The Modern Fleet

Overview

By the time war broke out, URN doctrine had crystallized into several key elements, with specific responsibilities assigned to warships created for those intended purposes. These responsibilities would detail how the various components of the fleet worked together, and the roles specific warships and other craft would play in conducting offensive and defensive operations in defense of the Republic.

Screens

The outer shell of the Fleet was made up of screening vessels. These included frigates, destroyers, and light cruisers. Frigates and light cruisers supported significant sensor packages and were primarily armed with missiles, which could be used in both offensive and defensive roles. Destroyers, while still part of the screen, provided a more balanced mix of offensive firepower, presenting the Archus in command with a flexible multi-role warship that could be re-tasked to meet specific tactical needs.

Capital Ships

The inner shell would be made up of the Fleet's heaviest combatants: battleships, battlecruisers, and heavy cruisers. Battleships were heavily armed and armored vessels designed to take the brunt of the enemy's attention. Battlecruisers, although still well armored, sacrificed some of the battleship's heavy plating for enhanced acceleration and maneuverability. Finally, the heavy cruiser was a well-rounded vessel of war, smaller in size than the other two, but still large enough to handle itself in battle.

Carriers

The URN would design a number of different carrier classes to meet specific needs, but each contained similar design characteristics. They were moderately well protected but poorly armed for their size, instead freeing up space internally for large spacecraft handling facilities. Internally, great care was taken to protect and separate the dangerous munitions and fuel they carried into reinforced compartments, in order to ensure a single well placed blow would not rip the vessels apart from the inside out.

By far the most numerous were the fleet carriers, approximate in size to battleships and battlecruisers, which housed enough starfighters which, when cooperating together, posed a risk to enemy warships. The largest classes were designated as supercarriers. These behemoths were larger than even the battleships they were often accompanied by, and could launch swarms of fighters to harass the enemy.

Starfighters

The URN's Naval Architecture Board was specific in requiring models which were capable of engaging enemy starfighters, attacking enemy warships en mass, and performing fleet protection tasks such as missile defense. The Ascomanni would ultimately put little emphasis on their own starfighters, though they did maintain carriers and spaceborne interceptors and bomber craft. These were few and far between, resulting in Umbrian doctrinal focus shifting to emphasize the latter two roles instead of the former.

Utility Ships

Although the fighting ships received all the attention, each Fleet would soon fail without the special purpose vessels designed to support them on deployment. These ships included fleet tenders, repair ships, tugs, freighters, tankers, rescue ships, and other vessels designed to keep the URN's warships and personnel in fighting condition.