House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (63 page)

The lead ship of this class, GNS
Raoul Courvosier
, was built with a slightly reduced broadside to free up mass for a flag staff and full-scale fleet CIC and communications network. She served for several years as the flagship of the Grayson Space Navy until eventually supplanted by GNS
Vengeance
, the first of the refitted Duquesne-class superdreadnoughts.

Hill-class battlecruiser

(for specification, see RMN Reliant-class BC)

Number Built: 3

Service Life: 1905–present

Like the
Star Knight
and
Redoubtable
classes, a few
Reliants
were purchased from the Star Kingdom outright while the
Grayson
shipyards retooled to produce large modern warships. The trio has been seen as the “odd men out” in Grayson service. They tend to operate alongside the
Courvosiers
most of the time, given their similar performance characteristics in missile combat, yet their mixed laser/graser beam fit is ill-suited to GSN doctrine. All three of these ships are attached to the Protector’s Own Squadron where their unique characteristics are closer to the nature of their operational deployments. These ships are typically and (for Grayson) uniquely often employed as flagships for small independent detachments.

Convert-class battlecruiser

Mass: 918,750 tons

Dimensions: 723 x 92 x 82 m

Acceleration: 487.4 G (4.78 kps²)

80% Accel: 389.9 G (3.824 kps²)

Broadside: 26M, 6L, 6G, 16CM, 12PD

Chase: 6M, 2G, 6CM, 6PD

Number Captured: 5

Service Life: 1913–present

Five of these units, all older first-generation
Warlords
, came back from Cerberus and were taken into service with the Protector’s Own Squadron. Along with the ex-
Mars
-class units and the material they brought along with them, the GSN had enough spares to keep these ships operational, though they are decidedly second-class units today and are earmarked for early retirement.

Courvosier II-class pod battlecruiser

Mass: 1,763,500 tons

Dimensions: 817 × 118 × 110 m

Acceleration: 678.4 G (6.653 kps²)

80% Accel: 542.8 G (5.323 kps²)

Broadside: 6M, 6G, 26CM, 24PD

Fore: 4M, 3G, 8CM, 12PD

Aft: 4MP, 4CM, 12PD

Pods: 360

Number Built: 40+

Service Life: 1919–present

The
Courvosier II
class is a Grayson pod battlecruiser, the first unit of its type developed by any Navy. Its conventional missile broadside is reduced by eighty percent to allow it to mount superdreadnought-sized energy weapons. Under GSN doctrine, the massive salvo size of the pod battlecruiser serves to augment the all-important first salvo in an engagement, after which the BC(P)s retreat to less exposed positions in the formation. The ships then support the wall’s missile defense and continue to augment its offensive salvoes while coordinating the hunt for opposing scout platforms throughout the engagement. In more recent fleet problems, the GSN has reportedly experimented with tying CLACs and BCs together to provide improved protection for both.

Almost double the mass of previous battlecruiser classes, they are also among the first Grayson units to benefit from the wholesale use of automation to reduce crew size and can operate with as few as three hundred spacers. In addition to their central missile cores, these ships also mount broadside missile tubes.

The GSN has been criticized for the decision to retain broadside mounts as an unusual act of conservatism on its part which compromises the pod-laying function, and this criticism would appear to be justified. It does, however, provide at least some limited self-defense missile capacity following exhaustion of the type’s limited pod capacity as well as a backup in the event of a mission kill of the pod core. Development of the ability to fire off-bore missile from broadside tubes has also allowed broadside fire to be integrated with pod salvoes, and
Grayson
practice has been to use the broadside weapons to augment and replenish EW platforms used to aid in penetrating enemy antimissile defenses.

LAC CARRIERS (CLAC)

While there is no doubt that early experience with the prototype HMS
Minotaur
drove some of its design decisions, the GSN began to reevaluate LAC carrier (CLAC) design with its customary independence by looking at commercial impeller drive asteroid mining operation ships. These ships hosted numerous subordinate mining craft and were a natural place to look for inspiration when designing a LAC-carrying ship. The GSN designers quickly realized, however, that a large mobile hangar could not reasonably be made survivable and decided early on that the LAC carrier had no place in the wall of battle. Thus, Grayson doctrine declares that a GSN CLAC’s primary offensive weaponry is carried by its LACs, and the offensive armament on planned Manticoran designs is wasted space. They designed their first and only CLAC to date with this doctrine in mind.

Minotaur
-class LAC carrier

(for specification, see RMN Minotaur CLAC)

Number Purchased: 6

Serice Life: 1914–present

While the GSN was heavily involved in the original design of the Shrike-class LACs, they let the RMN take the lead on initial carrier design. Six
Minotaur
-class carriers were ordered from 1914–1915 PD while the Covington class was still working up.

Covington-class LAC carrier

Mass: 6,244,250 tons

Dimensions: 1135 × 189 × 175 m

Acceleration: 476.7 G (4.675 kps²)

80% Accel: 381.4 G (3.74 kps²)

Broadside: 30CM, 28PD

Chase: 12CM, 10PD

LAC Bays: 124

Number Built: 30+

Service Life: 1915–present

While only slightly more massive than a
Minotaur
, foregoing all offensive missile and energy armament allows the Covington class to carry almost twenty-five percent more LACs. The Office of Shipbuilding decided that the increased operational flexibility was desirable, even if doctrine required two squadrons of LACs to be held back to protect the carrier. The professional disagreement between GSN and Manticoran designers applies only to offensive armament, as the
Covingtons
retain defensive capabilities fully comparable to the Manticoran counterparts and, if necessary, can protect themselves quite well.

In 1917 PD, several of the Flight I
Covingtons
underwent minor refits to their ammunition handling machinery to rearm and service the new
Katana
-class LACs with the Mk9 viper anti-LAC missile. The Flight II units are being constructed from the keel out with new ammunition handling machinery to more efficiently store both the shipkillers and counter-missiles for the
Shrikes
as well as the Vipers carried by the
Katanas
.

SUPERDREADNOUGHTS (SD)

The GSN is not unique in using its superdreadnoughts for one thing and one thing only: controlling the space around its stars and the stars of those who would oppose it. As with their battlecruiser force, the differences between Manticoran and Grayson strategic problems can be seen in several areas. Lacking numerous wormhole termini and distant stations to protect, the GSN opted for concentrated combat power in its purest form. The GSN is alone amongst Alliance space forces in never having built battleships or dreadnoughts. Their first true power-projection force consisted entirely of captured, donated, and newly built superdreadnoughts.

Manticore’s Gift-class superdreadnought

(Note: Specification reflects base class only)

Mass: 7,187,250 tons

Dimensions: 1305 x 189 x 176 m

Acceleration: 417.5 G (4.094 kps²)

80% Accel: 334 G (3.275 kps²)

Broadside: 36M, 12L, 12G, 28CM, 24PD

Chase: 10M, 4L, 6G, 12CM, 12PD

Number Captured: 28

Service Life: 1906–present

The original eleven units of this class were
DuQuesne
-class superdreadnoughts captured at the Third Battle of Yeltsin, turned over to the GSN by Admiral White Haven and heavily refitted on a crash basis, using a mixture of cannibalized parts from wrecked Havenite ships and Alliance equipment. As a result, their specifications differ from the original People’s Navy configurations, and the haphazard nature of their refits resulted in eleven unique units, each with a slightly different weapons fit.

The units that survived the Fourth Battle of Yeltsin were refitted to a more consistent standard between 1910 and 1911 as the early
Steadholder Denevski
-class SDs were being commissioned.

Seventeen more ex-Havenite superdreadnoughts were added in 1917 PD when the remainder in RMN service were decommissioned by the Janacek Admiralty. Despite tensions between the two navies, Second Lord of the Admiralty Houseman was more than willing to defray expenses in that year’s budget by selling them to Grayson for scrap value.

These ships are remarkable in that their spacious designs made them relatively easy for the Graysons to repair, maintain, and modify, especially after they had been refitted with compact Alliance equipment. As a result, they frequently act as testbeds for new GSN equipment. The hulls still in service have been split equally between Systems Command for use as testing platforms and System Defense Command as part of the ready reserve squadrons.

Steadholder Denevski-class superdreadnought

Mass: 8,352,250 tons

Dimensions: 1372 × 199 × 185 m

Acceleration: 402 G (3.942 kps²)

80% Accel: 321.6 G (3.154 kps²)

Broadside: 37M, 34G, 28CM, 30PD

Chase: 9M, 8G, 10CM, 10PD

Number Built: 22

Service Life: 1908–present

The
Steadholder Denevski
-class superdreadnought represents a uniquely Grayson take on capital ship design, much like their versions of smaller ships. The original pattern was the Manticoran
Gryphon
class which, at the time, was the most advanced superdreadnought in service anywhere in space. The most notable Grayson change included the complete elimination of all lasers on the broadside, in favor of additional grasers.

Built with the advantage of several years of battle experience, these ships were designed with a full understanding of the combat environment they were likely to face. They are some of the best-protected ships in space, with area and point missile defenses fully adequate to the pre-pod laser head threat. Intense study of Havenite weapon characteristics allowed the armor designers to take full advantage of face mirroring techniques designed to better protect against the known X-ray wavelengths.

Incorporation of new technology as a result of all this recent combat experience had at least one unintended consequence. The construction of two of the
Denevskis
was delayed by eight months when critical parts were diverted to meet construction deadlines for the first unit of the
Honor Harrington
-class pod superdreadnought. Along with the RMN
Gryphon
class, they are considered the best pre-pod SD design in existence, although they have been relegated increasingly to secondary duties, particularly since the Havenite acquisition of multidrive missile capability.