Freelance Traveller

designed by Ken Pick

Before the advent of nuclear dampers and meson guns/screens at TL12, missiles (especially nuclear missiles) remain the primary ship-killing weapon. Because a single nuke can cause catastrophic damage, doctrine up to TL12 is to spread the risk and firepower over many smaller and cheaper hulls.

And the smallest hulls are those of fighters. Below TL12, "Carrier Navies" centered around fighters and small missile-armed "Torpedo boats" rule the sky. And fighters need a carrier to operate as anything other than ground-based system defense. Above TL12, the introduction of Nuclear Dampers reduces the effectiveness of missiles to where large, heavily-armored battleships become the capital ships of choice (just the opposite of the TL5-7 wet navy progression). At these Tech Levels, carriers become secondary "Space Control" ships, providing fighter cover to fleets or filling in where large-ship opposition is not expected.

Because of the tonnage requirements of hangar bays and rapid launch/recovery facilities, carrier hulls are not armored. This should not be that much of a handicap, as preferred carrier tactics are to stand well back (behind screening ships more suited to close combat) and throw fighter strikes at the enemy.

Here are two carriers intended as "capital ships" for a TL11 small-ship campaign, and as general-purpose small carriers for higher-tech/large-ship campaigns. Because of the tonnage requirements of hangar bays and rapid launch/recovery facilities, their hulls cannot be armored.

Three variants of each carrier are provided:

1. TL11, Jump-2, 4-G (for "low-tech Trav")
2. TL13, Jump-4, Maneuver-4 (typical of the pre-3I campaigns profiled in Other Roads
3. TL13+, Jump-4, 6-G (typical Third Imperium performance requirements)

To achieve this performance using stock Book 2 engines, these ships are assumed to have multiple engines.

Independence Light Carrier (CVL)

The CVL is scaled around a fighter wing of 40 single-seat, 10-ton lightweight fighters and 20 two-seat, 20-ton heavy fighters with the ability to launch/recover 40 each turn. Assuming 10% of the complement are "spares" down for maintenance, the wing is organized into three 12-light fighter squadrons and one 18-heavy fighter attack squadron.

Indepedence CVL (TL11). 6000 tons. Jump-2, 4-G. 1620 tons fuel. Dual bridges & Model/5s. 250 staterooms, 250 low berths. Two 10-ton laser bays, 30 triple turrets (20 x BBB, 10 x SMS). 1200-ton capacity hangar bay with rapid launch/recovery facilities for 30-ton small craft, 110 tons user-definable. Not streamlined. 270 crew, 150 Marines.

MCr 1679.5; 36 months. Special Rules: Multiple Engines, Hull Armor, Laser Bays, Rapid Launch/Recovery Facilities.

Independence Light Carrier. Using a custom 6000-ton hull, the Independence is a light fighter carrier. It mounts Jump Drive-Z, dual Maneuver Drive-Z, and dual Powerplant-Z, giving a performance of Jump-2 and 4-G. Fuel tankage for 1620 tons supports the powerplants, allows one Jump-2, and 240 tons for the fighter wing. The ship has dual bridges (main and backup), each with a Computer Model/5. There are 250 staterooms and 250 low berths. The ship has two 10-ton bays and 30 hardpoints with fire-control. Two 10-ton laser bays and 40 triple turrets are installed; 20 with triple beam lasers and 10 with dual sandcasters and a missile rack; 50 tons of magazines holds 18 rounds per sandcaster/missile rack. A dedicated hangar bay holds up to 1200 tons of ship's vehicles, with rapid launch/recovery facilities for up to 40 30-ton small craft. Cargo capacity is 110 tons; the ship is not streamlined.

The Independence requires a crew of about 100, plus 170 for the fighter wing (10 launch/recovery crew, 100 flight crew, and 60 maintenance personnel), and 150 Marines, assuming single-occupancy for officers and double occupancy for enlisted men; total life-support capacity is 500. The ship costs MCr 1679.5, and takes 36 months to build.

CVL Upgrades:

The basic CVL is Tech Level 11. Upgrades ("TL11bis") are normally limited to higher-tech fighters and easily-replaceable systems such as the computers. Nuclear dampers are also added where and when available.

Unfortunately, the CVL is a very tight design, and cannot increase its Jump performance beyond Jump-2. To achieve Jump-4 would require sacrificing the entire fighter/small craft hangarage, defeating the purpose of a carrier design. Because of this Jump limitation, higher-tech navies usually convert the Independence to "Gator Navy" use - displacing some of the hangarage with additional Marine barracks and some of the fighters with 30-ton landing craft for a battalion-capacity Marine Assault Carrier.

For front-line (Jump-4) use at higher tech levels, navies often use in place of the CVL a cruiser/carrier hybrid such as the Mogami-11 or Imperial Mogami .

Essex Fleet Carrier (CV)

The CV is twice the size and capacity of the CVL, scaled around a fighter wing of 80 single-seat, 10-ton lightweight fighters and 40 two-seat, 20-ton heavy fighters with the ability to launch/recover 40 each turn. Assuming 10% of the complement are "spares" down for maintenance, the wing is organized into six 12-light fighter squadrons and three 12-heavy fighter attack squadrons.

Essex-11 CV (TL11). 12000 tons. Jump-2, 4-G. 3000 tons fuel. Dual bridges & Model/5s. 300 staterooms, 300 low berths. Eight 10-ton laser bays, 20 triple turrets (14 x BBB, 6 x SMS). 2400-ton capacity hangar bay with dual rapid launch/recovery facilities for 30-ton small craft, 2600 tons user-definable. Not streamlined. 460 crew, 120 Marines.

MCr 3205.3; 36 months. Special Rules: Multiple Engines, Hull Armor, Laser Bays, Rapid Launch/Recovery Facilities.

Essex-11 Fleet Carrier. Using a custom 12000-ton hull, the Essex-11 is a fighter carrier. It mounts dual Jump Drive-Z, four Maneuver Drive-Z, and four Powerplant-Z, giving a performance of Jump-2 and 4-G. Fuel tankage for 3000 tons supports the powerplants, allows one Jump-2, and 440 tons for the fighter wing. The ship has dual bridges (main and backup), each with a Computer Model/5. There are 300 staterooms and 300 low berths. The ship has eight 10-ton bays and 20 hardpoints with fire-control. Eight 10-ton laser bays and 20 triple turrets are installed; 14 with triple beam lasers and 6 with dual sandcasters and a missile rack; 80 tons of magazines holds 30 rounds per sandcaster/missile rack. A dedicated hangar bay holds up to 2000 tons of ship's vehicles, with rapid launch/recovery facilities for up to 80 30-ton small craft. Cargo capacity is 2600 tons; the ship is not streamlined.

The Essex-11 requires a crew of about 110, plus 350 for the fighter wing (20 launch/recovery crew, 200 flight crew, and 120 maintenance personnel), and 120 Marines, assuming single-occupancy for officers and double occupancy for enlisted men; total life-support capacity is 600. The ship costs MCr 3205.3, and takes 36 months to build.

The Essex-11 is an incredibly roomy and flexible design; the 2600 tons of free space can be used to increase the size of the fighter wing, haul additional Marines and their landing craft for a dual-role Fleet Carrier/Marine Assault Carrier, or add additional fuel or minimal hull armor.

Or increase performance at higher Tech Levels. For example, the TL13 version of the Essex increases performance to Jump-4 and 4-G, for an approximation of a typical Foible Federation carrier:

Essex-13 CV (TL13). 12000 tons. Jump-4, 4-G. 4200 tons fuel. Dual bridges & Model/7s. 320 staterooms, 320 low berths. Eight 10-ton laser bays, 20 triple turrets (14 x BBB, 6 x SMS). Nuclear Damper. 2000-ton capacity hangar bay with dual rapid launch/recovery facilities for 30-ton small craft, 100 tons user-definable. Not streamlined. 480 crew, 120 Marines.

MCr 3701.4; 36 months. Special Rules: Multiple Engines, Hull Armor, Laser Bays, Nuclear Damper, Rapid Launch/Recovery Facilities.

Essex-13 Fleet Carrier. Using a custom 12000-ton hull, the Essex-13 is a fighter carrier. It mounts four Jump Drive-Z, four Maneuver Drive-Z, and four Powerplant-Z, giving a performance of Jump-4 and 4-G. Fuel tankage for 4200 tons supports the powerplants, allows one Jump-4, and 440 tons for the fighter wing. The ship has dual bridges (main and backup), each with a Computer Model/7. There are 320 staterooms and 320 low berths. The ship has eight 10-ton bays and 20 hardpoints with fire-control. Eight 10-ton laser bays and 20 triple turrets are installed; 14 with triple beam lasers and 6 with dual sandcasters and a missile rack; 80 tons of magazines holds 30 rounds per sandcaster/missile rack. A dedicated hangar bay holds up to 2000 tons of ship's vehicles, with rapid launch/recovery facilities for up to 80 30-ton small craft. Cargo capacity is 100 tons; the ship is not streamlined. A TL13 nuclear damper is fitted.

The Essex-13 requires a crew of about 130, plus 350 for the fighter wing (20 launch/recovery crew, 200 flight crew, and 120 maintenance personnel), and 120 Marines, assuming single-occupancy for officers and double occupancy for enlisted men; total life-support capacity is 640. The ship costs MCr 3701.4, and takes 36 months to build.

Achieving the Third Imperium performance of Jump-4 and 6-G compromises the design; to make room, the hangarage must be reduced to a fighter wing of eighty 15-ton medium fighters (six squadrons of twelve, plus eight spares):

Imperial Essex CV (TL13). 12000 tons. Jump-4, 6-G. 4400 tons fuel. Dual bridges & Model/7s. 300 staterooms, 300 low berths. Eight 10-ton laser bays, 20 triple turrets (14 x BBB, 6 x SMS). Nuclear Damper. 1600-ton capacity hangar bay with dual rapid launch/recovery facilities for 30-ton small craft, 310 tons user-definable. Not streamlined. 440 crew, 120 Marines.

MCr 4559.5; 36 months. Special Rules: Multiple Engines, Hull Armor, Laser Bays, Nuclear Damper, Rapid Launch/Recovery Facilities.

Imperial Essex Fleet Carrier. Using a custom 12000-ton hull, the Imperial Essex is a fighter carrier. It mounts four Jump Drive-Z, six Maneuver Drive-Z, and six Powerplant-Z, giving a performance of Jump-4 and 6-G. Fuel tankage for 4400 tons supports the powerplants, allows one Jump-4, and 440 tons for the fighter wing. The ship has dual bridges (main and backup), each with a Computer Model/7. There are 300 staterooms and 300 low berths. The ship has eight 10-ton bays and 20 hardpoints with fire-control. Eight 10-ton laser bays and 20 triple turrets are installed; 14 with triple beam lasers and 6 with dual sandcasters and a missile rack; 80 tons of magazines holds 30 rounds per sandcaster/missile rack. A dedicated hangar bay holds up to 1600 tons of ship's vehicles, with rapid launch/recovery facilities for up to 80 30-ton small craft. Cargo capacity is 310 tons; the ship is not streamlined. A TL13 nuclear damper is fitted.

The Imperial Essex requires a crew of about 140, plus 300 for the fighter wing (20 launch/recovery crew, 180 flight crew, and 100 maintenance personnel), and 120 Marines, assuming single-occupancy for officers and double occupancy for enlisted men; total life-support capacity is 600. The ship costs MCr 4559.5, and takes 36 months to build.

Other Variants:

The above baseline designs are not streamlined (and thus dependent on separate fuel-skimmers and tankers). Adding streamlining and its accompanying self-refueling ability costs an additional MCr 55/Independence or MCr 109.1/Essex. (With its large user-definable space devoted to additional fuel in collapsible tanks, a streamlined Essex-11 could conceivably skim and refuel its own escorts.)

Tech level 14-15 versions would have upgraded computers and nuclear dampers.

A unique variant of the Essex-11 reduces the hull size by 2000 tons (dropping two laser bays) for a 10000-ton carrier with external racks for six 300-ton Torpilleur-class SDBs. Acting as "heavy bombers", the SDBs would provide additional heavy missile punch. This variant would be similar to the Essex-11 but with a 10000-ton hull, only 600 tons of cargo/user-definable space, and a cost of about MCr 3030.

Design/Historical Notes:

The American Navy designation for aircraft carriers is CV; "C" for carrier, and "V" for Volant (French for "flying"; TL4 science fiction often used the term "volor" for "flying machine"). At different times, suffixes were added for various subtypes: CVL (Light Carrier), CVB (TL6 Large Carrier), CVA (TL7-8 "Attack" Carrier, i.e. first-line), CVS (TL7-8 "Support" Carrier, i.e. second-line ships), CVV (TL8 "Harrier" Carrier, VTOL aircraft only), and CVAN/CVN (TL7+ Nuclear-powered Carrier).

These Traveller carriers are relatively small by High Guard standards, in accordance with the TL11 doctrine of dividing firepower over many smaller hulls. Called the "N-squared Rule" or "Fuzzy-Wuzzy Effect", this minimizes the overall effect of a catastrophic/critical hit and allows the force to be divided if necessary to cover more area.

Essex: The Essex is based on the ubiquitous Essex-class carriers that formed the nucleus of the American Navy from Tech Levels 6-8. Twenty-four (out of a planned 32) carriers turned out on an assembly-line basis during the Second World War (TL6), these capital ships provided the main "punch" of the American Navy through the Cold War (TL7-8) before being retired from sheer age and wear. The original design of the ships was "loose" enough to allow refits and upgrades to operate the larger and heavier aircraft of the Cold War period, resulting in a final service life of over thirty years of hard use.

The Traveller version of the CV is the largest size possible using Book 2 modular engines, and is based on the refitted TL7 Essexes (the standard generic Cold War aircraft carrier); the laser bays represent the refitted carriers' 127mm guns, the triple laser turrets their 76mm autocannon. Like its namesake, the Essex class is a loose design that can be upgraded from itsinitial TL11 to TL13+ for a long service life over various Tech Levels.

The 10000-ton Essex-11 variant with the six externally-carried SDBs also echoes a (never-built) American design of the early Cold War: The supercarrier USS United States (CVA-58), designed to carry heavy bombers. And thereby hangs an interesting tale:

When nuclear weapons (deadfall bombs of 10-20kt yield, weighing about 5 tons) were developed at TL6, the American military fell prey to a quirk of the American character: The tendency to abandon an established working technology to go with a Nifty New Toy - in this case, nukes. With the newly-independent US Air Force the prestige branch of service (and the only one who could wield the new "ultimate weapon" in its Strategic Air Command of heavy bombers), there was a strong push (led by the Air Force) to disband the Army and Navy, as they were obsolete. Since all future wars would be nuclear, there would be no need for an Army or Navy - only an Air Force with heavy bombers to deliver the nukes, interceptor fighters to defend against enemy nuclear bombers, and nukes, nukes, nukes.

This sparked a "Revolt of the Admirals", as the Navy pushed back in the halls of the American government. One of their contingency plans in this political battle was the USS United States, a giant aircraft carrier with an air wing that included a small squadron (six to twelve) of nuclear-capable heavy bombers. Navy nuclear-capable bombers. If the Air Force got its way, this would keep the Navy in the running as a alternative nuclear strike force.

The Navy won, helped by the first flareup of the new Cold War: The Korean War. Instead of a full-scale "Nuke-out" in the "Total War" spirit of the previous two World Wars, this heralded the "Limited War" or "Low-intensity conflict" - wars where the combatant nations (in a return to "The Great Game") deliberately "pulled their punches" to avoid direct nuclear confrontation. During the Korean War, Navy carriers - mobile air bases - provided air support and ground-attack strikes all over the Chosen Peninsula, proving their worth in the new "Nuclear Age". The Navy safe from disbanding, the plans for a nuclear-capable supercarrier were abandoned. (The Navy got its nukes at TL7, when they became small and light enough to be carried by carrier-based aircraft. However, during the same period the Air Force ended up forced by circumstances to provide counterinsurgency close air support again and again against guerrilla light infantry with an inventory of aircraft designed for and optimized around "load a nuke, point the nose towards Moscow, and cut in afterburner.")

Independence: The Independence is based on the American Navy's eleven TL6 light carriers of the Independence (This link appears to be defunct. Corrected info appreciated) and Saipan classes. When aircraft carriers replaced battleships overnight during the early stages of the Second World War (a historical fluke of the destruction of half of America's battleship strength at the outset and the state of radar technology at the start of the war; five years before or after would have produced a more gradual transition), American shipyards started mass-producing carriers (as they did all other naval and merchant ships). To augment the Essex-class fleet carriers, nine cruiser hulls under construction were converted to Independence-class light carriers. Smaller than the fleet carriers, these provided more flight decks and aircraft in minimal time. The enlarged Saipans were starting construction when the end of the war eliminated their reason for being; only two were completed. With the introduction of jet aircraft at early TL7, the light carriers became too small to operate front-line aircraft, and the design was too "tight" to be refitted. They soldiered on for only a few years more, carrying anti-submarine helicopters in secondary roles, until they too passed into history.

The Traveller version of the CVL was scaled at about half the size of the CV (close to the actual proportions of the Essex's and Saipan's size and air wings). The two laser bays represent the 127mm mounts carried by the first one or two of the class, and provide a bit of "heavy gun punch"; the triple laser turrets echo the original's 40mm autocannon on a one-for-two basis. Like its namesake, the CVL is a very tight design that is almost impossible to upgrade in performance, and passes quickly from front-line use at TL11 to secondary roles at TL12+.