dreadnought (at least a dreadnought as capable as the Gladiator) proved to be a challenge, but the experience was to stand the RMN in very good stead in its ever-expanding wartime building programs. Ironically, though, while the Majestic had the virtue of being less expensive on a per-unit basis, the increased missile magazine size meant that the deployed cost of a fully equipped and armed Majestic dreadnought was nearly equal to the “more expensive” Gladiator it supplanted.
For all of that, the Majestic was never an entirely satisfactory design. Slightly smaller than a Gladiator, its heavy missile broadside was only possible at the cost of close combat capability, and despite the increase in active defenses, it had a far more fragile hull than the Gladiator. This relative frailty, despite far more numerous missile tubes during a time when beam combat was falling out of favor, was one of the reasons the entire class was decommissioned before the older Gladiator.
Bellerophon-class dreadnought
Mass: 6,985,250 tons
Dimensions: 1293 × 187 × 175 m
Acceleration: 420.1 G (4.12 kps²)
80% Accel: 336.1 G (3.296 kps²)
Broadside: 33M, 15L, 18G, 24CM, 24PD
Chase: 7M, 2L, 3G, 8CM, 8PD
Number Built: 38
Service Life: 1900–1921
The Bellerophon-class dreadnought represents the pinnacle of Manticoran dreadnought design, incorporating lessons learned from all of the previous classes and the final prewar generation of RMN simulation data and doctrine. The Bellerophons were originally intended as inexpensive contemporaries of the Gryphon-class superdreadnoughts, to be built in larger numbers than the heavier ships and to support the SDs in battle. The originally projected building ratio for the two classes was reversed almost literally overnight once war began and the emergency construction programs reached their full potential, however. The class continued in construction at a slow rate for the first five years of the war, until the Navy’s funding and infrastructure allowed it to begin building exclusively SDs for its line of battle, at which time the Bellerophons were honorably retired and phased out of service.
Massing just under seven million tons, the Bellerophons were in every way equal or superior to any of the early Manticoran superdreadnought classes and could give even the Anduril class a run for its money, especially given the predominance of missile-only combat in the later phases of the war.
However, no matter how advanced it was, there is no question that the Bellerophon, like every other conventional capital ship in the Manticoran Navy, was designed to fight the last war. When even the most advanced prewar superdreadnought was rendered hopelessly obsolete by modern standards, the cost and manpower were clearly better spent on building larger, more powerful, and more survivable ships to replace them. The majority of this class lies in mothballs and could potentially be reactivated, but the possibility that any of them will see service again is remote.
Nouveau Paris-class dreadnought
Mass: 6,331,500 tons
Dimensions: 1251 × 181 × 169 m
Acceleration: 426.7 G (4.184 kps²)
80% Accel: 341.3 G (3.347 kps²)
Broadside: 32M, 10L, 10G, 18CM, 20PD
Chase: 8M, 4L, 4G, 10CM, 10PD
Number in Service: 5
Service Life: 1905–1917
Several Havenite ships of the wall were taken into service during the early war, including five dreadnoughts during the First Battle of Hancock. None of these ships saw frontline service, but four of them spent some time as rear area security operating with captured Havenite superdreadnoughts. All of these units were scrapped by the Janacek Admiralty during the interwar period.
SUPERDREADNOUGHTS (SD)
Superdreadnoughts, along with their pod-carrying brethren, are the largest warships in any star nation’s inventory. The classic prewar SD mounted a heavy missile broadside; had the sidewalls, antimissile defenses, and armor to shrug off most missile hits themselves; and served primarily as a platform for the massive beam weapons required for a decisive engagement at close range. For centuries, SDs have been the decisive units of the wall of battle, built to survive to reach beam range and then batter their opponent into wreckage at close range.
As the core units of the wall of battle, dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts are rarely deployed in less than divisional strength, and far more frequently they are moved around at the squadron level, complete with screen and support ships. Their true strength is in the concentrated fire a battle squadron can create, and the existence of even a single battle squadron automatically propels a naval force into one of the top two dozen or so navies in the galaxy.
The RMN accumulated a great deal of operational experience with their early Manticore-class superdreadnoughts before they began to add any more to the order of battle. However, they had not developed much combat