Asakumo-class aircraft carrier

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AsakumoClass.jpg
RS Blessings by the Outcasts in 1936
Class overview
Name: Asakumo-class aircraft carrier
Builders: Breeze Builders
Operators: SyaranRepublicNavy.jpg Navy of the Syaran Republic
Preceded by: None
Succeeded by: Parilla-class
In commission: 1934-1938
Planned: 4
Completed: 3
Cancelled: 1
Lost: 3
General characteristics
Type: Aircraft carrier
Displacement: 25,000 tons
Length: 182 meters
Beam: 35.2 meters
Draft: 8.86 meters
Propulsion:
  • 4 shafts
  • 1 steam turbine set
  • 2 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed: 21 knots
Range: 8,500 kilometers
Armament:
  • 8 x single 155 mm guns
  • 6 x single 75 mm guns
  • 8 x single 37 mm anti-aircraft guns
  • 12 x single 8 mm machine guns
  • 4 x 550 mm torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried: 32

The Asakumo-class aircraft carriers were the first aircraft carriers built by the Republic of Syara. They were intended to provide the Navy of the Syaran Republic with a carrier arm to keep pace with developments in foreign navies. They were among the last ship designs introduced by the Republic before the Siduri War, and the class was not completed before the outbreak of the war. A total of four were planned but Syara could only finished three ships; the fourth was scrapped in 1937 after significant delays in construction. The three completed carriers were commissioned from 1934 to 1935 and christened Blessings by the Outcasts, Elegies for the Lost, and Sacred Oaths Still Kept. The class was named after the Battle of Asakumo.

Hastily constructed and designed without a clear doctrinal role in mind, the Asakumo-class suffered from a number of flaws that limited its utility and usage to the Syaran Navy. Slower and with a shorter range than most of her contemporaries, the usage of the Asakumo-class often had to be limited to waters near Syara and Ruvelka. Although it saw extensive service in the Nuadan Ocean and Sundering Sea its limited nature meant it was often absent of major operations; the class was uninvolved with the major battles in the Sabri and Mansuri seas. Having focused mostly on the development of heavy warships like battleships, battlecruisers, and cruisers, the exact doctrinal role of the Asakumo-class was never firmly established. Syaran inexperience with carrier operations also limited their impact, although on occasion the ships and their aircraft compliment did perform well. As the war progressed the carriers were oriented mostly towards providing convoy escort, and rarely sortied far from Syaran waters.

None of the ships of the class survived the war. Elegies for the Lost was sunk in 1936 in the Sundering Sea, taking most of her crew with her. Blessings by the Outcasts was attacked in 1937 in the Nuadan Ocean and was heavily damaged; she burned before eventually capsizing and sinking. Sacred Oaths Still Kept was badly damaged in late 1937 and limped back to Moddra; the Syarans scuttled her after the end of the war. The class was later succeeded by the Parilla-class in the 1960s.