House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (49 page)

Massing over seven million tons, the
King William
was designed to be a balanced combatant, giving equal weight to missile combat, beam combat, and defenses. The
King William’s
technological advances over the
Manticore
class resulted in a near fifty percent improvement in missile broadside strength, and the class established what was to become the standard Manticoran capital ship ammunition allocation of one round per minute per broadside launcher for a sustained period of two hours, known as the “1-for-2” rule.

While the
King Williams
proved a very successful design, they experienced their own share of growing pains during the course of construction. After the first eight of the class were completed BuShips realized counter-missile batteries were going to have an even greater prominence in missile engagements than originally realized, as laser heads increased the standoff distance of incoming missiles and reduced the effectiveness of point defense. A half-dozen point defense clusters were accordingly removed from the defensive weapon decks and replaced with counter-missile launchers.

Later refits brought the entire class up to a more consistent standard, leaving most of the remaining difference merely cosmetic. While the
King William
was eventually supplanted by the
Anduril
and
Victory
classes as the frontline Manticoran superdreadnought, a number of the
King Williams
distinguished themselves over the course of the war.

Most of the surviving
King Williams
were sold to Alliance navies during the Janacek build-down, including a full squadron transferred to the Erewhon Navy shortly before the resumption of hostilities and their subsequent exit from the Alliance.

Anduril-class superdreadnought

Mass: 7,506,000 tons

Dimensions: 1324 × 192 × 179 m

Acceleration: 413.3 G (4.053 kps²)

80% Accel: 330.6 G (3.242 kps²)

Broadside: 29M, 22L, 24G, 1GL, 8ET, 24CM, 32PD

Chase: 6M, 7L, 6G, 8CM, 12PD

Number Built: 14

Service Life: 1889–1918

The
Anduril
class was one of the shorter-lived designs of Roger’s buildup, for two reasons. First, the older, cheaper Gladiator-class dreadnought had nearly the same capabilities for a considerably lower cost. Second, the Navy had come to the realization that missile combats were poised to become far more decisive than they had been at any time in the last two centuries, which moved the design trend towards more balanced combatants and away from brawlers like the
Anduril
.

While over four hundred thousand tons heavier than the
King William
, all of that extra tonnage was devoted to heavier armor and passive defenses. The
Anduril’s
distinction as the most heavily armored warship in the history of the RMN came at the cost of the offensive (missile) and defensive armament the Navy had come to value.

In addition, the heavy armor and internal compartmentalization had a hidden cost in terms of maintenance and downtime. Many systems, while well protected, were difficult to maintain, with too few accessways for movement of personnel and repair parts. Over the lifetime of the class, many pieces of equipment were simply abandoned in place rather than upgraded, due to the inability of the shipyard workers to install the new systems without cutting through a significant amount of hull armor.

The difficulty in upgrades, during a time when the Navy was undergoing generational changes in weapons systems literally every few years, was a death knell for the class. The
Andurils
were one of the first ships decommissioned during the Janacek build-down, and a number of them were sold to Erewhon with the
King Williams
.

Victory-class superdreadnought

Mass: 7,781,250 tons

Dimensions: 1340 × 194 × 181 m

Acceleration: 409.6 G (4.017 kps²)

80% Accel: 327.7 G (3.213 kps²)

Broadside: 35M, 20L, 19G, 6ET, 29CM, 27PD

Chase: 9M, 5L, 5G, 11CM, 9PD

Number Built: 36

Service Life: 1892–1918

With the
Victory
class, the RMN had finally hit its stride in superdreadnoughts. The construction woes plaguing the
King William
were a thing of the past, and the new design was a capable, missile-optimized platform that was a perfect match for the doctrine BuPlan had been perfecting since the advent of the laser head.

The class wasn’t particularly large, as even at the time advances in capital ship design were progressing at breakneck speed. The entire series production run lasted no more than handful of years before it was superseded by the
Sphinx
class.

The disposal of the entire
Victory
class in early 1918 PD by the Janacek Admiralty was one of the most contentious decisions made by Second Lord Houseman. Every single remaining hull was sold to
Grayson
at scrap prices, despite the fact that the GSN couldn’t possibly provide the manpower for all of those ships out of its own resources.

Benjamin Mayhew’s decision proved to be fortuitous, however, as the RMN scrambled to reactivate every hull it had in mothballs after the resumption of the war with Haven. While the newer ships had been brought back into service first, BuShips has been negotiating with the GSN for the return of over half of the hulls over the next year. The remainder were crewed as GSN units with a higher than normal percentage of RMN “loaner” personnel.

Sphinx-class superdreadnought

Mass: 8,207,000 tons

Dimensions: 1364 × 198 × 184 m

Acceleration: 403.9 G (3.961 kps²)

80% Accel: 323.1 G (3.169 kps²)

Broadside: 36M, 21L, 19G, 6ET, 27CM, 31PD

Chase: 8M, 4L, 5G, 9CM, 12PD

Number Built: 67

Service Life: 1895–present

The
Sphinx
class was by far the largest SD class (in total hulls) when the war started. During the peak of the buildup these ships were entering service at an almost frantic pace of more than one every month.

In terms of weapons fit, the most visible feature of any warship, the
Sphinx
was merely an incremental update over the
Victory
class, with no truly revolutionary ideas. That was scarcely surprising given the pace of production and improvements in design and construction. The first
Sphinx
was laid down before the first
Victory
was even commissioned, so there was little time for lessons learned from one to propagate to another.

While the weapons fit was largely the same as the preceding class, the defenses were much different. In theory the RMN has always designed their capital ships to be able to survive their own fire; in practice, up until the war began, RMN simulation models were in an almost continual state of flux as the damage potential of the laser head warheads kept increasing, without actual real-world testing data to ground the sims.

The
Sphinx
class marks the turning point where enough real-world data had been accumulated for BuShips to fully understand the kind of armoring and compartmentalization a ship of the wall needed to survive the new environment. Weapon mounts were rearranged, internal bulkheads were strengthened, magazines were hardened, and compartments were arranged to protect critical systems with less critical equipment spaces, all leading to a ship that was far more survivable than any design yet in service.

Still, the speed of design and development had not slowed, and, in a short construction run of only six years the RMN built almost twice as many
Sphinxes
as the previous
Victory
class.

The
Sphinx
and follow-on
Gryphon
were the only classes spared in the Janacek build-down, though over half of both of these classes had been placed in reserve by the time the war resumed. They have been reactivated on a crash priority basis on the theory that any ship of the wall is preferable to none, especially with the loss of so many incomplete modern units at Grendelsbane.

Gryphon-class superdreadnought

Mass: 8,339,000 tons

Dimensions: 1371 × 199 × 185 m

Acceleration: 402.1 G (3.944 kps²)

80% Accel: 321.7 G (3.155 kps²)

Broadside: 37M, 19L, 22G, 8ET, 28CM, 30PD

Chase: 9M, 4L, 5G, 10CM, 10PD

Number Built: 163

Service Life: 1900–present

In many ways the
Gryphon
class was simply an evolution and continuation of the successful
Sphinx
class, as new construction began to incorporate lessons learned from the
Victory
-class testing and evaluation programs. The differences in weapons fit and evolutionary changes in design were great enough that BuShips redesignated them as an entirely new class, despite the fact that several of the later Sphinxes were all but indistinguishable from the earlier
Gryphon
-class ships.

Still under construction at the outbreak of the First Haven War, these represent the pinnacle of conventional superdreadnought design, and the demands of the war kept the class in series production with a minimum of changes for the next decade. They would have continued at that pace were it not for the fruits of Project Ghost Rider, and in fact, a number of the Medusa-class units were carried on the books as Flight III
Gryphons
to maintain secrecy on that project.

Most of the
Gryphon
-class ships were spared from the Janacek cutbacks, though many were placed in the reserve in line with the policy of leaving system defense to LAC wings and concentrating the Navy’s striking power in the squadrons of pod superdreadnoughts already in commission.

During this period, a handful of
Gryphons
had been gutted and refitted with launchers capable of firing the new Mk23 Multi-Drive Missile from internal tubes. While plans had existed initially to refit all of the class with MDMs, the program proved prohibitively expensive and was bedeviled by technical and safety problems with the fusion-powered missiles, and only a small portion had actually been completed before the war resumed. Given the current strategic situation, the White Haven Admiralty has not been willing or able to pull the existing units off the front lines to continue the refits.

Duquesne-class superdreadnought

Mass: 7,187,250 tons

Dimensions: 1305 × 189 × 176 m

Acceleration: 417.5 G (4.094 kps²)

80% Accel: 334 G (3.275 kps²)

Broadside: 36M, 12L, 12G, 28CM, 24PD

Chase: 10M, 4L, 6G, 12CM, 12PD

Number Captured: 18

Service Life: 1906–1917

Exclusive of the original eleven donated to
Grayson
by Admiral White Haven, a number of Havenite superdreadnoughts were captured in the opening stages of the war, and the capture of several forward bases almost intact provided the RMN with enough ammunition and spares to bring them into service.

Along with the handful of captured dreadnoughts and smaller classes, these ships provided rear area security for a number of Alliance systems during the early stages of the war, but were relegated to mothballs as their crews were needed to man the new construction, while the ships in best condition were all sold at scrap value to
Grayson
in early 1917.

Haven-class superdreadnought

Mass: 7,816,250 tons

Dimensions: 1342 × 195 × 181 m

Acceleration: 409.1 G (4.012 kps²)

80% Accel: 327.3 G (3.21 kps²)

Broadside: 36M, 15L, 23G, 26CM, 32PD

Chase: 8M, 4L, 10G, 10CM, 12PD

Number Captured: 3

Service Life: 1907–1917

Similar to the
Duquesnes
, the few more modern
Haven
-class superdreadnoughts captured in the early days of the war served for several years as rear area security, freeing up hulls for the front. None of them saw battle against their sisters still in Havenite service, however, and the last were sold to
Grayson
along with the
Duquesnes
.

POD SUPERDREADNOUGHTS (SD(P))

The Royal Manticoran Navy began its operational experience with pod-laying designs with the
Trojan
-class armed merchant cruiser of Project Trojan Horse. While the initial designs were cumbersome, fragile, and inefficient, they still provided a huge force multiplier. They also proved the concept of the hollow-core pod-layer which certain officers in BuWeaps and BuShips had been proposing for some time. The Trojans’ successful deployment finally routed most of the “traditionalist” opposition to the proposal, and BuShips was formally authorized to begin design studies on what became the SD(P).

Beginning with the
Medusa
class, the RMN took the concept of a pod-laying warship and began an entirely new era of warfare. For the first time since its inception centuries before, the ponderous formality of the wall of battle had been broken, as engagements were often decided in the opening salvos of missiles.

The simultaneous implementation of a practical multi-drive missile system gave the RMN a qualitative edge that was unparalleled, and drove the People’s Navy to the brink of defeat in the few short months leading up to the ceasefire. Even though the MDM was inherently inaccurate at extended ranges, the pod-laying designs could fire salvos of thousands, multiple times, so that even a low percentage rate of hits produced overwhelming numbers of them in absolute terms.