NationStates Jolt Archive


Factbook of the 74th Battlestar Group [picture warning]

Ragtag Fugitive Fleet
22-01-2006, 04:19
BSG-74

Overview

A Battlestar Group (or BSG) is the 12 Colonies' equivalent to a carrier group. It contains at least one Battlestar of any class, with all the support ships and fighters such an awesome war machine requires. To truly get a feel for the power of a BSG, you msut split it up into it's main components:

The Battlestar

http://www.battlestarwiki.org/en/images/5/59/Bsg-bsg-1.jpg

A Battlestar is the ultimate extension of power for the Twelve Colonies. A cross between a dreadnought, an ironclad, an aircraft carrier and a fleet tender the Battlestar is simply put a devastating war machine. Crewed by 2,800 personnel (figure taken from a ship prior to decommissioning),a Battlestar is a thing to behold.

It has a length of 4,640ft or 1.414 km, a beam of 1,820ft or 555 m and a draft of 580ft or 177 m. Propelled by 6 sublight engines, 40 manouvering engines in 10 clusters of 4 and 2 of the most powerful FTL engines that the Colonial Fleet can provide.

Battlestars of the original type developed for the thousand-yahren war have no networked computer systems as a counter-measure against frequent attacks on their computers, and as a result their crews are incredibly good at electronic warfare, whilst the Battlestars themselves remain virtually immune to it as long as the computers are not networked. However, efficiency can obviously be improved if they are.

A Battlestar is designed to be able to go for long periods without resupply, and have incredible storage capacity. They can go for years without having to replenish their water supply (barring unforseen circumstances), and have incredibly secure storage facilities for food. They have extensive on-board repair facilities, and thanks to advanced damage control (developed during the thousand-yahren war as a necessity) they can repair massive amounts of damage. The twelve oxygen recirculation facilities on a Battlestar replenish oxygen and 'scrub' CO2 from the air.

The thing which makes a lone Battlestar such a threat is the power of the weapons it mounts. The original class of Battlestar has 24 heavy flak turrets. These are mounted on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the main hull and the ventral surface of the bow. The two guns on each turret fire explosive flak rounds in tandem at a rate of 2.23 seconds per round. It also has 300 smaller turrets, each mounting two guns. These are smaller two-gun turrets mounted on the flight pods and other surfaces. Each barrel fires non-explosive rounds in bursts, with a rate of fire of 200 rounds per turret per second. In addition to this extensive conventional armament, Battlestars carry an unspecified number of nuclear devices.

A Battlestar's most versatile point is no doubt the fighter compliment and launch system. Each Battlestar can carry up to four squadrons of 20 'Viper' space superiority fighters. The facilities for these are so versatile they can be used for all varieties of the fighter in service, from MK II to MK VII.

The Viper

An agile and effective fighter, the Viper is officially in service as the MK VII, but the 74th Battlestar group has not been refitted, and currently uses the MK II.

http://www.battlestarwiki.org/en/images/8/8c/Bsg-viper-1.jpg

MK II Viper Technical Specifications:

Dimensions:
Length: 8.4082 m
Wingspan: 4.7168 m
Height: 2.7247 m

Propulsion:
1x Voram VM2-D15 upper turbothrust engine, 2x Voram VM3-D22 turbothrust engines; 2x reverse thrust motors; RCS points.

Weaponry:
2x MEC-A6 30mm Thraxon forward-firing kinetic energy weapons (KEW) mounted in the wing roots with 800 round magazine; dorsal storage bay for 8x HD-70 Lightning Javelin missiles (optional 50 megaton nuclear warhead), weapon hardpoints for mounting missiles / munitions pods, etc. under the wings.

Crew:
1 Pilot.

Raptor

The raptor is the long-range scout of any colonial fleet. Bristling with sensors and ECM, a raptor is the equivalent of an AWACS on steroids.

http://www.battlestarwiki.org/en/images/7/79/Raptor-1.jpg

Raptor Specifications:

Dimensions:
Length: 28ft
Beam: 18.34ft
Height: 9.5ft
Mass: 50 tons

Propulsion:
2x sublight engines mounted aft
1x small-scale FTL system
RCS points

Weapons:
Can be equipped with missiles.

Crew:
1 Pilot,
1 Electronic Countermeasures Officer (ECO).

Support Craft

Every Battlestar is designed to be able to operate alone for long periods of time, but it's always desirable to have a variety of support craft. These can carry anything from spare parts to spare crew, or carry out a variety of useful tasks.


Battlestar Cimtar


More to come.