Post by Daniel Gage on Sept 8, 2014 2:41:19 GMT
Class: Marathon
Unit type: Destroyer (Escort)
Manufacturer:
Operators: Titans, Earth Federal Space Forces, Anti-Earth Union Group,
First deployment:
Dimensions: Length 198 meters, maximum beam 29 meters
Displacement: 6830 metric tons fully loaded
Equipment and design features:
Fixed armaments:
Anti-Ship:
4 X Quick Beam Cannons, power rated at 57 MW (Heavy) mounted in single turrets
8 X Missile Tubes, (Capital), mounted in bow
Anti-Air:
9 X Particle Shot Cannons, mounted in 3 batteries of 3
8 X Twin machine cannon turrets, mounted in 4 batteries of 2 (Assault)
Mobile suits: 4
Launch catapults: 1
Description:
Even with the improvements to antiair in the Salamis Kai, naval strategists still looked on the design with disappointment thanks to the fundamental truth of warfare in UC 0084: in a modern threat environment, ships simply did not have an effective tool to combat a small team of mobile suits. The Salamis Kai and the new Lombardia and Alexandria class cruisers could defend themselves - maybe - against one or two units, but that was it, and they had no point defense capability, let alone the dream of ship officers of a return to area-defense capability.
The Particle Shot Cannon made this a reality. A battery of the weapons allowed a ship to effectively mount a defense against mobile suits for the first time since they were introduced. Granted, it still took a disporportionately high number of gun mounts to deal with a single unit, but restoring a ship’s point defense capability in the face of mobile suits was a huge innovation. The new Vancouver-class frigates were put to space expressedly to play defense for big ships and to increase survivability against suits. The Marathon-class modification to the classic Salamis-class hull was another.
The Marathon took the Salamis Kai design and overhauled it, rearming it with an array of particle shot cannons. The changeout drastically reduced the Marathon’s anti-shipping capability, but now the ships could provide an effective screen against mobile suits. Their single team of suits provided an additional capacity for escort and power projection that previous destroyer designs lacked, further improving the combat capabilities of the class.
With the same speed and advanced electronics suite of the new Salamis Kai, the Marathon has fast proved a very popular design. Seeing its first patrols with the Titans, its initial deployments showed that for the first time since the Zaku I was introduced, a warship could stand toe to toe with a mobile suit and win the engagement. The Federal Forces quickly began converting their legacy Salamis-class, and some of the modified Salamis Kais, to the weapons fit of the Marathon. Federal officers opposed to the Titans and corruption prevalent throughout the government quickly leaked the plans to the Anti Earth Union Group after the Colony 30 Incident, and the AEUG has produced a number of the new warships as well...