Kirov Type: Command Cruiser In Service: 2690 Producer: Challenge Systems of Gallax In class: 5 at its peak Mass: 800,000 tons Sail Integrity: 5 Thrust: 4/6 Fuel: 3000 tons Structural Integrity: 180 Armor: 2880 tons of ferro aluminium armor (288+18 per facing) Docking Collars: 4 Fighters: 36 Small Craft: 20 Crew: 500 Passengers: 150 Lifeboats: 50 Escape Pods: 50 Grav Decks: 2 100 meter Cargo: 39,000 Bay 1: Fighters (36), Cargo (12,000) 3 doors Bay 2: Cargo (13,000) 2 doors Bay 3: Small Craft (20), Cargo (12,000) 4 doors Weapons: Each arc 2 anti missile guns Forward 2 PPC 2 Autocannon 5 Fore left/Fore right 2 PPC 2 Autocannon 5 Left Broadside/Right Broadside 2 Naval Autocannon 30 Aft Left/Aft Right 3 Naval Autocannon 30 2 PPC 2 Autocannon 5 Ammunition 250 rounds of NAC 30 ammo 600 rounds of AC 5 ammo 72 tons of AMS ammo Overview The idea of the Kirov fleet command ship was developed towards the end of the 27th century by Fleet Admiral Amy Harris of the Federated Suns Crucis March command. Admiral Harris had been frustrated with the general decay she had seen overtaking the AFFS for years, and in 2685 she proposed a major upgrade effort for the fleet, emphasising improved command and control. Though most of her requests were denied, the high command did approve one of her ideas, the construction of a warship designed specifically to serve as a flagship. Design work on the new cruiser began in January of 2685, however it would get bogged down for years as Admiral Harris fought with naval architechs and other admirals over the parameters of the design. In what is perhaps one of the greatest examples of the raw power of a military bureacracy, three years passed before construction could even begin, and even then there were more than a few senior officers around trying to get the design changed even as the Kirov was being built. Most of the debate focussed on the ship's hull and weapons load. For far too long, naval doctrine has focussed on just naming the biggest, badest ship in the fleet the flagship. The Kirov, on the other hand, is relatively lightly armed for its size, with ten heavy guns providing the full amount of its offensive firepower, and is about two hundred thousand tons lighter than the Iron Duke class battleships that were the biggest ships in the fleet. Its value lies in its incredibly resilient hull (one of the most stress resistant ever) and its layers of ferro aluminium armor. This, combined with its speed, gives the ship an excellent talent for survival, something Admiral Harris regarded as vital for a ship that was not meant to fight, but lead. Other admirals, however, considered the Kirov to be undergunned, too dependent on armor, and totally unsuited for the battle line. They advocated removing as much as half of the ship's "excess" hull reinforcement to make room for another fifteen heavy guns. In the end, however, Admiral Harris won out, and the Kirov was built almost entirely to the original design specs. The changes that were made were due to international politics and trade disputes. The ship was originally planned to use Lamenor Ferro Carbide Armor imported from the Terran Hegemony (which would give it more resilience than any ship in existance at the time), however the Hegemony refused to sell the expensive and rare armor to the Federated Suns. Similarly, Admiral Harris originally planned on the ship using rapid fire ultra autocannons for the secondary armament, however the only producers of the ultra, Kwambata Weapons Industries in the Lyran Commonwealth, refused to sell a license for their prized autocannon to a Davion company. This necessitated the use of PPCs and conventional autocannons in place of the ultras. The Kirov was completed in June of 2690, six months overdue primarily because of a massive snarl of bureacratic red tape. By then the always blunt Admiral Harris had burned off all the good will with the high command that she ever had, and more than a few people were waiting impatientely for her to prove the value of this expensive new ship. She would get the chance three years later when she managed to arrange for a naval wargame against the SLDF named Summer Lightning. The exercise, involving a total of nearly seventy warships and a thousand aerospace fighters, began at the end of 2693, and cemented the Kirov's reputation as an excellent command ship. The Kirov led the Davion first strike against the SLDF fleet at Malagrotta, coordinating a massive surprise aerospace strike from six Furious class attack carriers and tearing the heart out of the SLDF battleship force in one dramatic blow, rendering the brand new Mckenna class Moshe Dayan and four other battleships simulated cripples, nearly scoring a decisive victory by battering the Potemkin class Hermes, and escaping under the guns of five other battleships that tried to intercept it and its escorting carrier squadron. Later, when the wargame moved on to the world of June, the Kirov, serving as Admiral Harris's flagship, continued to coordinate the badly outnumbered Davion forces brilliantly, nearly winning the battle in the end, but settling for a draw. Naval analysts on both sides agree that it was the ability of the Kirov to stay back out of the fighting and direct the Davion fleet, along with one of the most powerful computer systems ever put on a warship, that allowed the Davion forces to do so well against the might of the SLDF. After such an exceptional performance, the high command approved the contruction of more Kirov class ships, making plans for eight of the vessels. Despite this newfound support, work was slow going as the high command and Prince Roger (and later Joseph) Davion's support waxed and waned with each passing year. By the time of the Davion War of Succession in 2725, only four Kirovs were in service, with another under construction at Galax. The Kirovs also did not fare well during the war, with two destroyed in battle because they were misused by comanders that couldn't grasp that they weren't meant to enter heavy combat directly. After the SLDF stepped in to end the fighting, Prince Richard Davion (who had succeeded Joseph Davion after his death on Royal) decided to halt all work on the command cruisers, partially as a way to help pacify the Star League Council and the First Lord. The remaining three Kirovs would not live all that much longer, however. The first succesion war began in 2787, and soon engulfed each state in total war. All three Kirov class ships were assigned to a Davion naval offensive in 2790, and two were destroyed during the cataclysmic battle of Cholame. The surviving ship, the Kalanin, was nearly crippled during the six week battle, but was able to escape the system. Six months later, however, the Kalanin was caught in the Le Blanc system by the Combine destroyer Ayanami. Still badly damaged, and desperately short on ammunition, the Kalanin could offer little resistance to the Ayanami, who made an effort to sieze the cruiser. The crew of the Kalanin scuttled their ship, however, detonating the diatomic hydrogen used for reaction mass and wrecking the ship before the Combine marines could board. The Ayanami left the system and the wreck behind after that, content that the Kalanin was a total loss. Since then the hulk has been stripped bare by every salvage team and two bit treasure hunter to come through the Le Blanc system, and there is quite litterally nothing left of value on it. Despite that it is still a major tourist attraction, and just before his death, Arthur Steiner-Davion was pushing to have the wreck declared a national monument to all those that had died fighting the Kurita menace. With the civil war and all, though, nobody has had time to worry about new monuments.