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Rethruverl Salan-class Heavy Cruiser

Note: While Zentraedi ships have been assigned Terran naval/space type designators, it must be stressed that their size and armaments placed them in a class of their own, matched only by contemporary Tirolian and modern Terran construction of like designations. As such, their designations must be viewed as indicators of intent and use rather than absolute strength. 

Class History:

Of these 1.2 million that were built from 2050 to 2068, 1.1 million of these were lost in the 4th Robotech War (2063-2068).  26 of these were destroyed during the Neld Invasion of 2057.  31 of these have been lost through various other causes be they accident or otherwise.

Ships' Complement:

• Ships' crew (500 men)
• Air group (800 men)
• Troops (8000 men)
• Life support limits are for a full combat complement and about 48,000 supernumeraries (50,000 men total).

Note: The given numbers are approximations; the exact number of personnel varied somewhat due to operational realities and different ships.

Dimensions:

• Length: 2032 meters overall
• Height: 853 meters overall
• Width: 700 meters overall
• Fuel Mass:  40,000,000 metric tons
• Operational mass (typical): 77,000,000 metric tons

Propulsion Systems:

• Main power system: Dealmalunn Melkezants Mk III anti matter-fueled reflex furnace cluster. The powerplant of a Rethruverl Salan-class vessel can nominally deliver up to 600 Petawatts of power, and can operate for 60 minutes at maximum power before overheat initiates auto-shutdown.
• Maneuvering thrusters (80): Thun Varredoush Mk III  fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters with steerable nozzles. There are 6 on the forward and aft dorsal hull, 10 on the central dorsal hull, 8 on the forward and aft sides and 10 in the central sides, 10 thrusters low in the nose, 10 mounted on the forward ventral, 6 in the central ventral and 6 in the aft ventral.
• Reaction-mass thrusters (8): Varretszalnna Mk III fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with anti matter energizer mounted in two vertical rows of four in the stern of the ship.
• Anti-gravity system (1): 50 Degrashan Mk IV anti-gravity pods.
• Space fold (1): Siquetzs Mk II spacefold. This system generates a hull-conformal fold.
• Planetary capabilities: The Rethruverl Salan has atmospheric capabilities through its reaction engines and anti-gravity systems. The ship cannot make a cold landing without exerting fatal pressure on the underslung hangar unless the ship touches down on an extensively prepared landing field with docking clamps or in an ocean. The ship will float in the latter. Furthermore, only the upper ingress/egress ports will open above the waterline, which greatly hampers access to the ship. In all, the captains of Thruverl Lilar-class craft preferred to remain in orbit or spacedock.

Endurance and mobility limits:

• The dry stores endurance is 6 months maximum; after that, the ships of this class need to restock. Water stores are recycled almost totally. If fewer or no auxiliary vessels are carried, the freed hangar space can be used to store additional consumables.
• The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) are adequate; the Rethruverl Salan-class is able to sustain continuous combat operations for more than 25 days.
  The missile magazines for the ship's own launchers are typically empty after six major space battles.
• At full power, the main propulsion systems can nominally produce up to 15 Teranewtons of thrust at a minimal reaction mass efficiency profile, or as little as 294 Giganewtons of thrust at a maximum efficiency setting. At lower power levels, these thrusts are commensurately smaller.
• At full power, the Rethruverl Salan's can nominally achieve a maximum delta-v of 488 kps at the cruising acceleration of 0.6G, a maximum delta-v of 97.6 kps at the battle acceleration of 2.0G, and a delta-v of at most 305. kps at the flank acceleration of 3.3G. At lower power levels, these ranges are commensurately smaller.
• The fold systems were not navigationally guaranteed for any single jump beyond 5 kiloparsecs. If longer voyages were required, the ship had to conduct multiple fold jumps.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed is Mach 1.5. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems is limited only by the anti-matter supplies and maintenance requirements.
• Including regular refits, the hull is designed to have an anticipated lifetime of 200 years.

Weapon systems:

• Thatzsral Mossil 5 plasma cannon(4): This is the  Zentraedi version of the plasma cannon.  The Zentraedi version has a much larger discharge of 72.2 TJ, but a range of only 200,000 km making among the most short range capital ship weapons.  It does have a excellent refire rate of once every 3 seconds making superior in terms of firepower and fire delay to the Terran cannon .  Each turret contains three cannons and can rotate a 360 degrees in the horizontal axis and from -15 to 75 degrees in the vertical axis. These cannons are located on in pairs on the either wing of the vessel..
• Inral Mossil 6 ion cannon(60):  Based on the venerable Makral Mossil series particle cannon, these cannon form the bulk of the anti-starship firepower on Zentraedi vessels.  The basic Makral Mossil has been improved by replacing the aging particle cannon with an ion cannon.  While having a rather weak discharge and range, the cannon has a very impressive rate of fire of once every second at maximum.  The cannon still mounts the low power laser cannon to cut a path for the ion cannon though.  The ion cannon has a range of 60,000 km and can discharge at 1.9 GJ every second.  Although these cannons are mounted to provide fire on all bearings, the highest concentration is in the nose and on the sides of the nose
• Nupe Mossil 4 defense cannon(50): In a doctrine change from the old Zentraedi to the new Zentraedi, all new Zentraedi warships now mounted a modest point defensive suite built around both missile turrets and particle cannon.  In battles against the Invid during the EF's struggle against them, the Zentraedi bore witness to the need for  point defense for their ships and incorporated them into all new designs.  Mounted behind movable panels in the main hull (30), wings (6 per), and in front of the bridge(2). These standard turrets can fire 50 MJ of particle energy three times per second at a range of up to 15 km.
• Deuawhaug Rasar SLBM launchers(22):  A reloadable Silo Launch System (RSLS), or as it is better known, a torpedo tube, capable of firing large anti-ship and ground bombardment torpedoes. The tubes can reload in 5 seconds, and have a 10 round magazine close-by. These launchers are mounted in the lower forward hull, between the lower and upper amour mantels.
  The missiles used are the DH-1, DH-2, and DH-3 missiles. The DH-1 is a nuclear missile with a 10 MT reaction warhead, the DH-2 is a conventional tipped missile with a warhead of 5.2 metric tons, and the DH-3 is a multi-warhead missile with thirty MIRV with a nuclear warhead of 5 kT each.
• Touwhaug Rasar 10 surface to air missile turret(60): A missile launcher mounted in a pop-up turret, firing TH-1 anti-mecha/missile missiles, though the projectiles can guide on point-blank enemy ships. When the missiles are released they are already on their intercept vectors, or very close to them. Each turret has a reload time of 5 seconds and a magazine with a 250 round capacity. They are mounted for spherical coverage.

Air group and mecha complement:

• 1200 Relotzor Tactical Battle Pod (four versions)
• 180 Gilouza Glaug Officers Battle Pod
• 48 Holto Queadluunkah Strike Power Armor
• 64 Holto Queadluun Power Armor
• 8 Holto Queadluuntiet Command Power Armor
• 300 Reraulon've Aerospace Fighter/Attack Plane
• 90 Harsz Dakan Veritech Fighter
• 2 Dakankahnna Heavy Attack Ship
• 75 Makral Zjendral Unmanned Defense Drone
• 10 Reliewneuatzs Personnel Shuttle
• 10 Quallie Dakan Recovery Pod
• 10 Renauglar Nodral Refueling Tanker
• 2 Requel Quallie-class Theatre Scout Recon
• 5 Draedni Queleual-class Light Transport

Note: The given numbers are approximations; the exact number and type of mecha varied somewhat due to operational realities and different ships.

Electronics:

• Banupetzs 16 Omnidirectional barrier defense system(1): An advanced forcefield system which covers the full four pi steradians around the ship with a yellow-greenish forcefield (or if desired, only part of the ship). This field will stop all solids and directed energy weapons (except lasers through a narrow band). However, excess energy which cannot be shunted from the field will be stored in the virtual structure of the field itself. The storage wattage is high but not infinite, and when the barrier overloads the field will discharge the stored energy particles. This discharge will have the force of a high-yield (>45 MT) fusion bomb. However, as the discharged energetic particles' vectors will be away from the field and its generating vessel, the vessel will survive, though it will suffer severe damage to its internal electronics and power systems, and will not be battleworthy until repairs are made.

Design Notes:

History:

Layout adapted from Robotech Reference Guide

Content by Jeffrey R. Spillner
Copyright © 1998-2002 Jeffrey R. Spillner

Page Last Updated on January 21, 2002 @ 14:00 GMT