Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

The term Battlecarrier has appeared many times to describe a multirole vessel capable of fighting in a slugging match while also having the capacity to launch fighters. The concept had several disastrous implementations during the twentieth century, yet it has risen to new prominence in the era of space combat. Today we will look at the factors that led to the rise of the Battlecarrier and how a concept that previously failed could prove successful with new technology.

In the age of wet water navies, carriers had required large runways for launch and recovery, this played directly into the size, but is also what doomed the Battle Carrier. These runways were naturally vulnerable since they couldn’t take much damage before being rendered useless, worse they had to be mounted on the deck of the ship. This meant that carrier space competed directly with the space needed to mount heavy guns. As a result, Naval Battle Carriers didn’t perform well in either the role of battleship or carrier. Largely due to their lack of firepower for the battle line and lacking the ability to field enough fighters to actually matter, so why do they work now?

Well, to answer that one has to consider how space warfare changed the equation. One of the big changes is that space combat is fully three-dimensional, in the void of space attacks can come from any direction, and traditional obstacles like the planetary horizon are no longer there either. In fact, as warfare moved into space, there was some debate on the value of carriers in deep space. The carrier at its core is rearline support vessel, that supports the fleet with the firepower and flexibility of its fighter fleet. Yet in space, it was found that they were more vulnerable to the enemy, as gun ranges expanded significantly resulting in battleship versus carrier matchups at ranges that would have been impossible an era before. Especially when one considers that the two have roughly similar speeds and maneuvering capacity.

Naval carriers were surprisingly fast able to keep out of range, but the same was found not to be true for space carriers. This led to numerous questions about their continued utility, but the carrier evolved. Space carriers grew large, were hardened with additional armor, and took on more powerful weaponry than their seagoing counterparts. This allowed them to take a couple of hits if they ended up in range of a battleship, allowing enough time for them to withdraw or be rescued by their escorts. At least in theory, while their hanger space shifted to allow them to carry more than just starfighters. Smaller ships suffered from limited range, a carrier was found particularly useful as a mobile base for fighters, corvettes, and even some frigates.

Of course, you might be wondering how that extra armor worked out, but unlike naval carriers, space carriers don’t have long exposed runways taking up much of the outer hull. Rather instead spacecraft designers had several options, sure they could mount starfighters externally on the hull, but it was much easier and safer to do it internally. Using internal space protected the fighters when not in use and allowed for ease of maintenance, this also allows for things like deception. Naval carriers also had internal stowage, but space carriers could take this further, without needing the large exposed exterior flightdecks, they could instead launch aircraft from much smaller more easily protected hangar bays.

Another model was for attached flight pods, often on either side of the ship. These would be separated from the main mass of the ship, but like the internal model, the starfighters would be protected when not in use within the armored superstructure of the flight pods. Both models have been used in spacecraft design, but human designers often prefer the internal bay model. While the flight pods do have their advantages the internal bays, allow for a carrier to stow significantly more fighters and strike craft.

Battle carriers are a bit more of a mixed bag when it comes to design, but flight pods show up more often among battle carriers, and this is due to their advantages in terms of protection. As they can operate more effectively compared to internal bays while under heavy fire. Something that was found to be suboptimal regardless, which has led many warship manufacturers like Star Tech Industries to not use flight pods at all.

This might leave you wondering why Battlecarrier concepts are so common if they can’t effectively operate as carriers while under fire and that leads us to logistics and out-of-battle roles. Many large spaceships incorporate at least one hanger in their design, allowing them to receive and offload personnel and cargo without needing to dock or land. This is advantageous since landing a large ship requires a lot of fuel and specialized facilities. Of course, with antigrav it's become cheaper than it used to be, but it's still cheaper to keep the ship in orbit if you don’t have to land. Many logistical duties don’t actually require a ship to dock, freeing up station docking slips for more intensive tasks like starship maintenance, repair, and refit duties. In addition, having a hanger is also useful in the field as it allows a ship to conduct numerous tasks that would otherwise be impossible in the depths of space.

Naturally, military planners started looking at hangers seeking to expand their use within the fleet. As attaching even a few fighter craft or scout ships would prove invaluable to numerous military tasks. For our purposes we will start with deep space patrol, a task often assigned to either a destroyer or a cruiser, typically a light cruiser. With the vastness of space, such ships were often assigned vast swaths of territory to survey, attaching a few scoutships to these ships proved invaluable.

While small corvettes and fighters aren’t able to operate independently for prolonged periods. Usually no more than a couple of days for a deep space fighter, and a matter of weeks for a corvette, when paired with a carrier they are very useful for deep space patrol and recon tasks. Many cruisers assigned to these missions however may need to engage a hostile ship directly, so they were one of the first such vessels to be looked at when applying the battle carrier concept. DSP or Deep Space Patrol vessels are often on their own with little to no support. These vessels need to be able to rely on their selves rather than expect backup to arrive at a moment's notice. As such they are the prime victim of the do-it-all ship mentality. However, the result after nearly a century in space, is a solid and reliable vessel type. DSPs are a type of battle carrier typically classified as light cruisers. Modern versions would include support for at least four corvette-sized scoutships and at least two heavier corvettes intended for combat interception missions. Furthermore, they would be equipped with two to four squadrons of fighters, typically for space superiority roles and fighter interception missions.

These fighters would often carry out combat space patrol missions, often called CAP missions, a dated term referring to combat air patrols. The goal of a CAP mission is to get fighters in the air looking out for enemy scouts and intercepting hostile strike craft before they could engage the carrier. With modern carriers, it's mostly been about the counter recon role however which plays into the main role of carriers in modern space combat, recon. Carriers are used heavily both for scouting and counter-scouting. Of course, carriers are also flexible and useful in ground attack and space superiority. It's why fleets want fighters and strike craft even if a battleship can inflict more decisive blows, the ability of fighters to create openings and locate threats can’t be understated.

This flexibility is what plays into the current popularity of the concept. Batte carriers are by definition meant to be flexible. Without large runways competing for hull surface, ships don’t have to sacrifice heavy weapons to fit their fighters. Many ships include hangers anyway given the value of having the ability to move personnel and cargo without having to dock or land. Battle carrier concepts show up not just with battleships but ships of all size classes. They are particularly common with patrol vessels as well, but we also see them show up with escorts.

Moving on from the battle carrier, let’s discuss the ships carriers and battle carriers in the fleet would carry. These can be divided into several different categories, first up drones and probes. Drones are automated spacecraft flown either by a central computer or remote pilot, although typically a combination of the two. Probes are variants of this, that boil down to be basically flying sensor arrays. Drones are typically expendable and can come in a number of variations, most drones are used mainly for recon. While on earth they had been used in ground attack as well, space-based carriers don’t often engage in that area. As for space superiority, there have been limited experiments with using drones in this area. While they can be effective, they are not without vulnerabilities, regardless some carriers will use them to supplement their fighter fleets in combination with manned starfighters.

Moving on Starfighters, are the spacecraft version of a fighter. The Enterprise as we have seen comes standard with the X-1204 Space Superiority Fighter which is analogous to air superiority fighters used to defend planetary air spaces. These ships are designed to dominate the void and engage other fighters in close-range combat, while also having the firepower to threaten larger ships. They come standard with particle cannons, missiles, and torpedoes. Allowing them to engage virtually any target that flies. The 1204 is fast, agile, and modular allowing it to be reoutfitted for any mission profile.

Modern space superiority fighters have several module layouts that allow them to fit additional fighter roles reducing the number of hull types a carrier would need to stow. Thereby expanding mission flexibility and allowing them to fill any space superiority role a carrier may require from recon to fighter-interceptor duties, to escort and combat space patrol. Name the mission and the fighter can be fitted with the modules she needs to excel in that role.

Another craft type carried by modern carriers are strike craft, these are typically slightly larger and carry heavier weapons than a space superiority fighter. Strikecraft specializes in attacking capital ships, large orbital facilities, and ground targets. Like their starfighter cousins, they are modular and can be adjusted based on mission profile. The X-1208 Sparrow is an example of this ship type. The Sparrow is noted for being fast, and fairly maneuverable which lets her get in close and use her heavy weapons, of which she carries a mix of heavy cannons, torpedoes, and bombs, but she does lack in lighter weapons for fighting off other fighters.

Then there are Corvettes, the term has cropped up throughout history to refer to various ship types. In space navies, these are basically small starships with a limited crew and range. They are often attached to starbases and carriers to serve as patrol and recon vessels. So far we have not seen any human examples of this ship type, but we have seen a few alien examples.

The Valorian V-22 is an example of a Corvette, she carries a handful of light pulse cannons, minimal shielding, and a small crew. The ship is used mainly for light escort duties, recon, and screening.

Corvettes in the Earth and colonial fleets back in the solar system fulfilled similar roles. They often had small crews, typically around ten to twenty, although larger examples could have more. Also of note for ships of this type is that they are the largest ships capable of fitting in most carrier hangers. They are often attached to carriers to serve as patrol vessels, light escorts, and even scouts. Corvettes are quite popular with any ship expected to serve on a deep space patrol mission, since these ships while limited in range are big enough that they can operate independently for several weeks, compared to the hours or days of a starfighter. Their size makes them quite versatile, as they can be outfitted for space superiority, escort, recon, and even electronic warfare.

Other ships a carrier might have include dropships and shuttlecraft. Not much to go on here though. Dropships are naturally enough used for inserting troops into hostile territory from orbit or recovering said troops. In comparison, shuttlecraft are used for the transfer of personnel and cargo from one point to another.

Of course, you might be wondering about the Corvette, so we will explore one in detail. Since no corvettes in the 1200 series made it to production we will look at an 1100 series vessel. The X-1109, which later became the CVP-1109, she measured 28 meters long, with two decks and a span of 18 meters. Living spaces were limited with barely enough space for her small crew of fifteen people. The 1109 was typically armed with four forward-facing fixed-mount particle cannons and six dual light particle cannon turrets. The ship also had port and starboard missile ports. Four on each side and typically carried a supply of short-range fusion missiles for engaging small space ships like starfighters and strikecraft. It also had the capacity to carry torpedoes and in some cases bombs.

The CVP-1109 like many ships of her period featured a modular weapons package, allowing her load out to be altered as needed to fit a mission profile, but she is notable for never carrying a sustained beam weapon. This is due to the ship being too small to mount the required support systems for the cutting beams available to the fleet at the time of her service.