Alexander

Type: Fleet Destroyer
In Service: 2700
In Class: 60


Mass: 600,000
Sail Integrity: 4
Thrust: 4/6
Fuel: 4000
Structural Integrity: 80
Armor: 940 tons of standard armor: fwd 64+8, fl/fr 63+8, others 62+8

Docking Collars: 0
Fighters: 24
Small Craft: 8
Crew: 200
Lifeboats: 30
Escape Pods: 0
Grav Decks: 3 100 meter
Cargo: 3,264

Bay 1: 8 Small Craft 4 doors
Bay 2: 24 fighters 4 doors
Bay 3: Cargo (3,264), 5 doors


Weapons (has enough heatsinks for all weapons)
Fwd:
16 Heavy Naval PPCs
	
FR/FL:
3 Naval Autocannon 10s
4 Naval Laser 55s
8 Ultra Autocannon 5s

AR/AL:
3 Naval Autocannon 10s
4 Naval Laser 55s
8 Ultra Autocannon 5s

Aft:
8 Heavy Naval PPCs


Overview:

The Alexander has been described by some naval historians as the spacegoing charger. A ship built to so specifically emphasize a single specific role that its design is actually compromised in practically every other way.

The design originated in the Free Worlds League as part of the ICB (Integrated Carrier Battlegroup) doctrine. This doctrine was based on a combined force of carriers and fast destroyers and frigates. In theory the carriers could opperate as the main punch while the fast ships acted as a manuever element, both screening the otherwise vunerable carriers and acting as a mobile hammer to deliver a fast, cavalry style charge where needed. In theory it looked like a good strategy, and it worked well during the succession wars. However, when the success of that strategy is talked about, very rarely does the Alexander come up.


Capabilities:

Actually, at first glance the Alexander doesn't look all that bad. In fact, it looks down right intimidating with its massive battery of naval PPCs and its fairly high thrust capability. The only problem is that that's only at first glance.

The Alexander was built to carry as much firepower as possible with as big a propulsion system as possible. All other concerns were secondary, and it shows. The most imediate flaw is that the ship is an almost pure bow-fighter. Its heaviest batteries are mounted in four forward turrets with a very narrow arc of fire. Though this gives the advantage of being able to project the maximum volume of fire in one direction, it also leaves the ship highly vunerable to attacks from the side, with only a light battery of naval autocannons and lasers providing cover. This made a direct "cavalry charge" at the enemy almost essential if an Alexander were to expect any success. Against a full battle line of warships, this could be down right suicidal, while one on one an Alexander would have trouble keeping a beed on his opponent.

Most crews weren't all that reassured by the aft armament either, which happened to be the ship's second most heavily armed arc. All this really meant to most was the ship had something to cover its retreat.

Anti-fighter defenses were fairly sparse. Thirty two rapid fire autocannons, copied from the Lyran developed Ultra autocannon first deployed on the Sentinel battlemech, provide a barely adequate defense system, and in fact it was usually the ship's integral complement of four aerofighter squadrons that were usually key to the ship's anti-fighter defenses.

The biggest flaw in the design, however, was its lack of cargo capacity. With barely more than three thousand tons of cargo space, the Alexander was utterly incapable of opperating on its own for more than a week. This meant the ship had a very narrow role in the FWL navy. They either opperated as part of a fleet, or they served exclusively as system defense craft.

Deployment:

Okay, all complaints aside, the Alexander wasn't a bad ship for its intended role as the manuever element of an ICB, and though she would be overshadowed by the slightly older Dido class frigates that she fought beside, she nevertheless performed admirably for her first few years. Then the Free Worlds League Civil war began in 2729. When the civil war began, many of the Alexanders in service pledged loyalty to Parliament, where they became casualties of war. With the entire fleet thrown into chaos, and with many Alexander class ships caught far from friendly territory without the supplies needed to get to a friendly world, many were siezed or destroyed almost imediately. Roughly a full third of the class was lost within the first few months of the war. Even more would be destroyed during the course of the war. During the battles of Atreus and Ariel alone a total of twenty six Alexander class destroyers were lost. By the time the treaty of Verona was signed, there were a mere fourteen Alexanders still in service.

This handful of ships were divided among three carrier battlegroups and saw a great deal of action during the first succession war, where ten were lost early on. However, their inferior cargo capacity would do the last few in far more completely than the Steiners or Liaos could. With the collapse of much of the logistical system as a result of the brutal fighting of the war, the League was forced to bring its four surviving Alexanders home, asigning them to the defense of Irian alongside a number of other heavily damaged warships. There they endured numerous attacks by all of the other houses. Though Irian remained in the hands of the League, all four Alexanders were destroyed before the end of the first succession war.