Winged Heroes

[HMS Sophia]

Very nice

I love small vtol fighters like the harrier, so this... 'successor' is brilliant

[ezgo394]

I like the vertifighter. I especially like the idea of the fans being linked together.

[acelanceloet]

just made a part for the mercenaries storyline (which will be build up from all short stories which happen during the 1st and 2nd utopian wars)
unfortunately I have only finished the Dutch one right now, so if you can read Dutch, take a look and say what you think

for all Dutchies: http://acelanceloet.deviantart.com/#/d46c5q6
for all non-Dutch speaking people: I am making an English version, coming soon.
note: I do recommend not to use an translator, it really spoils it -.- (just tried)

[acelanceloet]

repost of an old ship, now with the sistership and the full background intel.

Light Cruisers of the Elvira Class


In 1995, when utopia began to build up an navy to counter the Nicaraguan forces, the need arose for an command ship. 2 ships would be build, so there would always be at least one available. The design based on an heavy destroyer/light cruiser hull, with gas turbine propulsion

the original design was based on the Dutch M-frigates, but much larger. The planned armament consisted of 3 76mm guns and 2 goalkeepers, anti ship missiles and an air defense system. There weren’t enough goalkeepers available, so utopia placed an order for 3 Oto Melara DARDO 40mm guns. The USA didn’t want to sell the SM-2 to utopia, but an MK 48 laucher was no problem. An redesign followed, and during the final design stage an 127mm gun was added for extra firepower. Missiles were bought from The Netherlands.

Both ships were commissioned in January 1997, 6 months before the end of the war. The unicorn was completed without it’s 127mm gun because it wasn’t delivered on time. The ships were immediately used in action, and in march both ships were present at the raid on Nicaragua’s main naval base. In this action the Unicorn was destroyed. The action was successful though: Nicaragua had no longer an fleet powerful enough to attack utopia. The Elvira has never seen serious action after that. After the first Utopian war the Elvira was outdated and was being replaced by new ships and from 2000 onwards the Elvira was permanently docked close to utopia city as an memorial and museum.

To honor the sacrifice of the Unicorn, from 2008 onward every ship of the utopian navy (and later of the Freedom Forces Navy) would carry the same unicorn symbol as this ship carried on her missile launchers.

Some specs of the ships:
Max speed: 29 knots
Battle speed: 26 knots
Complement: 300
Arnament:
- 3 Oto Melara 76 mm Compact guns
- 3 Oto Melara 40 mm twin DARDO guns
- 1 Oto Melara 127 mm gun (*Elvira only)
- 8 Harpoon Anti Ship Missiles (8 others stored belowdecks)
- 10 RIM-7 NSSM (NATO Sea Sparrow Missile)
- 2 GIAT 20 mm/90 M693 guns
- 12.7mm guns in non-fixed positions.

[Eeo]

So... they built a ship, used it once, and then decommissioned it? Wow, how do I waste my tax payer's money!

[acelanceloet]

well, it was used more then once. they used it in the last 6 months of the first war of my story, and it was outdated and decommisioned before the start of the new.
if you look at it like this, there are ships that have never been used in war.

btw, if you look into this AU, you see that there are now taxpayers why not check the rest before you post something like that?

[HMS Sophia]

Still, it only being used for three years is a bit of a waste. Even outdated it could be used for patrol, and such.

[acelanceloet]

that is true. but keep in mind that it was only one ship, so it is just as expensive to keep it running (especially for such tasks) as replacing it. you have a point, I agree, but this ship was build for the first utopian war, and it had no real place in the new navy that they were building. using it as an memorial was the best thing they could do, she would not sail much longer anyway.

[HMS Sophia]

That's fair enough, but why would she not sail much longer? She certainly had it in her. Look at HMS Liverpool, commissioned 1982, active service of the coast of Libya today.

I get what you're saying about costs though. Especially if you can replace it with a smaller hull with similar capabilities?

[acelanceloet]

well, these ships were more then capable enough to take on small craft and even do some shore bombardement. the missiles could take care of large ships, but that was not the role she was build for. her AA capabilities were weak at is best, while the goal of the navy became to become an large expeditional force. the command facilities, the sensors and the weapons were just not powerful enough for this new navy. there were 2 options: an rebuild, or taking her off her command cruiser role. she could have done well in the anti-piracy role, indeed. but using an expensive large cruiser with an limited fuel capacity were 2 long range OPV's could do the same thing much better.......... and an memorial was needed

also, keep in mind that these ships are wartime builds in relatively inexperienced shipyards. these ships were not up to the high standards of the dutch naval ships yet, so the rebuild would require..... well basically the entire ship to be rebuild.

they were replaced by the fictional heroes class (in the 'battle' mode) and by the new aircraft carrying cruisers of the mjolnir class (in the command role) and later by the new aircraft carriers of the camelot class.