SPECIFICATIONS

GOVERNMENT: Ceres Regency
TYPE: Interstellar Space Battlecruiser
MODELS: Scharnhorst class SBCC-70
DATE INTRODUCED: 2070 AD
LENGTH: 844 feet
WIDTH: 188.4 feet
HEIGHT: 159.4 feet
MATERIAL: Composite-Alloy
POWER PLANT: Ceres Energy CEFR-202K
OUTPUT: 202,000 megawatts
ARMOR TYPE: Composite-Alloy
ARMOR THICKNESS: 3.5 inches
DISPLACEMENT: 35,000 tons
CREW: 285 (66 Gunners, 35 Engineers, 35 Electricians, 35 Technicians,35 Operators, 25 Officers, 14 Medical, 40 Flight) 

PROPULSION

             FASTER THAN LIGHT DRIVE:
             3x Pallas Research PRID-T2-3500 Type-2 intersection drives
             SPEED: .12 light years per hour each (.36 light years per hour total)

             SUBLIGHT:
             7x Io Factory #5 EMD-15750 electromagnetic drives
             SPEED: 3,800,000 mph each (26,600,000 mph/.04C total)

             MANEUVER:
             2x Hygiea #3 HYID-7000 high yield ion drives
             SPEED: 15,200 mph each (30,400 mph total)

WEAPONS:

             PRIMARY (OFFENSIVE):
             6x Lithgear LG-PC-2002 dual 200-megawatt PHELAC turrets; Effective Range: 1600 miles; Payload: unlimited with nuclear battery clutch system; ROF: 3 blasts every twenty seconds with a cyclic rate of 9 blasts per minute.

             PRIMARY (ASSAULT):
             20x Lithgear LG-PC-1002 dual 100-megawatt PHELAC turrets; Effective Range: 800 miles; Payload: unlimited with nuclear battery clutch system; ROF: 3 blasts every twenty seconds with a cyclic rate of 9 blasts per minute.

              SECONDARY (OFFENSIVE):
              6x Io Factory #1 ITL-Mark V dual-shot ion torpedo retractable cruise missile launcher; Missile Type: IDST-10K ion drive computer-guided space torpedoes armed with one 10,000-pound nuclear warhead; Effective Range: 1056 miles; Payload: 2 space torpedoes each in an autoloading torpedo tube; ROF:  1-2 torpedoes per two seconds with a cyclic rate of 60 torpedoes per minute per torpedo battery.

              TERTIARY (OFFENSIVE):
              2x Lithgear LG-EMPAC-2000 2000-megawatt electromagnetic particle accelerator cannon; Effective Range: 10,000 miles; Payload: unlimited with nuclear battery clutch system; ROF: 1 blast every ten seconds or six blasts per minute each cannon.

ELECTRONICS:

             1x Microwave Radio Communications array with a range of 1000 AU.
             1x Super Luminal Velocity communications array with a range of 10 light years.
             1x LADAR array with a range of 220,000 miles.
             1x Passive EMS sensor array with a range of 1,000,000 miles.
             1x Active EMS sensor array with a range of 100,000 miles.
             1x Super Luminal Velocity sensor array with a range of 10 parsecs (32.6 light years).
             3x Gravitational Control/Antigravity unit. Effect: Provides artificial lift, g-force compensation, and enhanced maneuverability, and warp bubble generation for the triple intersection drives.

DEFENSE SYSTEMS:
             6x Europa Research ER-DF-2000 2000-megawatt deflector field generators; Effect: has an output of 100 gigajoules and a regeneration rate of 10 gigajoules per 10 seconds.

HANGAR BAY:
             1x 4800-yd3; Bay holds 8 PzWM-01 PanzerWeirMechs (50 tons each), and 32 JdWM-02 JägerWeirMechs (25 tons each)

SPECIAL SYSTEMS:
             48x Ganymede Industrial  GI-EP-01 emergency escape pods; DETAILS: Escape pods have 24-hour life-support, a speed of Mach 1 (760 mph), 3 weeks of food for six people, full reentry capability, parachutes for free fall, life raft for six people (water landing), and 24 hours of fuel for rocket engines.

Description/Overview:
         Development for a new battleship design to replace the Admiral Graf Spee class began in 2069 and was completed in mid-2070 at the Pallas R&D top secret laboratories that were under the direct control of UNSC rebels. These Regency conspirators wanted this new warship to act as the flagship of their revolutionary spacenavy. However, even the large (for its day) 35,000-ton design was not big enough for what the revolutionaries wanted—a ship that could compete with the Prodono cruisers found at Alpha Centauri.  The conspirators had to be careful not to alert his R&D teams to this even though most of them were very loyal to the cause of the rebellion against the Solar Empire.  The existence of the alien fleet was kept secret from all but a select few.  To placate the growing frustration of his design teams with his demands, the Regency conspiracy leadership approved the Scharnhorst design.
         Originally intended as a space control ship for the secret revolutionary space fleet, the Scharnhorst class was the second battleship-scale design downgraded by the leaders of the Regency conspirators to a cruiser level.  The commanders of the revolutionary forces were concerned that the armor and deflector field defense systems of the Scharnhorst were not powerful enough to warrant a battleship designation.  Therefore, this class of warship was reclassified as a space battlecruiser type.
         The Scharnhorst was the first spacecraft to mount a triple Type-2 intersection drive array using the “Dr. Wilhelmshaven” advanced graviton warp bubble configuration, which used all three of the craft’s antigravity systems to encircle the ship evenly making for a very stable warp bubble that allowed the craft to travel at three times the speed of a single intersection engine.  Three Pallas Research PRID-T2-3500 3500-megawatt Type-2 intersection drives were used for Scharnhorst.  Each engine was able to propel the vessel at .12 light years per hour (1051.2C) for a total of .36 light years per hour (3153.6C).  This made the Scharnhorst the fastest warship built by men of earth until the introduction of the Bismarck class in 2072 AD.
         The sublight engines of the Scharnhorst were seven Io Factory #5 EMD-15750 15,750-megawatt electromagnetic drives capable of propelling the vessel at speeds of 3,800,000 mph each, or 26,600,000 mph (.04C).  This group of sublight drives gave the Scharnhorst considerable speed for a ship of its size and unlimited range within the entire sphere of the Sol System (a one-way flight to Pluto from Earth being an average of only 133.4 hours, or 5.6 days one way).
         The emergency or “normal” speed engines of the ship were a pair of Hygiea #3 HYID-7000 7000-megawatt high yield ion engines.  These engines had a speed of 15,200 mph each, or 30,400 mph total.  This speed was adequate for combat and maneuvering near spacestations, planets, moons, and planetoids.
         The Scharnhorst, like ocean battlecruisers before it, had the armaments of a battleship.  Its main armament consisted of six Lithgear LG-PC-2002 dual 200-megawatt PHELAC turrets.  These turrets were the standard weapons that captains of Scharnhorst class battleships used as converging-beam weapons (CBWs) against enemy capital ships, or individually against enemy escorts and pickets.
         The broadside batteries of the Scharnhorst consisted of twenty Lithgear LG-PC-1002 dual 100-megawatt PHELAC turrets mounted in four batteries of five each.  Two batteries were mounted port and two starboard giving the ship considerable broadside firepower from either side of the vessel.  These weapons were used almost exclusively against enemy capital warships, as most Scharnhorst class captains would not waste a salvo on smaller vessels unless he or she had to.
         A pair of Lithgear LG-EMPAC-2000 2000-megawatt electromagnetic particle accelerator cannons was mounted at the bow of the ship to provide heavy bombardment capability for the vessel.  These cannons were often used in tandem against enemy cruisers, carriers, and battleships to knock out deflectors or melt through armor plating prior to a volley from the ship’s PHELAC turrets.
         The Scharnhorst was also fitted with ballistic weaponry for planetary bombardment. Six Io Factory #1 ITL-Mark V ion drive cruise missile launchers were mounted on the dorsal hull of the ship flanking either side of the main hangar of the ship.  These launchers carried a pair of IDST-10K ion drive computer-guided space torpedoes armed with one 10,000-pound nuclear warhead.  These devastating weapons had an area of effect of 7.6 miles, which allowed them to effectively englobe an entire battlegroup of warships or squadron of mecha within its destructive sphere, and even level the core of a metropolitan city or military complex.  Only two of these ion cruise missiles were carried in each of the six launchers giving the ship a total of twelve of these ballistic weapons.
         The Scharnhorst had considerable armor-plating protection for a battlecruiser and would have been considered a pocket battleship by many other space-borne powers.  However, the conspiracy leaders felt that the armor was not enough, and thus pressed his design team to add six Europa Research ER-DF-2000 2000-megawatt deflector field generators, which were the most powerful energy shields available to the designers at that time, and what would become the standard within the Ceres spacenavy.
         A rather interesting feature of the Scharnhorst was its 48 Ganymede Industrial GI-EP-01 type-one escape pods.  These emergency units were added at the request of the USSN members of the conspiracy due to the limited number of personnel that the conspirators had at their disposal at the time of the creation of the Scharnhorst class.  The addition of this emergency escape system made the Scharnhorst the first vessel from the Sol System to incorporate escape pods for the entire crew.  This feature became standard on many new designs of the post-1st Interplanetary War years.
         The overall design of the Scharnhorst led to a whole new family of warships built by the Ceres Regency starting with the Bismarck class of space battleship in 2072 and other craft of the late 21st and early 22nd centuries.