House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion

by David Weber

  Apollo-class light cruiser extension (Flight IV Apollo)

  Mass: 128,750 tons

  Dimensions: 441 × 46 × 35 m

  Acceleration: 517.7 G (5.077 kps²)

  80% Accel: 414.1 G (4.061 kps²)

  Broadside: 5M, 4L, 6CM, 4PD

  Chase: 2M, 1L, 3CM, 3PD

  Number Built: 52

  Service Life: 1886–present

  After the Illustrious class failed to live up to its intended capabilities, another flight of Apollos was ordered. Over the course of several years, almost all of the original Flight I hulls were stricken and replacements were commissioned with the same names as the originals.

  Recent experience with the Talisman class had emphasized the versatility of the basic Apollo hull form, and the decision was made to modify the class. Two beam mounts were removed from the broadside and replaced with a pair of counter-missile launchers and their magazines. This reduction in close combat ability was regrettable, but the new design was a welcome addition for task force commanders looking to thicken the defenses of their screen. Operational experience soon made it clear that the design was in many ways superior to the original Apollo class and a refit program was put into place to upgrade as many of the original hulls as possible.

  At present, many surviving hulls of the original Apollo class have been upgraded to the Flight IV standard. At the beginning of its service life, this class was often referred to as the Artemis class, although officially they have always been carried on the Navy List simply as Flight IV Apollos. The distinction became irrelevant as the remainder of the older hulls were refitted to these standards.

  Valiant-class light cruiser

  Mass: 154,750 tons

  Dimensions: 469 × 49 × 38 m

  Acceleration: 516.4 G (5.065 kps²)

  80% Accel: 413.2 G (4.052 kps²)

  Broadside: 8M, 6L, 2G, 5CM, 4PD

  Chase: 3M, 2G, 3CM, 3PD

  Number Built: 83

  Service Life: 1902–present

  With half again the missile broadside of an Apollo, the Valiant class marks a departure in typical RMN light cruiser design. It is fourteen percent heavier than the Illustrious class and takes much of its design philosophy from the old Courageous class. The Valiants remain effective units even by today’s radically changed standards, boasting a heavier missile broadside than any previous RMN light cruiser, energy weapons equal to those of an Apollo, and a respectable defensive suite. Another notable design feature is its heavy chase armament, although fitting in the three missile tubes and two grasers (plus the defensive mounts) required a substantial reworking of the internal hammerhead design.

  Like the much smaller Courageous class, this capability comes at a price. Solid, reliable, and effective, the Valiants are shorter legged and more cramped than most of their contemporaries, despite their larger size. Enough Valiants have been built to completely replace the Courageous-class hulls as they are decommissioned, with many Valiants inheriting their names directly from the older ships.

  Avalon-class light cruiser

  Mass: 146,750 tons

  Dimensions: 461 × 48 × 37 m

  Acceleration: 749.9 G (7.354 kps²)

  80% Accel: 599.9 G (5.883 kps²)

  Broadside: 10M, 4G, 8CM, 8PD

  Chase: 2G, 4PD

  Number Built: 196+

  Service Life: 1919–present

  The Avalon class is the light cruiser variant based on the same design studies that created the Saganami-B heavy cruiser, and it shares many of the same advantages in terms of fire control, protection, off-bore launching and electronics. Although still categorized and deployed as a light cruiser, it is actually smaller than the Roland-class destroyer, a testament to the RMN’s policy of classifying hulls based on role rather than tonnage.

  Unlike its contemporaries the Roland and Saganami-C, the Avalon does not carry the Mk16 Dual Drive Missile (DDM). Instead it carries the same Mk36 Lightweight Extended Range Missile (LERM) as the Wolfhound. The Mk36 single-stage drive package is capable of significantly longer runtime and range than prewar missiles but remains considerably shorter ranged than the Mk16.

  The Avalon admirably fills the role of a light cruiser as defined by the RMN. The class is being built in large numbers alongside the Rolands and Saganami-Cs, and many of them have been sent to Silesia, where their capabilities are badly needed at present.

  Kamerling-class system control cruiser

  Mass: 276,250 tons

  Dimensions: 569 × 59 × 46 m

  Acceleration: 741 G (7.266 kps²)

  80% Accel: 592.8 G (5.813 kps²)

  Broadside: 8M, 4G, 12CM, 12PD

  Chase: 2G, 6PD

  Number Built: 48

  Service Life: 1921–present

  While listed on the BuShips records as a light cruiser, the Kamerling class has the designation of “system control cruiser” and is in fact closer to a replacement for the Broadsword-class heavy cruiser.

  One of the major disadvantages of the new RMN warship classes and their highly automated designs is that station commanders are finding more and more often that they lack the manpower and Marines to deal with boarding actions, prize crews, piracy suppression, and similar missions.

  The Kamerling class was designed to address this problem. It takes advantage of the same level of automation and crew reduction as all modern classes, but in addition to the small Navy crew, it carries three companies of Marines, with support equipment and enough small craft lift capacity to move the entire contingent in a single flight.

  While capable combatants against anything they are likely to encounter in distant stations such as the Silesian Confederacy, the Kamerling’s weapons fit is biased towards defense and, despite its tonnage advantage over both the Avalon and Valiant classes, its antiship capability is limited for its size due to the tonnage consumed by additional life-support. These ships were never intended to contest space control with another navy’s units. Rather, they were conceived of as units intended to police commerce and restore the peacekeeping and humanitarian mission capabilities which had been lost in the low-manpower designs. However, the explosive increase in construction following the resumption of hostilities resulted in a shortage of building slips. Smaller slips were turning out Rolands and Avalons as quickly as possible already. Given the massive size of these ships, each one would displace the construction of a Saganami-C, so the original build numbers were cut twice.

  Only forty-eight have been built and no more are planned until at least 1923. Nearly all of those have been assigned to Silesia.

  HEAVY CRUISERS (CA)

  For most of its history, the RMN relied on heavy cruisers—and later battlecruisers—as its primary offensive units. Commodore Edward Saganami refined this practice during the Ranier War, and his heroic actions at the Battle of Carson stamped it forever into the traditions of the Royal Navy.

  The heavy cruiser is particularly well suited to commerce raiding. Operating in singletons or divisions, cruiser-class ships are easily able to overpower the traditional destroyer and light cruiser escorts and effectively force enemies to protect their supply lines with heavy units of their own, often at the cost of far more units pulled from the front lines than the expenditure of raiders.

  While the nature of warfare has changed for many of the last generation of officers to serve King Roger III, moving from one of deep raids with nimble battlecruiser squadrons to the ponderous might of the wall of battle, the tradition has never been forgotten. Strategic planning even today still includes these pinpoint raids. Many in the Navy today believe no officer’s capability has been truly tested until he or she has commanded a heavy cruiser.

  Warrior-class heavy cruiser

  Mass: 227,250 tons

  Dimensions: 474 × 57 × 48 m

  Acceleration: 513 G (5.031 kps²)

  80% Accel: 410.4 G (4.025 kps²)

  Broadside: 6M, 6G, 2CM, 6PD

  Chase: 2M, 1G, 2CM, 2PD

  Number Built: 46


  Service Life: 1794–1906

  While perfectly capable for the era in which it was built, the Warrior’s missile broadside is light by modern standards, a fact which was only partially offset by the quality of the RMN’s missile penetration aids and seekers. On the other hand, it carried an all-graser broadside, which provided it with a powerful punch in close range combat. The defensive suite is typical of its time of construction, showing more point defense clusters than counter-missile tubes, a balance optimized against contemporary contact nuclear warhead missiles.

  Despite these limitations, the Warrior proved to be an ideal frontier patrol ship for the Silesian sector. Its smaller size gave it a marginally better acceleration than newer, larger hulls, and, with the right initial geometry, it was capable of running down many light cruisers and even some destroyers. Its missiles gave it a reasonable attack against the lightly defended ships used by liberation front navies and pirates, and the generally low quality of Silesian equipment prevented its weaknesses in active defenses and armor from being a crippling disadvantage.

  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 i
n 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.