Alamo-class Frigate

Overview

A 3rd Generation Frigate class, the Alamo-class Frigate was commissioned in 2180 as a replacement for the aging Hastings-class Frigate. The Alamo-class was designed based on the technology of the Kilimanjaro-class Dreadnought and as such was a top-of-the-line warship. Following an unprecedented explosion of the size of the Alliance Fleet, the Alliance had constructed 600 Alamo-class Frigates by 2186.

They ran reconnaissance for larger vessels and screened against enemy fighters and Frigates. They were a lot faster and more agile than capital ship due to their lighter design mass and proportionally larger thrusters. In combat, Hastings-class Frigates organised into Wolfpack Flotillas. Hunting down vulnerable capital ships using swarm tactics.

Hull and Superstructure

From stem to stern the Alamo-class has a length of 156 meters, a wingspan of 74 meters and a height of 24 meters.

It's hull is composed of 19 centimeters of high-density, ablative ceramic composite armour plating. These plates are hung from scaffolds around the ship's interior pressure hull and consist of several layers of armour separated by baffles, spaces often used for cargo storage.

Though it does provide protection against kinetic based weapons, the ablative armour is also highly effective at negating the penetrative effects of directed energy weapons such as lasers. The armour boils away when heated. The vaporised armour material scatters directed energy weapon beams. Rendering them ineffectual.

The ship's exterior is lined with strips of pure ceramic as part of her Defused Radiator Array (DRA) radiation system. While cruising, the ship radiates the excess heat of internal operations through these stripes. Making a Hastings-class Frigate appear striped on thermographic sensors. In some cases, the DRA stripes have been known to glow red- or white-hot. Leading to their nickname "War paint" or "Tiger stripes."

The DRA isn't as effective as regular radiation panels, but if a strip is damaged, the ship only loses a portion of it's radiation capabilities, rather than the entire array.

The airlock is located on the port side of the hull. With a cargo ramp on the ship's underside.

The superstructure of a Alamo-class Frigate is centred around her main gun, which run 90% of the ship's total length. Effectively making her a gun with thrusters. The long, thin ship maintains her rigidity through a heavily reinforced spine that runs along the main gun. On each side of the main hull are the large, angular wings that give the vessel her overall wedge shaped. These wings are at a higher angle than the Berlin-class Cruiser as they also provide lift during atmospheric flight. The back of the wings hold the ship's thruster nacelles.

Kinetic Barriers

The Alamo-class was also equipped with Heavy Ship mass repulsive kinetic barrier generators. These shields can withstand a direct impact from the main gun of another Frigate without damaging the vessel.

Kinetic barriers consist of hundreds of tiny mass effect field emitters that cover the ship's exterior hull. When an object with mass approaches the ship above a certain velocity, it triggers the barriers' reflex system. Generating a localised repulsive mass effect field, deflecting it.

Kinetic Barriers are limited by the amount of stress they can withstand. Sufficient enough kinetic energy can overload the shield generators. Resulting in the temporary deactivation of the system.

Power and Propulsion

Alamo-class Frigates were powered by a Nuclear Fusion Power Plant, with Hydrogen fuel cells providing backup power wherever the Plant was offline.

The ships were also equipped with a Mass Effect drive core. The drive worked by introducing an electric current to a core of the rare mineral, element zero. This then generated a dark energy mass effect field that could manipulate the mass of a volume of space time. A positive current increased mass and a negative current decreased mass. Allowing for the generation of kinetic barriers, increasing the power of weapons and altering the mass of the entire ship. Allowing increased mobility beyond what should be possible. It also allowed the ship to move faster than the speed of light.

The drive core allows for increased acceleration, but does not provide any motive power. Even during faster-than-light travel, the ship is propelled by it's sublight thrusters. 4 prograde and 2 retrograde military-grade antiproton drives at. Antiprotons are injected into a reaction chamber filled with protium. The most common and stable isotope of hydrogen. Consisting of a proton nucleus and a single electron. The antiproton is the antimatter version of the proton contained at the nucleus of protium, but with the opposite of charge. The resulting matter-antimater annihilation provides unmatched motive power. The exhaust of antiproton drives is measured in millions of degrees Celsius. Any vessel caught behind them will melt like wax to a blowtorch.

For maneuverability, the Alamo-class is equipped with an array of hydrogen-oxygen reaction control thrusters.

When in combat, the Alamo-class' DRA systems are unable to keep up with the increased radiation output. During combat, they deploy high-efficiency "droplet" heat sinks. Lithium tanks within the hull absorb the heat generated. The liquid is then vented through spray nozzles near the bow as a thin sheet of millions of micrometer-scale droplets. The droplets are then cooled by the cold vacuum of space before being caught at the stern and recycled back into the system. Droplet sinks are 10-100 times more effective than DRA systems. Droplet sheets resemble a surface ship's wake through water. The wake peels out in sharp turns, spreading a fan of droplets as the ship changes vectors and leaves the coolant behind.

Crew and Complement

The official crew size of a Hastings-class Frigate was 40 personnel, plus upto 20 marines seperated into 2 squads.

A Alamo-class has 6 emergency escape pods and 2 M-35 Mako IFVs in the vehicle bay of it's cargo hold. Later an M-35 was replaced with a M-44 Hammerhead Hover IFV.

Sensors and Communications

Most space battles can occur beyond visually range, as such Alamo-class Frigate rely heavily on an array of active and passive sensors to remain aware of their surroundings, however "light lag' prevents seeing in real-time over great distances. Due to the light-speed limit, the ship can't see enemy vessels approaching until they have already arrived, as there is FTL travel, but no FTL sensors.

Passive sensors are used for long-range detection and include visual, thermographic and radio detectors that watch and listen for objects in space. A powered ship emits a great deal of energy; the heat of the life support systems; the radiation given off by power plants and electrical equipment; the exhaust of the thrusters.Starshipsstand out plainly against the near-absolute zero background of space. Passive sensors can be used during FTL travel, but incoming data is significantly distorted by the effect of the mass effect envelope and Doppler shift.

Active sensors are used for long-range detection. These include radars and high resolution ladars (LAser Detection And Ranging) that emit a "ping" of energy and "listen" for return signals. Ladars have a narrower field of view than radar, but ladar resolution allows images of detected objects to be assembled. Active sensors are useless when a ship is moving at FTL speeds.

For communication, Alamo-class Frigates transmit information to the nearest mass relay comm buoy. Comm buoys are maintained in patterns built outward from each mass relay. The buoys are little more than a cluster of primitive, miniature mass relays. Each individual buoy is connected to a partner on another buoy in the network, forming a corridor of low-mass space. Tightbeam communications lasers are piped through these "tubes" ofFTLspace, allowing virtually instantaneous communication to anywhere on the network. The networks connect across regions by communications lasers through the mass relays. Military communications get top priority in the comm buoy network, ensuring no communication lag due to limited bandwidth.

Armament

The Primarily armament of a Hastings-class Frigate is a mass accelerator cannon. Mass accelerators propel solid metal slugs via electromagnetic attraction and repulsion. A slug lightened by a mass effect field can be accelerated to extremely high speeds, permitting previously unattainable projectile velocities. The primary determinant of a mass accelerator's destructive power is length. The longer the barrel, the longer the slug can be accelerated, the higher the slug's final velocity, and therefore the greater its kinetic impact. However, mass accelerators produce recoil equal to their impact energy. While the mass effect fields suspending the rounds mitigate the recoil, recoil shock can still rattle crews and damage systems. Slugs are designed to squash or shatter on impact, increasing the energy they transfer to its target. Without collapsibility, slugs would punch through their targets while inflicting only minimal damage. Rather than being mounted on the exterior, starship guns are housed inside hulls and visible only as gun portholes from outside.

The Alamo-class' main armament was a 134 meter spinal mounted Light mass accelerator cannon. Accelerating a 20 kg slug of ferric titanium to a velocity of 704 km/s. Impacting with the force of 4 956 160 Megajoules of kinetic energy or 1.18 kt of TNT.

In 2184, the Alliance introduced the Javelin torpedo tube. All existing and future Alamo-class Frigates were equipped with 2 M-53 Javelin Mk2 torpedo tubes. Disruptor torpedos have warheads that create random, unstable mass effect fields when triggered. These fields warp space-time in localised areas. The rapid, a symmetrical mass changes cause the target to rip itself apart. The Javelin fires disposable Disruptor torpedos on converging trajectories, the torpedoes detonate in a precisely timed sequence that allows the warhead's dark energy to resonate and thereby magnify the resulting space-time warp effects. Like fighter-launched torpedoes, Javelins are "cold-launched" for safety reasons, though they use a different approach. Resembling old-fashioned submarine torpedo tubes, Javelin torpedoes come packed in individual sealed tubes filled with compressed, inert gas. Opening the front of the tube causes escaping gases to push the torpedo into the vacuum, releasing a puff of crystals around the mouth of the tube. After completely clearing the tube, the torpedo ignites its thrusters. As missile weapons, Javelins are subject to highly accurate defensive GARDIAN fire. They must be launched in large numbers and at short range to have any chance of hitting their target at all.

The Alamo-class' General ARea Defense Integration Anti-spacecraft Network (GARDIAN) consists of 12 anti-missile/anti-fighter laser turrets on the exterior hull. Because these are under computer control, the gunnery control officer needs to do little beyond turn the system on and designate targets as hostile. Since lasers move at light speed, they cannot be dodged by anything moving at non-relativistic speeds. Unless the beam is aimed poorly, it will always hit its target. In the early stages of a battle, the GARDIAN fire is 100% accurate. It is not 100% lethal, but it doesn't have to be. Damaged fighters must break off for repairs. Lasers are limited bydiffraction. The beams "spread out", decreasing the energy density (watts per m2) the weapon can place on a target. Any high-powered laser is a short-ranged weapon. GARDIAN networks have another limitation: heat. Weapons-grade lasers require "cool-down" time, during which heat is transferred to sinks or radiators. As lasers fire, heat builds within them, reducing damage, range, and accuracy. Fighters attack in swarms. The first few WILL be hit by GARDIAN, but as the battle continues, the effects of laser overheat allow the attacks to press ever closer to the ship. Constant use will burn out the laser. GARDIAN lasers typically operate in infrared frequencies. Shorter frequencies would offer superior stopping power and range, but degradation of focal arrays and mirrors would make them expensive to maintain, and most prefer mechanical reliability over leading-edge performance where lives are concerned. Lasers are not blocked by the kinetic barriers of capital ships. However, the range of lasers limits their use to rare "knife fight"-range ship-to-ship combat.

Layout

The Alamo-class has 3 decks

Deck 1 was the combat deck, containing the bridge. It consists of the Commanding Officer's seat in the centre in front of the galaxy map at the front of the ship, with the pilot and copilot on each side and several mor terminals at the back this deck is also home to the communications room.

Deck 2 was the crew deck. This deck is the recreational area for off duty personnel. It also houses the medbay and main battery for the cannon that runs through the floor of this deck. This deck also contains 8 sleeper pods. The limited space in the ship means that crew take turns in these pods. Each getting about 6 hours of rack time per day.

Deck 3 contained the engine room and cargo hold, which contains the armoury and vehicle bay.