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C# Fiction > General C# Fiction
Books of the Imperial Library: Unbuilt Warships of the Royal Navy
El Pip:
Unbuilt Warships of the Royal Navy
by
Dr Morgan Walsh, Lecturer of Imperial History at the University of Merlin
Introduction
It is said that for every ship of the Royal Navy there is a book, indeed for some parts of the fleet there are more books than ships; there are at least a dozen times as many books about the Royal Navy's Dreadnoughts than there are actual Dreadnoughts and the (mis)adventures of the Weapon-class have been covered in exhaustive, some might suggest excessive, detail in seemingly countless volumes.
This book is not about any of those ships, it is instead about the might-have-been and never-were designs that emerged from shipwrights, designers and optimistic serving officers across the Empire. For every design that was approved for construction or refit there were several other options that were considered by the Admiralty Board and a far larger number that never even made it onto the final shortlist. The unbuilt ships that are featured in this book are the more critical and hopefully more interesting designs that have been careful selected from amongst that vast multitude. All the designs mark inflection points in the history of the Fleet, some point towards a different path that wasn't taken, others are the opposite and are the conventional option that was rejected when the Admiralty decided, or had imposed upon it, a major change.
Being unbuilt ships there are no list of actions and battles, no reports on performance in service and hidden feature or vices that emerged during service. In general these are bare-bone designs and often not even that, many of the designs presented were never even finalised. A select handful were holo-simed and assessed by the Admiralty Tactical Office, but most of the designs presented were not and so any discussion on how they might have behaved will be speculative and qualitative. While such speculation is indeed presented, one of the lures of might-have-been designs is always the 'What If' questions around them, the fact is is speculation should always be acknowledged.
Overall it is hoped that this book will provide a better understanding of the options available and the designs not selected, in the hope that this knowledge will help to better explain the choices that were made.
El Pip:
Chapter 1 The First Kill of the Tribals
To break with convention we will not begin at the beginning, to be blunt there is little to be gained by looking at the early unbuilt aether designs of the Royal Navy. A wide range of primitive attack skiffs and crude fighters were designed 'in case of emergency' and more practically to give naval architects experience in military designs. Small, slow and lacking effective weaponry they are not particularly distinctive and none of the ideas or features of those craft translated to the vessels that were eventually constructed, the first actual warships of the fleet, the Tribal-class destroyers.
Much has been written on the Tribal-class and rest assured we will not be diving into the many subtle variants and marginally different options that were considered for the first batch. Instead we will be looking at it's main rival and the original preferred design, the A-class, sometimes recorded as the Active-class
--- Code: ---Active-class Destroyer 10,000 tons 319 Crew 1,517.9 BP TCS 200 TH 600 EM 0
3000 km/s Armour 5-41 Shields 0-0 HTK 63 Sensors 0/110/0/0 DCR 6 PPV 55
Maint Life 3.13 Years MSP 569 AFR 133% IFR 1.9% 1YR 87 5YR 1,307 Max Repair 126 MSP
Commander Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Rolls Royce Falcon Mk.I ID-300x (2) Power 600 Fuel Use 19.83% Signature 300 Explosion 8%
Fuel Capacity 262,000 Gallons Range 23.8 billion km (91 days at full power)
Beardmore Mk.I 6" NUV Laser (11) Range 128,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 10
GEC Type 500 BFC 128-4000 (2) Max Range: 128,000 km TS: 4,000 km/s 92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Brown-Curtis Hydra Mk.I GFCR (2) Total Power Output 40 kBTU/s Exp 5%
Barr & Stroud Type 200MWS 1.5m/R1 (1) GPS 84 Range 17.1m km MCR 1.5m km Resolution 1
Ferranti Type 600SR 46m/R20 (1) GPS 1680 Range 46.6m km Resolution 20
GEC Type 1000LR 114m/R160 (1) GPS 20160 Range 114m km Resolution 160
Racal Type 400 ESM10-110 (1) Sensitivity 110 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 82.9m km
--- End code ---
The basic hull form should be recognisable along with the main components and the design shares the same strengths and weaknesses of the first batch of Tribal-class; strong armour, generous engineering space, solid sensor fit and far too slow. The main difference should also be obvious - the laser main armament in place of the familiar Vickers 8" rail guns. Developed by Beardmore, Lithgow and Company from an industrial cutting device the Mk.I 6" NUV Laser was seriously considered as the main weapon of the first destroyers. Indeed it was initially the preferred option, hence this design receiving the 'A' designation as there was an intent to have a formal naming system for the aether fleet and it was planned for the destroyers would get sequential letters of the alphabet for their class names.
The 6" Lasers did not need turrets or ammunition feeds in the same manner as a rail gun so the design lacked recognisable turrets, instead having a number of almost barbette like emplacements along the spine and flanks. These barbettes contained the laser aperture unit, the large capacitors that fed it and direct power couplings down to the Hydra reactors in the heart of the hull. With a shorter wavelength than industrial lasers (being near ultraviolet it was ~0.3micron compared to the ~1 micron in a typical laser cutter) and the resulting higher energy per photon the weapons could not maintain the constant output of an industrial unit. Or more precisely the laser aperture could, but the capacitors, reactors and cooling systems could not maintain constant output without catastrophic failure, so the units were limited to a single high energy shot every 10 seconds. The operational concept was intense and constant sniping, alternating fire from the barbettes to maintain a constant weight of fire and using accurate targeting to focus shots on exposed or vulnerable areas on the enemy vessel. The inexperience of the Admiralty in aether warfare should be apparent here, they had still yet to grasp that the combat ranges and speeds of aether combat made such a plan a pipe dream, to say nothing of the minor detail that the design would prove far too slow to even keep up with the enemy's the Empire would encounter, let alone dictate the engagement range.
Opposition to the design came from the nascent tactics division which had grave doubts about the operational concept. They highlighted the many uncertainties and instead support the rail guns on the basis of rate of fire, while the Vickers 8" Mk.I took longer to complete a firing cycle (15 seconds vs 10 for the laser) in that time it would fire four times not once. This great volume of shot allowed a degree of spread and scatter, while each shot may be less likely to hit there were a great deal more of them. Two factions formed, Team Laser under Rear-Admiral Kai Taylor and Team Rail led by Rear-Admiral Harry Hanes, the rivalry as much driven by the two men's desire to be the first 'aether' Vice-Admiral in the Fleet as their belief in the designs. Given the complete lack of hard data, or indeed any data, on possible opponents there was a great deal of holo-simming and a great deal of proving the golden rule of holo-simming "You can prove anything if you setup the scenario just right". Neither side was making any progress on convincing the other so Rear-Admiral Hanes took the fight 'up-stairs' and suggested the two groups make a presentation to the Minister and Cabinet on the rival proposals. Where Taylor focused on the technical details, the advantages of a relativistic weapon in allowing the target no time to doge, the lack of ammunition requirements and so on, Hanes took a different path. He instead appealed to one of the key tenets of Anglo-Futurism - Semper Ipsum, Numquam Obrutus (Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned). His entire pitch was the rail guns on the Tribals put out a superior weight of fire and had a higher theoretical damage per second (if they hit) and so were obviously better.
The Imperial Cabinet was convinced by this argument, cynically it was suggested this was because it was the only one of the two that they could understand, and this broke the deadlock, they came down in favour of the Tribal class, a success which also marked Hanes out as a future star. His promotion to Vice-Admiral followed shortly making him undisputed head of the aether branch and within a few short years he would be the inaugural First Space Lord and oversee the final decommissioning of the few legacy 'wet navy' ships left in active service. The preference for weight of fire over accuracy in warship design has remained a constant in Admiralty thinking, though not always a decisive one as we shall see in later chapters. The decision also broke the naming system before it has even begun, to the distress of the Ship Naming Committee who's efforts to impose a logical system on the naming of Royal Navy vessels remain unrewarded to this day.
Had Taylor and the A-class been successful the changes would have been fundamental and far reaching. The entire doctrine of the Royal Navy would have changed, particularly given the advances in sensor and tracking technology that were coming. At the time of the decision both the rail gun and laser were limited by the range of the GEC Type 500 fire control, so both had the same effective maximum range, a few short years later that would not have been the case. The longer range GEC Type 501, and the far superior Ferranti Type 502X, would have allowed the full range of the 6" Mk.I Laser to be used. Even if the 'sniping' doctrine had proved impractical, a long range shooting doctrine may have been feasible, particularly for the later Mark.III Tribal destroyers which had the speed to at least attempt to control the range. It is interesting to speculate what a fleet designed for long range shooting would look like, certainly substantially different to the one the Navy has today. As it was the Tribals won out and ambitious officers in the fleet learnt that while they could ignore politics, that didn't mean politics would ignore them.
nuclearslurpee:
Excellent! Finally a Pip work to distract people from my own updating tardiness read and enjoy. ;D
I was going to sit down and work through my backlog today anyways but this is certainly the right way to start my day.
--- Quote from: El Pip on November 21, 2021, 12:00:54 PM ---It is said that for every ship of the Royal Navy there is a book, indeed for some parts of the fleet there are more books than ships; there are at least a dozen times as many books about the Royal Navy's Dreadnoughts than there are actual Dreadnoughts and the (mis)adventures of the Weapon-class have been covered in exhaustive, some might suggest excessive, detail in seemingly countless volumes.
--- End quote ---
I eagerly await links to where I may purchase these exhaustively detailed books so that I might assess their excessiveness as a neutral arbiter.
--- Quote ---While such speculation is indeed presented, one of the lures of might-have-been designs is always the 'What If' questions around them, the fact is is speculation should always be acknowledged.
--- End quote ---
And celebrated, for there are few things more enjoyable in life than reckless speculation.
--- Quote from: El Pip on November 21, 2021, 12:06:45 PM ---Active-class Destroyer
10,000 tons
3000 km/s
Fuel Capacity 262,000 Gallons
Total Power Output 40 kBTU/s
--- End quote ---
Truly the Space Imperial system is a thing of beauty. I may even have shed a manly space tear.
The design is also quite characteristic and even without the exposition tells the story of naval architects desperately scrabbling about to figure out what a space warship is supposed to do. In addition to the points raised in the text, I also would draw attention to the quite curious sensor suite - sensors covering several resolutions, each rather larger than is needed for beam targeting purposes yet rather smaller than one would want for long-range target detection as might be found on a dedicated fleet scout or C&C vessel. Still, such things are not necessarily damning as sensor doctrine in fleet design can be quite extensively variable. More curious is the decision to mount a 500-ton EM detection sensor, in itself a perfectly capable type of sensor, yet reflective of a clear identity crisis (I suspect typifying Admiralty thinking during this period) as it would be better-suited on a fleet scout type of design, and curiously is not matched by any thermal sensor at all.
Overall this is a ship quite confused as to its intended role and doctrine, really just the sort of thing that one expects from an Admiralty suffering from the same conditions.
--- Quote ---the units were limited to a single high energy shot every 10 seconds. The operational concept was intense and constant sniping, alternating fire from the barbettes to maintain a constant weight of fire and using accurate targeting to focus shots on exposed or vulnerable areas on the enemy vessel.
--- End quote ---
This is an interesting idea, but as mentioned following not an effective one in practice at least as the Admiralty conceived at this time. Primarily, in practice this strategy proves ineffective when all weapons fired are of the same class, simply put there ends up being no real benefit. However the Admiralty cannot be faulted for failing to foresee the advent of energy shields which would later motivate a resurgence of this doctrine applied to a naval combined arms context.
(Also I am now going to try and see if this idea is feasible in any other useful ways in Aurora, because similar mechanics are central in other wargames and it is in my opinion a fun tactical mechanic.)
--- Quote ---Given the complete lack of hard data, or indeed any data, on possible opponents there was a great deal of holo-simming and a great deal of proving the golden rule of holo-simming "You can prove anything if you setup the scenario just right".
--- End quote ---
A rule I am sure both sides of the debate have cited selectively.
--- Quote ---As it was the Tribals won out and ambitious officers in the fleet learnt that while they could ignore politics, that didn't mean politics would ignore them.
--- End quote ---
An unfortunate truth of the world of military affairs. Or perhaps fortunate, depending who is asked about such matters.
On the whole this is quite the quality and tone I would expect from an El Pip work, and I look forward to the next entry in the series sometime next Spring. :P
El Pip:
--- Quote from: nuclearslurpee on November 21, 2021, 01:31:38 PM ---I eagerly await links to where I may purchase these exhaustively detailed books so that I might assess their excessiveness as a neutral arbiter.
--- End quote ---
I briefly considered doing this as an anthology, each update from a different book and covering all sorts of other subjects. Then I realised that was ridiculously ambitious and scaled back to something (hopefully) more manageable.
--- Quote ---Truly the Space Imperial system is a thing of beauty. I may even have shed a manly space tear.
--- End quote ---
It is indeed a thing of wonder. First draft even had weapon and FC ranges in yards (with some order of magnitude prefix) but that seemed a step too far
--- Quote ---The design is also quite characteristic and even without the exposition tells the story of naval architects desperately scrabbling about to figure out what a space warship is supposed to do. In addition to the points raised in the text, I also would draw attention to the quite curious sensor suite - sensors covering several resolutions, each rather larger than is needed for beam targeting purposes yet rather smaller than one would want for long-range target detection as might be found on a dedicated fleet scout or C&C vessel. Still, such things are not necessarily damning as sensor doctrine in fleet design can be quite extensively variable. More curious is the decision to mount a 500-ton EM detection sensor, in itself a perfectly capable type of sensor, yet reflective of a clear identity crisis (I suspect typifying Admiralty thinking during this period) as it would be better-suited on a fleet scout type of design, and curiously is not matched by any thermal sensor at all.
Overall this is a ship quite confused as to its intended role and doctrine, really just the sort of thing that one expects from an Admiralty suffering from the same conditions.
--- End quote ---
It is a mix of mistakes for plot/RP purposes and entirely genuine mistakes because I was still adapting from VB to C# Aurora. The change in 'normal' fleet speed and the sensor changes in particular were a surprise.
--- Quote ---(Also I am now going to try and see if this idea is feasible in any other useful ways in Aurora, because similar mechanics are central in other wargames and it is in my opinion a fun tactical mechanic.)
--- End quote ---
Do keep us informed about the results of your researches.
--- Quote ---An unfortunate truth of the world of military affairs. Or perhaps fortunate, depending who is asked about such matters.
--- End quote ---
I have noticed Aurora AARs tend to gloss over military/political differences, often entirely justifiably because a race is a military dictatorship or whatever. And of course even debates within a military can provide more than enough plot points to fill many an update, as your own work effortlessly demonstrates. The Royal Navy however has to deal with not only those arguments, but also their political masters who may be ill-informed but also hold the purse strings and have voters to worry about.
--- Quote ---On the whole this is quite the quality and tone I would expect from an El Pip work, and I look forward to the next entry in the series sometime next Spring. :P
--- End quote ---
I'm afraid I must be the bearer of shocking news - it will probably be significantly earlier than that. I was amazed at how quickly that came together without the need to worry about research, the web of reaction and counter-reaction, and all the other things that slow down Butterfly. I can probably bash these out at quite the terrifying pace (relatively speaking).
nuclearslurpee:
--- Quote from: El Pip on November 24, 2021, 02:29:43 AM ---I briefly considered doing this as an anthology, each update from a different book and covering all sorts of other subjects. Then I realised that was ridiculously ambitious and scaled back to something (hopefully) more manageable.
--- End quote ---
Quite reasonable, this isn't the Vicky2 board after all.
--- Quote ---It is indeed a thing of wonder. First draft even had weapon and FC ranges in yards (with some order of magnitude prefix) but that seemed a step too far
--- End quote ---
What could have been...
--- Quote ---It is a mix of mistakes for plot/RP purposes and entirely genuine mistakes because I was still adapting from VB to C# Aurora. The change in 'normal' fleet speed and the sensor changes in particular were a surprise.
--- End quote ---
The change in fleet speed is still surprising to me, not so much that the faster fleet speeds seem extreme but rather in wondering how the player base went through the entire VB6 era and never figured out that faster ships are good and fun. I suspect it may have something to do with the very different engine, fuel, and sensor mechanics (and the AI, thinking about it...) that made missiles in VB6 much stronger relative to their C# versions, since higher fleet speeds seem to be driven by beam weapon viability.
--- Quote ---I'm afraid I must be the bearer of shocking news - it will probably be significantly earlier than that. I was amazed at how quickly that came together without the need to worry about research, the web of reaction and counter-reaction, and all the other things that slow down Butterfly. I can probably bash these out at quite the terrifying pace (relatively speaking).
--- End quote ---
The world may not be ready for this terrifying pace. :o
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