The Elder Statesmen represents the high end upgrade of the Statesmen class warship. It incorporates major redesigns to the propulsion, armor, and weapon systems while retaining the same internal structure. This allows for older Statesmen to be upgraded to this standard, and provides a differentiation between Statesmen versions as part of a high/low mix strategy.
Overview
Name: Elder Statesmen Class
Operators: American Union
Manufacturer:
Length: 350 Meters
Diameter (Radiators): 80 Meters
Diameter (Main Body): 40 Meters
Crew:
Propulsion: x6 ULA Mark 17 Fusion Drive
Max Acceleration: 1.38g
Range: ~1 month before requiring resupply
Sensors:
Armament:
Electronic Warfare: MK 23 Naval Bastille Frequency Generator
Support Craft:
Operators: American Union
Manufacturer:
Union Launch Alliance (ULA): Hull / Drive system
Jovian Propulsion Labs (JPL): Sensor Systems
Stellar Arms (SA): Weapon Systems
Length: 350 Meters
Diameter (Radiators): 80 Meters
Diameter (Main Body): 40 Meters
Crew:
250 Ship Crew
50 Crew for support craft
1100 Marines (1 Battalion with Soldiers + support staff)
Propulsion: x6 ULA Mark 17 Fusion Drive
Max Acceleration: 1.38g
Range: ~1 month before requiring resupply
Sensors:
JPL Block 12 Optical/Thermal Sensor Systems x20
JPL Block 3 Ship Radar x8
JPL Block 1 Synthetic Aperture Radar x2
Armament:
x14 UG-301 2.5mm point defense coilguns
x6 UG-324 100mm anti-ship railguns
x256 multi-purpose launch cells
x8 Medium-Aperture Laser Optics
Electronic Warfare: MK 23 Naval Bastille Frequency Generator
Support Craft:
2x Steward Class Gunship
Superluminal Communications Satellites
Small Inspection Probes
History
The Dramatic loss of an entire wing of Statesmen called into question ISOC's entire strategy across the entire human sphere. What worked well for the American Union over 100 years ago was no longer viable against the range of threats that the Magnetic Assembly could bring to battle. With few options to turn to, as one of their major weapon suppliers was now working against them, ISOC would contract Stellar to produce a series of upgrades for the Statesmen that could be ready in only a few months with the intention of launching another attack against the Magnetic Assembly at the start of the next year. This would lead to the introduction of the upgrade package that would be known as the Statesmen MK2, and the non-FTL equipped Statesmen MK3 which would eventually become known as the Chairmen.
See: Statesmen Class Program
Layout
The statesmen has a spacious internal layout capable of accommodating its large crew in reasonable comfort. While the primary crew space is located at the front of the ship, there is additional working space along the core of the ship under the guns, launch cells, and other exterior equipment. The middle area of the ship holds a pair of launch bays that can support shuttle launch operations and docking of various small craft. The bridge of the ship is also located just in front of the main reaction-mass tanks, extended outward and supported with additional armor.
CIC
The rather spacious bridge is designed to allow for operation of the starship as well as conducting operations with a task force spread across multiple star systems.
The ship’s primary CIC is located on a tower that extends out from an area just above the primary reaction mass tanks. This area has enough workstations to support 20 people, a central Ops table to track weapon usage and deployment. Behind the Ops table are 3d displays and plotting tools for Navigation across from a table with 3d displays pertaining to ship readiness and repair status.
Typically the captain of a ship is typically advised by:
- Intelligence Officer, responsible for applying information from various sources.
- Tactical Action Officer, responsible for weapon status and employment against targets.
- Electronic Warfare Officer, responsible for EM weapon employment and EMCON adherence.
- Sensor Fusion Officer, responsible for converting target tracks and sensor information into actionable information.
- Flight Control Officer, responsible for management of flight operations of embarked craft and craft in local area.
Cryo Chambers
To further the mission duration of the Statesmen without needing to carry additional supplies, a large cryo-sleep bay is included to house the ship's marine compliment in suspended animation until they are ready to be deployed. ISOC marines are generally 'unhappy' about being put on ice for the duration of their missions though many are quite happy they are still getting paid for time while in sleep.
Damage Control Lockers
Damage control lockers contain materials for patching the ship's hull, replacement electronics, cabling, and tools to allow the crew. The lockers also contain space suits, air locks, survival food/water, broadcasting equipment, and backup air scrubbers/environmental controls.
These upgraded Damage Control Lockers were added to the ship in 2322 which dramatically scaled up the size and capability of damage control systems onboard the ship. This allowed the damage control lockers to double as survival shelters for the crew in the event of catastrophic damage.
Gunnery
The ship's gunnery section houses the machinery required for operation of the main weapons including capacitors fed by the ship's main reactor, ammunition storage, loading systems, and repair workshops. The numerous interconnected armored storage bays and lift systems are designed so that if it, the blast is channeled outwards and only a small portion of the ship's ammunition is compromized by such an impact.
The majority of the slightly curved corridors in this area of the ship have a matte white finish to them, lacking any kind of exterior displays or windows.
Living Areas
Though the Statesmen started out as a rather spacious ship, the increasing requirement for weapons, equipment, armor, and consumables has continued to bite into the available space for other things. Though Officers retain their own small private rooms, the enlisted crew members now share bunk spaces that resemble the 'storage' areas for the ship's marine units.
These bunk areas include small sleeping pods that can be assigned out individually so that the crew does not have to resort to hot racking. Communal areas for cleaning, recreation, and eating area further reduce the need for space by eliminating space that might have otherwise been needed for individual rooms.
These bunk areas include small sleeping pods that can be assigned out individually so that the crew does not have to resort to hot racking. Communal areas for cleaning, recreation, and eating area further reduce the need for space by eliminating space that might have otherwise been needed for individual rooms.
The ship has everything it needs to support a small city including ample supply stores, eating areas, a commissary, mail room, gyms, and lounges.
The Elder Statesmen has large floor to ceiling windows along most decks in the living space. These windows are on the less armored section of the ship, and are made from a transparent safety-glass that will turn opaque when hit by a laser to prevent the crew from being burned during energy weapon strikes. Despite this change in transparent material intended to protect the crew, it is common for crews to install their own armored covers as added protection against laser strikes like those that killed the crew of the AUS James Tully
The Elder Statesmen has large floor to ceiling windows along most decks in the living space. These windows are on the less armored section of the ship, and are made from a transparent safety-glass that will turn opaque when hit by a laser to prevent the crew from being burned during energy weapon strikes. Despite this change in transparent material intended to protect the crew, it is common for crews to install their own armored covers as added protection against laser strikes like those that killed the crew of the AUS James Tully
Systems
Armor
The statesmen is a relatively well armored ship that has greater armor protection than what would normally be expected for a long duration, long range, mission ship but still far less than some of the extremely heavy ships designed strictly for direct combat.
Anti-Flash layer
Coating nearly every surface is an extremely thin anti-flash layer made up of a highly heat resistant layer of tungsten carbide and an undercoating of industrial diamond. This is intended to provide a high amount of protection against high instantaneous heat flashes from nuclear weapons.
Anti-Laser Layer
A layer of graphite impregnated aerogel is used throughout the ship for protection against laser attacks. Originally a small amount of the aerogel was used throughout the ship and on some sensitive components. After the Union defeat at Reiss in the beginning of 2320 largely due to the extensive use of laser weapons a much greater amount of the material was added to the ship. Two meters of the material was layered on top of the exterior surfaces of the ship, and additional material was injected into any extra space inside of the ship to provide better protection against penetrating laser strikes.
Upper armored plate
When in combat, it is expected that the Statesmen will try and orient the ‘top’ of the ship towards the enemy. This provides the greatest level of protection to the crew and puts the heaviest armor plates between the enemy and the crew. This upper level plate is nearly meter thick at its widest area, and is made from a composite of industrial diamond, Osmium, and Carbon.
Observation deck Spaced Armor
After the disastrous loss of the AUS Jerry Brown in 2320 due to laser strikes coming in through the armored windows of the ship, an extensive overhaul of the interior sections was carried out. Critical rooms were moved further into the ship, and the rooms near the exterior of the ship like the observation and recreational areas toward the front. Additional armor and armored shutters were added on the interior facing sides of these rooms. This would allow the ships to evacuate the rooms and seal them off during combat to use them as extra spaced armor.
Osmium and Amorphous Carbon internal layers with spall lining.
Much of the interior of the ship’s structural components and interior walls are made with layers of sandwiched Osmium, Amorphous Carbon, and internal spall liners to provide a level of protection in depth when the ship is struck by incoming attacks that get through the exterior.
Artificial Gravity Systems
The Statesmen uses a Magnetic Assembly derived anti-gravity system for a combination of FTL drive, creature comfort, defense, and inertial dampening.
The system itself generates an anti-gravity field that can push things away from the ship. These generators are located just ‘under’ the main armored plate of the ship. This allows the field being generated to create an earthly 0.8g of gravity for the crew by pushing them ‘down’ into the floor while also pushing away objects coming at the ship (though this is usually lowered to save power on long duration missions).
Additional generators are also placed throughout the ship to help maintain proper orientation when moving about, and to help establish the superluminal effects of the ship’s FTL system.
Emergency Internal Communications
Throughout the ship are small wall-mounted containers with sound powered telephones included.
A right light on the container indicates when someone is trying to send a message on the system. An additional input port is also integrated into the container so that in the event of a loss of atmosphere, a space suit can plug into the system to receive audio.
Synthetic Aperture Radar
Added to the ship's CIC tower, a pair of Synthetic Aperture Radars provide the ship with the capability of generating highly detailed images of the surface of a planet even through difficult weather.
The Radars were added to the ship following the second battle of Atlantica. During operations there, the Magnetic Assembly would frequently shoot down satellites in orbit around Atlantica. In order to run operations on the ground with proper communications and real time overhead surveillance, increasingly well defended orbital systems were required. The logical choice was to move these systems to the Statesmen themselves.
Armaments
Though frequently modernized, the statesmen is an older starship design, and lacks the large radiators to operate extremely heat-intensive weapons like large anti-ship lasers. Instead, numerous high-capacity physical weapons are setup around the ship to provide a high amount of redundancy, coverage, and long range bombardment capabilities. In turn this makes the statesmen well suited for the majority of operations conducted by the AU such as close orbit policing and long-range power projection.
UG-301 2.5mm 'Sandblaster' Point Defense Coilguns
The Primary weapon system for dealing with threats close to the ship is the UG-301 coilgun. The circular bank of coil guns near the front of the ship fire unguided, relatively fast, metal slugs with a high rate of fire.The small projectiles are well suited for destroying targets such as missiles and can chew through even heavy starship armor at close range very quickly. Due to the unguided nature of the weapons they are not very suitable for attacking targets on long range.
For more see: UG-301
UG-324 100mm Anti-Ship Railguns
Intended to cover the mid-range and extreme range bombardment, the ship’s multitude of 100mm railguns fire a variety of rounds at high speed. These range from unguided metal slugs to guided missiles and a variety of proximity fused explosives. Though they have a much slower rate of fire than the ship’s smaller coilguns, they fire rounds at a much higher velocity. This allows the ship to be a threat to other capital ships at range.
The guided rounds allow for a small amount of course-correction in flight. While this is not enough to chase down a maneuvering starship at range, it is sufficient to deal with any targeting error over inter-planetary ranges. This makes the statesmen well suited for bombardment of targets throughout a star-systems. Precise strikes from these cannons are well publicized throughout the Union as an example of the speed, decisiveness, and overwhelming freedom that they can bring to a conflict.
The UG-324 replaces the UG-311 found on earlier versions of the statesmen. Improvements in materials science and auto-loader technology allow the system to fire a similar number of rounds at a similar rate of fire to its predecessor at a considerable weight reduction. The turret also houses a more powerful fire control radar system for accuracy.
For more see: UG-324
Multi-Purpose Launch Cells
Deep missile magazines are a hallmark of Union ships from long before their ships became space-fairing.
In 2321 the first engagement between The Magnetic Assembly and the American Union's 26th fleet showed that the American Union couldn't compete with the massive number of missiles that ships from The Magnetic Assembly could field. Stellar Arms proposed a quad-pack missile design as replacement option, and many of the Mk3 Statesmen would start fielding this missile system that exchanged range and hitting power for volume of fire.
The Statesman class houses 256 launch cells around its exterior, with none positioned on the armored side-section of the ship and a double-sized bank of launchers along the un-armored side to make up for the loss of the other launchers.
See:
Mk 23 Naval Bastille Frequency Generator
The Mk 23 Naval Bastille Frequency Generator is an Electronic Warfare Support system originally designed for naval ships that operated in and around civilian shipping lanes on Earth. It was hardened for use in space after the loss of the AUS Lord Palmerson in 2320 to Cyber-Attack so that Statesmen class ships could be refit with new Electronic Warfare systems as fast as possible.
The system itself was originally designed for short range electronic attack, primarily to jam short range communication systems such as civilian wifi, cellular, and other data networks. The original intended use was for frigates near the coast to be able to safely overtake commercial shipping. While this makes the system somewhat useless in the extreme range combat of space, it does make the system suitable for suppressing communications on starships that are about to be boarded. More importantly, it allows a ship to suppress and control the civilian grade equipment that might be brought onboard by the ship’s own crew. This helps maintain electronic security inside of the ship during operations.
The various sensor panels and wide-band emitters are installed near the ship's CIC tower.
Medium-Aperture Laser Optics
The increasing threat of long range, large volley, missile strikes have pushed the Statesmen include increasingly larger energy weapons for defense. These 6 meter wide optics are larger than the ones installed on the earlier Statesmen versions, and provide a marginal increase in range and lasing ability, but are generally not too different than the smaller-aperture systems used previously.
Life Support
The Statesmen uses a ECLSS type life support system developed by the Union Launch Alliance that has remained largely unchanged outside of incremental improvements over the last 40 years. This allows the ship to provide a comfortable atmosphere full of breathable air at a full 1 atmosphere of pressure. The ship's Oxygen Generation system and Carbon Dioxide Remove Assembly are fully capable of supporting up to 400 people, providing an ample safe space for supporting the crew in case of loss of functionality or the need to store extra people for transport.
The Statesmen also has a grey-water treatment system capable of supporting 300 people almost indefinitely. This system is mostly off the shelf technology distributed through the Union Launch Alliance and is intended to provide usable fresh water for the crew with minimal upkeep or resupply.
Food and other material goods are supplied through the ship's cargo bay. While enough stores can be held for several months of operation, resupply is still required for extreme long-duration missions.
The Statesmen also has a grey-water treatment system capable of supporting 300 people almost indefinitely. This system is mostly off the shelf technology distributed through the Union Launch Alliance and is intended to provide usable fresh water for the crew with minimal upkeep or resupply.
Food and other material goods are supplied through the ship's cargo bay. While enough stores can be held for several months of operation, resupply is still required for extreme long-duration missions.