SPECIFICATIONS

GOVERNMENT:UN Socialist Solar Empire
TYPE: Interstellar Spacecraft Carrier Vessel
MODEL: Chimera class SCV-73 (Ironclad Mark-II)
DATE INTRODUCED: 2073 AD
LENGTH: 743.4 feet
WIDTH: 148.7 feet
HEIGHT: 99.1 feet
MATERIAL: Crystal Composite
POWER PLANT: Hensai Energy HEFR-601 fusion reactor
OUTPUT: 60,100 megawatts
ARMOR TYPE: Crystal Composite
ARMOR THICKNESS: 1 inch
DISPLACEMENT: 20,000 tons
CREW: 335 (20 Operators, 48 Gunners, 29 Officers, 20 Engineers, 20 Technicians, 20 Electricians, 16 Medical, plus 160 pilots.)

PROPULSION

             FASTER THAN LIGHT DRIVE :
             1x Pallas Research PRID-T2-2000 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:
             2x Eurospace HYIE-20000 high yield ion engines
             SPEED: 76,000 mph each (152,000 mph total)

WEAPONS:

             PRIMARY (OFFENSIVE):
             8x Lithgear LG-CML-50002 cruise missile launcher; Missile Type: UN-SRT-5000 short-range 5000-pound computer-guided cruise missile/space torpedo; Effective Range: 35.1 miles; Payload: 4 cruise missiles each in a top facing internal missile silo; ROF: 1-2 torpedoes each.

             SECONDARY (OFFENSIVE):
             2x Lithgear LG-EMPAC-500 500-megawatt electromagnetic particle accelerator cannon turrets; Effective Range: 2500 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. 

             PRIMARY (DEFENSIVE):
             7x 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-1000 omnidirectional deflector field generator; Range: 1000 feet from hull; Power Requirement: 1000 megawatts each; Output: 50 gigajoules with a regeneration of 5 gigajoules every ten seconds.

HANGAR BAYS:
             4x 8800-yd3 Each of these spacefighter hangars holds up to forty SF-01A or SF-02 spacefighters and ten 200 ton AS-01 or AS-02 assault shuttles.

Description/Overview:
             The first Terran warship built as a dedicated spacecraft carrier was the Chimera class SCV-73.  This class of vessel was intended to help the Solar Empire spacenavy overcome the EFSN technological and numerical advantage that they had gained in the early phases of the war.  Unfortunately for the Solar Empire, only eighty of these ships were put into service during the war, and the vast majority of them were used to repel the Zhukovist/USR fleet.  Over half were destroyed in 2075 alone during the battles around Mars and Venus.  The other half (about 36 ships) were slowly decimated in skirmishes and battles with the USR, EFSM, and EFSN forces as the UN Solar Empire lost control of their planetary holdings and territory within the inner sphere.
             The Chimera used the same rapid-fire laser cannons, deflector field generators, and dual-shot cruise missile launchers as the Harpy and other classes of UN vessels of the Mark-II Ironclads.  Its EMPAC cannons were also identical, except that they were mounted in fixed emplacements rather than the standard turret.
             The spacecraft carrier used the Henai Energy HEFR-601 fusion reactor which was also used on the Harpy class. This reactor was barely adequate, but at the time the Chimera was produced (late 2073) the UN Solar Empire was running out of resources and ways to replenish their stores. Their lack of a market economy made bargaining with spacepirates impossible and thus the UN shipwrights had to make due with what they had on hand. Thus the carrier had a 900 megawatt shorfall. Captains of these vessels usually made up for this condition by not powering up the main EMPAC cannons until they were needed (thus taking power from the Intersection drive).
             The Chimera used a Pallas Research PRID-T2-2000 Type-2 intersection drive unit as its Faster-Than-Light drive. This drive used the “Nikolayev” Advanced Graviton Warp Field Generator (AGWFG) configuration. The AGWFG was the optimal configuration for the hull form of the Chimera and provided the best warp-field possible for the design.
             The sublight engines of the SCV were a pair of Eurospace HYIE-20,000 twenty-thousand megawatt high yield ion engines. Each of these engines were able to propel the ship at 76,000 mph individually and 152,000 mph combined.
             After the war ended, these craft were not reproduced by any other power except the Neo-Hebrews of Saturn.  The Saturn government produced 400 of these ships for their colonial fleets that were launched between 2080 and 2092 AD.  Each of the ten fleets that were launched during that time frame had forty SCV-73s in the fleet.  The complement of these Saturn carriers was forty PF-01A Protean Fighters (20 in each of two hangars), twenty PI-02 Protean Interceptors (one hangar), and twenty PF-04U Cosmo-Corsairs (in the forth hangar) as well as six AS-01A advanced assault shuttles.