Charles de Gaulle-class supercarrier

From FABT

Charles de Gaulle-class supercarrier
CharlesdeGaulleSupercarrier1.png

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Production information

Manufacturer:

Davo-Hamish Shipyards (2171 CE - 2191 CE)
Jafer-Nocsky Shipbuilders (2192 CE - 2231 CE)

Model:

Charles de Gaulle

Class:

Carrier

Operator(s):

Systems Alliance Navy
Systems Coalition Navy
Virminian Navy

Preceded by:

Columbus-class

Succeeded by:

Jon Grissom-class
Supremacy-class

Generation:

Third

Technical information

Length:

1578m

Width:

750m

Height/depth:

873m

Max acceleration:

20 kilometers per second

Engine unit(s):

Element Zero Drive Core

Power plant:

4 Element Zero drive cores

Shielding:

Kinetic Barrier
Energy Shielding

Hull:

1200cm of Titanium-A3 Ablative Heavy Armor

Sensor systems:

  • LIDAR
  • Radar
  • Spectroscope

Targetting system:

Shipwide VI

Armament:

Crew:

27,000

Skeleton crew:

700

Usage

Commissioned:

19 September 2171 CE (by the Alliance)
19 August 2253 CE (by Virmire)

Decommissioned:

6 October 2231 CE (by the Coalition)
14 February 2301 CE (by Virmire)

Role(s):

  • Carry and deploy fighters, bombers and interceptors
  • Flagship
  • Fire support

Era:

Asari Cycle
Pax Galactica Era
Human Cycle
Reformation Era
Dominion Era

Affiliation:

SystemsAlliance.png
Systems Alliance (2165 CE - 2191 CE)


SystemsCoalition.png
Systems Coalition (2191 CE - 2231 CE)


VirmireInsignia.png
Virminian Republic (2253 CE - 2301 CE)
 

The Charles de Gaulle-class supercarrier was a classification of carrier that served in the Systems Alliance Navy from 2171 CE to 2191 CE, then the Systems Coalition Navy from 2191 CE to 2231 CE, and was the successor to the Columbus-class. The third of three carrier classes that were approved and built for the Alliance Navy, the Charles de Gaulle-class was conceived late in the Alliance's second generation carrier production, with the SSV Charles de Gaulle being commissioned in 2171 CE, six years after the Nelson-class and Lincoln-class had already entered service: due to how late the vessel entered service, the Charles de Gaulle is often considered part of the Alliance's third generation of warships (the first being categorized as pre-FCW, second being post-FCW and the third nebulously categorized as either c. SB or post-EPW). In large part thanks to to the extra development time, the Charles de Gaulle-class ended up going through numerous revisions and redesigns, incorporating newer technology as it went along until finally the first ship departed the Davo-Hamish Shipyards in 2171 CE. Of the class only a total of sixteen ships would be built, with two ships being allocated per fleet, as this was deemed to an adequate enough number of the ships to fit the role they were designed for. The Charles de Gaulle-class was by far the largest ship in the entire Alliance Navy, dwarfing the Kilimanjaro-class dreadnought by a hundred meters in length, and its size came with a compliment of aircraft four times that of the Nelson-class' capacity, and defenses comparable to a dreadnought. The supercarrier's size made it an imposing sight on the battlefield, and the shielding and armor of the vessel made it capable of taking part in direct engagements with capital ships, unlike the Nelson and Lincoln-class vessels, who tended to remain clear of the front lines. Despite this, the Charles de Gaulle-class possessed a sizable escort of its own, usually consisting of destroyers and cruisers. Excellent for power projection purposes, the low number of Charles de Gaulle-class vessels often didn't matter, and they quickly became a symbol of Alliance military might, and a bulwark against the aggression of their hostile batarian neighbour.

By the time the Skyllian Blitz began, fourteen ships of the class had been commissioned, with the remaining two still under construction. This number did not negate its effectiveness however, as was the case with the Queen Elizabeth and Scipio Africanus of the Second Fleet, which were part of the Second Fleet reinforcements sent to lift the slaver siege over Elysium. The Queen Elizabeth and Scipio Africanus, deployed at the fleet's vanguard as per Drescher's iconic Drescher's Sweep tactic, single-handedly swept over the rear of the batarian formation, their firepower smashing apart dozens of slaver ships whilst they deployed swarms of drones, fighters, interceptors and bombers that tore the survivors asunder. By the time the rest of Drescher's forces joined the battle, the supercarriers had to halt their advance as they had carved a path all the way to Elysium itself, leaving most of the slaver fleet in ruins. The four combined supercarriers of the Third (Robert Chamberlain and Anita Goyle) and Seventh (Archimedes and Elon Musk) fleets once again proved the supercarrier's power as it proved key to blunting and routing the batarian counteroffensive during the Second Battle of Torfan, single-handedly winning the war. The supercarriers of the Fifth Fleet, Ulysses S. Grant and Margaret Thatcher, proved instrumental during both the Battle of Armstrong and Battle of the Citadel during the Eden Prime War, where they proved excellent at soaking up enemy fire and destroying smaller enemy ships, as well as providing the bulk of the fleet's much needed air support: one of them would even survive Sovereign (the Grant remained at Mars, unable to participate due to damage sustained in the previous battle), although the Margaret Thatcher would suffer moderate damage during the battle with the Reaper.

The Charles de Gaulle-class continued to perform well during the Reaper War, although the loss of five of the ships on Reaper Day (both ships of the Second Fleet, one ship of the Fourth Fleet, one ship of the First Fleet and one ship of the Third Fleet) proved a devastating loss for the Alliance Navy, with the surviving eleven ships being used sparingly throughout the theaters of the conflict. Cerberus managed to steal the designs for the ship prior to the war, although they were only able to begin construction of one ship of the four they had wanted to build prior to the war breaking out: the CAW Kingmaker was nearly completed by the time of the war ending, with the ship seized during the Battle of Majorian Station during Operation Defiant and later finished and commissioned into the Alliance Navy after the war, renamed to the Audie Murphy. As for the Alliance ships during the war, two more would be lost at the final battle of Earth: after the Reaper War had ended, ten of the original sixteen Charles de Gaulle-class vessels had survived, although with the capture of the Audie Murphy, this was boosted to eleven. Despite the introduction of the fourth generation of ships by the Systems Coalition, no plans were made to decommission the Charles de Gaulle-class, with the ship being upgraded to modern specs and remaining in service for quite some afterwards, with five more ships being built to replace the ones lost during the Reaper War. Charles de Gaulle-class vessels would be present in the Border War and even the Post-Apocalyptic War, where four more were destroyed, and at least two would be assigned to the Maginot Line after the Dominion was victorious. The Charles de Gaulle-class would remain in service for the next decade and a half, but during this period, plans were made to decommission it due to it becoming obsolete when compared to the Covenant's White Wolf-class dreadnought-carriers, which were boasted as "carrier killers". In the end, the Jon Grissom-class was designed and approved to succeed the Charles de Gaulle-class, and by 2231 CE, the last Charles de Gaulle-class ship was decommissioned by the Coalition Navy, with three others being mothballed. After the Dominion Civil War, two of these ships would be scrapped, but one of them would be purchased by the Virminian Navy, with the Virminian military making heavy modifications to the ship to modernize it as best as possible. It would remain in service to Virmire's Navy until 2301 CE, where it was replaced by Virmire's own class of supercarriers, the Supremacy-class, of which only three were built.

The class was named after Charles de Gaulle, a 20th Century French army officer and statesman who served during the First World War and led the Free French forces against Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Service History[edit | edit source]