This is not a proposal for a new ship, but an observation of how the "legendary" Federation CVN Carrier would be a workable ship if some more F&E rules are ported to SFB.

In October 1995, Star Fleet Times #9 was published. It was a scary ships issue; at the time it said that none of these ships were "real". Since then, two of them have been published as real ships, the Romulan Megahawk and the Andromedon Shiva. One of the other ships was the Federation CVN Carrier. Basically the CVN violates the limits on the number of fighters that could deployed in a battle. But with the various rules added via F&E, this ship could actually work within those rules.

For those that haven't seen this ship, the CVN is essential a highly modified CVA. It has been stripped of all offensive weapons and had its compliment of fighters increase to 72. It's total compliment is 24 x F-14C, 36 x F-18C, 12 x A-10, 4 x SWAC (E-2), 4 x MRS, and 8 x Admin.

Rule (S8.32) limits the number in a battle force to 36 fighters, except rule (S8.326) allows a single ship to have up to 48 fighters. At 72 fighters, the CVN cannot be deployed under the (S8.0) rules.

If we shift to the view of F&E, the CVN has six squadrons of fighters; Two F-14, three F-18, and one A-10 squadron.

At six squadron, the CVN exceeds the three squadron limit of F&E.

Starting in Y181, (502.93) allows the Federation to deploy a fourth fighter squadron. So we're up to 4 of 6 squadrons.

As the CVN has no heavy weapons, it would be qualified to have an oversized squdron under (318.8). Two of the F-18 sqadrons could be combined into a single 24 fighter oversized squadron. This would reduce the squadron count to five; two F-14, one F-18, one oversize F-18, and one A-10 squadron.

The last step requires one "reasonable" change in the ship's complement. If one of the E-2s is replaced with a larger E-3. (A second shuttle [E-2, MRS, Admin?] be would traded with the E-2.) This would seem to be a quite logical swap. This E-3 could be used for fighter control under (518.46). This would allow an additional squadron of F-18s to be controlled. Now all five squadron, totaling 72 fighters, are allowed.

So it appears that a Federation CVN would become a legal ship if all of these F&E rules are ported over to SFB.

By Michael Lui (Michaellui) on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 02:46 am: Edit

If the Hydrans can only get 40 on a DN hull when it was stripped of heavy weapons, I don't think the Feds should get much more.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 08:27 am: Edit

Did this a few years back for kicks; a modernized CVN. Not much different, as I recall. I think all I did was change the ADD's to G-racks.

Fed CVN+

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 10:50 am: Edit

So what year in service date do you propose?

If F&E rule #(502.93) is to be required, then the earliest might be year 181... and possibly a post war design for the ISC pacification period... or are you suggesting this as a Andromedan War combat unit?

Heck, by that time period the Hydrans might be able to deploy as many fighters, (or more) on a DN hull.

Without special sensors such a ship still couldnt be used to kill the RTN. But it would be a pretty good "hammer" for those occassional Andromedan bases too tough for to be "nailed" by a BCH led battle group.

Nice SSD Mike!

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 06:16 pm: Edit

I actually like this ship.

The ISC/Andro DESERVE to fight this ship..

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 07:13 pm: Edit

Or, instead of playing utterly ridiculous games, just redesign the ship to fit the rules. Delete one F-14 squadron and one F-18 squadron. This still leaves it with 14xF-14, 24xF-18, and 12xA-10. That is "only" 48 fighters, but it still beats anything else out there, and you don't even need to change the SFB rules to let it work.

(Plus, that CVN rear hull is way too long.)

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Monday, June 04, 2007 - 07:46 pm: Edit

I think the main change that I would make is change the base hull to the BB. I don't think the Fed BB was published when SFT #9 came out. Basically add a fourth warp engine and increase the movement cost to 2.

If you replace the 12 A-10 with 6 A-20 and move them to mech-links on the tractors; that gets 12 boxes off the SSD. Perhaps a few more fighters could be moved to the primary hull; the CVD has 12 fighters in the forward bay, a DNG/BB hull should be able to go up to 18. And widen the rear hull by a row, like the BBV/SDA, and it gets closer to the size of the SDA.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Saturday, December 29, 2007 - 02:16 pm: Edit

Okay, my question is, are we trying to get this ship 'real' or just playing with SSJ fodder? If all we want is a conjectural ship to have fun with occasionally, I don't see any reason why we have to make it fit (S8.0) regulations. If for no other reason, you need to get your opponent's permission for a conjectural unit anyway, so it breaking the squadron count rule would be taken care of then.

That said, I don't have a copy of the SSD (though I would love to find it) so I can't speak on details, but I would update the squadrons by only two changes. One would be make the A-10s into A-20s in the external mounts. Then I would replace one of the F-18 squdrons with F-101s in the bay. Or, if you realy feel froggy, replace one squadron (maybe an F-14 squadron) with external mount F-111s.

I can't comment on the DN->BB hull change without the SSD, but I would recomend an oversized escort group. Maybe the one I thought of for my SCV proposal (i.e., NAE, 2xNAC, 2xDWA). For something this munchkin, 5 escorts is not out of line.