Missile-armed Escorts

By mid-May 2030, the escort forces of the European Union consisted of three Trafalgar class destroyers equipped with short range advanced railguns for point-blank missiles defence. With four Scharnhorst class missile cruisers in service and two more under construction, the defence ministry decided to complement the Trafalgar with a new missile-armed destroyer escort, designed to engage incoming missiles at ranges of up to one million kilometres. The resulting design was the Tribal class. She was built in the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard, the third largest European shipyard on Earth, which had recently been upgraded to the necessary size.

Tribal class Destroyer Escort    3800 tons     346 Crew     536.6 BP      TCS 76  TH 200  EM 0
2631 km/s     Armour 1-21     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 10
Annual Failure Rate: 57%    IFR: 0.8%    Maintenance Capacity 177 MSP    Max Repair 96 MSP
Magazine 370    

E90 Nuclear Pulse Engine (5)    Power 40    Efficiency 0.90    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 52.6 billion km   (231 days at full power)

AML-15 Missile Launcher (10)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
AMF-960 Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 960k km    Resolution 1
Dagger AMM (370)  Speed: 23700 km/s   End: 1.4 minutes    Range: 2m km   Warhead: 1    MR: 10    Size: 1
MD960 Missile Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 960k km    Resolution 1

The Tribal received its first taste of combat in March 2038 as part of a Commonwealth task group sent to investigate the disappearance of a survey ship in the St Petersburg system. The two destroyers involved in the action, Apache and Zulu, performed well but it quickly became apparent they carried an insufficient number of missiles. Seven of nine Commonwealth ships involved in the battle were destroyed, with the two Tribals the only survivors, primarily because the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Grüssendorf, ordered them to run once their magazines were exhausted. A larger, updated version was designed, using the existing systems but mounting two more launchers and incorporating twice the magazine space of the original Tribal. As it was intended to operate with the new Peter the Great class battlecruisers, the top speed was increased to 3000 km/s. The resulting ship was almost sixty percent larger than the original Tribal and was therefore designated as the Tribal II class escort cruiser.

Tribal II class Escort Cruiser    6000 tons     509 Crew     759.6 BP      TCS 120  TH 360  EM 0
3000 km/s     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 96%    IFR: 1.3%    Maintenance Capacity 237 MSP    Max Repair 96 MSP
Magazine 732    

E90 Nuclear Pulse Engine (9)    Power 40    Efficiency 0.90    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 50.0 billion km   (192 days at full power)

AML-15 Missile Launcher (12)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
AMF-960 Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 960k km    Resolution 1
Dagger AMM (732)  Speed: 23700 km/s   End: 1.4 minutes    Range: 2m km   Warhead: 1    MR: 10    Size: 1
MD960 Missile Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 960k km    Resolution 1

Six Tribal IIs were built and all six were part of the Commonwealth fleet that returned to St Petersburg in May 2041 to avenge the defeat suffered three years previously. The Tribal II design performed superbly and the six accompanying Trafalgar II class escorts, providing the second line of defence for the fleet, didn't even have to fire a shot. The design was considered so successful that the Tribal III escort cruiser designed in 2042 was essentially the same ship but with more powerful engines. It also carried the SA-N-2 Gauntlet anti-missile missile, which was a considerable improvement over the Dagger AMM.

Tribal III class Escort Cruiser    6000 tons     509 Crew     849.6 BP      TCS 120  TH 540  EM 0
4500 km/s     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 96%    IFR: 1.3%    Maintenance Capacity 266 MSP    Max Repair 96 MSP
Magazine 732    

NPO Energomash Ion Drive (9)    Power 60    Efficiency 0.80    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 56.3 billion km   (144 days at full power)

AML-15 Missile Launcher (12)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
AMF-960 Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 960k km    Resolution 1
SA-N-2 Gauntlet (732)  Speed: 25,400 km/s   End: 1.8m    Range: 2.7m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 194 / 116 / 58

MD960 Missile Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 960k km    Resolution 1