The Estentire Class BattleCruiser is a class of Heavy Cruisers designed solely to directly engage Carrier fleets from ranges as far as 75 miles. Concerted in late 1998, the design was in response to the modernization of many Navy's around the world. Estentire is combined and modified to incorporate both the qualities of a Destroyer, Command Ship, and Cruiser, by having a superstructure large enough to fit armaments capable of engaging and eliminating multiple vessels and aircraft at the same time.
With a total length of 252 meters, the steel/aluminum exo-skeleton is fitted with 76mm of armor plating, primarily around the ammunition compartments and holds. Aft is an Aircraft hangar capable of fitting 5 AHU-2 Piranhas, or 2 Falken Axel -1 Dropship's. Because the hull is so large, C3 systems are incorporated into the bridge to allow for a Command Vessel role to be implemented, as the original design was made to be a task group command escort to upcoming carrier projects. This makes Estentire an effective flagship.
As is, Estentire is one of the largest warships in its class that has ever been constructed. Due to this, an excessive powerplant is required to provide effective propulsion capable of driving the vessel faster than a carrier; 2-shaft CONAS, two KN-3 nuclear propulsion with two GT3A-688 steam turbines, producing a total of 140,000 shp. Its modernization also included the automation of many of the vessels systems, further reducing the need for large amounts of manpower dedicated to manually surveying any weapons systems.
Hull Design and Overview
Service trials had already demonstrated that the fuller hull of the Waarden-class over the preceding Miniscipule-class was not fully offset by the improved length to beam ratio, resulting in a loss of speed. In order to rectify this perceived design flaw, the hull of the vessel was both lengthened and widened, but fineness was increased, returning to a more cruiser-like hull form with superior hydrodynamics and with a net increase in usable internal volume. Above water, a new emphasis on radar cross-section reduction was instituted, transitioning the vessel from the conventional flat-sided tower to a well-angled version designed to minimize reflections. Similar changes were made to all other external surfaces, and as much external equipment as possible was either moved to internal storage or faired over with a low-RCS covering.
To offset the increase in length, weight-saving measures are instituted to keep displacement inflation under control. Many of the external fairings are composed of carbon fiber paneling or take advantage of other non-metallic polymers, with the added advantage of reducing vulnerability to salt water corrosion. By replacing these and certain other elements with lighter weight composites, an estimated 5,000 tons of projected weight increase is avoided, improving seakeeping and energy efficiency.
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Combined, these features are estimated to reduce radar cross-section by some 60% and infrared emissions by some 80%, while increasing useful volume by 8% and allowing for a 2.5 knot speed increase over the previous class in spite of requiring only 40,000 additional shaft horsepower. Lifecycle costs are estimated to be some 20% lower than a first-generation nuclear aircraft carrier, and crew requirements significantly decreased.
Propulsion
Of the three major propulsion systems considered, it was decided that pump-jet propulsion showed the most promise over existing propellers. By moving the water flow into the hull, and removing the need for long propeller shafts, the system could be made more durable and lighter in weight while also reducing acoustic detection potential. The loss of internal space to the intake gullet and expulsion systems was more than offset by the space gains from the removal of the shaft and gearing systems.
A rimless screw-type propeller was chosen for the pump-jet, removing the need for even an internal shaft arrangement. Tests demonstrated that a center-driven propeller created unwanted turbulence and water flow disruptions around the shaft, reducing propulsive efficiency. The removal of the center shaft also allowed for the use of a more efficient screw propeller as the hollow center allows water to feed into the later stages of the propeller directly, increasing expulsion velocity and thus propulsive efficiency. Instead, the propeller is rim-driven by a permanent magnet motor, resulting in a nearly silent propulsion system.
To counter another major issue in the design of pump-jets, a soft durameter polymer was added to the upper wall of the intake gullet. As ship speeds increase, increased water flow through the intake gullet reduces propulsive efficiency as pressure builds in the intake section of the system. At low and medium speeds, pressure from the intake gullet keeps the polymer in its housing, but at higher speeds, water flowing into the gullet cannot quickly make the angled transition into the gullet, creating a negative pressure bubble which pulls the polymer out, forming a constricting bubble. This bubble reduces water flow into the gullet, thus reducing pressure on the propeller and improving high-speed efficiency.
Steering at high speed is accomplished through a combination of vanes mounted on the pump-jets and a pair of conventional rudders mounted further aft. The steerable vanes allow all of the ship's thrust to be vectored, greatly improving maneuverability over conventional designs. The rudders serve to counter the Coandă effect inherent in pump-jets as well as provide additional emergency braking power by increasing the ship's drag. Between these two systems, the vessel is an extraordinarily agile ship for her size, aiding in torpedo defense and combat maneuvering.
Low-speed steering, where pump-jets are generally poor performers, is accomplished with a pair of retractable propellers located along the ship's centerline. These two propellers are capable of fully steering and maneuvering the ship in any direction at a speed of up to fifteen knots, allowing the ship to dock and undock itself under its own power. Outside of port, the propellers are retracted into the hull, and are stored in the space between the outer and inner bottoms, retaining the ship's watertight integrity in the event of potential damage to the system.
Armament and Defense
Estentire, while not designed to engage in line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight combat, is nevertheless well armored, with approximately 25% of its combat weight being made up by its armour. The primary focus is on the main belt, a standard BB, DN and SD layout, and emphasizes protection against long-extreme range sea-skimming anti-ship weapons, based on that the vessel is designed to engage in extreme-range conflict and thus notably less likely to be engaged by anything considerably shorter ranged. The remainder of the armor is not ignored, and the deck itself has no less than 105mm of armor, a considerable investment in passive protection from a warship of its class and type.
Anti-missile systems in the form of the P-700 Granit is a strong feature of the class' active defense with the firing sequence keyed automatically, dependent upon rules of engagement. Manual firing of (automatically targeted, manually adjustable) P-700 Granits can be utilized, should the circumstances call for that. For short range protection, the ship is armed with 8 AK-630 six-barreled Gatling 30 mm/L60 PD guns, 4 along each side, which can be fired either manually, using remote weapons stations, or automatically, by Questria uplink to the vessel's central computer. The system, once more pursuant to any rules of engagement in effect, can automatically engage unidentified or hostile targets that enter firing envelope, as a means of automated self-defense. This feature can, of course, be overridden or deactivated, as the tactical scenario warrants. The system, as well as naval craft, can also target low-flying aircraft, or ground targets.
The system is not designed to engage larger surface vessels, or engage in conventional naval gunnery exchanges, but exists entirely as a short-range self-defense measure. Most variants of naval-grade auto cannons are compatible, and are controllable either manually, or by radar assisted targeting, either from the firing platform or from the central radar stations of the bridge. The generic system has a range of approximately 2400 meters (1.5miles).
P-700 Granit (Anti-Ship Cruise Missile)
Built by Chelomei/NPO Mashinostroenia, the 10m missile has swept-back wings and tail, weighs around 7,000 kilograms and can be fitted with either a 750 kg HE warhead, a FAE warhead, or a 500 kt nuclear warhead. A stubby cylindrical solid-fuel rocket is fitted to the rear for launch; this booster stage is released when the missile enters sustained flight using its KR-93 turbojet engine. The P-700 has a distinctive annular air intake in the nose. Maximum speed is between Mach 1.6 and Mach 2.5. Range is 625 km. The guidance system is mixed-mode, with inertial, active terminal guidance with radar and also anti-radar homing. Mid-course correction is enabled.
The missile, when fired in a swarm (group of 4-8) has a unique guidance mode. One of the weapons climbs to a higher altitude and designates targets while the others attack. The missile responsible for target designation climbs in short pop-ups, so as to be harder to intercept. The missiles are linked by data connections, forming a network. If the designating missile is destroyed the next missile will rise to assume its purpose. Missiles are able to differentiate targets, detect groups and prioritize targets automatically using information gathered during flight and types of ships and battle formations pre-programmed in an onboard computer. They will attack targets in order of priority, highest to lowest: after destroying the first target, any remaining missiles will attack the next prioritized target.
MIM-104 Patriot (SAM)
The redone is made of slip-cast fused silica approximately 16.5 millimeters (0.65 in) thick, with nickel alloy tip, and a composite base attachment ring bonded to the slip cast fused silica and protected by a molded silicone rubber ring. The redone provides an aerodynamic shape for the missile and microwave window and thermal protection for the RF seeker and electronic components.
The Patriot guidance section consists primarily of the modular digital airborne guidance system (MDAGS). The MDAGS consists of a modular midcourse package that performs all of the required guidance functions from launch through midcourse and a terminal guidance section. The TVM seeker is mounted on the guidance section, extending into the redone. The seeker consists of an antenna mounted on an inertial platform, antenna control electronics, a receiver, and a transmitter. The Modular Midcourse Package (MMP), which is located in the forward portion of the warhead section, consists of the navigational electronics and a missile-borne computer that computes the guidance and autopilot algorithms and provides steering commands according to a resident computer program.
The warhead section, just aft of the guidance section, contains the proximity fused warhead, safety-and-arming device, fuzing circuits and antennas, link antenna switching circuits, auxiliary electronics, inertial sensor assembly, and signal data converter.
The propulsion section consists of the rocket motor, external heat shield, and two external conduits. The rocket motor includes the case, nozzle assembly, propellant, liner and insulation, pyrogen igniter, and propulsion arming and firing unit. The casing of the motor is an integral structural element of the missile airframe. It contains a conventional, casebonded solid rocket propellant.
The Control Actuator Section (CAS) is at the aft end of the missile. It receives commands from the missile autopilot and positions the fins. The missile fins steer and stabilizes the missile in flight. A fin servo system positions the fins. The fin servo system consists of hydraulic actuators and valves and an electrohydraulic power supply. The electrohydraulic power consists of battery, motor pump, oil reservoir, gas pressure bottle, and accumulator.
V-750V 1D (SAM)
The V-750 is a two-stage missile consisting of a solid-fuel booster and a storable liquid-fuel upper stage, which burns red fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer and kerosene as the fuel. The booster fires for about 4–5 seconds and the main engine for about 22 seconds, by which time the missile is traveling at about Mach 3. The booster mounts four large, cropped-delta wing fins that have small control surfaces in their trailing edges to control roll. The upper stage has smaller cropped-deltas near the middle of the airframe, with a smaller set of control surfaces at the extreme rear and much smaller fins on the nose.
The missiles are guided using radio control signals (sent on one of three channels) from the guidance computers at the site. The guidance system can handle only three targets at a time, but it can direct six missiles against them. Additional missiles could be fired against the same target after one or more missiles of the first salvo had completed their run, freeing the radio channel.
The missile typically mounts a 195 kg (430 lb) fragmentation warhead, with proximity, contact, and command fusing. The warhead has a lethal radius of about 65 m (213 ft) at lower altitudes, but at higher altitudes the thinner atmosphere allows for a wider radius of up to 250 m (820 ft).
Typical range for the missile is about 45 km (28 mi), with a maximum altitude around 20,000 m (66,000 ft). The radar and guidance system imposed a fairly long short-range cutoff of about 500 to 1,000 m (1,600 to 3,300 ft), making them fairly safe for engagements at low level.
Sustainability and Survival
The vessel uses the Questria 3 fire control and battlespace integration system as the basis of its electronic and information warfare suite. Like the Questria before it, the Questria 3 system inputs and actively seeks information from a wide variety of sensory sources, not limited to those on the ship itself. Questria 3 system follows on from its Inter-Vehicular Information System (IVIS) conceptual ancestor, and is part of an integrated and adaptive battlespace network that maximizes combat lethality, and enables command and control on an unprecedented scale. Information is sourced not only from multiple sources on the individual aircraft, ship, vehicle or soldier, but from every Questria 3 equipped friendly platform within the battlespace, which provides constant informational updates across a broad spectrum of sources, both known to the operators, and operating below their awareness.
The Questria 3 system utilizes this information to compute a firing solution, based upon analysis of the target and selected weapon. This is achieved in less time than it would take the gunner to depress the firing stud or authorize the missile launch. The firing solution that Questria 3 generates ensures a near-perfect hit percent at standard ranges, across all conditions.
At the most basic level, the Questria 3 system aims to accelerate engagement cycles and increase operational tempo at all levels of the warfighting system. This acceleration is achieved by providing a mechanism to rapidly gather and distribute targeting information, and rapidly issue directives. Questria 3's ultra-high speed networking permits error-free, high integrity transmission in a bare fraction of the time required for voice-based transmission, and permits transfer of a wide range of data formats, from a multitude of compatible sources. As well as radar, the fire control system on the vessel also has an electro-optic channel with long-wave thermal imager and infrared direction finder, including digital signal processing and automatic target tracking.
The Questria 3 network coordinates the fire power of up to seven Estentires and, utilizing the greater computational power available to a warship, as opposed to the P-700 from which the system was derived, and up to 80 other Questria-equipped vessels, spaced at distances of up to 900km. Any vessel can be the network master controller and the network can link with other command facilities, or even other networks, in real time, allowing for individual ships to control the anti-air coverage of taskgroups, and integrate the entirety into a cohesive whole, a system-of-systems approach, which has increasingly been prevalent globally.
The fully automatic real-time data exchange includes aerospace control data, weapon control orders and fire control orders, target identification data, individual system status and vehicle position, threat prioritization and optimized weapon allocation, engagement status, weapon status and jammer triangulation data. The vessel's computational facilities can track and target up to 4480 air or ground targets near simultaneously, a tenfold increase on its AcurKILL predecessor, with the control point directing the network to ensure the right weaponry arrives at the right time. The system can also assign targets to other vehicles in the network that are operating with their radars in silent mode, maximizing lethality while maintaining proportionally high levels of emission concealment. The vessel can also vector in extra weapons systems, in flight, if targets are missed or if the warships vast magazines have been depleted beyond its capacity to engage hostile force elements. The Questria 3 links for the vessels, like the AcurKILL and Brenard, use frequency-agile radios or direct laser LOS transfer, satellite assisted if required. Over 4,000 frequencies with 20kHz channel spacing are used in the frequency agile radio link. The system architecture provides full duplex data exchange and simultaneous half duplex voice communications.
Well implemented networking, using the Questria 3 system, can contribute to improved effectiveness in other ways as well. Rather than micromanage Questria-equipped platforms with close control via a command link tether (such as a radio), networked platforms are given significant autonomy, defined objectives, and allowed to take the initiative in how they meet these objectives. The size, integration and scope of the networked Questria 3 system enables all units across the battlespace to respond faster than their opposition, and this increased tempo generates increased lethality across all levels of the engagement spectrum.
The system, in its entirety, is fully insulated against electronic interference and data-hacking, and all communications and information exchange programs are 1024-bit encrypted (the additional layering to support the vessels status as force or Task Group co-ordination point) to ensure maximum network security.
Specifications
- Type: Heavy Nuclear-Powered Battle Cruiser
- Displacement: 24.300 Full
- Length: 252 m (827 ft)
- Beam: 28.5 m (94 ft)
- Draft: 9.1 m (30 ft)
- Propulsion: 2-shaft CONAS, 2× KN-3 nuclear propulsion with 2× GT3A-688 steam turbines 140,000 shp
- Speed: 32 knots (59 km/h)
- Range: Dependent upon Provision and Damage Levels
- Complement: 510
Radars: Voskhod MR-800 (Top Pair) 3D search radar
Fregat MR-710 (Top Steer) 3D search radar
2 × Palm Frond navigation radar
Sonar: Horse Jaw LF hull sonar
Horse Tail VDS (Variable Depth Sonar)
Electronic warfare & decoys: 2 x PK-2 Decoy dispensers (400 rockets)
Armament:
Missiles:
- 20 × P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) AShM
- 14 × SS-N-14 Silex ASW cruise missiles
- 96 x S-300F Fort SA-N-6 Grumble surface-to-air missiles
- 48 x S-300F Fort and 46 S-300FM Fort-M (SA-N-20 Gargoyle) long-range SAM
- 128 x 9K95 Tor (SA-N-9 Gauntlet) point defense SAM
- 44 x OSA-MA (SA-N-4 Gecko) PD SAM
- 1 × twin AK-130 130 mm/L70 dual purpose gun
- 8 ×AK-630 six-barreled Gatling 30 mm/L60 PD guns
- 6 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan gun/missile system
- 1 × 10 RBU-1000 305 mm ASW rocket launchers
- 2 × 6 RBU-12000 (Udav-1) 254 mm ASW rocket launchers
- 10 × 533 mm ASW/ASuW torpedo tubes, Type 53 torpedo or RPK-2 Viyuga (SS-N-15) ASW missile
Aircraft carried: 2 Axel – 1 Falken Dropships
In active service:
50 vessels. Classification: BC-XX
Named after Generals and admirals