by David Weber
While over four hundred thousand tons heavier than the King William, all of that extra tonnage was devoted to heavier armor and passive defenses. The Anduril’s distinction as the most heavily armored warship in the history of the RMN came at the cost of the offensive (missile) and defensive armament the Navy had come to value.
In addition, the heavy armor and internal compartmentalization had a hidden cost in terms of maintenance and downtime. Many systems, while well protected, were difficult to maintain, with too few accessways for movement of personnel and repair parts. Over the lifetime of the class, many pieces of equipment were simply abandoned in place rather than upgraded, due to the inability of the shipyard workers to install the new systems without cutting through a significant amount of hull armor.
The difficulty in upgrades, during a time when the Navy was undergoing generational changes in weapons systems literally every few years, was a death knell for the class. The Andurils were one of the first ships decommissioned during the Janacek build-down, and a number of them were sold to Erewhon with the King Williams.
Victory-class superdreadnought
Mass: 7,781,250 tons
Dimensions: 1340 × 194 × 181 m
Acceleration: 409.6 G (4.017 kps²)
80% Accel: 327.7 G (3.213 kps²)
Broadside: 35M, 20L, 19G, 6ET, 29CM, 27PD
Chase: 9M, 5L, 5G, 11CM, 9PD
Number Built: 36
Service Life: 1892–1918
With the Victory class, the RMN had finally hit its stride in superdreadnoughts. The construction woes plaguing the King William were a thing of the past, and the new design was a capable, missile-optimized platform that was a perfect match for the doctrine BuPlan had been perfecting since the advent of the laser head.
The class wasn’t particularly large, as even at the time advances in capital ship design were progressing at breakneck speed. The entire series production run lasted no more than handful of years before it was superseded by the Sphinx class.
The disposal of the entire Victory class in early 1918 PD by the Janacek Admiralty was one of the most contentious decisions made by Second Lord Houseman. Every single remaining hull was sold to Grayson at scrap prices, despite the fact that the GSN couldn’t possibly provide the manpower for all of those ships out of its own resources.
Benjamin Mayhew’s decision proved to be fortuitous, however, as the RMN scrambled to reactivate every hull it had in mothballs after the resumption of the war with Haven. While the newer ships had been brought back into service first, BuShips has been negotiating with the GSN for the return of over half of the hulls over the next year. The remainder were crewed as GSN units with a higher than normal percentage of RMN “loaner” personnel.
Sphinx-class superdreadnought
Mass: 8,207,000 tons
Dimensions: 1364 × 198 × 184 m
Acceleration: 403.9 G (3.961 kps²)
80% Accel: 323.1 G (3.169 kps²)
Broadside: 36M, 21L, 19G, 6ET, 27CM, 31PD
Chase: 8M, 4L, 5G, 9CM, 12PD
Number Built: 67
Service Life: 1895–present
The Sphinx class was by far the largest SD class (in total hulls) when the war started. During the peak of the buildup these ships were entering service at an almost frantic pace of more than one every month.
In terms of weapons fit, the most visible feature of any warship, the Sphinx was merely an incremental update over the Victory class, with no truly revolutionary ideas. That was scarcely surprising given the pace of production and improvements in design and construction. The first Sphinx was laid down before the first Victory was even commissioned, so there was little time for lessons learned from one to propagate to another.
While the weapons fit was largely the same as the preceding class, the defenses were much different. In theory the RMN has always designed their capital ships to be able to survive their own fire; in practice, up until the war began, RMN simulation models were in an almost continual state of flux as the damage potential of the laser head warheads kept increasing, without actual real-world testing data to ground the sims.
The Sphinx class marks the turning point where enough real-world data had been accumulated for BuShips to fully understand the kind of armoring and compartmentalization a ship of the wall needed to survive the new environment. Weapon mounts were rearranged, internal bulkheads were strengthened, magazines were hardened, and compartments were arranged to protect critical systems with less critical equipment spaces, all leading to a ship that was far more survivable than any design yet in service.
Still, the speed of design and development had not slowed, and, in a short construction run of only six years the RMN built almost twice as many Sphinxes as the previous Victory class.
The Sphinx and follow-on Gryphon were the only classes spared in the Janacek build-down, though over half of both of these classes had been placed in reserve by the time the war resumed. They have been reactivated on a crash priority basis on the theory that any ship of the wall is preferable to none, especially with the loss of so many incomplete modern units at Grendelsbane.
Gryphon-class superdreadnought
Mass: 8,339,000 tons
Dimensions: 1371 × 199 × 185 m
Acceleration: 402.1 G (3.944 kps²)
80% Accel: 321.7 G (3.155 kps²)
Broadside: 37M, 19L, 22G, 8ET, 28CM, 30PD
Chase: 9M, 4L, 5G, 10CM, 10PD
Number Built: 163
Service Life: 1900–present
In many ways the Gryphon class was simply an evolution and continuation of the successful Sphinx class, as new construction began to incorporate lessons learned from the Victory-class testing and evaluation programs. The differences in weapons fit and evolutionary changes in design were great enough that BuShips redesignated them as an entirely new class, despite the fact that several of the later Sphinxes were all but indistinguishable from the earlier Gryphon-class ships.
Still under construction at the outbreak of the First Haven War, these represent the pinnacle of conventional superdreadnought design, and the demands of the war kept the class in series production with a minimum of changes for the next decade. They would have continued at that pace were it not for the fruits of Project Ghost Rider, and in fact, a number of the Medusa-class units were carried on the books as Flight III Gryphons to maintain secrecy on that project.
Most of the Gryphon-class ships were spared from the Janacek cutbacks, though many were placed in the reserve in line with the policy of leaving system defense to LAC wings and concentrating the Navy’s striking power in the squadrons of pod superdreadnoughts already in commission.
During this period, a handful of Gryphons had been gutted and refitted with launchers capable of firing the new Mk23 Multi-Drive Missile from internal tubes. While plans had existed initially to refit all of the class with MDMs, the program proved prohibitively expensive and was bedeviled by technical and safety problems with the fusion-powered missiles, and only a small portion had actually been completed before the war resumed. Given the current strategic situation, the White Haven Admiralty has not been willing or able to pull the existing units off the front lines to continue the refits.
Duquesne-class superdreadnought
Mass: 7,187,250 tons
Dimensions: 1305 × 189 × 176 m
Acceleration: 417.5 G (4.094 kps²)
80% Accel: 334 G (3.275 kps²)
Broadside: 36M, 12L, 12G, 28CM, 24PD
Chase: 10M, 4L, 6G, 12CM, 12PD
Number Captured: 18
Service Life: 1906–1917
Exclusive of the original eleven donated to Grayson by Admiral White Haven, a number of Havenite superdreadnoughts were captured in the opening stages of the war, and the capture of several forward bases almost intact provided the RMN with enough ammunition and spares to bring them into service.
Along with the handful of captured dreadnoughts and smaller classes, these ships provided rear area security for a numb
er of Alliance systems during the early stages of the war, but were relegated to mothballs as their crews were needed to man the new construction, while the ships in best condition were all sold at scrap value to Grayson in early 1917.
Haven-class superdreadnought
Mass: 7,816,250 tons
Dimensions: 1342 × 195 × 181 m
Acceleration: 409.1 G (4.012 kps²)
80% Accel: 327.3 G (3.21 kps²)
Broadside: 36M, 15L, 23G, 26CM, 32PD
Chase: 8M, 4L, 10G, 10CM, 12PD
Number Captured: 3
Service Life: 1907–1917
Similar to the Duquesnes, the few more modern Haven-class superdreadnoughts captured in the early days of the war served for several years as rear area security, freeing up hulls for the front. None of them saw battle against their sisters still in Havenite service, however, and the last were sold to Grayson along with the Duquesnes.
POD SUPERDREADNOUGHTS (SD(P))
The Royal Manticoran Navy began its operational experience with pod-laying designs with the Trojan-class armed merchant cruiser of Project Trojan Horse. While the initial designs were cumbersome, fragile, and inefficient, they still provided a huge force multiplier. They also proved the concept of the hollow-core pod-layer which certain officers in BuWeaps and BuShips had been proposing for some time. The Trojans’ successful deployment finally routed most of the “traditionalist” opposition to the proposal, and BuShips was formally authorized to begin design studies on what became the SD(P).
Beginning with the Medusa class, the RMN took the concept of a pod-laying warship and began an entirely new era of warfare. For the first time since its inception centuries before, the ponderous formality of the wall of battle had been broken, as engagements were often decided in the opening salvos of missiles.
The simultaneous implementation of a practical multi-drive missile system gave the RMN a qualitative edge that was unparalleled, and drove the People’s Navy to the brink of defeat in the few short months leading up to the ceasefire. Even though the MDM was inherently inaccurate at extended ranges, the pod-laying designs could fire salvos of thousands, multiple times, so that even a low percentage rate of hits produced overwhelming numbers of them in absolute terms.
Almost unnoticed in the early stages of the developing doctrine was that the endurance of the missile pod allowed a single ship to stack multiple patterns of pods, allowing it to fire double or triple patterns (or more), up to the limits of its individual fire control. As a result, even an outnumbered force could put enough missiles into space to saturate a target’s defenses in the opening salvo. The smaller force might still be wiped out in the end, but no longer would it go quietly.
With the introduction of the MDM and pod-layer on both sides of the conflict, the RMN has been forced to continually reevaluate its own doctrine for defending against the weight of fire a pod-layer can lay down. This reassessment is reflected in countless places, from new antimissile weapons, improved EW, and experimental defensive doctrine to the makeup of task forces and the formations adopted in combat, reflecting a time of rapid change in all areas of warfare.
Medusa-class pod superdreadnought
Mass: 8,554,750 tons
Dimensions: 1383 × 201 × 187 m
Acceleration: 502.8 G (4.931 kps²)
80% Accel: 402.3 G (3.945 kps²)
Broadside: 26M, 13L, 15G, 54CM, 52PD
Fore: 9M, 4L, 5G, 18CM, 22PD
Aft: 6MP, 4L, 5G, 14CM, 20PD
Missile Pods: 492
Number Built: 63
Service Life: 1914–present
The Medusa-class pod superdreadnought was in secret conceptual development for over a decade prior to Operation Trojan Horse in 1909 while the Weapons Development Board and Project Ghost Rider worked to develop the weapon systems the class would eventually carry. The success of the prototype pod system in the Trojans threw the project into high gear, however, imposing a great deal of strain on BuShips’ design staff.
Even before the first units were laid down, the RMN had begun a carefully crafted disinformation campaign, including a leaked “spring study” for the next generation (conventional) superdreadnought replacement for the Gryphon class. Thus the RMN diverted attention from the decrease in new Gryphons and gave the Havenite intelligence agencies a plausible explanation for the secret programs being conducted at HMSS Weyland.
Following the Graysons’ lead, the class was renamed the Honor Harrington class to honor then-Commodore Harrington after her presumed execution. Following her dramatic return from Cerberus, the class name was changed back to the original Medusa. Deriving from the same joint design program, the Medusa is similar in design to the final Harrington class, the first units of which were commissioned over a year before the RMN managed to get the first Medusa into service.
As the first RMN warship designed from the keel out to deploy missile pods from an internal magazine, the Medusa faced some unique design challenges. The most obvious difference between it and any conventional ship of the wall is apparent from the broadside. All of the primary armament has been pushed into the forward half of the main hull to make room for the double rings of missile pod storage in the after section. The second most notable difference is the sheer number of surface arrays, which provide both fire control and telemetry uplinks for the hundreds of missiles these ships can launch in a single stacked salvo. Finally, the defensive armament, located at the upper and lower turn of the hull, extends along its entire length, and the number of point defense and counter-missile installations have been greatly increased over any previous design.
While massively enhancing the ships’ first strike capabilities, the hollow-core filling the after third of the hull reduced its survivability in comparison to pre-pod superdreadnoughts. In addition, the need to mount armored hatches through which to deploy the pods forced the designers to sacrifice some of the after chase weaponry.
Despite the huge increase in offensive firepower, the Medusas contain a significant degree of automation in their design and require a crew less than half that of an older conventional design.
The pod rails on the Medusa class were designed originally for a modification of the old Mk10 missile pod, of which it could carry 564. Later pods were designed with the same rail attachment points and footprint, varying only in their depth. As deployed during operation Buttercup, the Medusa class carried just under 500 Mk11 missile pods, while currently deployed units can carry as many as 800 Mk17 series flat-pack pods.
Invictus-class pod superdreadnought
Mass: 8,768,500 tons
Dimensions: 1394 × 202 × 188 m
Acceleration: 562.6 G (5.518 kps²)
80% Accel: 450.1 G (4.414 kps²)
Broadside: 18G, 84CM, 62PD
Fore: 10G, 24CM, 22PD
Aft: 6MP, 10G, 14CM, 24PD
Missile Pods: 1074
Number Built: 53+
Service Life: 1919–present
The Invictus class was on the drawing board at the end of the First Havenite War as the improved successor of the Medusa class, but construction of the first wave of ships had barely begun when the High Ridge Government agreed to a truce with the People’s Republic. As per the drawdown of forces ordered by the new government, construction of the majority of units in the class was suspended and the unfinished ships were placed in storage in their building slips in the Manticore and Grendelsbane shipyards.
At the resumption of hostilities, only twelve Invictus-class ships were in commission, with a few more nearing completion in Manticore from previously suspended construction programs. Dozens were lost in the Grendelsbane attack, and over a hundred were laid down as part of the emergency war construction program for completion over the next couple of years.
In many ways the Invictus is simply an evolution of the Medusa design, with a pod core extending half again as deep into the hull. In a departure from both traditional Manticoran and contemporary Grayson practice, all broadside missile tubes were el
iminated to allow for the maximum extension of the missile core, which is capable of holding upwards of a thousand of the new flat-pack missile pods. Internally, the differences are even greater, however, as one of the major weaknesses of the pod-layer concept has been partially offset by armoring the interior of the pod core almost as heavily as the outer hull armor. Almost all of the tonnage advantage over the Medusa went into this new armoring scheme, which has greatly increased survivability.
Nevertheless, the greatest weakness of the design remains in the pod rails, and even with the new armoring scheme, a single lucky hit on the pod core can cause enough damage to jam up deployment of the pods “upstream” of the hit. Cross connecting rails, the ability to quickly jettison debris and destroyed pods, and a tractor system that can help the system “leapfrog” over broken rails all help mitigate the effects of this damage, but the incidence of mission kills in pod-layers with otherwise light damage remains potentially high.
By far the most significant improvement seen in the Invictus class, however, is the new Mk20 Keyhole platform. At least two versions of this versatile tethered platform exist, but both of them share a number of the same features. Although Keyhole was originally envisioned primarily as a means to improve active antimissile capability, conceptual evolution during development produced a very different end product. At their heart, Keyholes are telemetry relays, multiplying the number of telemetry links the ship can maintain, which in turn allows for even deeper stacked salvos, or a layered approach where conventional ships in the squadron can hand off their onboard and pod-launched missiles to an Invictus to centrally control.