Also I am fully aware that all of the detail I have put into this to make it seem more "plausible" may in fact be seen as "Wank" to others.
I Hope to have balanced things out enough for the stringent expectations of the bored
With that said, I humbly offer for your consideration...
The New ISD "War Galleon Class"
WHATS IN A NAME?
The term “War Galleon” was picked for this new class to evoke a similarity to the English 16th century galleons. Basically a purpose built warship that sacrificed the troop carrying capacity for higher speed and gunfire capability. The ship is designed with the philosophy of taking the basic ISD, which was created as a “Jack of all trades” and streamlining it into a long duration Anti-Capital ship ISD.
*
*
TRADING GROUND FORCES FOR SPACE SUPREMACY
Traditional ISD always have had vast amounts of internal space devoted to carrying ground forces, for the purpose of pacifying Imperial worlds or supporting planetary invasion. The amount of space and additional resources that these troops and their equipment take up, have been devoted instead to changing the new ISD into a more resilient and lethal dedicated warship.
*
The “War Galleon” class is designed for long-term patrol and heavy capital ship engagements. It sacrifices almost the entirety of the 10,000 Imperial ground troops and their support forces to make room for extra fuel, power, supply’s, droids, engines, and shield generators to fulfill its new role.
*
Heavy automation is also utilized to reduce non-essential functions ((this may seem contrary to normal Imperial doctrine, but my thinking is Changing times require changing philosophies. The “In universe” thinking behind this is that the Remnant can no longer afford to resupply ships as massively crewed as an older ISD.)) Therefore the new War-Galleon is designed to be far more self-sufficient and efficient, trimming the original crew of 37,000 has been reduced to a ‘mere’ 25,000 people.
*
*
FOCUS ON BIG GUNS
In keeping with the stated purpose of being designed for Anti-Capital ship duty, the “Big Guns” of the ship are layered out in a way so all guns may fire forward upon a single target.*
The 8 turrets on each side along the back are constructed on “stairs” so that each turret may fire over the one in front.
Each “Heavy” turret has four barrels to be fired in a linked blast, or alternating to allow for continuous bombardment.
*
With the focus on “Big Guns” the question may be asked, “Why bother with medium turbo lasers?
The thinking behind the 12 medium guns are purely as a “back up” in the case of a smaller craft that may pose some sort of threat that has moved too closely to be properly tracked by the larger heavier turrets. Likewise most of the few Ion cannons the ship has are close to the medium turrets for those situations when the ISD wishes to disable a smaller ship for capture or investigation.
((This justification is predicated upon the assumption that Big Turrets do not move fast enough to track such targets, which may turn out to be completely incorrect.))
*
Another addition to the design, are the inclusion of three “super heavy” turbo laser cannons, two on the War-Galleons “winglets” and one on the bottom of the ship.
*
These have been added with the intent of maximizing a “First Punch Knockout” against similarly sized or smaller sized threats to shorten engagements or prevent a ship from even returning fire at all.
As one of the stated goals of the ship is maximizing durability and lifespan, keeping it from engaging in a fire fight period is something that is seen as further extending it’s life span.
*
Such large Turbo lasers may seem an obvious target for smaller craft and fighters to try and disable. With this in mind, the largest, and most vulnerable turbo lasers are also the most heavily defended. Each of the “Super” heavy turbo lasers on the ‘Winglets’ is guarded by three sets of two high-speed Quad Anti Fighter turrets. Two turrets above, two below, and two along the trench. Working together in tandem with targeting computers they can focus to pick off any threats to the “Big Guns” the ISD.
BIG GUNS = BIG POWER
With the addition of so much more armament as well as size and caliber of armament, appropriate considerations must of course be made to account for additional power consumption as well as distribution.
To begin, in both of the "Winglets" added to the new class, Ancillary reactors have been embedded to help power the massive wing mounted turbo lasers, as well as ease energy distribution between the main reactor and additional shield generators. Each of these smaller "wing reactors" are estimated to supply an additional 10% Output of the main reactor.
Another larger 'secondary' reactor has been added in the area where the main hanger used to be and is able to provide an additional 25% Output of the main reactor.
OF BRIDGES AND BACKUPS
*((like the justification for the medium turrets, the following “Fix” may be for a problem that is in fact already dealt with and not an issue))
*Another aspect of the new design is a heavy focus Redundancies and Backups. In keeping with the new push toward making ships last as long as possible and to be as resilient as possible, backup shield generators have been installed throughout the ship. Most of these are set up to be used at times when the primary shields are under heavy strain so as to reduce risk of collapse.
*
The computer system of the new class is also designed to avoid collapse or failure by utilizing a largely decentralized net work of computers so that the destruction or failure of one or two of the nodes will allow the whole network to continue to function.
*
Another Backup is to the primary command bridge itself. A Secondary bridge is located deep within the ship and is able to coordinate every function of the primary bridge. Before going into combat, the secondary bridge is activated and fully staffed so that in the event of the destruction of the primary bridge command can be transferred almost instantly to the secondary.
Also, in the event of an unanticipated attack, the crew quarters of the Backup Bridge are located very close to the area. So even in the event of a "sneak attack" the secondary bridge can be activated within moments.
*
*
HANGER CHANGES
The final addition of the new ISD is the extreme make over to the underside. Because there is no longer a need for massive landing barges and the 10,000 troops that go with them, the hanger’s new purpose is to launch fighters as quick as possible.
*
As such instead of one massive hanger, it has been split into six smaller, but highly efficient hangers. Each one can carry 18 TIEs in 2 rows of 9, with the fighters launching straight down, dropping out of the hanger for maximum launch speed and deployment.
*
The six smaller hangers can carry a total of 108 TIE’s or a mix of TIE’s and other support craft. In the example ship used in the picture, the front two hangers have a group of six “Skipray BlastBoats” each to compliment the TIE’s with heavier firepower.
COST AND CONCLUSIONS
While the proposed new class has a great many advantages, detractors may point two notable drawbacks.
Firstly, some might say that the purpose for which the new “War Galleon” class out has been designed is already adequately fulfilled by the “Allegiance” Class star destroyer.
Second, the cost of such a ship would be considerably more than that of a traditional ISD.
While both of these stamens are true, the cost of a “War Galleon” while more than an ISD, would still be significantly less than the cost of an “Allegiance” class SD. Further, because the new class is utilizing the traditional ISD Hull design, construction of the new vessels can take place in far more numerous manufacturing centers than an “Allegiance” class, which requires larger hanger and production facilities. Also while not only costing less than an “Allegiance", the new class will require significantly less food, supplies, and crew to man than a larger Star Destroyer.
In summary, the usefulness of such a ship in the context of the New Imperial Remnant we are an extremely advantageous vessel to put into production.
Maybe I should just stick with the class name "War Galleon" for now and come up with a better, more 'Imperial' sounding name.
