Kyottee
EI ARN-27 "Crashing Tempest" Assault Reconnaissance Corvette
While naval doctrine has never evolved in a vacuum, the simmering conflict between the first and second Accord Wars provided an idea opportunity for both the Empire and Accord to refine and test their doctrines in relatively low-risk engagements. The extended time period also allowed for numerous ship classes to be requested, designed, procured, and deployed on both sides, often specifically to counter a new strategy, tactic, or element of naval hardware.
Given the smaller size of the Accord Republican Navy, it was unsurprising that they adopted strategies relying heavily on fast carrier strike packages that could conduct attacks on relatively poorly defended Imperial assets, despite the Accord carriers often being little more than converted freighters. After a time, more and more Imperial picket corvettes and frigates were produced and utilized, massively increasing Accord losses and protecting Imperial interests at a relatively affordable price. At the same time, the constant reconnaissance struggle continued to escalate as well; the standard sensor drone swarms augmented by heavy strike fighters and even modified corvettes, deployed to both protect the sensor drones and also to intercept hostile scouts. The Assault Reconnaissance Corvette was conceived as an attempt by the Accord to solve both of these problems, though the eventual proliferation of Accord heavy fleets saw the Empire adopt its own variants.
The ARN-27 was not the first Assault Reconnaissance Corvette deployed by the Accord, but it was the first designed specifically for the purpose, learning lessons from previous conversions that had not filled the role as well as had been hoped. At the core of its mission brief was to locate the hostile fleet, destroy hostile anti-recon forces, and then destroy hostile picket forces. While the first two tasks could be performed relatively well by most corvettes or frigates, the latter task had proven far more difficult. Generally, any ship large enough to engage a hostile picket frigate was also going to be vulnerable to the capital grade weapons from the fleet that the picket frigate was protecting. Combat experience showed that even a corvette needed to be relatively fast and agile to be immune to capital grade weapons, leaving naval designers with precious few options.
Among the five bids placed on the contract, only Eclipse Industries and Siugniedrev Industrial Works designs made it past initial testing. While the SIW design was in effect a very large stealth bomber, and would go on to see further development in another program, the EI design utilized four mass plasma drivers in a mostly fixed configuration. Even most frigates did not mount weapons of such size, and the extensive cooling arrays and power generation required for the weapons made the ARN-27 more expensive than most other options. However, due to the relatively few hulls required and the economic boom in the Accord at the time, the higher cost was deemed a worthwhile investment.
Initial development, like with any military project, was not without teething issues. During high stress atmospheric maneuvers, the weight of the plasma drivers caused warping in the cooling arrays they were mounted on, leading to further strengthening. The lower sensor arrays were removed to add four light missile tubes for better defense against light craft and missiles when it was determined that the four twin laser turrets were not sufficient. The largest change was to the top of the hull however, where both an external access airlock and an enlarged deployable sensor dish was added. Given the crew capacity of six and the provision of both a cargo hold and full living quarters aboard the vessel for extended recon operations, the inability to dock outside of a hangar bay was deemed unacceptable by operational commanders. Other features, such as the enlarged rear comms array were present from the start, specifically designed to provide a datalink back to the fleet in the face of heavy hostile jamming.
Though undeniably effective against Imperial forces when it was first deployed, the same economic boom that allowed such an expensive and specialized corvette to be developed was also the ultimate reason it was sidelined. The increased military budget of the Accord saw proper battleline ships built and deployed, first battlecruisers to escort the carriers then proper battleships, making the role of punching through pickets far less important than it had been previously. Still, as one of the largest ships to have the commander and pilot be the same person and a combat profile much more akin to a giant heavy fighter than a traditional corvette, it remains a popular posting for certain officers among the Accord.
Manufacturer: Eclipse Industries
Crew: 6 - 1 Pilot/Commander, 1 Weapons Officer, 1 Communications/Sensors Officer, 2 Engineering Officers, 1 Marine.
Length: 89 meters
Maximum Speed: 1185 m/s
FTL Capability: 14335 AU/h
Engines: 4x FierthXP-3000 Ion Drives
Armament: 4x License Built SIW FlameSpike Mass Plasma Drivers, 4x twin GS Gneiss Laser Cannons in turrets, 4x various Accord missile systems depending on mission profile.
Made for my Graviton setting.
Designers Note: I worked on this one off and on for over a year and it is the largest design I have done yet. It was supposed to be something I could afford to build out of physical bricks, but I clearly got carried away.
EI ARN-27 "Crashing Tempest" Assault Reconnaissance Corvette
While naval doctrine has never evolved in a vacuum, the simmering conflict between the first and second Accord Wars provided an idea opportunity for both the Empire and Accord to refine and test their doctrines in relatively low-risk engagements. The extended time period also allowed for numerous ship classes to be requested, designed, procured, and deployed on both sides, often specifically to counter a new strategy, tactic, or element of naval hardware.
Given the smaller size of the Accord Republican Navy, it was unsurprising that they adopted strategies relying heavily on fast carrier strike packages that could conduct attacks on relatively poorly defended Imperial assets, despite the Accord carriers often being little more than converted freighters. After a time, more and more Imperial picket corvettes and frigates were produced and utilized, massively increasing Accord losses and protecting Imperial interests at a relatively affordable price. At the same time, the constant reconnaissance struggle continued to escalate as well; the standard sensor drone swarms augmented by heavy strike fighters and even modified corvettes, deployed to both protect the sensor drones and also to intercept hostile scouts. The Assault Reconnaissance Corvette was conceived as an attempt by the Accord to solve both of these problems, though the eventual proliferation of Accord heavy fleets saw the Empire adopt its own variants.
The ARN-27 was not the first Assault Reconnaissance Corvette deployed by the Accord, but it was the first designed specifically for the purpose, learning lessons from previous conversions that had not filled the role as well as had been hoped. At the core of its mission brief was to locate the hostile fleet, destroy hostile anti-recon forces, and then destroy hostile picket forces. While the first two tasks could be performed relatively well by most corvettes or frigates, the latter task had proven far more difficult. Generally, any ship large enough to engage a hostile picket frigate was also going to be vulnerable to the capital grade weapons from the fleet that the picket frigate was protecting. Combat experience showed that even a corvette needed to be relatively fast and agile to be immune to capital grade weapons, leaving naval designers with precious few options.
Among the five bids placed on the contract, only Eclipse Industries and Siugniedrev Industrial Works designs made it past initial testing. While the SIW design was in effect a very large stealth bomber, and would go on to see further development in another program, the EI design utilized four mass plasma drivers in a mostly fixed configuration. Even most frigates did not mount weapons of such size, and the extensive cooling arrays and power generation required for the weapons made the ARN-27 more expensive than most other options. However, due to the relatively few hulls required and the economic boom in the Accord at the time, the higher cost was deemed a worthwhile investment.
Initial development, like with any military project, was not without teething issues. During high stress atmospheric maneuvers, the weight of the plasma drivers caused warping in the cooling arrays they were mounted on, leading to further strengthening. The lower sensor arrays were removed to add four light missile tubes for better defense against light craft and missiles when it was determined that the four twin laser turrets were not sufficient. The largest change was to the top of the hull however, where both an external access airlock and an enlarged deployable sensor dish was added. Given the crew capacity of six and the provision of both a cargo hold and full living quarters aboard the vessel for extended recon operations, the inability to dock outside of a hangar bay was deemed unacceptable by operational commanders. Other features, such as the enlarged rear comms array were present from the start, specifically designed to provide a datalink back to the fleet in the face of heavy hostile jamming.
Though undeniably effective against Imperial forces when it was first deployed, the same economic boom that allowed such an expensive and specialized corvette to be developed was also the ultimate reason it was sidelined. The increased military budget of the Accord saw proper battleline ships built and deployed, first battlecruisers to escort the carriers then proper battleships, making the role of punching through pickets far less important than it had been previously. Still, as one of the largest ships to have the commander and pilot be the same person and a combat profile much more akin to a giant heavy fighter than a traditional corvette, it remains a popular posting for certain officers among the Accord.
Manufacturer: Eclipse Industries
Crew: 6 - 1 Pilot/Commander, 1 Weapons Officer, 1 Communications/Sensors Officer, 2 Engineering Officers, 1 Marine.
Length: 89 meters
Maximum Speed: 1185 m/s
FTL Capability: 14335 AU/h
Engines: 4x FierthXP-3000 Ion Drives
Armament: 4x License Built SIW FlameSpike Mass Plasma Drivers, 4x twin GS Gneiss Laser Cannons in turrets, 4x various Accord missile systems depending on mission profile.
Made for my Graviton setting.
Designers Note: I worked on this one off and on for over a year and it is the largest design I have done yet. It was supposed to be something I could afford to build out of physical bricks, but I clearly got carried away.