Post by Daniel Gage on Sept 8, 2014 2:40:57 GMT
Class: Salamis Kai
Unit type: Destroyer
Manufacturer:
Operators: Earth Federal Space Forces, Anti-Earth Union Group, Titans
First deployment: UC 0085
Dimensions: Length 198 meters, maximum beam 29 meters
Displacement: 6750 tons fully loaded
Equipment and design features:
Fixed armaments:
Anti-Ship:
2 X Twin Beam Cannon, power rated at 68 MW (Capital), mounted in dual turrets athwartship
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:
12 X Twin machine cannon turrets, mounted in 2 batteries of 4, 2 batteries of 2 (Assault)
Mobile suits: 4
Launch catapults: 1
Description:
A refit of the heavily produced Salamis-class of the Federal Forces ‘70s Rearmament Plan’ the Salamis Kai is a workmanlike adaptation of the legacy hull for the realities of modern combat. It was flagrant after both the One Year War and Operation: Stardust that warships, for all practical purposes, required mobile suit support in the face of antiship-armed mobile suits. The Kai design removed a number of the original Salamis’s weapon systems and replaced them with a much-enhanced antiair battery for self defense coupled with handling equipment for mobile suits.
Despite the reduction in its weapon systems, the Kai retains a fearsome anti-ship punch. Mounting a pair of light cruiser and a quad of destroyer weight beam cannons, it has respectable firepower in the anti-shipping role against other escorts. Against larger, more powerfully-armed warships, its impressive missile battery still gives it a viable offensive option if it can get close enough.
Defensively, it carries the new-mod machine cannons developed post Stardust. Designed with a higher rate of traverse than previous anti-air turrets and a much deeper magazine, they have a much more capable antiair capability than One Year War-era destroyers. Still, though, their turrets have a fairly short range, and it takes many of them operating in tandem to effectively deter so much as a single mobile suit. While still an improvement in survivability over the original design, the lack of any anti-mobile suit capacity beyond self-defense is the vulnerable chink in the Kai’s armor. The lack of the new Particle Shot Cannons make them especially appealing targets to mobile suit pilots who would prefer not to engage their better-defended consorts When faced with more than one or two enemy suits, they must rely on their onboard mobile squad for support, or else enemy units can overwhelm them.
The Federation’s entire inventory of Salamis destroyers has been upgraded to the Kai standard. Several of them have since been modified into the Marathon-class escorts, but there are no legacy Salamis remaining in the Fleet. The AEUG acquired the plans for both the Kai and Marathon modifications, and their Fleet has been converted to the new standards as well. With their balance of offensive firepower and mobile suit capacity, Salamis Kai-class Fleet destroyers remain the backbone of all major fleet groups in the Earth Sphere