Aegis+Cruisers

The Aegis Missile Cruiser The first interplanetary warship built by the Andean Warship, the Aegis Missile Cruiser represents an initial approach to the tactics of combat in space which is as yet untested. As such the Aegis cruisers are, although still quite expensive, relatively light in comparison to other orbital warships. As such if the tactical doctrine behind them proves invalid, and a cruiser is lost, it will hopefully leave the remaining cruiser intact and capable of being retrofitted.

The concept behind the Aegis cruiser is simple and twofold. First the realization that weapons are weak points. The very fact that they have to connect to internal systems for power and ammunition means that at best there is a weak point in the ship's armor, at worst the proximity of nearby ammo dumps or high energy capacitors means that a hit could cause even more devastating secondary explosions. This is of course compounded by the fact that weapons are one of the highest priority targets an enemy warship will aim for. Second the military minds of the Federation realize that there is simply put a limited amount of space on a warships hull. The amount of weapons that can be mounted is reduced by necessities such as sensors, maneuvering thrusters, docking bays, engines, and of course armor. Mounting more weapons would reduce the space available for other components leaving a warship bristling with weapons deficient in other areas.

There are of course solutions to these problems. One solid favorite being the use of fewer but larger weapons buried in the ships structure such as spinal railguns or large lasers. Unfortunately the Federation lacks the specialized weaponry to truly pursue such options, and is furthermore not entirely convinced of the validity of such a warship. Space combat has a very short history. And the Federation is prepared to be a bit more flexible in examining and discarding various tactics, and so doesn't wish to commit themselves to a single track by building a single large warship which would be required to successfully execute such a design.

Instead the Federation analysts considered the fact that while the space on the warship's hull is limited, the space around the warship is considerably larger. Not only has that, but placing weapons away from the ship reduced the number of weak points in the armor. This of course is not an unknown principle. Naval carriers have been successfully executing the concept of a central warship that launches smaller independent weapon platforms for over a century. However the Federation has decided not to pursue a traditional carrier design. The problem being that space is not conducive to human health. Each individual fighter would its own life support. Furthermore individual fighters have always been far more vulnerable than the main carrier in terms of armor and protection. In atmosphere they have the advantages of maneuverability, but their success depends mostly on adequate numbers. Ultimately the smaller weapons platforms must be expendable to the main carrier.

Taking that why then must the weapons platforms be manned at all. Instead why not use a small drone platform. And since the drones cannot pack most weapons in the numbers or sizes to be effective against warships without closing to ranges where drones, at least at the Federation's level of robotic technology, could survive against close in defenses the most sensible option is to arm them with missiles. Not only are they essentially self-packaged weapons without need of additional ammo or much in the way of launchers missiles also have the flexibility that the Federation wants in a weapon. They can be upgraded with better warheads and drives without replacing the standard launcher, and missiles have the ability to track targets in flight. A necessity over long distances such as those in space.

As such the Aegis itself mounts very few weapons. In fact it looks much like its namesake. A wide flat armored surface in front which is heavily armored and mounted with sensors. This frontal shield is larger than the column creating an overhang to reduce enemy fire on the primary feature of the Aegis cruisers, the launching tubes. Spaced evenly in six rows around the central column these tubes all lead to a central storage hangar which holds racks of missile platforms. The Aegis Cruisers also have liberal amounts of maneuvering thrusters, but sacrifices overall engine power. As the Aegis designed for combat in Cislunar space it was decided that the Aegis Cruisers did not need the overall power necessary to actually venture to Mars, Venus, or even further afield.

The pods themselves come in two variants. The standard variant is designed for rapid fire launch. It is essentially not much more than a pack of missile tubes bound together with a few maneuvering thrusters attached. Its sole purpose is to be launched quickly correct its lateral velocity once far enough from the Aegis, maneuver slightly to face the target, and then launch its entire complement of missiles. After combat it is possible to retrieve them, but it is not a particular concern if they are destroyed. The second variant is considerably more advanced. Sheathed in metamaterials it is larger than the first variant and contains more missiles, more precise maneuvering thrusters, and a small engine. The purpose of this stealth variant is to act as opener. Before combat the Stealth pods are launched slowly as opposed to the rapid fire standard pod launches. They are then designed to quietly trail their Aegis Cruisers allowing the Cruisers to already have a substantial number of pods on hand to launch a massive alpha salvo when combat begins. Of course if combat begins unexpectedly they lose their value, but it is expected that innovative captains will come up with other uses for stealthed weapons platforms that can maneuver independently of the main ship.

The Aegis itself has only point defense weapons. And in combat the Aegis serves as core command and control unit, gathering sensor data to relay to the inflight missiles to increase their accuracy as much as possible, while also launching additional waves of missile pods. Although optimally the Aegis Cruisers will fight outside of the enemy's own range, it is expected that this will only occur in perfect situations. As such the Aegis has enough maneuvering power to quickly reorient itself keeping its massive frontal armor facing the enemy at all time, while its vulnerable pod launchers remain protected.

This represents another tactical doctrine. A single Aegis can only protect itself from one direction at once. However they are expected to operate in groups with Aegis each covering a direction of attack as necessary. Additionally the Aegis sensor networks are designed to interlink such one Aegis can launch missiles at another Aegis's target. This shows another advantage of external weapons platforms. As the entire missile salvo can be targeted in any direction regardless of the Aegis's current orientation. As such current, and admittedly still unproven, tactical doctrine is for all Aegis Cruisers in a group to concentrate their fire to fully saturate the target's missile defenses. Within reason of course. Once opposing capital ships have been dealt with the Aegis Cruisers are free to engage light ships at will.