by wbd » Sat May 12, 2007 9:32 pm
The CRS Confident, a Confident Class Battleship:
After the battle with Space Pirates at Blood Island, the need for an effective shield generator to protect friendly forces was shown as obvious. The Colonists, unfortunately, could only make very large and heavy ones, and they had to make sure that the generator itself was well-protected.
The solution was pretty ingenious, in a way- checking in their history texts, the Colonial Republic decided to build a Dreadnought style Battleship, and place the generator inside it. Other nations swiftly copied the innovation, but this wasn't like the battleship building boom at the early 20th century.
For one, fewer ships were needed. For another, the Battleship in the Colonial conception wasn't for slugging it out with other ships, it was for defending the valuable shield generator. Equipped with dual use beam/high velocity shell cannon, secondary guns, deflectors, jammers and all manner of EW equipment, these new battleships serve as flagships of the fleet, and shelter in a storm.
The Confident class battleship is the latest class to be launched by the Colonial Republic, and has been designed with an eye to reducing radar signature to at least some degree.