Persei-Aries War Resumes

The Windsor class fleet carriers, named for royal families in the history and myth of terrestrial England, are built to form the nulceus of most of the Royal Navy’s more powerful aerospace strike squadrons or planetary assault task forces.  Usually escorted by a heavy cruiser like a Titan or Iron Duke, or alternately by two Relentless class light cruisers, a Winsdor class can usually establish aerospace superiority over a recently-colonized world, if not a whole star system.  Her hangars carry no less than three reinforced strike squadrons, two of Supermarine Starfire fighters and another “heavy” squadron of Nebulon Star Typhoon bombers (more like a squadron and a half, when fully loaded), a well as a section of De Havilland Buccaneer scouts.   In all, this aerospace wing can potentially put over 140 warheads into a single strike, enough to destroy most warships under a battleship, most orbital installations, and certainly any ground target in support of a planetary invasion.  Indeed, Windsor class fleet carriers are often called “baby Ark Royals,” sometimes expected to do a supercarrier’s job in a star system or contested sector where the fleet can’t afford to send one of its precious few Ark Royal flagships.

The comparison to Ark Royal class supercarriers goes further than simple size of the aerospace wing or hangar bays.  Like the Ark Royal, the Windors carry curiously heavy ship-to-ship weapons for an aerospace carrier class.  They mount two double turrets of Harland and Wolff “Nebula” 8-megakelvin laser emitters, the same as were mounted in the Maecenas class expedition cruisers and Falklands-Commonwealth destroyers.  Rumors abound that these lasers were mounted on the Windor because the arms manufacturer building these other classes (Johnston-McAuley Aerospace at New Glasgow Colony – Psi Serpentis-E) “padded” the contract and over-delivered the weapons – leaving the Royal Navy with a surplus that had to be used somewhere.  Such rumors are unconfirmed, those who believe the story point to the lack of Hawkinge Electronics 01A system that is mounted in the Trafalgar and Iron Duke class heavy cruisers, “proof” that the Windsors were not originally built for these weapons.  Those who discount the rumor point to the Ark Royal class and it’s 8-gigawatt rail gun turrets, citing that mounting relatively large ship-to-ship weapons on carriers is a long-standing facet of Royal Navy carrier doctrine. While too small and too few to really make a difference in an actual gunnery duel, the idea is for these British carriers to be able to close with target vessels or installations long enough to rapidly recover, re-arm, and re-launch successive waves of bombers.

While this sounds good in theory, please note the somewhat lackluster mass driver defense system installed, electronic warfare suite, and gravitic shielding.  While such defensive systems are not exactly poor, they aren’t very formidable either, especially for the hull profile and high-value target that a Windsor class carrier presents.  Similar aerospace carrier types like like the American Obama class have tougher shielding, stronger mass drivers, and  better electronic warfare and targeting systems, but lack the laser firepower of the Windsor.  As the Windsor is still a very new class, it remains to be seen whether these design features will pay off in combat.

In parallel with the Windsor class, a sub-class of planetary assualt carriers has also been developed.  These are the Waterloo class, named for victorious land battles won by the British Army through the centuries.  In this configuation, the ship trades in all its fighters for twelve Griffon Hoverwork Conqueror class assault boats, six of which carry twelve Excelsior battle tanks (two in each assualt boat), four of which carry twelve Rapier class APCs (three in each assualt boat), and two of which carry a total of 48 Royal Marine Commandos.  Bomber complement remains the same, their payloads usually configured with missiles for maximum effectiveness against enemy planetary surface targets.