French Bretagne class Aircraft Carrier:


In the mid Twenty-Fifties the French Navy was in need of replacements for the two Charles de Gaulle class aircraft carriers. The French military had given up its strategic forces with the retirement of the last of its Le Triomphant ballistic missile submarines, and there had been some consideration to simply retiring the Charles de Gaulle (R91) and Richelieu (R92) without replacements. At the time, the French government was more concerned with expending the necessary funding for any new designs and had been slowly scaling back its military forces.


The carriers had been refitted with the new composites and alloys but were considered to be at the end of their lives. Even if the navy wanted to continue operating the carriers, they had exhausted their nuclear reactors and would have required refueling. Fusion power had virtually replaced conventional nuclear power but it was no considered replacing the reactors.


Ironically, it was the British who caused the French to build what would turn out to be a pair of very fine aircraft carriers. The French people were not satisfied that the Royal Navy still retained three full-sized carriers. If France lost its carrier force, it would have been a slap in the face as far as the French people were concerned; the two countries had maintained a rivalry for over one thousand years.


In Twenty Fifty-Five, Guyana became a British colony again to avoid being conquered by neighboring states. Then in Twenty Fifty-Six, Belize became a British protectorate after the frigate HMS Audacious drove back an attack by a neighboring communist dictatorship. Those two events closed the door on this issue. France could not afford to lose its prestige in world affairs by not being able to show the French flag around the world. Plans were immediately begun on a pair of carriers to replace the Charles de Gaulle and Richelieu.


From the opening sketches, the French wanted their new design to be visibly bigger then their British counterparts. They would be a full ten meters longer then the Ark Royal and rivaled the American Ranger and Soviet Arkhangelsk classes in length. In displacement, they would be around twice the displacement of the carriers that they were replacing.


In order to have more commonality with the U.S. and British carriers, the French admiralty opted for a conventional carrier design with catapults and arrester gear instead of a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing design. This also allowed the aircraft of the time to be used without the immediate need to design and build new STOVL aircraft. These ships also sported an angled flight deck for arrested landings, and three electromagnetic catapults were used for launching planes. Also like the Ark Royal, there were three outboard elevators to a huge hangar which ran for more than two-thirds of the ships length. It was split into two sections with a large fire-proof door. The hangar could only house about eighty percent of the standard air wing.


In its basic design, the island structure was similar to that of the American Ranger class and has angled flat surfaces with the primary radar integrated into the structure. Otherwise, the arrangement of the ship was clearly based on that of the Charles de Gaulle class carriers. The island was more forward then in American and British designs with one elevator fore and one aft of it. However, the third elevator was on the port side in the same style as on their American counterparts. Two of the catapults were forward with the third on the angled section of the flight deck.


The design of the ship included more automation, reducing the crew to less than that of the Charles de Gaulle class despite them being far larger ships. Of course, the new composites and alloys were used from the start. Not only were they far stronger than steel but were also far more resistant to corrosion. This allowed the ships to be immune to natural weathering and therefore more available for active duty.


The French had been designing and building their own nuclear reactors for almost a century when the new carriers were designed. In addition, the French had been in the forefront of developing fusion power. As such, they incorporated a quartet of small powerful fusion reactors to power these ships. While the Americans prefers four shafts for their carriers, the French went with a twin shaft design. Four electric motors delivered power from the reactors to the main shafts. With all four fusion reactors, these carriers had a top speed of thirty-four knots, a vast improvement over the Charles de Gaulle class.


Stability and handling was improved with the use of four fin stabilizers. The greater length of theses ships over the Charles de Gaulle class also resulted in much greater stability. As a result, there was no need to install the SATRAP (Systeme Automatique de Tranquillisation de la Plaste-forme) automatic stabilization system that had been developed for the older class of carriers.


For self-defense, these new carriers mounted four Sylver vertical launch system with sixteen cells each, two Creusot-Loire rail gun close in defense systems (CIWS), and two Sadral-AL sextuple short range missile launchers. One Sylver launch system on sponsons just below the flight deck on each corner of the ship. On two of the sponsons were Creusot-Loire CIWS mounts with on the other two were Sadral-AL sextuple short range missile launchers.


In addition to weaponry, the carriers were designed with an extensive sensor suite. A Thompson-CS DRBW 15D four panel active phased Array radar was built into the superstructure of the island with a Thompson-CS DRBJ 19C rotating phased array radar as backup. However, the new carriers were not fitted with any sonar. For passive defense the ships carried an ECM suite, chaff / decoy launchers, and a towed torpedo decoy. The carrier themselves were designed with a vastly reduced radar cross signature compared to the Charles de Gaulle class.


Of course the carriers' main weaponry consisted of its sixty-five plane air wing. When the ships were first constructed, the air wings were composed primarily of Super Rafales, EV-22 Ospreys, and Merlin FR.3 helicopters. At the time of the Great Cataclysm, the air wings consisted of three squadrons of Mirage VIII-N Fighter/Bombers, two squadrons of Épée Fighters, two squadrons of Aigle support craft, and one squadron of Panthère NH110 helicopters. Two companies of Lafayette class power armor were included as well for ship defense and boarding parties.


The first ship, Bretagne, was laid down in Twenty Fifty-Eight at DCN International in Brest. Her sister-ship, Provence, was laid down in Twenty Sixty-One. They joined the fleet in Twenty Sixty-Five and Twenty Sixty-Nine respectively. They served through the Second Falklands War, the beginning of the second Cold War, Battle of Guada Marta, and the opening battles that caused what would become known as the Great Cataclysm.


The Provence was at sea in the North Atlantic, and is believed to have been sunk by a strike by Soviet Battleaxe bombers before the Rifts came. As with many things during that time, it was never confirmed however. It is at least possible that she may have survived.


The Bretagne is in a similar situation. It is believed that she was scrambling to get underway from her port in Brest when the cataclysm overtook her. As the continent of Atlantis returned to Rifts Earth, an enormous tidal wave struck her as she was leaving the port city. There are reports that the ship capsized and ran aground with a loss of all hands. With effectively nobody left along the coast of France, what exactly happened is mostly rumor however.


There are stories that as the Gargoyle Empire began to expand, they used the materials of the ship to forge weapons and armor in their was with the New German Republic. Those same stories tell that when the NGR captured the area where the remains of the Bretagne were, the Germans believed there was enough of the ship left to salvage the vessel. Rumor is that her hulk was towed carefully to a secure port for evaluation but was not seen as worth salvaging and scrapped.


Author Note: With respect to time line, these designs may or may not reflect our modern time line. The time line of these writeups diverged from our time line starting around 1999. Consider the universe that these designs are created for to be an alternate universe not bound by ours.


Model Type: Bretagne class Aircraft Carrier

Vehicle Type: Ocean, Nuclear Aircraft Carrier

Crew: Ship's Complement: 1,050 (105 officers, 125 chief petty officers, and 820 enlisted [Has a high degree of automation]) plus a flagship staff of up to 50 when acting as a flagship.

Air Crew: 850 (200 pilots, 80 flight deck officers, and 570 enlisted.

Troops: 140 Marines (90 with Lafayette power armors and 50 with body armors.)


Robots, Power Armors, and Vehicles:

Power Armor Compliment:

 

20

Lafayette Power Armors.

Fighter/Aircraft Compliment:

 

4

Aigle Airborne Radar Support VSTOL Aircraft.

 

6

Aigle ASW Support VSTOL Aircraft.

 

22

Épée-N VSTOL Fighter / Interceptors.

 

33

Mirage VIII-N VSTOL Fighter/Bombers.

 

4

Panthère NH110 ASW Helicopters.

 

2

Panthère NH110 General Purpose Helicopters.

M.D.C. by Location:

 

Creusot-Loire CIWS Rail Gun Mounts (2, side sponsons):

150 each.

 

Sylver LTR 16 cell Medium Range Vertical Launch Systems (4, side sponsons):

250 each.

 

Sadral-AL Sextuple Short Range Missile Launchers (2, side sponsons):

120 each.

 

[1] Thompson-CS DRBW 15D Active Phased Array Radar Panels (4):

250 each.

 

[1] Thompson-CS DRBJ 19C Passive Phased Array Air Search Radar:

350.

 

[2] CSEE Sagaie AMBL-7G Chaff / Decoy Launchers (4, superstructure):

10 each.

 

[3] Electromagnetic Catapults (3, flight deck):

100 each.

 

[3] Electromagnetic Arrester Cables (4, flight deck):

50 each.

 

[4] Inboard Elevators (3):

400 each.

 

Hanger Doors (3):

400 each.

 

[5] Main Flight Deck:

3,300.

 

[6] Main Bridge / Superstructure:

2,400.

 

Outer Hull (per 40 foot / 12.2 meter area):

75.

 

[7] Main Body:

10,000.

Notes:

[1] Destroying both DRBW 15D and DRBJ 19C Air Search System radar systems will eliminate the ship's long range air search ability but weapon systems have backup fire control systems. Both air search systems are separate so both systems are not likely to be disabled from a single hit, and the four DRBW 15D panels can compensate for the loss of one or two panels.

[2] These are small and difficult targets to strike, requiring the attacker to make a “called shot,” but even then the attacker is -4 to strike.

[3] If the catapults are destroyed, non VTOL or STOL aircraft cannot be launched. If arrester cables are destroyed, non VTOL or STOL aircraft cannot land until arrester cables are replaced.

[4] If all three elevators are destroyed, no aircraft can be moved from the hangers to the flight deck, meaning that they cannot be launched unless already on the flight deck.

[5] If the flight decks are destroyed, only helicopters and other VTOL aircraft can be launched or land. VTOL aircraft are at -15% to piloting.

[6] If bridge/ control tower is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but with a -15% to piloting rolls. Communication and sensor equipment are not concentrated on the bridge to reduce the effectiveness of bridge hits.

[7] Destroying the main body causes the ship to lose structural integrity, causing the vessel to sink. Because of superior compartmentalization of the ship will take up to six hours to sink. This may give the ships crew time to patch the damage to an extent that the ship will float but all propulsion will be destroyed but the ship may be repairable. There are enough life preservers and inflatable life boats to accommodate everyone on the ship.


Speed:

Surface: 39.2 mph (34 knots / 63.0 kph).

Range: Effectively unlimited due to fusion engines (needs to refuel every 20 years and requires maintenance as well). Ship carries six (6) months of supplies on board.


Statistical Data:

Draft:    37.73 feet (11.5 meters).

Length:  973.4 feet (296.7 meters) waterline and 1,018.7 feet (310.5 meters) overall.

Width:   126.3 feet (38.5 meters) waterline and 246.7 feet (75.2 meters) flight deck.

Displacement: 80,500 tons standard and 102,500 tons fully loaded.

Cargo: Can carry 10,000 tons (9,070 metric tons) of nonessential equipment and supplies. 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 ammo, armor, troops, weapons, and engines.

Power System: Four nuclear fusion reactors, average life span is 20 years. Usually only goes 10 years between refueling.

Black Market Cost: Not for sale but if found on the black market would probably cost three to five billion credits, possibly more. Cost does not include embarked craft and power armors.


WEAPON SYSTEMS:

  1. Two (2) Creusot-Loire Rail Gun Close-In-Weapon Systems: One CIWS mount is on sponsons just below the flight deck on two corners of the ship with the others occupied with the Sadral-AL sextuple short range missile launchers. Replacing obsolete systems, these point defense systems are surprisingly similar to the later versions of the United States Mk 15 Phalanx weapon system although considered slightly more accurate. Another major improvement when compared to the Mk 15 Phalanx is the use of a six-barrel rapid fire rail gun that fires 20 mm special discarding sabot rounds in the place of an auto-cannon. Has a much greater payload as a result. Like the American Mk 15 Phalanx, the system is unmanned and fully automated. The weapons can be used on surface targets as well as against missiles and aircraft. Each rail gun can fire on automatic at up to six targets per melee (Has +4 to strike missiles and +2 to strike aircraft). The system has a 360 degree rotation and can elevate up to 90 degrees to fire at targets directly overhead.

    Maximum Effective Range: 11,000 feet (2 miles/ 3.2 km).

    Mega-Damage: 3D4x10 per burst of 40 rounds (Can only fire burst).

    Rate of Fire: Each mount can fire six (6) attacks per melee.

    Payload: 8,000 rounds (200 burst) each.

  2. Four (4) Sylver LTR Sixteen Cell Medium Range Vertical Launch System: One VLS mount is a on sponson just below the flight deck on each corner of the ship. Similar in some respect to the American Mk 55 vertical launch system. As with the American system, these launchers fire the missiles on an eight degree angle to the side. This is to prevent a missile that fails on its launch from crashing into aircraft on the flight deck. The missiles are arranged in an two by eight pattern, and each launch cell has two reloads. Each system can launch up to eight missiles simultaneously each and the launcher is automatically reloaded. These launchers act as the ship’s middle point defense and are normally used to engage incoming air targets and missiles. Outer point defense is performed by the air compliment or escorting vessels.

    Maximum Effective Range: As per medium range missile type (See revised bomb and missile tables for details.)

    Mega-Damage: As per medium range missile type (See revised bomb and missile tables for details.)

    Rate of Fire: Each launcher can fire medium range missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), four (4), or eight (8) medium range missiles. Each launcher operates independently.

    Payload: Sixteen (16) medium missiles in each launcher with thirty-two (32) medium range missiles in each magazine for automatic reloads, for a total of one hundred and ninety-two (192) medium range missiles including missiles in launcher.

  3. Two (2) Sadral-AL Sextuple Short Range Missile Launchers: Mounted on two of the sponsons to give the ship effective short range defense against incoming missiles. A modified version of the Sadral Mistral launcher which incorporated an automatic loading system and able to use a variety of short range missiles. The system is designed to be able to target multiple incoming missiles simultaneously. It can be fired against surface targets as well as against air targets.

    Note: SAM style missiles are missiles that sacrifice payload for higher speeds, see Chris Curtis’ modified missile table for specifics.

    Maximum Effective Range: As per short range missile type (See revised bomb and missile tables for details.)

    Mega-Damage: As per short range missile type (See revised bomb and missile tables for details.)

    Rate of Fire: Each mount can fire short range missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), four (4), or six (6) short range missiles and can be used up to twice (2) per melee round.

    Payload: Six (6) short range missiles each launcher for twelve (12) total. The vessel carries forty-eight (48) short range missiles as reloads for each launcher for a total of one hundred and eight (108) short range missiles total. If a launcher is damaged, those missiles cannot be accessed except manually. Sometimes additional missiles are carried in the cargo hold for reloads.

  4. Four (4) CSEE Sagaie AMBL-7G Chaff / Decoy Launchers: Located on the superstructure of the ship, they are designed to confuse incoming missiles. All four launchers must be operated or effects will be reduced. Rifts Earth decoys systems are assumed to not be effective against Phase World / Three Galaxies missiles due to technological differences. Reduce effects by 20% against smart missiles (Add +20% to rolls for smart missiles) and reduce effects of launchers by 10% per launcher not used (Add +10% to rolls per launcher not used.) Only useful against missiles, not useful against torpedoes underwater.

    Range: Around Ship.

    Mega Damage: None.

    Effects:

    01-35

    Enemy missile or missile volley detonates in chaff cloud - Missiles are all destroyed.

     

    36-60

    Enemy missile or missile volley loses track of real target and veers away in wrong direction (May lock onto another target.)

     

    61-00

    No effect, enemy missile or missile volley is still on target.

    Payload: Six (6) canisters each for a total of twenty-four (24) canisters. One hundred and ninety-two (192) reloads are carried, reloading takes two melee rounds.

  5. Six (6) Dassault FRN-6F LAT Towed Torpedo Decoys: A special decoy which is towed behind the ship. It generates a sound like the ships propellers in order to confuse incoming torpedoes. Only effective at speeds 28.8 mph (25 knots / 46.3 kph) and below. Otherwise, the noise of the ship’s systems and propellers is too powerful to mask. Rifts Earth decoys systems are assumed to not be effective against Phase World / Three Galaxies guidance and targeting systems due to technological differences.

    M.D.C.: 5 each.

    Range: Not Applicable although decoy is deployed approximately 1,000 feet (304.8 meters) from the vessel.

    Effects: The decoy has a 65% chance of fooling ordinary non military sonars and non smart guided torpedoes, the decoy has a 35% chance of fooling military level sonars (like those of the Coalition) and non “smart” torpedoes, and the decoy has a 10% chance of fooling advanced military sonars (Like those of the New Navy and Triax) and “smart” torpedoes.

    Payload: One ready to use, with five more ready to deploy. It takes approximately three minutes (twelve melee rounds) to reel out another decoy.

Special Systems:

The ship has all systems standard on a robot vehicle plus the following special features:


[ Altarain TM, Bandito Arms TM, Brodkil TM, Chipwell Armaments TM, Coalition States TM, Cyber-Knight TM, Federation of Magic TM, Free Quebec TM, Golden Age Weaponsmiths TM, Horune TM, Iron Heart Armaments TM, Kankoran TM, Kittani TM, Kydian TM, Larsen’s Brigade TM, M.D.C. TM, Mechanoids TM, Mega-Damage TM, Megaversal Legion TM, Millennium Tree TM, Mutants in Orbit TM, Naruni Enterprises TM, Naut’Yll, New Navy TM, New Sovietskiy TM, NGR TM, Nog Heng TM, Northern Gun TM, Phase World TM, Psyscape TM, Rifter TM, SAMAS TM, S.D.C. TM, Shemarrian TM, Splugorth TM, Stormspire TM, Sunaj TM, Tolkeen TM, Triax TM, Wellington Industries TM, Wilk’s Laser Technologies TM, Xiticix TM, and Zaayr TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

[ Beyond the Supernatural®, Heroes Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Ninjas & Superspies®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Rifts® are registered trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]


Writeup by Kamikazi (co366thaw@hotmail.com) and Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).


Copyright © 2004 & 2018, Kamikazi & Kitsune. All rights reserved.


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