Valorous-Class

With Hearts Of Oak

The Valorous-Class was a class of aircraft carrier in service with the United Commonwealth Navy from 140 to 178. The class is marked for being the first series of reactor powered UC surface warships to see service en masse, with thirty six such vessels being commissioned over its service life.
Reflecting the size of the class, construction was conducted in three blocks of twelve, spread across half a dozen seperate shipyards to even the load. For a common naming scheme, the first letter of each ship's name would be shared across the three blocks, leading to the vessels being referred to as part of the V, M, or O ships.

Major Design Elements

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Propulsion And Power

To conduct its new missions, the Navy hoped to leverage every technical advancement it could. The greatest leap from the norm came in the class's powerplant, projected to be a pair of the then in development Mk. 272 Admiralty Atomic Reactors. An experimental programme at the time of the Valorous class's planning, their delays would set back the carrier's construction by half a year.
Until then, atomic power had only seen usage in the submarine service, with concerns over safety and reliability blocking attempts to introduce the technology elsewhere. However, the benefits of reactors could not be disputed, especially when it came to the endurance and range of ships powered by them.
The new powerplants were housed in seperate, armoured compartments deep below the ship. The steam each produces is sent to four turbines, each directly connected to a propeller via its respective shaft.
In total, each ship could reach a fully loaded maximum speed of thirty five knots. Each ship's reactor can last for thirty years without refueling, though all ships were withdrawn from active service before their powerplants ran out of time, decisions partially made to avoid having to tie up shipyard space on expensive and time consuming overhaul work.

Defensive Systems

With their aircraft as their primary defensive tool, the ships carried a limited array of self defence systems. Each was outiftted with a pair of URCHIN Ship Defence Systems on either side, which utilised six Fh-40-N thirty millimetre guns mounted on a sensor-slaved, autonomously controlled turret as a weapon of last resort against incoming uided missiles.
For longer ranged engagements, three OYSTER SDSs were available, each carrying eight Marlin air to air missiles. Two on the starboard superstructure and one hanging off the port side aft of the angled flightdeck, they were slaved to the ships sensor network, and through its ICI could work in concert with systems across a formation to intercept incoming airborne threats.
Finally, "soft protection" of the vessels would be offered by their YELLOW VELVET Technical Warfare Suite. This was a combination of sensor jammers, electronic emissions gatherers, and chaff and decoy dispensers that worked to spoof oncoming threats without having to expend missiles and gun ammunition, and for their time were notably effective, as seen on the UCS Mystique during the Islander War.

Sensors And Fire Control

A crucial part of the class's role as a capital ship was its suite of sensors. This primarily revolved around a pair of GREEN STAG three dimensional, electronically scanned air search sensors mounted prominently for and aft on the island, and which could each detect, classify, and track upwards of two thousand seperate targets at out to a thousand nautical miles.
Tieing together the disparate threads of air defence within a task group, each Valorous-Class was equipped with the first "Integrated Coordination Infrastructure", which automated the collation and fusion of a formation's array of sensors at inhuman speeds. The information, shared through Operational Relay Networks, was a revolutionary development in air defence for its time. While initial installation faced significant teething issues, in battle the capability to mass and coordinate tactical information was a key factor between victory and annihilation.

Aircraft Facilities

To facilitate the increasing size and complexity of naval aircraft, the Valorous-Class contained significantly improved aviation facilities over the Union's. Hangar space was increased by half again, and the use of automation allowed for similar increases in aviation fuel and ordnance stocks. A workshop comparable to a land based Fleet Air Station allowed for maintenance and repair to be conducted, up to the near total reconstruction of any given aircraft, as well as most of the ships structure.

Air Wing

The planned air wing of the class was to be based around one Close Fighter and one Strike Fighter squadron, of twenty aircraft each. The former would be made up of the CF.5 Auxin Arrow, and the latter of the SF.2 Boxer Blazer, both of which would enter service within six months of their carriers. The task of aerial refuelling was meant to be fulfilled by a ten aircraft squadron of the similarly novel TA(U).1 Boxer Bottler, but difficulties and delays in the Tanker Aircraft (Uncrewed) programme would mean that all deployments for over a decade would rely on converted SF.1 Claude Cormorants with external tanks and fuel lines.
Other aircraft in the CAW included a squadron of two ACC.3 Auxin Auspice Air Combat Coordinators. Equipped with powerful sensors and a top of the line battle management suite, these formed an integral part of any Task Group's ORN, granting massively improved coverage compared to surface based sensors, and a central node from which an air battle could be choreographed and commanded.
In reality, aircraft availability and combat losses would often lead to patchwork air wings, especially when operating with other carriers. Aircraft would be lost, squadrons amalgamated in the field, and new aircraft sent as replacements introduced to understrength units. As such, the formal air wing would find itself more a guideline than a rule, and recorded forces at sea include everything from hangars bursting with upwards of sixty of Arrows or Blazers with no other aircraft, to ships assigned as a fleet's dedicated air control platforms going to sea with a dozen Augurs and their tankers.

Used by

• The Mystique

Beam

80-42m

Length

350m

Weight

~94000 Tonnes, Full Load

Speed

40 Knots