well thought-out. Someone, somewhere suddenly wondered why we didn't have a space program yet, panicked, and gave the military an unlimited budget and six months. What we got was the Republicana; basically it was a civilian shuttle with Gatlings bolted on and a few missiles in the loading bay on an extendable rack. It was so unaerodynamic with that load, I still don't know how it got off of the ground.” The project was plagued by flaws, disasters and near-cancellations; the first model was destroyed on take-off, and the second test model had a Gatling malfunction, killing the cockpit crew when the Gatling brace warped from the heat of re-entry and fired rounds into the shuttle itself.

Finally, the first shuttle took off from Cape Dowland; so ungainly was it that it had to be flown off from the top of a converted passenger jet. It reached space, survived, barely, and set the precedence for two more shuttles. The history of the Republicana is uneventful; its next incarnation, the Calypso had a longer and more eventful history. Its first mission after launch was the investigation of a seemingly-abandoned spacehulk, to search for survivors and new technology; the Marine detachment boarded the Hulk, and contact was lost shortly after. The last known report came from the Lieutenant leading the Marines, referring to xenomorphic creatures attacking the men before being cut off in mid-sentence. The Calypso retreated to a safe distance, and left the scene after being unable to deal with the hulk itself.

Calypso Incident Casefile (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=414164)

The Republicana Class was armed with two Gatlings, one either side of the cockpit, a fatal design flaw that has been alluded to, and a cell of twenty hastily-converted AMRAAM missiles in the Loading Bay with high-yield explosive warheads and modified booster stages. Finally, and although the Republican government has always strenously denied this, rumours persist of a third, far deadlier cargo; four converted missiles fitted with low-yield, three-megaton nuclear warheads to be used against a much deadlier foe, or in a case of extreme emergency. Again, this is firmly denied, and no details have ever been discovered. Now that the Centurion Class has been created, the Republicana Class is rather obsolete, and plans have been made to withdraw them from active service. Recent rumours say that two shuttles are to be stripped of weaponry and given to the Praetonian government, whilst the third remains on active service.

Saertach Class

It soon became obvious to all within the RSF that a replacement class was needed to replace the Republicana Class, and to iron out the long list of mistakes and errors that had plagued the first project. This project was not to be rushed, and was to be trialled and tested for several years; essentially it would be what the Republicana Class should have been in the first place. Thus the Saertach Class came into existence some sixteen months after the launch of the first of the Republicana Class. Designed this time from scratch, and only using the frame of the civilian shuttle as a baseframe, the Saertach Class was longer, slimmer and slightly taller than its predecessor. It was also a true military model; it supported, and indeed still does, two properly installed Gatling cannons and two missile cells of thirty missiles each on each side of the shuttle itself. The class sports anti-LADAR paint, a randomised stealth radar reflection and a larger crew complement, nearly double that of the Republicana Class. Due to its still small design, it was decided to deploy the class as a scout and explorer for the RSF.
An interesting fact with the Saertach Class is that it has also been designed to operate within the atmosphere of a planet such as Earth itself. Whilst in no way intended to replace the fighters and fighter-bombers of the Republican Air Force, the class can dogfight with some agility in the upper atmosphere, though its size means that any extreme manouvering is out of the question; the class would be more suited in this capacity as a fighter-bomber, targeting slow-moving or immobile targets and using the Gatlings and Missile Cells to strafe the targets.

The Saertach Class is currently in service with the RSF as a replacement for the Republicana Class and has a dual role; defence of the Republic and its assets in space, and exploration of the Sol system itself.

Centurion-Class Spacecraft:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/Skinny87/Centurion-ClassSpacecraftP.png

General Description

Role: Space Superiority, Short-Range Flight.

The Centurion class vessel consists of one large rectangular section as the main span of the vessel; at the front of the span is a smaller cuboid extension for the Command Module, which is detachable, with a sloping end for a better viewpoint of space. At the rear of the span are two similar but small cuboid protusions, one to the port and starboard of the span where the main engine and power units are situated, with the engine points directed outwards, protected by an extra layer of titanium above the last kevlar layer.
The weapons systems are situated mainly throughout the span. Three Missile Cells are on the left side of the span, and three more are situated on the right side. Two Mass Drivers are situated by the Command Module for increased firepower and accuracy; the two laser batteries are situated to the rear of the span, one by each inner engine port.
In an emergency, the Command Module, which houses three decks, including the Crew Quarters, can be detached, and using emergency scramjets and manouvering thrusters, land safely. The Command Module, like the engines, has an extra layer of titanium sheilding, and heat plates for re-entry situations.
The entire vessel is covered in black anti-LADAR paint, and a design similar to the one used by the USAF Stealth Fighter; each surface is angled randomly to disrupt sensor echoes and make the Centurion-class harder to sense. However, a vessel the size of the Centurion-class will not be hard to spot from a short-medium distance.

Decks

Deck One: Combined Command Module and Marine Quarters with Primary Armoury
Deck Two: Crew Quarters, Science Module, Mess
Deck Three: Engine Room, Secondary Armoury, Auxiliary Command Module

Power/Propulsion

Four Nuclear Fission Reactors - Power for Ion Drive
Two Main Engines - Rear of Vessel - Two Reactors Per Engine
Reactors power Ion Drive for propulsion
Reactors also used for powering of life-support, weapons etc
Retarding motors with sliding covers for protection
Electromagnetic ramjets for atmosphere/stratosphere propulsion
Battery System for emergency power

Dimensions

Length: 250 feet
Span: 105 feet
Height: 92.5 feet

Weapons

Offensive

Six Tungsten Missile Batteries/Cells - 50% of missiles in Cells armed with fragmentation warheads to eliminate space superiority fighters.
Four Mass Drivers
Two Low/Medium-Powered Lasers for Tertiary Defense

Defensive

Gatling-based Point-Defence System for KEV defence
PMT 'Chaff' for KEVs and Missiles
Anti-Radar 'Snow', Static for missile-defence
Explosive Defensive Armour (ERA)*

* A last-ditch defense against missiles based on the claymores and tank-reaction armour - it would detonate if a missile got very close and destroy the missilehead. But it would be a one-off thing based on sections around the craft that would have to be replaced externally, probabaly on the ground or whilst immobile.

Armour

Mixture of Reinforced Concrete layered with titanium composites and kevlar, ie an armour going like this:

Kevlar/Reinforced concrete/Reinforced concrete/Titanium/Titanium/Reinforced concrete/Reinforced concrete/Kevlar

Outer armour to be coated in an ionomer-solution for self-healing armour in a way to deflect micro-asteroids.

Finally, a liquid hydrogen system running around the crew-quarters in gel-packs just inside the armour to protect the crew from galactic radiation.

Crew

50 Crewmembers inc. Command Staff.
75 Marines - Armed with XM-8s and Glock 18s, and HV Rifles. Equipped with Combat EAV Suits.

Marine Complement

After the disaster that befell the Marine Complement onboard the RSS Calypso and the seemingly abandoned spacehulk, the decision was made to increase the Marine Complement onboard the Centurion-class, and equip them with the latest military technology. As such, they are equipped with XM-8 Assault Rifles and Glock 18 pistols; the armories omboard contain other equipment, including AT-4 AT Missiles, Fragmentation Grenades, Light Machine-Guns and heavier weaponry.
The Marines are also equipped with experimental Hard-Vacuum Rifles created by the Republican Military to work in a vacuum, in coordination with the Combat EAV suits. These Rifles fire a single shot every five seconds, and use a compressed-air canister to fire the round from the barrel, much like a modern harpoon gun. Due to the long reloading time and single-shot capacity, they are not particularly effective offensive weapons at the moment.
The Marines purpose onboard the vessels are two-fold; defense of the vessel itself in case of a hostile boarding, and the boarding of enemy/unknown vessels as 'Away Teams'. A tertiary function, often combined with the primary function, is the protection of the Command Staff.

- Crewmembers live in Crewquarters on Deck Three. Evacuation through Escape Pods. Embarkation/Disembarkation through either EAV suits or Porting System.

Escape Pods: Small, two-person modules; essentially two flight chairs, primitive controls, two deployable chutes and a large amount of Heat Plating for re-entry burns. Twelve Escape Pods in the Centurion-Class

Price

Not available to purchase - However, the entire project, spread over the next ten to fifteen years, will cost around $100 Billion USD and be built in the newly-built Praetonia-Class Spaceyard above the Republic.


OOC: Please, be gentle. This is my first ever design attempt. Any and all constructive criticisms are welcome. Thanks to Sarzonia, Non_Aligned States and Praetonia for their help.
Picture created by Ato-Sara. The picture is his, and I am being allowed to use it.

OoC: Very nice ideas, I might take a few of them for my own when I go about designing the Proletarian Space Fleet (work in progress, the name is). Boarding actions anyone? :)

OOC: Thanks Krieg. Anymore comments?

OOC: Quite the compliment naming a construction station after Praetonia.

You could use the four Belknap-class ships you ordered way back when I put that thread up.

OOC: I ordered four of them? Wow, I didn't remember that; my military must have warehouses stuffed with military equipment I ordered and then forgot about. I need a secretary. I'll release the corvettes from whichever warehouse their in and use them at once.

Many thanks Sarz.

OOC: I ordered four of them? Wow, I didn't remember that; my military must have warehouses stuffed with military equipment I ordered and then forgot about. I need a secretary. I'll release the corvettes from whichever warehouse their in and use them at once.

Many thanks Sarz.Actually, you ordered 100 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8902834&postcount=10). You can have them all if you wish.

OOC: 100, eh? Thanks, but I'll give them back, and keep the original four. Thats far too many for me now, as I only have a fledgling Space Program at the moment, and I like its uniqueness.

I think I have a reciept for those corvettes somewhere around here...

Wellington-Class Spacecraft:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/Skinny87/Centurion-ClassSpacecraftP.png

General Description

Role: Space Superiority, Short-Range Flight, Small-Role Troop Carrier

The Wellington class vessel consists of the same dimensions as the Centurion-Class vessels, with one large rectangular section as the main span of the vessel; at the front of the span is a smaller cuboid extension for the Command Module, which is detachable, with a sloping end for a better viewpoint of space. At the rear of the span are two similar but small cuboid protusions, one to the port and starboard of the span where the main engine and power units are situated, with the engine points directed outwards, protected by an extra layer of titanium above the last kevlar layer. However, one of the major differences in the Wellington-Class is the addition of an extra three layers of reinforced concrete around the last layer of kevlar, coated with more ion polymers.
This reinforcement of the vessels armour is a direct result of the Chronosian Incident (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=434060&page=1&pp=15) and the lessons learnt from that incident. The Republican Space Command noted that the RSS Centurion's weaponry would have had very little impact upon the enemy vessel, given the lack of damage the similarly-armed Kriegos Oligarchy Space Vessel weapons had on the Chronosian vessel. The damage inflicted upon the Kriegos Vessel by the Chronosian vessel showcased an urgent need for greater armour on the next generation of RSF vessels. Thus the armour was significantly upgraded on the Wellington-Class series, to enable the vessels to survive a prolonged engagement with enemy vessels.

The weapons systems are situated mainly throughout the span. Three Missile Cells are on the left side of the span, and three more are situated on the right side. Two Mass Drivers are situated by the Command Module for increased firepower and accuracy. In the Wellington-Class, the two laser batteries that were situated to the rear of the span, one by each inner engine port, have been removed due to a need for space. In their place, a further two Mass Drivers have been ben positioned, each one next to an existing Mass Driver, increasing the firepower of the Wellington-Class, another detail shown by the Chronosian Incident.
In a recent response to the scientific community, the standard conventional shells for the Mass Drivers have been suplemented by a second, more efficent shell. With the same base, these shells have a small tactical nuclear warhead in place of the conventional high-explosive warhead. This enables a greater damage potential against superiorly-armed and armoured foes, as well as greater point defense against smaller objects. The shells consist of small-yield devices that are believed to be in the double digit Kilotons. However, due to the danger and cost of these shells, only a small number are stored in the Wellington; approximately thirty are stored in a seperate chamber, designed to be ejected if the vessel is boarded or the devices themselves are in danger of detonating.

In an emergency, the Command Module, which houses three decks, including the Crew Quarters, can be detached, and using emergency scramjets and manouvering thrusters, land safely. The Command Module, like the engines, has an extra layer of titanium shielding, and heat plates for re-entry situations.
The entire vessel is covered in black anti-LADAR paint, and a design similar to the one used by the USAF Stealth Fighter; each surface is angled randomly to disrupt sensor echoes and make the Wellington-class harder to sense. However, a vessel the size of the Wellington-class will not be hard to spot from a short-medium distance due to its increased length. The stealth features are more to help the Wellington harder to hit by LADAR/RADAR guided munitions; in no way should this vessel be considered a Stealth Vessel.

Specific Details of the Wellington-Class

The Wellington Class has been lengthened by some one hundred metres to make room for the two extra Mass Drivers at the front of the vessel, and the inclusion of a state of the art Medical Bay to treat wounded Marines and Civilians. The Tertiary Lasers have been removed, meaning the vessels will now rely solely on the CIWS system for Point-Defense against enemy missile systems. A small medical team have now been included in the Crew Roster for the Medical Bay, and an extra fifty Marines have been interned on the new series.

Decks

Deck One: Combined Command Module and Marine Quarters with Primary Armoury
Deck Two: Crew Quarters, Medical Bay, Mess
Deck Three: Engine Room, Secondary Armoury, Auxiliary Command Module

Power/Propulsion

Four Nuclear Fusion Reactors - Power for Ion Drive
Two Main Engines - Rear of Vessel - Two Reactors Per Engine
Reactors power Ion Drive for propulsion
Reactors also used for powering of life-support, weapons etc
Retarding motors with sliding covers for protection
Electromagnetic Scramjets for atmosphere/stratosphere propulsion
Eight Chemical Jets for sublight manouvering
Battery System for emergency power

Dimensions

Length: 350 feet
Span: 105 feet
Height: 92.5 feet

Weapons

Offensive

Eight Tungsten Missile Batteries/Cells - 50% of missiles in Cells armed with fragmentation warheads to eliminate space superiority fighters.
Six Mass Drivers

Defensive

Gatling-based Point-Defence System for KEV defence
PMT 'Chaff' for KEVs and Missiles
Anti-Radar 'Snow', Static for missile-defence

Armour

Mixture of Reinforced Concrete layered with titanium composites and kevlar, ie an armour going like this:

Kevlar/Titanium/Reinforced concrete/Reinforced concrete/Titanium/Reinforced concrete/Reinforced concrete/Reinforced concrete/Titanium/Reinforced concrete/Reinforced concrete/Titanium/Kevlar

Outer armour to be coated in an ionomer-solution for self-healing armour in a way to deflect micro-asteroids.

Finally, a C10 Hydrocarbon system running around the crew-quarters in gel-packs just inside the armour to protect the crew from gamma radiation. Tow layers of Lead have also been installed for crew protection. Combined with this are several small-scale magnets that create a magnetosphere throughout the ship to aid protection.

Crew

60 Crewmembers inc. Command Staff.
125 Marines - Armed with XM-8s and Glock 18s, and HV Rifles. Equipped with Combat EAV Suits.

Marine Complement

After the disaster that befell the Marine Complement onboard the RSS Calypso and the seemingly abandoned spacehulk, the decision was made to increase the Marine Complement onboard the Centurion-class, and equip them with the latest military technology. As such, they are equipped with XM-8 Assault Rifles and Glock 18 pistols; the armories omboard contain other equipment, including AT-4 AT Missiles, Fragmentation Grenades, Light Machine-Guns and heavier weaponry.
With the creation of the Kriegos Oligarchys space fleet and boarding craft, new weapons and defenses have been added to the Wellington-Class, as well as the other vessels. These defences consist of heavier riot-style gear, as well as bracket-mounted heavy machine-guns and concealed claymore mines for close-quarter fighting. Explosive decompression and the use of bulkheads to seal off sections of the vessel are also being considered as tactics.
The Marines are also equipped with experimental Hard-Vacuum Rifles created by the Republican Military to work in a vacuum, in coordination with the Combat EAV suits. These Rifles fire a single shot every five seconds, and use a compressed-air canister to fire the round from the barrel, much like a modern harpoon gun. Due to the long reloading time and single-shot capacity, they are not particularly effective offensive weapons at the moment. A new updated design, however, has been developed and distributed throughout the RSF.
The Marines purpose onboard the vessels are two-fold; defense of the vessel itself in case of a hostile boarding, and the boarding of enemy/unknown vessels as 'Away Teams'. A tertiary function, often combined with the primary function, is the protection of the Command Staff.

- Crewmembers live in Crewquarters on Deck Three. Evacuation through Escape Pods. Embarkation/Disembarkation through either EAV suits or Porting System.

Escape Pods: Small, two-person modules; essentially two flight chairs, primitive controls, two deployable chutes and a large amount of Heat Plating for re-entry burns. Twelve Escape Pods in the Centurion-Class

Price

Not available to purchase - However, the entire project, spread over the next five years, will cost around $150 Billion USD and be built in the newly-built Praetonia-Class Spaceyard above the Republic. The shortened time is due to the fact that the Wellington is based upon an extended and adapted Centurion frame.

OOC: I didn't draw the pic, Ato-Sara did. I'll be posting in this forum mostly I expect, as my drawing skills are, how shall we say....limited.