Wolfs Shipyard Forum

I see the Charity is asymmetrical. Has someone been studying Blum und Voss designs?

Charity actually hurts my brain to look at...it’s a simple recollection of Cloud 9. Personally, I can’t stand asymmetrical designs unless they have a very good reason for existing, and in powered space flight that triples.

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Kurt

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Your comment about Blum und Voss had me thinking this afternoon. I have to give them credit for innovation and unique designs, but when it comes to overall *design*, I think they were lacking. This is based on my perspective of systems design gained over more years than I want to acknowledge...but their designs were too complex and required too many things to be in balance; thrust, center of gravity, center of pitch, center of roll, drag, etc. Anyone can make something complex, but it takes real intelligence - genius if you will - to make something simple and have the same level of functionality.

_________________
Kurt

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The Lybie class battlestar was a credible and capable design, but there were some areas, as on any design, that could be improved. While the ship wasn't delicate by any standard, there was a thought that by moving to a design closer to the Hera, Dynamene, or Tisiphone where the pods were somewhat further back than centrally located, with a "wing" that blended them into the hull and offered more volume and overall strength and durability. The resulting Block 3 Scylla subclass was a true welterweight fighter, and complimented the other new battlestar classes coming online by providing something a little more than the lightweight Ismene class, but less than the heavier classes. The design offered the Union a full range of options for a proportionate response should the need arise.

One unique feature is the multimission bay that occupies part of the central lower hull where the original gunstar's flight deck used to reside. These spaces were designed to be configurable to various missions, though in reality they would likely be configured once and then the ship would have a unique extra ability to bring to the table. The known options were housing modules that also included an expansion annex to the ship's sickbay giving it the capabilities of a small regional hospital. At least one ship was configured this way and used for disaster recovery and front line medivac duties. Another option was a pair of six pack modules holding the new long duration surveillance drones or two of the much larger heavy drones. Finally, a combination of barracks and cargo storage spaces were available greatly extend the ship's mission duration to at least eight years for deep space exploration.

_________________
Kurt

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After the first three examples of the Block 3 Lybie were delivered, all subsequent hulls were produced to the definitive Block 3A standard. This corrected a key deficiency of the Block 3's...little to no dorsal/dorsal rear guns. The 3A design added a revised superstructure under the forward and rear flight deck openings to support a pair of dual 1m turrets. The additional structure was approximately two decks deep and added casemate support and ammunition handling facilities. Additionally, two pairs of dual 1m turrets were added to the underside of the main hull. This added 12 dual 1m turrets and greatly expanded the firing arcs and helped eliminate many of the blind spots that the original Block 3 had. Within two years of commissioning, all the original Block 3 hulls were upgraded to Block 3A.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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These next two ships are side developments of the Block 3 Lybie class battlestars. Based on current practice of developing a hull into mission specific designs, the Polemos class assualtstars were a development of the Scylla subclass of Lybie class battlestars. The flight pods were widened, raised, doubled, and a 12 meter plug installed between the pods. The pods were large enough to handle the Ziz landers...barely. It was a tight fit, but six could be carried (three in each side's hangar spaces), with the ability to surge four per side for a limited duration. Perhaps the most unique feature of the design were the full length stores, training, and barracks decks that were the result of the "plug". These ran the entire length of the pod and were used almost exclusively for Marine operations. The thought process behind this was that it would allow the Marines to prepare and assemble as close to the embarkation points as possible, and keep them away from the ship's main hull and thus they wouldn't disrupt ship's operations during combat. While it worked, it did spark some rivalry between the port and starboard decks and the ship's crew, resulting in a high esprit de corps and some of the most active sports competitions of any of the ships in the Fleet.



If the design of Polemos drew raised eyebrows, the concurrently developed Mellae class replenishmentstar had people scratching their heads, narrowing their eyes, and then wondering why it wasn't done before. The biggest outward change is the redesigned lower half of the flight pod structures. The hangar spaces were given over to holds and bunkers, while the enclosure was removed and the flight deck turned into an open platform for containerized cargo or oversized loads. Should there be a need, the decks can serve as landing platforms for small craft, though no service facilities are available (other than those in the upper flight deck). While Mellae was being designed, attention was paid to the Thrace class assaultstar and its ability to carry heavy support drones. Once Thrace proved the concept, similar hardpoints were incorporated into Mellae's cargo deck design.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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For reference, here is the Mellae without cargo pods.



It was no secret within the Admiralty that the Angelia class commstars had exceeded their expectations. What also wasn't a secret was that they were built using hulls from an earlier generation and that while they had been "good enough" to convert and prove the concept, what was really desired were ships built to contemporary design practices and technology. The Mellae class replenishmentstar was chosen to be the replacement hull; the wide cargo decks and voluminous interior spaces would be ideal for the mission, and combined with the parts commonality with the smaller primary warships in the Fleet, it ensured that the total cost of ownership would be if not low, well within reason. The Homonoia class resulted and is intended to offer the fleet many decades of service.



The final iterative design was the Apollo class medstar. There were already several different classes of medstar within the fleet, but like with the Angelia class commstar, the Iaso class was built using older design theory and as each year passed, their yearly costs would increase due to additional maintenance and parts cost. Thus, the Mellae was developed into the Apollo class medstar, with massive complexes built into each lower pod. Despite being smaller than Soteria, perhaps the finest mobile medical facility ever built, they offered the same services, though perhaps in not quite the quantity.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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(Can you tell I'm bored? I was supposed to return to being a project manager lead on the 6th...but the laptop never arrived at the office. Supposedly arrived Friday, no one could find it Monday. So...they were going to overnight one to me...still hasn't arrived...so...bored and frustrated)

Designer's note: Not really sure where to put this one...on one hand it is military/government, but on the other it has the potential for civilian purposes (sort of like an armed company ship to protect a mining operation in a belt that might see Erisian action...)

The Budiea class gunstar was evolved into many different configurations from the basic enlarged E-Class gunstar to a battlestar, assaultstar, and several others. However, E2 decided to evolve it in a different direction as well; they started by removing the "wings", the nose guns, the offensive missiles, some of the defensive missiles (though they can be retrofitted should it be necessary), and some of the large dual 1m mounts. To this stripped down design they added canards and a delta wing for efficient atmospheric operations and the bays at the nose that used to hold fixed mounts were turned into an observation lounge and atmospheric navigation bridge.

The resulting ship, Hermes, was trialed and commissioned by the Fleet though they really weren't sure what to do with it; it didn't have enough weapons to sail in the line of battle, and it was too large, and more importantly, costly to operate, than a Pixie or Flower class transport. In 1994, however, during a particularly violent stretch in the Erisian Conflict, a large number of Senators and Representatives wanted to tour the member worlds to reassure them that the government "was there" and was "doing something". Instead of a soft skinned transport or liner, or pulling a battlestar off the line and reconfiguring it, the Admiralty chose Hermes and with minimal modifications, it set out with a pair of E-Class gunstars and took the politicians on a tour of the Union.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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And because I can't walk away when I get an idea...

To many, the Hermes was an answer in search of a question. The secure transport was a credible idea and the ships of the Hermes class would offer yeoman service and have an enviable safety record. Every design house has designs that never happened and were never built, and they have a stack of affidavits that support that theory, just look at the Angels of Death. So, too, E2's Hermes class had a shadowy and more expensive, a much, much more expensive, half brother, the Hades class.

Hades was an answer to a Fleet solicitation that requested a large, powerful, able to outfight what it can't outrun, blockade runner or covert operations ship. Outwardly, the base Hades looks identical to Hermes except for the dradis defeating anechoic coating. Except that Hades cost three times what Hermes cost, thanks to the additional electronics, tweaked and vastly uprated engines, and general no expense spared approach when it came to ship's systems and fitting out. And that was just the base ship. When her EW pods were added into the cost, the overall flyaway price for each Hades was almost nine times that of a base Hermes.

What did the Fleet get for their money?

Concealed under panels in the nose were four 1m spinal kinetic guns. Unlike the turreted versions and the originals that were in the predecessor classes, these ran from where the canards were located all the way to the bow, and were able to accelerate any of the 1m projectiles in inventory to well in excess of 30km/s for several shots before the capacitors needed to be recharged. During the recharge, they were only able to launch rounds at slightly higher velocities than standard fixed gun mounts.

The EW pods were an electron warrior's dream come true, and during Hades' trials, they proved so able at masking her signature that opposing ships looked for an absence of anything...essentially, they would look for a "hole in space". Hades proved many times over that she could approach any of the Union worlds, even if they were looking for her, orbit, sometimes land, and leave without ever being detected.

The final tweak was that each wing received two hardpoints for the new long duration drones; one above and one below each wing. This wasn't done often as it degraded the ship's stealth, though that was a matter of degree - even carrying a full load of drones, no Hades was ever spotted. Normal procedures would be for a second ship, at a greater standoff range, to launch the drones should they be needed.

Hades without EW pods:


Hades with her EW pods:

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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I'm surprised the Apollo class has heavy weaponry. Light defensive weapons I can understand. Without the heavy weaponry and associated magazines, you would have more space for patients and hospital equipment.

The original Block 1 Homonoia class commstar offered a lot of advances, but once it was in service, the trials and paper statistics were dulled considerably by operational experience. The first thing is that she had six antennas as opposed to Angelia's twelve, and while each one was more capable, it didn't offset the capabilities of double the number of antennas. The second thing was that the ship had excessive small craft launch and recovery facilities for both its intended purpose and its operational use. This led to a redesign that focused on the pods and the multimission spaces. First, the upper pods were redesigned to remove the upper flight deck enclosure and replace it with three antenna mounts like the lower pods. The hangars, shops, storage spaces and fuel bunkers, and launch facilities were removed and the entirety of the volume was devoted support the mission, much in the same way the lower pods were. Secondly, the mulitmission spaces were converted back into a flight deck and hangar as on the original Budiea class gunstar.



This increased capability drew additional interest from the Admiralty and they requested that an anechoic coating be given to the Block 2 and the ability to launch long duration drones; this led to the Block 3 Nova subclass. The first part was easily done, but due to the Homonoia's design, there was no way to easily mount the standard triple ejector/launcher racks along the flight axis. Different options were tried with the winning option being to mount them transversely across the antenna decks so that they would launch perpendicular to the flight path. This beat out modifying the hull to carry the drones either vertically or at an angle, due to the size of the drones and the internal redesign that would be required. The final design had mounting points for four self-contained storage/launch canisters between each pair of antennas, for a total of eight per deck. The canister was a stackable design which allowed them to be stacked up to three high, though in practice only four per rack were carried except for when it was known that their use would be likely when the number would be either six or eight per rack. Even at four per rack, this offered a 25% increase in drones, while carrying eight increased the total number carried by 166% over the baseline Solar Flare.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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Now that you mention it, there does seem to be an excessive amount of weaponry on Apollo. The best reasons I can offer is that the magazines aren't as large and are focused on defensive ammunition. Another potential reason could be that the Earth Union wants to ensure that the sick and wounded are adequately defended.

Or...I could make some tweaks!

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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How does this look? A "low intensity conflict" version of Apollo.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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I shouldn't be reviewing the designs before I turn the light out for the night...things like this develop...

At about the same time initial development work was being done on the Aegle class medstars, the long duration autonomous drones were in the final stages of development with the heavy drones in the early stages of design. Since it would be easy to do it before design was in production, the decision to include hardpoints on Aegle's wings was incorporated into the design. There were never any plans, and in fact, there is no capability for the ship to carry the Ragnarok drones, which soothed the immediate reaction of the Fleet Medical Corps. Instead, the four hardpoints, two under each wing, were designed from the outset to carry the heavy configurable drones. The drones could be accessed from within the ship by moving personnel through the wings and then into the launch cradle, and from there into the drone. Unlike the landing bays, this was never intended to be something used other than when the drone was launched for its mission and then when it returned; no provisions were made for moving casualties from the drone through the launch cradle and into the wing.

The heavy drones that Aegle carried were constructed as field hospitals and were designed to be launched, land where needed, and then remain there until the need either ended and they returned to orbit or the decision was made to built it into a regional medical center or clinic. It wasn't lost on the Fleet Medical Corps that not only did their jobs get so much easier, they could go where the patients were and reduce travel time to care, they also became much more in demand for civilian emergencies or crises since they could more easily be sent to where they would be needed on the surface.

_________________
Kurt

Click the link to read Lady Hecate off line in PDF, .epub, or Kindle formats: http://www.bsg94.org/downloads/index.html
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I'm in heaven (with out the sisters help) a large earth union ships!!!!!!!. If this is the results of you being board, STAY BOARD,