Salonika-class cruiser
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Salonika-class Guided-Missile Cruiser |
| Builders: | Orestes Ironworks |
| Operators: |
 Federation Navy |
| Preceded by: | City-class destroyer |
| Cost: | DDG-100: $2.64 billion (FY2019) |
| In service: | 2019 |
| Planned: | 12 |
| Building: | 0 |
| Completed: | 5 |
| Cancelled: | 7 |
| Active: | 5 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cruiser |
| Tonnage: | 10,650 Metric tons |
| Length: | 160.2 m |
| Beam: | 25 m |
| Draught: | 10 m |
| Propulsion: |
list error: <br /> list (help) Integrated electric propulsion (IEP) 2 x SK-120 Gas Turbines 3 x OE-500X Diesel Turbines |
| Speed: | 30+ knots |
| Range: | 4,900 nmi at 20 kn |
| Boats & landing craft carried: | 2 x Mk. VI Rigid-hulled inflatable boat |
| Complement: | 28 officers, 304 enlisted |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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| Armament: |
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Guns:
Torpedoes:
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| Aircraft carried: | 2 x Cassini helicopters. |
The Salonika-class cruiser (Sometimes called the State-class) is the Federation Navy's newest class of cruiser and was heavily based on the design of the City-class destroyer.
Design for the class began in 2007 with the Praefectus Consilium placing a requirement for a platform to initially work alongside the City-class and to eventually replace them, for while they served the Federation well the Consilium predicted that technological advances in the near future would render them outdated to a point where refits would not be able to bring them back to par with other nations. The resulting requirement was for a vessel capable of matching the City-class capability wise and to then improve on it with stealth features.
The class as such was designed to operate similarly as a multi-role platform to it's predecessor. The vessel fits into the Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) theatre with usage of powerful anti-air missiles and two dedicated anti-air radar platforms which improves it's ability beyond that of the City-class to be able to conduct theatre-level defence. The ship utilises the same AESA radar as it's predecessor to fit into the Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) theatre with an array of anti-shipping missiles, including eight anti-shipping heavy missiles launched from two platforms in the middle of the vessel. Finally, the ship couples powerful on-board sonar array at the nose with a towed array and two helicopter platforms to perform Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). The class matches the highly modular design of it's predecessor with a universal missile launching system allowing for new weapons to be simply loaded into vertical-launch cells without the need for refit and a closed-network integration system within the ship allows it's operations room to instantaneously update combat information or target information to missiles prior to launch for pin-point accuracy.
Operational history
The lead ship of the class, F.N.S Salonika, was commissioned at Thessalona on 18 January 2019 with the Sovereign Prince and assigned to Classis Leandros. It's sister ships Patrinos and Aekrastas were commissioned on 3 July and 24 September respectively, being assigned to Classis Apostolis and Miaoulis. The Admiralty decided to ensure that at least two ships of this new class were available in both major operating theatres of the Navy - The Thalassan and the Makrian, which is accomplished with assignments to Leandros and Apostolis, which also bases the navy's aircraft carriers which the class has been designated the primary escort of.
In March 2019 the Salonika began it's career officially with a 6-month patrol around the Thalassan with Carrier Strike Force Leonidas as it's Escort Command Ship (ECS) and primary anti-air defence platform. Patrinos followed suit in August the same year when it joined Cleomenes and it's escort force in the Makrian to take over as it's primary anti-air platform.
Characteristics
General Specifications
The Salonika class cruisers are 160.20 meters in length, with a beam of 25 meters, a draught of 10 meters, and an approximate displacement of 10,650 tonnes. This makes them 3.30 meters longer than the Warrior class they were designed to serve with and ultimately replace and significantly heavier (Warrior displacement 9,700 tonnes). The cruisers meet the new requirements set by the Praefectus Consilium for warships to meet certain rules and specifications for hull construction to meet new standards for crew comfort and combat survivability. Orestes Ironworks, known for constructing the final ships of the Warrior class, was awarded the contract to construct the first batch of twelve warships. The design of the class meets the Consilium's requirement for levels of radar signature reduction to be introduced by concealing deck equipment behind superstructure panels, producing a clean superstructure similar to those seen on ships in the Latin Navy. Two masts are featured on the class and are designed to reduce their radar footprint as well.
Crew comfort on the class includes gender-neutral living spaces, cubicle-based shower and heads facilities and crew quarters berthing six people per quarter for junior ratings which maintain a male and female segregation. living spaces includes a closed-network wifi system with access to a wide library of movies and video games, digital library readers and a sophisticated gym area permitting the crew to utilise their spare time well.
Propulsion and power
The class is fitted with a Integrated electric propulsion (IEP) system. The system consists of three diesel generators and two gas turbines. In normal functions the diesel generators will generate three-phase electricity that powers electric motors to turn the ship's propellers and to power the ship's systems. For peak power the gas turbines will be activated which allows the class access to higher speeds in an emergency. The IEP system, which itself is revolutionary, eliminates the need for clutches and a mechanical gearbox with an electrical transmission drive replacing it.
As the system eliminates the mechanical connection between the engines and the propulsion system of the ship, it allows a freedom of placement for the large engines of the ship to disperse weight more evenly. This allows for a shorter propeller shaft length and significantly reduces exposure to damage when under combat conditions. As a ship would require electricity even when not underway, the engines for propulsion are also utilised for the generation of power, another way to reduce costs and size as traditionally one pool of engines would be required for propulsion and a separate set-up would be required to power internal systems. An IEP system would simply turn over it's main engines to produce a steady power supply.
For the Salonika class, the engines generate power that is transferred through frequency converters into a 20MW motor per propeller shaft which in turn drives the propeller. The power produced by the generators is also run through two transformers to provide power at an array of voltages through clearly marked outlets in the 440V and 115V range use as needed.
Armament and Sensors
The Salonika holds a vast array of weapon systems for both defensive and offensive purposes. It's primary weapon system is the vertical launch system, of which it holds 128 'cells' to hold a large variety of missiles capable of vertical launch. The vertical launch system can hold anti-ship missiles such as the Lance Missile, which with it's many variants is itself a weapon capable of striking targets on land or at sea with conventional high explosives or thermobaric warheads or a cluster warhead for striking multiple targets on land or small craft at sea. The Trebuchet Missile is the next-generation anti-ship missile replacing the Lance and is capable of supersonic flight and delivering almost 400 kg of explosives against a hostile target. The vertical launch system is capable of holding the Archer Missile, a variety of specialised anti-air and anti-ballistic missile platforms with it's latest variants working well with the Salonika's improved anti-air capability. The system also holds the Peltast Missile, a delivery device that works with the ship's Anti-Submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities to quickly deliver a lightweight torpedo at the location of an enemy submarine. The ship also mounts two triple-tube launchers inside the ship capable of firing the Type 14A Helix Lightweight Torpedo which is also delivered by the Peltast to further it's ASW capabilities. Mounted behind the exhaust stack of the ship are two quad-launchers for the Foreganger Missile, a supersonic 'heavy' anti-shipping missile which forms the ship's main line of anti-ship warfare (ASuW).
Mounted on the vessel as well is a series of guns, with the largest and most obvious being it's 127mm lightweight deck-gun, a dual purpose weapon with automatic loading and remote operation from the ship's CIC. By default the weapon holds 66 rounds of varrious nature within automated loader drums. The weapon, which is cooled by water jets, is capable of conducting a sustained barrage of 40 rounds per minute with certain types of ammunition fired reaching ranges of 100 km. The ship features two 30mm Guardian-4 remote weapon platforms on the port and starboard side just behind the main superstructure. The platforms utilise a 30mm dual-fed autocannon holding 400 rounds capable of being fired manually or by remote utilising a ballistic firing prediction computer to be able to accurately place munitions on a faster sea or airborne combatant, such as a hostile aircraft or hostile small craft. The platform is also capable of being on-the-fly equipped with a coaxial weapon, such as a 7.62mm machine gun pod or a missile pod to launch up to eight Pilum missiles or a reloadable pod of two Scorpion missiles.
For the ship's defensive measures, the class is fitted with the two 35mm 'millennium' CIWS platforms capable of engaging airborne threats or incoming missile ordnance at ranges of five kilometres with precision and a variety of advanced munition types. Assisting the CIWS platforms are the RBOC - Rapid Blooming Off-board Chaff - dispensers and four Trixton 500 Defence Suite emplacements. The Trixton 500 is a highly modular system that utilises 1.5 ton rotary launchers to deploy active countermeasures into the direction of incoming missiles. The suite is also capable of holding and firing anti-air and anti-surface missiles for short-range combat against hostile combatants. One such missile the platform is capable of firing is the Pilum Missile, a short-range anti-surface/ship missile with a range of eight kilometres. The launcher is capable of also firing anti-torpedo countermeasures either as a decoy submerged chaff to lure passive-homing torpedoes away from the ship or as torpedo-hunting interceptor with a small explosive package to mission-kill or destroy the torpedo.
While in combat the ship is capable of activating the Beluga Anti-Torpedo Countermeasure System, the BATCS (Pronounced Batsie) is a radiated noise reduction system originally classified and known only as a 'Torpedo countermeasure system' until 2003. The system is installed along the hull of a vessel, usually near it's machinery spaces and on the ship's propellers. When activated, the system creates a curtain of air bubbles that masks the ship's otherwise tell-tale noises that would allow it to be identified by a hostile submarine if detected at all or to avoid detection if possible. The curtain of air bubbles created are very effective as reflectors for acoustic energy and thus very little sound passes through the curtain, making it an effective tool as an enemy combatant listening passively wont hear the propellers or machinery, just 'white noise' or 'rain', although to a trained combatant these may be enough to warrant investigating, in which case the machinery being masked will drastically hinder passive identification of the ship. The system is also installed on the ship's propellers and supplies air to the propeller blade's leading edge to reduce the hydrodynamic noise emitted by the propeller while in motion. This fills the vacuum left by the rotating blades as the water 'boils' from the thermal shock of hitting the spinning blades.
The class operates three radar systems; The FN/SPD-4 AESA Radar, seen on it's predecessor, is an Active Electronically Scanned Array capable of interrogating multiple targets for identification or target lock without the need for a moving radar platform and constitutes the primary radar platform for the class. During design, a decision was made by the Praefectus Consilium to add an improved anti-air radar platform to upgrade the class' ability to serve as a fleet defence vessel. Consequently the RN/SPS-25 and RN/SPS-23 were added to the ship. The RN/SPS-25 is a multi-function dual-face AESA S-Band Radar capable of switching between long and medium-range search, high-speed horizon tracking along with multiple target tracking for anti-air duties. The RN/SPS-23, mounted aft of the RN/SPS-25 system, is a long-range PESA (Passive Electronically Scanned Array) Radar capable of tracking over a thousand targets at ranges exceeding 215 nmi (400 km) and proved to be highly capable of detecting stealth targets and tracking high-speed targets outside of the atmosphere. The discover of it's ability to track high-speed targets, such as a ballistic missile, made the Salonika-class a part of the nation's theatre defence plan.
Ships in class
| Name | Number | Comissioned | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| F.N.S Salonika | DDG-100 | Jan 2019 | Active |
| F.N.S Patrinos | DDG-101 | July 2019 | Active |
| F.N.S Aekrastas | DDG-102 | Sep 2019 | Active |
| F.N.S Kalamos | DDG-103 | Jan 2020 | Active |
| F.N.S Lacrositis | DDG-104 | Mar 2020 | Active |