| 13 UGTO Agincourt Carrier [Warning: Large Pictures] [IC] |
The Agincourt class UGTO Fleet Carrier!
The first of this class rolled out of the Bifrost shipyards in 2243, the Agincourt class Carrier was actually the first UGTO ship fielded over the size of Destroyer. Intended to be the center of any fleet operations, these vessels were designed to project UGTO military might over a large radius to help secure the colonial regions from pirate activity, and to serve as a mobile command center and staging ground.
While they served the UGTO well in the capacity of anti-piracy, this design of ship was not without it's flaws. Primarily, it's dependance on fighters. Should it's compliment of fighters become exhausted, it would find itself without offensive or defensive capabilities. This, however, was deemed acceptable, as fighters were really the only effective means to defeat other fighters, and the UGTO clearly had the numbers and technology superiority over the pirate fleets.
All this changed with the Third Stellar War. While there are instances of Carrier groups being victorious in battle, analysis concluded that this was due to raw numbers rather than any real effectivness of the craft. The ICC simply possesed superior anti-fighter technologies, while also possesing potent starfighters of their own. More than half of the UGTO carrier fleets are wiped out to a ship, mostly from the disasterous Battle of Luyten, 2/16/2260. During the subsequent months, almost all of the remaining Carrier ships are mothballed, and work is begun to replace them with more conventional Top Capitol Ships. The few remaining fleet carriers are religated to patrol work and to deal with low level threats to UGTO security.
Recent advancements have caused UGTO military planners to take another look at their fighter craft. New technologies have allowed the creation of much more effective starfighters, and have spawned the design of new interceptor and bomber class starfighters as well as a redesign of the assault fighters. The relativly low cost of a starfighter wing as compaired to a capitol ship has further caused the UGTO military to rethink its take on dedicated fleet carriers.
On October 4, 2272 the UGTO government signed into law the Carrier Re-establishment act. All Agincourt class Carriers are slated for massive refit and reactivation, as this proves more economically viable than designing and constructing a completely new ship (the basic spaceframe is still a sound design).
Artist note:
You will see there is a large landing bay on the rear. This is where all craft land.
The four doors on the sides (two port, two starboard) are for shuttles, troop transports, and the like.
Fighters are stored and ferried about inside the carrier on a sort of hanging rack. When a fighter is to be launched, it is carted to the rails on the underside front of the ship. Short-duration high-thrust ion engines on the fighter's rack accelerate the craft down the length of the "runway". At the end, the fighter is released, and breaking thrusters on the rack bring it to a halt so that it may be brought inside and used on other starfighters. The tower hanging underneath the hull towards the front is the flight control tower, where all launches and strategic battle command occures for starfighters on board.
I apologize for the bump mapping. Some day we will probably include it in the DS game engine, and so all my models have it as part of their design.
The relativly clean design of the upper hull happened rather accidentally, but I have grown fond of it. I really couldn't come up with stuff to add up there that looked better than just leaving it clean and rounded. Though, the '50s era cadillac wings were temping... |
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