Grey Wolf class Minesweeper (New Coventry):

Most minesweeper designers are based off of corvette or destroyer designs. This is because the are small, easy to convert, and relatively easy to replace as well. There have been some experimental minesweeper design that are large ships, such as heavy cruisers and even battleships, with massive point defense. While these designs have demonstrated themselves as being successful, they are very expensive.

The Grey Wolf class is similar to an older Wolfen minesweeper design called the Ranger class and both are based on the Hunter class destroyer. New Coventry's Grey Wolf is very capable and several other modern navies operate ships very similar. The Human Alliance Forces Navy originally considered adopting this class as well although decided to develop their own minesweeper design. Their present minesweepers are based on the old Chevalier class Escort Cruiser and can only be considered ancient. They are the oldest warships still in human Alliance Navy service. In addition, eight to ten Grey Wolf class minesweepers could be crewed for a single Cobra class minesweeper. Replacing these ancient ships is considered a priority by the Human Alliance military leadership.

There are three basic classes of mines commonly in use in the Three Galaxies. These are missile platforms, energy weapon platforms, and simple mines. The first two are fairly self explanatory and the third type are almost short range missiles with heavy warheads themselves. In addition to these, there are decoy and jamming mines to make mine fields harder to destroy.

To deal with mines, point defense and comparatively short range but very power sensor suite are the most important systems for a minesweeper. In the case of the Grey Wolf, all the heavy anti-ship weaponry is stripped from the ship and long range sensors are reduce to the point that the ship has long range sensor capacity only about equal to civilian sensor system levels. The mine sweeper does hover have the full decoy and jamming suite of a standard Super Hunter class destroyer.

The central particle beam is replaced by an extremely powerful sensor array that includes radar, neutrino sensors, gravity sensors, and tachyon based sensors. More powerful than the sensor array on the Wolfen Ranger class minesweeper, this sensor array has a range of only about 2.5 million kilometers but gives better reading in a narrow cone than the sensors mounted in a battleship have in most cases. The system is able to cut through powerful jamming and tell the difference between decoys and actual mines.

As far as weapon systems, all systems have all been modified to deal with smaller targets. The capital missile launcher has been replaced by a four tube long range missile launcher. This quad launcher is slightly larger and extends further out than the capital missile launcher that it replaces. Like the capital missile launcher carried on the Hunter, it launches these missiles rapidly and volleys can even be linked to form larger volleys. This is so the missiles can overwhelm the defenses of mine fields. Good missile officers can combine volleys of up to twenty-four long range missiles into a single volley. A total of two hundred long range missiles are carried compared to one hundred and sixty on the Wolfen Ranger class minesweeper. The long range missile battery can theoretically be used against larger warships although not quite as effective as capital missiles.

One of the main problem with all minesweeper designs is that there is no weapons designed to take out small platforms yet outranges a capital missile. Capital missiles themselves have trouble destroying targets as small as individual mines. The goal when designing the missile defenses of a minesweeper that is capable of taking out cruise missiles at they come in.

On the Grey Wolf class minesweeper, the remain pair of particle beam mounts are replaced by medium range missile launchers with the two original medium range missile batteries for a total of four medium range missile launchers. A total of six hundred and forty medium range missiles are carried with each battery having one hundred and sixty missiles. New Coventry considers the medium range missile batteries to make up for comparatively light long range missile battery.

Four inner point defense, the weaponry is identical to those on a standard New Coventry Super Hunter class destroyer. This includes four point defense laser turrets, two GR-1000 point defense rail guns, and two tachyon scatter guns. Designed to deal with missiles that leak though the outer and medium range defense zones, this point defense array is quite effective against incoming missiles. Since being developed, the Grey Wolf class normally carry two pepper box launchers but instead of carrying anti-ship missiles, the launchers are loaded normally loaded with decoy missiles to help protect the ship from missile strikes.

The ship has all the marines eliminated from the compliment but does carry four Storm Eagle or Katana star fighters for patrol and point defense. Occasional, these fighters are used to assist in mine sweeping as well. Eventually, these fighters will most likely be replaced by Lightning developed by New Conventry. The elimination of the marines does increase the space for the crew, which is increased by one officer and two enlisted crew, to some extent although quarters are still cramped and the support for the fighters still are assigned to the ship.

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: GR-12SW
Vehicle Type: Mine Sweeper (modified Frigate Combat Ship)
Crew: 27 (4 Officers and 23 Enlisted)
Troops: 10 fighter pilots.

Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:

SF-101I-LR Storm Eagle medium interceptor or BIF-67 Katana Star fighters

M.D.C. By Location:

	Central Sensor Suite (Front, built into hull):	800
	Long Range Missile Battery (1, underside):	800
	Medium Range Missile Batteries (4, Top, Bottom, and Sides):	450 each
	GR-1000 Point Defense Rail Gun Turrets (2):	400 each
	Point Defense Laser Turrets (4):	300 each
	Tachyon Scatter Beams (2):	400 each
	Medium Range Missile Batteries (4, Top and Underside):	450 each
	[1] Bridge:	1,200
	[2] Main Body:	4,500
	[3] Variable Force Field:	1,000 a side (6,000 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 destroyed, 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] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the destroyer 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] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (300 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 0.95 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is Mach 1 (670 mph / 1080 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 4.5 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about one year worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 300 feet (91.4 meters)
Height: 70 feet (21.3 meters)
Width: 80 feet (24.4 meters)
Weight / Mass: 6,000 tons (5443 metric tons)
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 50 year life span. The ship normally only goes 10 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo: The cargo capacity has been reduced so the ship can carry more long range missiles. The cargo hold can carry 100 ton (90.7 metric tons) of cargo not including standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Hold is 10 x 20 x 20 feet in dimensions (3.1 x 6.1 x 6.1 meter). 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: 420 million for a rebuilt Grey Wolf class minesweeper with new weapon systems and sensor systems. The Black Market or the Kreeghor would offer several times it's value for an undamaged completely working ship. Cost does not include embarked craft.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Two (2) GR-1000 Large Point Defense Gravity Rail Gun Turrets: Since the GR-1000 rail gun is the standard weapon that most New Coventry ships carry, two of the rail guns carried in the standard Hunter destroyer have been replaced by GR-1000 Rail Guns. The other two rail guns were replaced by Tachyon Scatter Beams. They are used as an anti-starfighter and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. Each Rail Gun is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Projectiles are fired from rail guns at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Gravity rail gun fires a 30 mm projectile. 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 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.
Four (4) Point Defense Lasers in Ball Turrets: This system is an unaltered from a standard Hunter class destroyer. This is the star ships primary anti-starfighter, anti-robot, and anti-missile defense system.. Each laser is in a turret that 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: 200 miles (320 km) in space and has a range of 4 miles (6.4 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 2D6x10 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.
Two (2) Point Defense Tachyon Scatter Beams: Replaces two of the rail gun turrets. The other two are replaced by more powerful rail guns. 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 (Gives +4 bonus vs fast moving targets such as missiles.) This system has an interesting property that the system can actually be used at FTL speeds 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.
One (1) Long Range missile Battery: This battery consist of four long range missile tubes and replaces the standard Hunters cruise missile launcher. 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 dead is at -25% to be detected.) Long range missiles do not have minuses to hit small targets, unlike cruise missiles, and are all considered smart missiles. Each battery can launch on multiple targets each. While missile are only launched at the rate of one at a time per tube, the ships computer has special software that allows all the missile to hit a target at the same time for the purpose to make point defense of a target more easily overwhelmed. This is done by slowing down the acceleration of missile and by setting some for delayed activation and target must be a least 30 seconds away. Missile are then considered to only have an acceleration of 5% of light for the first turn.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 two (2) or four (4) per launcher, per melee attack (special software allows 16 to 24 missile to be launched as one volley depending on gunners hand to hand attacks).
Payload: 200 long range missiles total
Four (4) Medium Range Missile Batteries: Two of the launchers are original and the other two mounts replace the ships outside particle beam mounts. Weapon system is used for incoming missiles and to take out weapon platforms as well. Like other Phase world systems, weapon system range and speed has been greatly increased compared to Rifts Earth systems. Missile has a top speed of Mach 15 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 6% of light per turn. 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), or eight (8) missiles per launcher.
Payload: 160 per launcher for a total of 640 medium range missiles.

Sensor System of Note:

High Powered Mine Hunting Sensor System: This system replaces the ships central particle beam. This system includes radar, neutrino sensors, gravitic sensors, and tachyon based sensors. This is an active sensor system with a range of 1,550,000 miles (2,500,000 km / 8.34 light seconds) and covers a 15 degree radius cone. As stated, the system is an active system and is easily detected but gives a bonus or +20% to read sensory rolls to detect targets and a +4 on weapon systems when aiming at targets with the cone. Targets that are invisible but the invisibility is not specific to gravity sensors will also be detected. The other ship’s sensors are at civilian level except the ship’s close range fire control sensors.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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