HAFN Dragonfly class Light Fleet Carrier / Assault Carrier:

These ships are the first new capital ship to be constructed for the Human Alliance Forces Navy in long period of time. Several yards had to be upgraded to be able to build these new light carriers. The military simply relied on old ships until recently and virtually all the flurry of work is to upgrade the ships that they have to more modern standards. Many situations do not require a full sized carrier and numbers of smaller carriers means that the destruction of one light fleet carrier will inflict less severe damage than losing a full sized carrier would.

The Human Alliance originally strongly considered purchasing plans for the New Coventry Invincible class light fleet carrier but this was eventually dropped for a completely new carrier class. The vessels are similar in many respects however although the Dragonfly is slightly smaller and has a smaller fighter compliment. As well, the design for the Tri-Military Service Banshee class was rejected because the design is comparatively slow and build more to civilian than military standards.

The Human Alliance did once operated light carriers. The Dauntless class light carrier has been long retired even though a handful are still operated by mercenary companies and small militaries. Much smaller, the old light carriers had a smaller compliment than the Dragonfly will have. The Dauntless only had a compliment of sixty light and medium fighters compared to twice that number in the Dragonfly along with six Proctor class heavy fighters.

Due to the fact that a carriers weaponry is mostly fighters, the plan to upgrade the Intrepid class carriers has been delayed and the funds that were going to be used for these ships to be upgraded are being used to construct new Dragonfly light fleet carriers. These light carriers also will be among the first to receive new fighters. A few of the light fleet carriers have left their docks but are not completed or commissioned yet. Within a few months though the first few should be completed. The eventual plan is to have about eighty of these carriers on active duty although this will take several decades. Various naming conventions were talked about but the one that was finally accepted was to name the carriers after predators of the sky. These will include Insects, Birds, and other flying creatures. It is possible that once the Human Alliance completes construction that the design may be offered for sale.

These ships are faster in both sublight and faster than light than the Intrepid class fleet carriers and this has prompted the planning of a new cruiser design to act as escorts for these new ships. The Dragonfly class is one of the fastest classes in the Three Galaxies with a faster than light speed of six and a half light years per hour, almost twice that of the Intrepid class. This speed is considered a force multiplier by many senior admirals. Speed in normal space is more useful in tactical situations, making it hard for capital ships to run down the light carrier.

As of yet, none of the new cruisers have been laid down. Part of the reason why having escorts is that this ship has no heavy weapon of its own except four long range missile batteries. The remainder of the ships weapon systems are designed for medium and short range point defense. These defense systems are the same as all the upgraded ships carry and originally developed by New Coventry. This included medium range missile batteries, tachyon scattergun mounts, particle beam mounts, and heavy point defense rail guns. Unlike some carrier classes, these light carriers are built to military standards and carry heavy shields. While these ships carry less fighters than the full sized fleet carriers, they still carry a respectable number of fighters.

An additional plan is that a modified version of this class will be produced as a assault carrier. Ideas of a hybrid carriers such as a small version of the Packmaster were rejected. The naming convention on these light assault carriers have not been decided yet but the ship will simply have the inside converted for marines and equipment with a reduced number of fighters. The shuttles are fitted with protective fighter force fields although the Human Alliance military does appear to be looking at potential replacement. The Human Alliance is also looking at replacing the Phalanx and Maniple embarked aboard. Most likely candidates are the Slammer and Sniper hover tanks replacing the Phalanx tank with the Boxer replacing the Maniple. To make room for troops and equipment, long range missile payload is cut by half. Unlike the Intrepid class carriers, the plan is for all Normandy class carriers to be replaced by these new carriers. The ratio will likely be two of the assault carrier versions of the Dragonfly as a replacement for a single Normandy class carrier presently in service.

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:	CVL-80	Dragonfly class Light Fleet Carrier
	LCV-100	Modified Dragonfly class Light Planetary Assault Carrier

Vehicle Type: Light Carrier or Planetary Assault Carrier

Crew:	CVL-80	450 (30 Officers and 420 Enlisted)
	LCV-100	430 (25 Officers and 405 Enlisted)
Troops:	CVL-80	200 fighter pilots, 60 Silverhawk pilots, and 100 marines.
	LCV-100	40 fighter pilots, 60 shuttle pilots / crew, 60 Silverhawk pilots, and 2,000 marines.

Vehicles:

CVL-80

LCV-100

Power Armors:

60	60	SH-CCW100 Silverhawk Attack ExoSkeleton
0	300	Ground Pounder Power Armors
0	40	Bombard Infantry Robots
0	6	Battleram Robots

Fighter Compliment:

72	12	SF-69 CAF Scorpion Star Interceptor
12	6	SF-101LR Black Eagle medium fighter
12	6	SF-101I-LR Storm Eagle medium interceptor
24	12	BIF-67 Katana fighter ship
6	0	CAF LRF-25 Proctor Long Range Star Fighters

Assault Shuttles:

CAF Assault Shuttles

Tanks & Other Vehicles:

	0	40	Phalanx / Slammer / Sniper Main Battle Tanks
	0	60	Maniple IFV / Boxer APC

M.D.C. By Location:

	GR-1000 Rail Gun Turrets (8):	250 each
	Point Defense Particle Beam Turrets (8):	200 each
	Tachyon Scatter Beams (8):	200 each
	Long Range Missile Batteries (4):	800 each
	Medium Range Missile Batteries (8):	500 each
	Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	200
	Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	150
	[1] Bridge:	10,000
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge:	10,000
	Hanger Doors (24):	5,000 each
	[2] Main Engines (2):	12,000 each
	[3] Main Body:	50,000
	[4] Variable Force Field:	5,000 per side (30,000 Total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge. This ship does have an auxiliary bridge. The ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge. All weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge can injure crew members near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the Ship out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Destroying the main engines means that the ship’s faster than light systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (1,500 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 0.85 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 400 mph (644 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave due to propulsion being Gravitic but is not designed primarily for atmospheric flight.
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 6.5 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Light fleet carrier version carries about four years worth of supplies on board. Planetary assault carrier version carries about two years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 1,125 feet (342.9 meters)
Height: 375 feet (114.3 meters)
Width: 525 feet (160.0 meters)
Weight/Mass: 420,000 tons (381,000 metric tons) fully loaded.
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 50 year life span. The ship normally only goes 10 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo:
CVL-80: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 25,000 tons (22,680 metric tons) of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
LCV-100: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 40,000 tons (36,290 metric tons) of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition - used for vehicles / troop compliment.
Market Cost: 7.25 billion credits to construct. May be sold to outside interests in the future for 10 billion credits (Does not include standard fighter and power armor compliment.)

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Eight (8) GR-1000 Heavy Point Defense Rail Guns: The GR-1000 Rail Guns both are more powerful and have more range than the conventional rail guns. This greatly increases their effectiveness. Even so, the mounts are not really for use against capital ships but can devastate a fighter quickly. The mounts are still useful against incoming missiles and against opponents who are impervious to energy. Each gravity rail gun is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Projectiles are fired from rail gun at a significant fraction of the speed of light. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities. The gravity rail guns use a 30 mm projectile.
Maximum Effective Range: 16 miles (26 km) through atmosphere and 1,600 miles (2,575 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Rail gun inflicts 4D6x10 M.D.C. for a 40 round burst.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: 10,000 Rounds (250 Bursts) each cannon.
Eight (8) 25 mm Point Defense Particle Beams: They are used for anti-missile, anti-power armor, and anti-starfighter. They cannot be used faster than the speed of light. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.
Maximum Effective Range: 600 miles (960 km) in space and range is 6 miles (9.6 km) in atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 3D6x10 M.D.C. each.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Eight (8) Point Defense Tachyon Scatter Beams: The main purpose of this system is as an anti-missile point defense. They do this by firing a wide blast that affects all targets in a cone that can destroy whole volleys of missiles before the strike the ship (Roll once against a volley and unless the missiles roll to dodge greater than strike roll, they are all destroyed.) The stream lasts for significant fraction of a second and missiles tend to run into the stream. This system has an interesting property that the system can actually be used at faster than light velocities because Tachyons travel faster than the speed of light. Each Tachyon Scatter Beam is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire.
Maximum Effective Range: 99.4 miles (160 km) with a width of 12.4 miles (20 km), range and width is one sixteenth in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 2D4x10 M.D.C. each.
Rate of Fire: Maximum of four (4) times per melee each.
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Four (4) 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, battery, 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. This battery is copy of the CAF batteries. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
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 2, 8, 16, or 32 per battery, per melee attack, for a maximum of 128 missiles per attack.
Payload: Fleet Carrier: 1,280 total, 320 long range missiles per battery. Assault Carrier: 640 total, 160 long range missiles per battery.
5. Eight (8) Medium Range Missile Batteries: Missile has a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 6% of light per turn. Normally used for anti-fighter and point defense. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range: Medium Range Missile range is 160 miles (257.5 km) in an atmosphere and 80,000 miles (128,750 km/0.43 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage: Varies with medium range 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 two (2), four (4), eight (8), or sixteen (16) missiles per battery.
Payload: 160 per battery for a total of 1,280 medium range missiles.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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