House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (44 page)

Although few remained in service by the start of the war, the
Warrior
class had always been a well-regarded platform, despite its age, and all ships in the class had received periodic electronic package upgrades throughout their operational lifetimes. Still, the era of battle for which these ships had been designed and in which they performed admirably was drawing to a close. Woefully insufficient in long-range defenses by current standards, the
Warriors
were low enough on the priority list that refitting them to a more balanced defensive suite was shelved in favor of designs that were more capable of fighting the People’s Republic of Haven. While a few units saw combat at the opening of the war, the last of them were decommissioned less than a year later.

Truncheon-class heavy cruiser

Mass: 223,000 tons

Dimensions: 471 × 57 × 48 m

Acceleration: 513.2 G (5.033 kps²)

80% Accel: 410.6 G (4.026 kps²)

Broadside: 5M, 5L, 3G, 2CM, 6PD

Chase: 2M, 1L, 1G, 1CM, 2PD

Number Built: 77

Service Life: 1809–1905

The
Truncheon
-class heavy cruiser was designed in concert with the
Warrior
class as a less expensive option to make up total designated build numbers. Despite having been authorized and placed on the books a full year earlier than the
Warrior
, budget cuts delayed the first
Truncheon
for fifteen years after the
Warrior
class entered operational service. With several squadrons of the ancient
Acherner
class long overdue for retirement when the
Truncheon
, finally did enter service, however, and in light of production problems with the
Warriors
, the original production run was lengthened in 1822 PD.

Two divisions of Flight I
Truncheons
were refitted in the early 1830s as marine operations support cruisers and redesignated with the prefix LCA. This refit reduced the broadside weaponry to make room for a full battalion of marines and support staff plus specialized command and control equipment. While sorely needed, the makeshift nature of the
Nightstick
-class conversion was never popular with the Corps. Plans were drawn up shortly thereafter for a purpose-built LCA, though several delays in that procurement kept the
Truncheons
in service decades longer than anticipated. When the long awaited
Broadsword
class was finally commissioned, two decades overdue, the converted
Truncheons
were finally decommissioned, much to the relief of the RMMC.

Prince Consort-class heavy cruiser

Mass: 246,500 tons

Dimensions: 487 × 59 × 49 m

Acceleration: 512.1 G (5.022 kps²)

80% Accel: 409.7 G (4.017 kps²)

Broadside: 8M, 3L, 2G, 5CM, 4PD

Chase: 2M, 1L, 3CM, 2PD

Number Built: 175

Service Life: 1851–1919

The
Prince Consort
class of heavy cruisers holds the record as the largest class of heavy cruisers in the Royal Manticoran Navy, though it is likely to be overtaken in the next flight of
Saganami-Cs
coming off the building slips in 1922 PD. The class was originally authorized as the
Crown Prince
class, but the name changed before the first was delivered.

Individually the
Prince Consorts
are powerful and effective units, but their design was a compromise in two ways. First, they were designed with just enough internal bridge volume to accommodate their original equipment, which caused a great deal of frustration as future refits and equipment upgrades had to be crammed wherever they fit, making for an even more cramped interior working space. Second, to get as much firepower into space as quickly and at as low a cost as possible, BuShips omitted a proper flag deck and its support systems in exchange for additional tonnage dedicated to broadside weaponry. Due to the shortage in flagships of any kind, this required
Prince Consorts
to be assigned to task force and fleet formations where other ships in the squadron could provide the space for a flag officer and staff.

Like most Manticoran designs, the
Prince Consort
enjoyed a healthy advantage in medium- to long-range missile duels against foreign opponents, where it could make the most of its superior seeker systems and electronic countermeasures. At closer ranges, where the disparity in missile qualities evened out, much of that advantage disappeared. While many of the class saw active service throughout the war, the growing numbers of more capable heavy cruisers being built gradually displaced the last of them.

Crusader-class heavy cruiser

Mass: 234,500 tons

Dimensions: 479 × 58 × 48 m

Acceleration: 512.6 G (5.027 kps²)

80% Accel: 410.1 G (4.022 kps²)

Broadside: 6M, 3L, 1G, 5CM, 4PD

Chase: 2M, 1L, 3CM, 2PD

Number Built: 25

Service Life: 1851–1919

The
Crusader
-class heavy cruiser was designed as a supplement to the
Prince Consort
building program. As the
Prince Consorts
did not have flag facilities, BuShips authorized a program which would have built the
Prince Consorts
in groups of seven and paired each group with a
Crusader
providing flag services to make a full eight-ship squadron. In addition to a flag bridge, the
Crusader
class mounts a full auxiliary command deck, in addition to a number of other system and habitability upgrades.

“Flag facilities” in modern naval parlance means the extra computational support, communications equipment, and watchstanders necessary to link a formation spread over tens of thousands of kilometers into a coherent tactical fighting force, as well as the long-range communications arrays necessary to coordinate the action of detached units across a star system. While any modern combat control system can perform this function at some level, dedicated personnel and facilities are required to optimize the use of a modern squadron’s resources.

The original building program failed to allow for a realistic overhaul cycle, with the result being that at least twenty-five percent too few flagships had been projected from the beginning, and the Admiralty’s decision to cut funding for them in the intervening years only made the problem worse. The shortage of
Crusader
went largely unremarked at the time, but as the signs of war between Manticore and Haven grew, the forward redeployments of cruisers and battlecruisers as raiders highlighted the shortages of flag decks in heavy cruiser squadrons. The crucial importance of appropriate flagship facilities lay in the close coordination required of a modern squadron in combat.

As squadron flagships, the
Crusaders
performed admirably over their lifetimes. The weapons fit was weaker than that of the
Prince Consorts
, but even by modern standards this class had excellent command and control facilities, rivaling those of far larger ships. It was less capable in solo operations as it was not intended to operate outside a squadron. Aside from enhancements in targeting and penetration aids, the offensive power was comparable to that of the
Warrior
-class heavy cruiser, despite a more than ten percent increase in tonnage over the older class.

Additional advances in automation reduced the personnel and space required to build the same command and control capability into follow-on ships. With the
Star Knight
and
Saganami
classes and their variants being built in large numbers, the need for a class of lightly armed dedicated flagships was dwindling. Almost the entire class had been relegated to the Reserve by the time of Operation Buttercup, and it was finally scrapped during the Janacek build-down.

Broadsword-class Marine operations support cruiser

Mass: 268,500 tons

Dimensions: 531 x 59 x 49 m

Acceleration: 511 G (5.011 kps²)

80% Accel: 408.8 G (4.009 kps²)

Broadside: 8M, 3L, 2G, 5CM, 5PD

Chase: 2M, 1L, 4CM, 4PD

Number Built: 8

Service Life: 1873–present

The
Broadsword
-class marine operations support cruiser is built on an elongated
Prince Consort
-class hull, with a comparable weapon and defensive fit. The class fulfills two primary mission roles. The first is a rapid deployment ship for the RMMC in situations where a reinforced battalion will do the job but a full brigade or divisional Marine drop is too cumbersome. The second is as an orbital command ship for extended ground operations. In the first role, a
Broadsword
may be assigned individually or as part of a cruiser squadron, while in the second it will accompany a full Marine Transport Squadron. Given their specialized nature,
Broadswords
are rarely deployed as part of an offensive space control fleet element and usually do not arrive until the battle is over.

The
Broadsword’s
marine complement consists of a full battalion reinforced with a single assault company in addition to the heavy weapons company. With the newer Mk17 light assault shuttles, a
Broadsword
can drop its entire marine complement in a single wave. This class also carries a large number of containerized kinetic strike weapons, reconnaissance and communication satellites, planetary probes and other ground support equipment and has an extensive orbital command facility for coordination of Marine forces in the air, in orbital spaces, and on the ground. Additionally, the
Broadsword
is also equipped with hospital facilities comparable to those of a small station or forward base, making this class a welcome addition to any force.

Star Knight-class heavy cruiser

Mass: 305,250 tons

Dimensions: 523 × 63 × 53 m

Acceleration: 509.3 G (4.994 kps²)

80% Accel: 407.4 G (3.995 kps²)

Broadside: 12M, 6L, 3G, 8CM, 8PD

Chase: 3M, 1L, 5CM, 5PD

Number Built: 74

Service Life: 1893–present

The
Star Knight
is in all ways a revolutionary design, not simply for the Manticoran Navy but for the heavy cruiser type in general. This class was the first two-deck heavy cruiser in the service of any navy, though a careful disinformation campaign kept that fact from becoming obvious until well into its service life. The fourth and final design built on the
Prince Consort
hull, the
Star Knight
was designed to replace both the
Prince Consort
and
Crusader
classes. The design takes advantage of decades of research by the Weapons Development board in system miniaturization and it represents arguably the most notable achievement of BuShips in the nineteenth century. Its significantly increased armament, more powerful sidewall generators, heavier armor, better electronic warfare capabilities, and more numerous point defense systems make it at least thirty percent tougher than the
Prince Consorts
.

This improvement was due to the fact that the
Star Knight
was the first heavy cruiser designed from the keel out with the laser head threat in mind. The designers realized missile exchanges would begin to dominate, even among the lighter classes, and with half again as many missile tubes as a
Prince Consort
, the
Star Knight
could lay down an impressive volume of fire. While the number of beam mounts is equally impressive, the truth is that they are individually much lighter weapons than on some older classes, though the decisive edge in missile combat has blunted any criticism in that respect.

Despite this class’ exemplary performance compared to its contemporaries, combat experience has shown that insufficient volume was allocated to offensive systems. This lack was largely due to one of the most controversial design choices: installation of a third fusion reactor as opposed to the normal two found on most ships of this size. Only a single reactor is required to carry the ship’s combat load and the additional volume could have been used to mount a heavier broadside but, unable to find any way to mount ejectable GRAVMAK reactors and not entirely certain that their passive armor scheme could possibly protect the core hull from laser head strikes, the designers opted for increased power system redundancy.

Despite the exponential increase in lethality over the
Prince Consort
class, the RMN has come to consider the
Star Knight
a transitional design. Once wartime experience was factored in, the RMN begun to develop an even more powerful and revolutionary heavy cruiser class as its replacement.

Edward Saganami-class heavy cruiser

Mass: 393,000 tons

Dimensions: 569 × 69 × 57 m

Acceleration: 592.2 G (5.808 kps²)

80% Accel: 473.8 G (4.646 kps²)

Broadside: 14M, 5G, 10CM, 10PD

Chase: 3M, 2G, 6CM, 6PD

Number Built: 46

Service Life: 1908–present

The
Edward Saganami
-class heavy cruiser was designed to improve upon the
Star Knight
. As the war progressed, the design underwent several major revisions, and construction was delayed by almost three years as the Manticoran designers studied innovations the Graysons developed for their
Alvarez
class and other small combatants. When the design was finally completed, the
Saganami
class became the RMN’s first “all graser” ship since the
Warrior
. It mounted two additional missile launchers and fewer but more powerful grasers than originally planned, as well as major changes in crew structure using the new automation. Other improvements included significant electronics and systems upgrades, which greatly improved its passive defenses.