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| MASS: 144 NPV: 601 Classification: Fleet Guided Missile Cruiser (CM) Crew: 72; 10 Officers, 62 Enlisted Crew Factor: 8 Hull Integrity: 28 (7/7/7/7) Armor: 7 Main Drive Thrust: 4 (28.8 TW) Drive Auto-Detection Range: 7.158 AU ∆V (Combat): 57.986 km/sec ∆V (Cruise): 1159.726 km/sec Thrust Points: 116 (1943 tons propellant) Propellant Tanks: 4 Thrust Points per Tank: 29 FTL: Yes (Long Jump - 10 parsec range) Auxiliary Systems: 2-MASS Hangar Bay; 2-MASS Cargo Bay; 1x Enhanced Sensors; 0.6 G Spin Habitat for 72 Combat Systems: 3x Fire Control Weapons: 4x Point Defense Battery; 2x Class-2 Battery (All Arcs); 10x Light Antiship Missiles; 8x Medium Antiship Missiles |
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| The
Gloire class
missile cruiser is a joint French and Spanish design for the
EUSF. The initial contract called for twelve hulls to be built,
six for France, four for Spain, and one each for Italy and
Portugal. The ships were constructed from component hull systems
built by French shipfitters, with modular sensors, fire control, and
electronic systems to be fitted out with either French components or
those of the purchasing nation. Stardrives and AMPLAR torches
were also of French manufacture, causing no small amount of criticism
among member EU nations that France was once again pushing around its
supposed equals in the Union. In spite of the criticism, the Gloire was a solid design within
its intended role, and the first ships went into service in 2349 in
time for peacekeeping actions during the many spin-off brushfire wars
that played out as proxies for the Commerce
War between Manchuria and Russia. The Gloire, as a missile cruiser, has the role of engaging with and destroying the fleet assets of its enemies using volleys of antiship missiles at range rather than closing to engage with lasers as most warships of its displacement would do. Ten M.23 Espadon light antiship missiles and eight M.29 Fer-de-Lance medium antiship missiles provide both point defense saturation and brutal striking power. For self-defense, a pair of Class-2 free electron lasers with all aspect firing capability is all that stands between a Gloire and an enemy that manages to close the range. Four point defense batteries protect the ship against hostile missiles and fighters, and can in an emergency be pressed into service in the antiship role against a target at point blank range. The Gloire was originally intended to be a "fast" missile cruiser, with a combat mode thrust of 1.25 G. The Aerospatiele CT-3600 antimatter catalyzed fusion torch necessary to propel the cruiser at this rate was found to cut drastically into the Gloire's missile payload however, and given the choice between the smaller CT-2880 torch and a heavier overall hull, the EU's Ministry of Defense opted for a reduction in combat mode thrust. Like any good cruiser design, the Gloire has sufficient propellant reserves to give it good endurance and the ability to accept or avoid any engagement it needs to according to its mission and its munitions status. The EU discovered that the Gloire, while capable of decisive action in any stand up fight, suffered from the same logistics problems as the Manchurians with their Tunghu frigates and Huangfeng corvettes. If the cruiser cannot be resupplied with missiles while on deployment by a tender, it must spend weeks or even months returning to base to rearm. Long Jump makes this less time consuming for the Gloire than for the Manchurian ships, but will still remove the cruiser from the zone of engagement for the duration. Given the success of missile engagements against Dhaoghissi vessels as opposed to beam weapon exchanges, the A.M.C. has proposed a missile cruiser design similar in scope and capabilities to the Gloire, carrying R-45 Lancer and R-50 Trident weapons in place of the original French missiles. |
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