Ayin-class Frigate

If knowledge is power then the inverse is that ignorance is a drain. After the Paluliki Incident, the Emuligar Republic opted for complete media silence and suppression of any information leaking from the project. Effective control allowed the Ayin-class Frigate to fly in from the dark. Integrating Kapisan-Ngladeni technology with a warship for the first time ever, the performance of its experimental railguns was straight up alien to other nations. Even more so to the Quadriarma Union who was locked in a war with the Emuligar Republic at the time.

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Improvements in Superconductors

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Superconductors used in warship railguns are some of the most advanced materials ever made. They are designed to withstand incredible pressures generated by expanding conductive gases, lorentz forces, amperes measured in the millions, and temperature fluxes of up to 400 degrees. However, they do not have great fire rates. The temperatures involved effectively disable the superconductivity of the rails.
The Ayin-class of Frigates utilize light railguns with conductors based on what was found in the string nodes. The miracle material dubbed Valterin is a superconductor with an unprecedented critical temperature of 400 degrees centigrade. The only operating caveat is the pressure required. Below 40 bars of external pressure, the critical temperature of the material drops. For railguns this is no issue. Bridge gas used to complete a circuit without requiring the armature to contact the rails exert up to 10 times the pressure required.

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Role

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The role of the Ayins was purely that of an escort. The weaponry they sported was unproven and somewhat expensive. Valterin conductors are extremely difficult to extract from ruins and are tediously formed into a desired shape as the crystals of the metal alloy need to be oriented a specific way. A lack of missiles also meant the ship was less capable of performing anti-ship duties. Theoretically, the use of rapid firing railguns could perform a substantially more accurate form of missile defense. Indeed, this is what the Ayin-class excelled at.

Class Overview

Operators:
Succeeded by:
Built:
Completed:
Lost:

Repleoxt Navy
Kudamendy-class Frigate
Mid Quadriarma-Emuligar War
4
2 in combat; remainder scrapped

General Characteristics

Role:
Mass:
Length:
Width:
Height:
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Acceleration:
Crew:
Armament:

Armor:

Experimental Escort
4200 tons
240 Meters
107 Meters
64 Meters
Toroidal Fusion Reactor

8x fusion jets (4x retro)
24 m/s²
12
6x First pattern experimental point defense railguns
Citadel: 120mm
Hull: 55mm anti-frag

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Design

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As a consequence of its new type of armament, the Ayin-class of ships were unorthodox in design. Despite having a normal number of guns but without any missile armament whatsoever, the ships are much larger than anyone might expect. This is primarily due to the systems required the maintain the intended firerate of its point defense railguns. A heavy cooling system was installed to activily chill the railgun conductors. The power supply of the ship was also disproportionately large to maintain capacitor charge and cooling. Of course a larger reactor requires more fuel which in turn needs more propulsion and that alone requires its own power and cooling.

Weapon Layout

The Ayin-class was built with six experimental point defense railguns. Four of these are installed to the ventral and dorsal side while the remaining two are mounted to port and starboard. In a broadside, five of this weapons can fire. Aiming forward, all six railguns can fire and to the rear only four can.

Propulsion

Ayin-class Frigates are propelled by eight deuterium-helion engines with four retro-engines of the same model. The primary engines are mounted in groups of four and form an extension to the sides of the hull which store fuel and provide mounting points for two the experimental railguns. The retro engines are mounted radially to the bow of the ship.

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Impact on the War

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During the first half of the war, the Repleoxt Navy struggled to combat Quadriarma forces. Their was a major tech desparity and Emuligar government hadn't dedicated the necessary resources to bolster the fleet despite ever increasing tensions with the Quadriarma. This left them with far too few numbers to compensate for poor tech. The capacity for the Quadriarma vessels to defend itself against missiles was only really mediocre. Overtime, Emuligarian morale decreased while the Quadriarma strengthened despite the divide between nation, government, and military. That was, until the dynamic swapped.
Funds that otherwise would have been used for national defense instead went into research of Kapisan-Ngladeni Society and the technology they used. Research which the military had access to. This, in turn, lead to the development of light railguns that didn't suffer from superconductor quencing. The introduction of the Ayin-class of ships drastically changed the war. It immediately brought to light just how advanced the Emuligar Republic understanding of ancient alien tech was while also showing that everyone else was behind on the curve. This greatly upset the Quadriarma public where half the population supported national research efforts and the other half greatly opposed the research which had practically been forced upon them by their national enemies. Even the QUN, which was indifferent in the matter, struggled internally.
Railgun point defense was by far the most effective form of countering missiles. They are accurate, have great range, and can store enough projectiles to take down an entire fleet's worth of missiles. Power hungry and bulky, they are more cost effective than interceptor missiles and flak fields. The Ayin-class proved to be incredibly proficient at handling large volumes of missiles. This inspired the construction of new ships and the refitting of older, larger vessels with mass produced models of railgun PD. Quickly reducing effectiveness of missile attacks and greatly increasing losses of QUN Palladium-class Attackers resulted in significant disruptions of morale in both beligerent nations. The Emuligar Republic regained confidence, while the Quadriarma Union lost its early war vigor.
It is believed that the introduction of the Ayin-class and its experimental technology could have resulted in a loss for the Quadriarma if peace wasn't signed when it was. In the end, the Emuligar Repleoxt Navy cemented its newly found naval dominance. The political sphere of many other nations changed dramatically and the post-Plague xenophobia was replaced with a need to compete. Alien tech had violently been integrated into society by the Ayin-class. Now everyone was forced to adapt or be left with obsolete technology in the future.