WIP Survey Cruiser/Corvette tender

[wbnc]

I am working on this design as we speak. A large 3500-5000 displacement ton cruiser (49,000-70,000 cubic meter) starship desinged to protect, coordinate, and support/repair My survey Corvettes.

The forked end is forward, with the engines to the rear. The bay underneath is for docking, and repairing the smaller ships, as well as a construction deck for assembling, and manufacturing spare parts, spare equipment modules, and even smaller shuttles, and ships boats as needed.The cylinders to the side of the main body are part of the ship, where it houses the bulk of it's facilities.

the ship has facilities for labs, recreation areas, cargo and fuel storage, as well as a command and control deck for the Survey group.

In the sen you see it in transport mode, with two corvettes docked, and one riding in the hanger. This configuration allows it to carry short ranged corvettes along with it as it moves from assignment to assignment.

When travelling in this manner it would carry extra fuel in drop tanks, as well as tap fuel carried by the corvettes, and push it's jump drives to the maximum to maintain its normal jump range.

my desing goals are as follows
Jump 4
Thrust 4
Armor Maxed out

Weapons
turreted lasers, sandcasters, and particle beams
2 missile bays.
toying with ion cannons for self defense ( knock out attacking ships systems making them vulnerable to missiles, and boarding attempts by ships marine detachment.

Small craft carried
10 10 ton work pods
10 10 ton utility craft
5 20 ton ships boats
4 30 ton transport//cargo boats
4 50 ton modular cutters.

internal facilities:.

housing:
for 4 corvette crews for crew rotation and R&R,100 scientist/technicians, ships crew,
100 construction specialist/technicians/repair crews, 100 guests/visiting scientist.
recreation deck/with diplomatic reception area.

Security deck:
internal security monitors,remote lockdowns on all hatches, brig for 20 prisoners. 50 man security team ( subject to change) barracks 50 marines, with armories,vaults and dedicate assault boat.

medical center:
full medical lab, surgery, isolation rooms,long term low berth for infectious/critical patients

Command and control deck
bridge and command bridge

science deck with enhanced laboratories
4 100 ton multi function labs

engineering deck:
with construction deck for objects up to 50 displacement tons in volume.

Senors and communications gear
Advanced sensor array, with distributed arrays, signal enhancement electronic countermeasures. as ell as a full survey sensor array with drones and remote piloted vehicles.
external cargo clamps
drop tanks
3 docking clamps for corvettes
system links to all corvettes to tap power, and fuel reserves.

additional docking clams for up to four more corvettes for resupply and crew rotation( not used to ferry ships except in emergency jumps.

resupply and replenishment system.

 

[phavoc]

A tender is an auxilary craft not designed for fighting. Maxing out the armor and even giving it M-4 seems excessive. Not every place it would be going (since you have survey corvettes) is going to need a heavily armed and armored tender. In those cases it would be better to assign an escort or three. Otherwise that tonnage could be better allocated to the ship to do it's job. Armament should be minimal as well, and mostly defensive in nature. It's not a ship you wanting to fight with.

The repair docking bay/area is a good idea if you expect the ship to be servicing your escorts that are on long deployments. But for the most part it should be oriented towards doing repairs, and only 'major' ones designed to get the ship back to a proper shipyard for detailed repair. Mobile fleet repair docks and their highly valued crews are always in short supply with a navy and should be allocated on a priority basis. But having some machinery on board to manufacture parts as needed makes sense for a vessel of this type.

Is your hangar meant to be pressurized, or is it more of a conformal vacuum-style facility?

 

[wbnc]

A tender is an auxilary craft not designed for fighting. Maxing out the armor and even giving it M-4 seems excessive. Not every place it would be going (since you have survey corvettes) is going to need a heavily armed and armored tender. In those cases it would be better to assign an escort or three. Otherwise that tonnage could be better allocated to the ship to do it's job. Armament should be minimal as well, and mostly defensive in nature. It's not a ship you wanting to fight with.

The repair docking bay/area is a good idea if you expect the ship to be servicing your escorts that are on long deployments. But for the most part it should be oriented towards doing repairs, and only 'major' ones designed to get the ship back to a proper shipyard for detailed repair. Mobile fleet repair docks and their highly valued crews are always in short supply with a navy and should be allocated on a priority basis. But having some machinery on board to manufacture parts as needed makes sense for a vessel of this type.

Is your hangar meant to be pressurized, or is it more of a conformal vacuum-style facility?

The dock is sealed..I am still working on the hatch covers which i plan to make them separate so I can re position them for illustrations. as are the landing bays on the inside of the arms..I just haven't finished the illustration yet

as for armor and weapons I can see where you are coming from..part of me wants to make it light and minimal weapons..which is why only two missile bays to give it a bit of sting. But since it is also the command ship of a survey group I was tempted to give enough armor and weapons to act as fire support for it's corvettes.

currently it would have with it
2 armed combat escorts..400-600 ton corvettes.Missile or fusion gun bays+turrets
4 Survey corvettes turret weapons only.
and it's secondary craft/turret drones.

I have a rough idea for a 1000 ton heavy escort..but not sure if that is appropriate for a survey scouting group....

 

[phavoc]

You may want to look at some of the WW2 era seaplane tenders that were deployed, or the support ships for PT boats, submarines, and even a few that served as motherships to destroyer squadrons on forward deployment.

A FRD would be too much leaning towards the repair aspect and not the support side.

Of course we are going to expect animations of your hangar deck doors...

 

[wbnc]

You may want to look at some of the WW2 era seaplane tenders that were deployed, or the support ships for PT boats, submarines, and even a few that served as motherships to destroyer squadrons on forward deployment.

A FRD would be too much leaning towards the repair aspect and not the support side.

Of course we are going to expect animations of your hangar deck doors...

I just got texturing down...and it's still not that good

The idea of a Seaplane/destroyer tender was part of my inspiration. The corvettes I am planning are very much focused on their particular role..so not very self sufficient.Te can operate for a while on their own..but need regular resupply. if they had to run all the way back to a scout base or naval depot..it would mean months lost just to making resupply runs...andamodified cargo ship just didnt seem to be capable enough to serve as a command ship, and mobile supply hub.

 

[phavoc]

The idea of a Seaplane/destroyer tender was part of my inspiration. The corvettes I am planning are very much focused on their particular role..so not very self sufficient.Te can operate for a while on their own..but need regular resupply. if they had to run all the way back to a scout base or naval depot..it would mean months lost just to making resupply runs...andamodified cargo ship just didnt seem to be capable enough to serve as a command ship, and mobile supply hub.

If they are short-ranged, what about removing their jump drives and fuel altogether? Or, they seem like the perfect candidates for accumulators. The mothership can transport/drop them off and they can jump away if necessary - assuming a suitable target is nearby. Though it would be easy enough to set up a rendezvous point somewhere beyond the Oort clouds too. Nobody in-system would know you are there.

 

[wbnc]

The idea of a Seaplane/destroyer tender was part of my inspiration. The corvettes I am planning are very much focused on their particular role..so not very self sufficient.Te can operate for a while on their own..but need regular resupply. if they had to run all the way back to a scout base or naval depot..it would mean months lost just to making resupply runs...andamodified cargo ship just didnt seem to be capable enough to serve as a command ship, and mobile supply hub.

If they are short-ranged, what about removing their jump drives and fuel altogether? Or, they seem like the perfect candidates for accumulators. The mothership can transport/drop them off and they can jump away if necessary - assuming a suitable target is nearby. Though it would be easy enough to set up a rendezvous point somewhere beyond the Oort clouds too. Nobody in-system would know you are there.

another Idea I toyed with .... Decided on at least jump 1 for corvettes assigned tot eh cruiser/tender for emergency jumps...although a 500 ton in system science boat has a certain attraction...lots of room for labs and vehicles/smallcraft...and guns for the armed escorts...