SPECIFICATIONS

GOVERNMENT:UN Socialist Solar Empire
TYPE: Interstellar Space Battleship
MODEL: Kiev class SBB-73 (Ironclad Mark-III)
DATE INTRODUCED: 2073 AD
LENGTH: 800.5 feet
WIDTH: 86 feet
HEIGHT: 196 feet
MATERIAL: Crystal Composite
POWER PLANT: Hensai Energy HEFR-170K fusion reactor
OUTPUT: 170,000 megawatts
ARMOR TYPE: Crystal Composite
ARMOR THICKNESS: 8 inches
DISPLACEMENT: 25,000 tons
CREW: 360 (25 Operators, 112 Gunners, 31 Officers, 25 Engineers, 25 Technicians, 25 Electricians, 17 Medical, 60 Pilots, and 40 Security.)

PROPULSION

             FASTER THAN LIGHT DRIVE :
             1x Pallas Research PRID-T2-2500 Type-2 Intersection Drive unit
             SPEED: .12 light years per hour (195,523,200 miles per second, or 708,883,520,000 miles per hour)

             SUBLIGHT DRIVE:
             Main Engine
             1x Eurospace HYIE-100K high yield ion engines
             SPEED: 304,000 mph

             Auxilliary Engines
             2x Eurospace HYIE-12.5K high yield ion engines
             SPEED: 38,000 mph each (76,000 mph total)

WEAPONS:

             PRIMARY (OFFENSIVE):
             Maw Guns "Main Cannons"
             2x Lithgear LG-EMPAC-5000 5000-megawatt electromagnetic particle accelerator heavy maw-gun; Effective Range: 25,000 miles; Payload: unlimited with nuclear battery clutch recharged from the vessel's main reactor; ROF: up to 6 blasts per minute in cycles of 1 blast per 10 seconds.

             Main Turrets
             6x Lithgear LG-PC-2702 PHELAC dual 270-megawatt PHELAC turrets; Effective Range: 2160 miles; Payload: unlimited with nuclear battery clutch recharged from the vessel's main reactor; ROF: up to 9 dual blasts per minute in cycles of 1 twin blast per 6.7 seconds

             Broadside Guns
             14x Lithgear LG-PC-300 300-megawatt PHELAC cannon barbettes in two banks of seven; Effective Range: 2400 miles; Payload: unlimited with nuclear battery clutch recharged from the vessel's main reactor; ROF: up to 9 dual blasts per minute in cycles of 1 twin blast per 6.7 seconds.

             SECONDARY (OFFENSIVE):
             10x Lithgear LG-CML-5000T heavy space torpedo tube; Missile Type: UN-SRT-5000 short-range 5000-pound computer-guided cruise missile/space torpedo; Effective Range: 35.1 miles; Payload: 10 cruise missiles each in an internal space torpedo tube; ROF: 1 torpedo each tube.

             PRIMARY (DEFENSIVE):
             8x Lithgear LG-RFL-502 dual 50-megawatt rapid-fire laser cannon turrets; Effective Range: 500 miles; Payload: unlimited with a 1000-megawatt nuclear battery clutch recharged from the vessel's main reactor; ROF: up to 60 blasts per minute in cycles of 10 blasts per 10 seconds.

ELECTRONICS:
              1x Microwave Radio Communications array with a 1000 AU range.
              1x Super Luminal Velocity Communications Suite with a range of 5 light years.
              1x LADAR array with a range of 220,000 miles.
              1x Passive EMS array with a range of 1,000,000 miles.
              1x Active EMS array with a range of 100,000 miles.
              1x Super Luminal Velocity Sensor Suite with a range of 1 parsec (3.26 light years).
              1x Gravitational/Antigravity Control Unit; Effect: Provides artificial lift, g-force compensation, and enhanced maneuverability.

DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS:
             6x Cydonia Research CR-DF-2000 omnidirectional deflector field generator; Range: 2000 feet from hull; Power Requirement: 2000 megawatts each; Output: 100 gigajoules with a regeneration of 10 gigajoules every ten seconds.

HANGAR BAYS:
             1x 20,000-yd3 mecha hangar that holds up to sixty 50-ton mecha (usually sixty 25-ton spacefighters like the SF-02 or SF-01A), and up to ten 200-ton AS-01 or AS-02 assault shuttles.

Description/Overview:
             The greatest spacenaval achievement of the UNSC, and their last, was the creationof what was technically the only Mark-III Ironclad warship, the Kiev class.  This space battleship was the culmination of everything the Solar Empire’s shipwrights had learned throughout the thirty-year history of Terran space warfare. The Kiev was not only capable of annihilating almost any EFR spacecraft of the 2070s period, but it was also able to take on the large alien Prodono spacecraft used by the Zhukovists/USR.  The Kiev was as pivotal in the design and conception of future space warships as the HMS Dreadnaught was for sea warfare two centuries before her.
             The Kiev class of warships brought with them the dawning of the age of the space battleship for the Terran powers within the Sol star-system.  Prior to Kiev’s construction, the EFSN Anapolis was the largest Terran warship in service within the Sol System and was the premier space control ship of the first few years of the 1st Interplanetary War.  Kiev swiftly dethroned the Anapolis.  At two and a half times the displacement tonnage of Anapolis, the Kiev had much thicker armor and far more weaponry than the aging EFSN warship.  During “Operation Blitzkrieg” the Kiev class space battleships Kirov,Invincible,and Putin destroyed twenty squadrons of EFSN first generation space warships with minimal damage.  All three of these Kievs served with distinction until their capture by Earth Special Forces operatives in 2074 during a routine refueling operation.
             Within a year, all three of these ships were put back into service, this time under the flag of the Earth Federal Forces.  These ships proved extremely valuable during the rout of UNSC forces from the Earth sphere and “Operation Clean Sweep.”
             The Kiev class of spacebattleships consumed a large amount of power to operate. This hunger was fed by one Hensai Energy HEFR-170K 170,000-megawatt fusion reactor. This reactor was so large that only one year of fuel could be carried due to restrictions on internal volume. This was the primary drawback of the Kiev class and the means by which the Earth forces captured the aforementioned space-battleships. The first few Kiev class ships experienced a problem with the heat generated by this fusion reator. The temperatures were of considerable concern for the crews of the Kiev class.
             Therefore the UN Solar Empire shipwrights developed a system by which this problem was solved. The first three vessels were refit, and all subsequent ships of this class were built with a forward facing “Space-Airconditioning Vent Egress” or SAVE unit. This unit was built into the dorsal hull of the craft, directly behind the top forward PHELAC gun turret. This intake sucked in the freezing cold vacuum of space and pumped the cold around an outer shell which surrounded most of the fusion reactor. The “pressure” of the heat comming off of the reactor was forced through the unused space that existed in between the armored outer hull skin and inner hull superstructure throughout the ship evenly: thus actually heating the entire outer hull of the vessel which then radiated the heat off into space. With the reactor at full bore the outer hull of the spacecraft could reach temperatures of minus 15 to plus 3 degrees Fahrenheit (quite warm for outer-space). SAVE units would become commonplace on nearly all Terran built spacecraft for centuries.
             Kiev used one Pallas Research PRID-T2-2500 type-2 Intersection Drive as its Faster Than Light engine. This engine was built using the “Komsomolsk” Warp-Field-Gravity-Generator (WFGG) configuration which placed the graviton generation emitters at the mid-point of the ship in order to create a stable field around a cylindrical shaped vessel. The “Komsomolsk” configuration proved to be an excellent design for Kiev and other Intersection drive ships of the near future.
             The Kiev spacebattleship used one Eurospace HYIE-100K 100,000 megawatt high yield ion engine as its primary sublight propulsion engine. This massive engine was capable of moving the Kiev class battleships at speeds of 304,000 mph. This engine was more than adequate for the spacebattleship to navigate within the Inner sphere of worlds and around the various planets and planetoids of the Sol system.
             In the event that the main engine was damaged during combat operations a pair of Eurospace HYIE-12.5K secondary sublight engines were added to the ship in order to provide some measure of emergency propulsion should it be needed in an emergency or simply to add additional thrust for the main engine. This pair of engines were each able to push the Kiev at speeds of 38,000 mph individually or 76,000 mph combined. When combined with the main engine the total speed of the Kiev at sublight speed was 380,000 mph.
             The main guns of the Kiev were six Lithgear LG-PC-2702 dual two-hundred and seventy megawatt PHELAC turrets. These cannons were devastating against nearly everything in the EFR arsenal until the introduction of the EFSN Kurita class of spacebattleship. A full broadside of these cannons could atomize an Anapolis class cruiser with a single salvo. Individually these turreted dual PHELACs could blast escorts and support craft of the EFSN with a single hit. Only the alien vessels proved to be too tough for these cannon.
             To complement the main guns fourteen Lithgear LG-PC-300 PHELAC barbettes were mounted on the warship in two batteries of seven cannons each. These batteries were commonly refered to as “Broadside guns” as their main arc of fire was either port or starboard depending on which bank of seven one was speaking of. A single salvo from one of these batteries could severely damage an Anapolis or practically destroy any of the smaller EFSN warships. Combined with the aforementioned main PHELAC turrets, these broadside cannons could tear apart a Kurita or other battleship of the mid-21st century. Alien craft, with their energy-resistant armor, were an entirely different matter however.
             The only beam weaopns the Kiev had that could contend with the armor of the alien ships was a pair of Lithgear LG-EMPAC-5000 five-thousand megawatt electromagnetic particle accelerator cannon maw guns. This duo of death was lethal to any Terran made ship. The guns were intended for use against space-stations, heavily armored bases (like Juno) and of course the alien spacecraft. Against the small pickets and escorts these cannon were somewhat effective, but against the large alien cruisers and frigates they had minimal effect.
             The main anti-alien ship weapons of the Kiev were ten Lithgear LG-CMS-5000T space-torpedo luanchers. The torpedoes of these launchers were the UN-SRT-5000 cruise missiles that were common on all of the missile-armed Ironclad warships. These heavy missiles were able to use a variety of warheads. However, the Heavy Fusion (nuclear) and Fusion bolt (HEAP) were the most commonly used types. These missiles were very effective against the energy-resistent armor of the Prodono warships especially when armed with nuclear warheads.
             The Kiev used eight Lithgear LG-RFL-502 dual fifty-megawatt rapid fire laser cannons ball turrets that had become standard on all ships constructed after the Valkyrie class. These eight dual cannon ball turrets were located in key positions on the hull of the Kiev in order to protect against enemy mecha; a task these cannons performed well.
             The main defense of the Kiev was her thick armored hull, however she was still fitted with six Cydonia Research CR-DF-2000 two-thousand megawatt deflector field generators. These generators created an intense field that could withstand nearly any kind of standard EFR or USR weaponry and were very useful against mecha of that era.
             Only 20 Kiev class space battleships were built by the Solar Empire.  Of these, three were captured by the EFSN, eight were destroyed, and nine were captured by the Jupiter/Saturn defense forces.  After the 1st Interplanetary War was over, the Neo-Hebrew government at Saturn put the Kiev into mass production.  They built 240 of these vessels over a ten-year period: 100 for the colonial fleets, 100 for the Colonial Confederacy SpaceNavy, and forty for the Saturn Orbital Guard.