Royalty Class Battleships

Fleet battleship

The Royalty class battleships are the newest capital grade units in the Fleet. When all 8 are finished, they are intended to be the flagships for the various Task Groups and Fleets throughout the Commonwealth; but with the majority being on station against the Tarquin, with the remaining Admiralty class ships filling out the line.
Although classed as a line battleship, they actually represent a dramatic leap forward in maximum velocity from the older Admiralty class battleships (HMS Anson, Collingwood, Cunningham, Fraser, Farragut, Halsey, Lee, Nimitz, Nelson, Rodney, Spruance, and Smith), being able to cross the Commonwealth in a little over a month CST because of the new Mk 8* Lucifer Superluminal engines, making them much more like a Battlecruiser in operational considerations. Therefore the class can be used to do scouting and interdiction missions against the heavy hitting Tarquin ships, in a way that the older battleships/battlecruisers cannot. This due to lack of speed, or a lack of armour, and armament.
Indeed the ships have been declared the first 'Fast Battleships' in the modern fleet.
The Mk 8*s are powered by a Pratt & Whitney Matter-Antimatter Reactor. This reactor also powers the VASMIR sub-lights. This MAMR was designed for the heavy fleet carrier HMS Enterprize. Because of this operational experience, subtle upgrades have allowed the MAMR to generate enough power to push the new class up to 25% light speed. This is within a few percent of the speed of the Enterprize class, despite being several thousand tons heavier.
The design process for the Royalty's was started when a task group of 4 Admiralty class battleships (HMS Anson, Halsey, Lee, and Rodney) took a mauling at the 2^nd Naval Battle of Auckland Prime in 2957, against the Tarquin. This action lead directly to the siege of Auckland Prime.
During the battle HMS Lee was destroyed, with all hands, and HMS Anson and Halsey were reduced to smouldering wrecks. The engagement only lasted only 10 minutes, and the poor showing of the Admirals and the complete loss of Auckland Prime in 3 weeks, lead to a major investigation.
The Ministry of Defence Committe tasked with reviewing the loss of the three ships discovered that most of Admiralty class, and the remaining three Utah Class (HMS Alaska, British Colombia, California, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Manitoba, Minnosata, Saskatchewan, and Utah) were suffering from metal fatigue caused by improper shielding at red giant anchorages, such as the Navy yards around Betelgeuse and their expected 100 year life span had been severy cut down.
The Ships of the Class are the Elizabeth Regina, Fraser Rex, Princess Royal, Redoubtable, Royal Sovereign, Royal Will, and Victoria Regina and they were ordered as two blocks:
Block 1: Victoria Regina, Fraser Rex, Royal Will, Resolution,
and
Block 2: Elizabeth Regina, Princess Royal, Royal Sovereign, Redoubtable.
Of which, the first block are in service (Victoria Regina and Fraser Rex), or in trials (Royal Will and Resolution), the second block is on the slipway (Princess Royal and Redoubtable), or in fitting out (Elizabeth Regina and Royal Sovereign).
The Block 2 ships technically have more powerful reactors, and thicker armour schemes to match, plus a few more railguns, compared to the nominal fitting out of the Block 1s. However, the block 1s had various aspects uprated beyond their design specification, that the Block 2s codify.
Operationally, these ships have yet to be tested against their chosen foe, but the Victoria Regina has given good service against internal threats, allowing for a good extended trial period that has allowed for these operational improvements to occur.

Power Generation

1 Pratt & Whitney Generation 4a2/3, 'Enterprize' 10/15 Petawatt Matter-Anti Matter Reactor;
4 Parsons Mark 6**/7 100/175 Terawatt Fusion Reactors.

Propulsion

2 Rolls-Royce Mark 8*/8** 'Lucifer' supra-luminal engines;
8 Pratt & Whitney Generation 76/77, 'Royal Cobra' Sub-light VASIMR Engines;
28 Pratt & Whitney 'HALO' RCS VASIMR units.

Weapons & Armament

1 Pratt & Whitney Generation 5 500 terawatt 'Chariot' cannon;
4 Lockheed-Armstrong 2967 pattern 35 terawatt Laser banks;
24 paired, BAE Systems Dual Purpose Mark 11 1.5 terawatt laser point defence batteries;
4 Lockheed-Armstrong 2954 pattern Torpedo tubes with 64 1 gigaton MAIM Torpedoes.

Armor and defense

External Main Belt Armour:

tapering 4/6 metre thick high-temperature stainless steel alloy, 2/2.5 metre ceramic ablative layer;
Ventral Superstructure: 2 metre stainless steel, 1.5 metre ceramic ablative armour,
Dorsal Structure: 2 metre Stainless steel, 1/1.5 metre ceramic ablative armour.
BAE Systems Mark 5 Active Thermal Redistribution;
12/18 Royal Armouries, Royal Enfield Point Defence 200mm Railguns;
150 Precision Defence VLS 10 Megaton Missiles Cores.

Communication Tools & Systems

2 BAE Systems Mark 2a4 long range subspace radio system;
2 BAE System Class 20 Quantum Encoder;
1 BAE Systems 'Discovery' internal radio system;
1 Phuture Fonics 'Royalty' sound powered comms system.

Sensors

1 ARCHANGEL Multispectral array;
2 HUBBLE Stellar Navigational suite packages;
2 MESSENGER Planetary sensor packages;
4 TOURNEY Fire control directors;
4 GUARDIAN Point defence directors.

Additional & auxiliary systems

1 Microsoft 1000 Exabyte GRACE Flight Computer, with 2 internal redundancies. Inertial reference frame guidance package.

Used by

• HMS Victoria Regina

Nickname

The Crown Jewels

Designation

Her Majesty's Spacecraft

Motto

Royalty Suffers No Evil

Manufacturer

The Ministry of Defence

Creation Date

2975

Owning Organization

The Ministry of Defence

Military Formation Usage

• 12th CAA

Current location

The Milky Way

Price

£1 Trillion

Rarity

Extremely

Related Technologies

• Laser Batteries

Width

400 metres

Length

700 metres

Height

110 Metres

Weight

300 gigatons

Speed

Supra-luminal: 6 light years/hour; Sub-luminal: 25%/30% Lightspeed

Complement / Crew

900 Naval Crew, 50 Flag grade Staff and 300 Marines