HAFS Normandy class Assault Carrier:
The Normandy class assault carriers were built by the Human Alliance Forces Navy for planetary assaults. Unlike most other military vessels, these ships were built to civilian design standards to reduce ship cost. The construction of the assault carrier using civilian components greatly reduced the ships cost but made the ship less durable in combat. This was so that the Human Alliance could invest more resources into fleet units. The ship design is basically built on a large transport hull and military systems were added.
When the Human Alliance became part of the Consortium of Civilized Worlds, none of these assault carriers were transferred to the Consortium. Instead, the Wolfen Packmaster class multi-role carrier for both the fleet carrier and assault carrier roles. Unlike with the Intrepid class, there was little disagreement with the rejection of the Normandy class assault carrier. The Consortium did take a handful for a ready reserve force but they were not even reactivated for the war against the Kreeghor.
The Human Alliance did not need the large number of assault carriers anymore. They did retain some on active duty and others they put in their own mothball fleets. Still, large amounts were discarded. Some were completely disarmed and converted back into cargo vessels. While many have been scrapped, some of these still serve in this capacity. A much smaller number were sold to other navies and even mercenaries.
The service career of the Normandy class assault carriers do not have all the awards that fleet carriers have received but they were a very important part of the Human Alliance and deserve far more credit than the ship class is normally given. Even so, the design is outdated in most respects and quite slow and virtually unarmored. While the Human Alliance continues to operate these assault carriers, an assault version of the Dragonfly class light carrier is planned to replace all active duty Normandy class carriers. At first the Human Alliance considered adopting the New Coventry Sir Percival light assault carrier but they decided to develop their own light carrier classes instead. It is planned that a small number of Normandy class assault carriers will be retained in the mothball fleets. Unlike most mothball units, these will not be updated.
There are only a handful of the Normandy class still operational as warships outside of the Human Alliance military. Few Independent Defense Forces fleets use these carriers because for individual planets, there is little need for assault landing and the missions are as easily performed by cargo transports for the most part. Those that do operate assault carriers usually prefer light carrier types. The same is generally true of fleet carriers as well. Of the assault carriers in the hands of mercenaries and small navies, some have been stripped of ground attack forces to increase fighter capacity. These are used as fleet carriers. Others are modified for multi-role like the Packmaster. Some have even been stripped of their engines and are used as orbital fighter bases.
The naming system of the Human Alliance was to name the assault carriers after famous amphibious assaults from before space travel and planetary assaults from after planetary assaults became practical. Examples of names include Tarawa, Saipan, and Guam. Those that are in the inactive reserve fleets of the Consortium Navy retain the original names. Those operated by other navies and mercenary companies have generally been renamed.
The assault carrier's origins as a standard 2000 foot long transport is obvious and the Normandy class is even more blocky than the Packmaster carrier is. The fighter and shuttle bays are located on the sides of the ship. Speed was good for a merchant design when developed although there are faster heavy freighter designs in operation today. If a new equivalent to the Normandy were developed today, it would likely be based on that design. The ship is designed so if necessary the ship can land itself to make an assault but the danger is that if the ship is crippled and the anti-matter power system is damaged, the planet could be decimated. An anti-matter power plant was selected because it was far more compact than fusion plants of the time. The other problem is that the ship is exposed to far more fire if the ship lands on a planet and they are not well armored. The carrier's variable force fields also are comparatively underpowered compared to most military shields although they are better than most civilian shields.
The assault carriers are very lightly armed for a warship of their size and the weapon systems primary purposes is protection of the assault carrier against fighters and missiles. They carry less than half of the defensive weaponry of an Intrepid class fleet carrier. As a first line of defense these assault carriers mount a pair of long range missile batteries. While the primary purpose is against missiles and fighters, these are effective against largest ships including frigates and destroyers. These batteries cannot fire as many missiles as modern long range missile batteries. For closet range point defense, the ship has six point defense electromagnetic rail gun mounts, six point defense double laser cannons, and six mini missile launchers.
The Normandy assault carrier does carry a small number of fighters to support them when they are making the landing assaults but heavy support is usually done by full fleet carriers. A total of twenty-four light fighters and twenty-four medium fighters are embarked. Because these assault carriers are considered a lower priority than fleet carriers, the Human Alliance navy assigns older fighters to these assault carriers quite commonly. Those that do embark modern fighters often mix old and new fighter types. Aboard the mothball ships in the Consortium and Human Alliance, the hangers on most have been stripped. Those that still embark fighters even more frequently embark older fighters than the Human Alliance assault carriers on active duty. Troop equipment on the active assault carriers tend to have a wide mix of old and new equipment. The Human Alliance is slowly upgrading to new assault equipment but will likely take decades before being completely replaced. Still, modern ground vehicles are embarked more often than modern fighters are embarked aboard.
Outside of Human Alliance service, many ships of this class that remain have been modified. Some of these modifications. Include adding more weapon systems, mounting more powerful shields, and refitting these carriers to operate as strictly fleet carriers or multi-role carriers. Increasing the ships faster than light speed would involve almost completely rebuilding the carrier and additional armor reduces troop compliment. Fleet carrier versions usually carry around one hundred and twenty light fighters and seventy-two medium fighters. They will carry no ground assault equipment or vehicles and likely only carry about four hundred troops. Multi-Role purposes reduce troops, ground attack vehicles, and shuttle by half but increase to sixty light and sixty medium fighters. For all other modifications, there are too many variables to allow listing the different variations possible.
This starship design uses modified starship speed and weapon range rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.
Model Type: LCV-214
Vehicle Type: Planetary Assault Carrier.
Crew: 785 (60 Officers and 720 enlisted)
Troops: 2,000 marines (1,000 in power armor) and 800 fighter
pilots
Vehicles: Ship not in the C.A.F. or H.F.N. fleets may have totally
different types of vehicles as ships compliment but numbers will be about
the same for the various classes of vehicles. Compliments can also be a
mix between old and new compliments.
Old Compliment:
Power Armors & Robots:
| 1000 | HAFA-PA-06 Steel Grunt Power Armor |
| 24 | SF-9 Vixen Light Starfighters | |
| 12 | SF-6A Osprey Medium Starfighters (Attack) | |
| 12 | SF-6I Osprey Medium Starfighters (Interceptor) |
| 20 | AS-4 Assault Shuttles |
| 100 | HAFA-MBT-12 Kramer Main Battle Tanks | |
| 20 | HAFA-AMV-133-LRM Sentry Missile Vehicle (Long Range) | |
| 20 | HAFA-AMV-133-MRM Sentry Missile Vehicle (Medium Range) | |
| 120 | HAFA-APC113 Lynx Armored Personnel Carrier (Wheeled) |
Power Armors & Robots:
| 200 | SH-CCW100 Silver Hawk Power Armors | |
| 800 | CAF-PA-10 Ground Pounder Power Armors | |
| 75 | CAF-AR-20 Bombard Infantry Robots | |
| 10 | BR-CCW2000 Battleram Robots |
| 24 | SF-69 Scorpion Star Interceptor | |
| 12 | BIF-67 Katana Star fighters | |
| 12 | SF-101 Black Eagle Star fighters |
| 20 | SAS-12 CAF Assault Shuttles |
| 80 | MBT-35 Phalanx Main Battle Tanks | |
| 120 | IFV-100 Maniple Infantry Fighting Vehicle |
M.D.C. By Location:
| Point Defense Electromagnetic Rail Gun Turrets (6): | 150 each | |
| Double Barrel Point Defense Laser Turrets (6): | 150 each | |
| Long Range Missile Batteries (2): | 500 each | |
| Mini-Missile Launchers (6): | 100 each | |
| Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area): | 100 | |
| Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area): | 75 | |
| [1] Bridge: | 10,000 | |
| Hanger Bays (2): | 15,000 each | |
| [2] Main Engines (2): | 5,000 each | |
| [3] Main Body: | 40,000 | |
| [4] Variable Force Field: | 2,000 a side (12,000 Total) |
Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the bridge through the ship’s armor. This ship does not have an auxiliary
bridge. Even if the bridge is taken out, the ship can still be piloted
from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be
at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the
ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Destroying the main engines means that the ship’s faster than light systems are
destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the carrier out
of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support
and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating
wreck.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one
shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (600 M.D.C.) per melee round.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship
to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate
at the rate of 0.4 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 200 mph (322 kph),
can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric
flight
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship
to reach a maximum of 2 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system.
Carries about four years worth of supplies on board.
Statistical Data:
Length: 2,120 feet (646.2 meter)
Height: 760 feet (231.6 meters)
Width: 640 feet (195.1 meters)
Weight: 14 million tons (12.7 million metric tons)
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 25 year life span. The ship
normally only goes 7 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows
for carrying up to 3 million tons (2.72 million metric tons) of cargo in
addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted
crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers
have more space for personal items. Most of the ship’s spaces are taken
up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: Ship would cost about 6 billion credits to manufacture
in present time in the Three Galaxies. Ships are no longer being produced.
When available, these ships can sell as high as 12 to 18 billion credits.
Cost does not include embarked craft.
WEAPON SYSTEMS:
- Six (6) Point Defense 15 mm Electromagnetic Rail Guns: Unlike most
of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic
rail guns. Each rail gun is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180
arc of fire. The rail gun still fires projectiles at incredible velocities
compared to rail guns on Rifts Earth and projectiles are fired fromrail guns
at a significant fraction of the speed of light. It is used as an anti-starfighter
and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. The
weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.
Maximum Effective Range: 16 miles (26 km) through atmosphere and 800 miles (1,290 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Rail gun inflicts 3D6x10 M.D.C. for an 80 round burst.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: 16,000 Rounds (200 Bursts) each cannon. - Six (6) Point Defense 2 cm Lasers in Double Mounts: Used
as an anti-starfighter and missile weapon. Each laser turret can rotate
360 and has a 180 arc of fire. The weapon system cannot be used to engage
targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.
Maximum Effective Range: 2.5 miles (4 km) miles through atmosphere and 250 miles (402.3 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited - Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: Missile has a top speed
of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light
per turn (faster than any starship.) Whether weapons can be shot down is
calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive
goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct but has
very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets
because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.)
Long range missiles do not have penalties to hit small targets unlike cruise
missiles and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on
multiple targets each at the same time. Batteries have a lower number of
actual launchers than the modern CAF long range missile batteries and each
launcher is slightly larger in size.
Maximum Effective Range: Long Range Missile range is 3,400 miles (5,470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,897,000 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Fusion warheads inflict 2D4x100 M.D.C. each.)
Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), eight (8), sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) missiles per launcher, per melee attack.
Payload: 480 total, 240 long range missiles per launcher. - Six (6) Mini-Missile Launchers: These are missile turrets
used for point defense against enemy fighters and missiles. Missile has
a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration
of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it
is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration.) Batteries can launch on multiple
targets each at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range: Mini Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Varies with mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of four (4) or eight (8) mini-missiles.
Payload: 128 per launcher for a total of 768 mini-missiles. Cargo hold has an additional 1,728 mini-missile. Reloading launchers from cargo hold takes 1D6 minutes.
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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
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