The Rebel Faction

Juaire-class Heavy Gunship

(Image copyright of Warlords)

Name/Type: Juaire-class Heavy Gunship
Designer/Manufacturer: Kashan Defence Industries
Combat Role: Heavy Corvette
Crew: 184 + 48 Gunners
Length: 200 Meters
Speed: 55 MGLT, 850 Kph
Hyperdrive: x0.6
Shield Rating: 1195 SBD + 1195 SBD Back-up
Hull Rating: 450 RU
Weapons: 1 Forward KDI IV-7 Tachyon Cannon, 1 Forward KDI IX-9 Gravitational Field Disruptor, 2 KDI XIV-9 Heavy Dual Turbolaser Cannons, 16 KDI L-W4.3 Point-Defence Laser Cannon Batteries, 4 Starflare-class Missile Launchers, 2 Hansen FeatherTouch Tractor Beam Projectors.
Fighter Complement: None.
Troops: 80 Kashan Shock Troopers, 32 LE Repair Droids.
Support Craft: 4 CG-10 Troop Transports (external racks).
Other: Kashan Integrated Battle Computer, Magnetorian Sweep, KDI Multi-Core Power System.

Description: The Juaire-class Heavy Corvette is Kashan’s first small capital ship built from scratch. While it is labeled as a heavy corvette under the KDF order of battle, its combat performance is above that some frigates. It is a heavily armed vessel with a fair turn of speed produced by the ship’s engines, which take up 40% of the ship’s internal volume. As such, it is well-suited as a fleet raider and chasing down ships of similar size. In groups, it is capable of taking on significantly larger ships. Unlike most corvettes, the Juaire-class is not an effective anti-starfighter ship except a very close ranges, where the large number of point-defence cannons can effectively engage enemy starfighters. While the Juaire-class is primarily be produced for use by the KDF, KDI is making the corvette available to other groups within the Coalition. However, because a limited amount are produced, that requires representatives from that faction to contact both KDF and KDI.

R&D Explanations:

Automation: Automation is still a key necessity as it was with the Seraph. Also, it freed up space to be used for other systems and cargo/passenger space. As such, most systems of the ship have been automated as much as possible without reducing efficiency. Although most of this automation technology was designed by the former CIS Separatist members, the Resolve’s automation has been improved upon since the days of the Clone Wars.

The droid brains that make up most of the automation system have been programmed with data collected from actual crewmembers in the actual jobs that they do, making the ships as effective as if they were run by actual crewmembers. There are several “automation personalities” available for each system of the ship, making them unpredictable to the enemy. For further improved performance and unpredictability, the droid brains have been allowed to learn. The droid brains can be overridden by a command code from the officer in charge of the system that it automates. Thus, the weapon’s officer can override the weapons automation, etc.

In order to protect the droid brains, they are armored with Ultrachrome and Dallorian alloys and are positioned towards the centre of the hull to prevent damage from glancing hits on the vessel. Access to the droid brains themselves is severely restricted and is heavily protected by the ship’s security system, which is discussed below.

While automation certainly has its advantages for the Kashan Fleet, it does have on drawback. Moving and living creatures can help with damage control. Stationary Droid brains aren’t quite as effective to say the least. Thus, the efficiency of the damage control would below average for a ship it’s size if not for the Repair Droid Complement.

KDI Multi-Core Power System: Most starships use a single, massive reactor. The Juaire does not, instead reflecting the redundant system philosophy that dominates Kashan engineering. Instead, it relies on a series of smaller reactor cores which are scattered throughout the central regions of the ship linked into two separate power networks. As a result, it is significantly harder to disable the vessel because it would require the destruction or ionization of two separate power systems.

Engines: One of the prime advantages of the Juaire-class is its high speed. The ion engines that propel the warship by themselves are very typical, albeit larger in proportion compared to most ships. As speed is one of the Juaire’ assets, the engines are not only well-protected, but also have dedicated maintenance and repair crews composed of LE Repair Droids supervised by human mechanics to repair damages and tune the engines for optimal speed.

For maneuvering purposes, the Juaire does have lateral thrusters that jut out from the sides of the ship that appear to be stubby wings. These thrusters allow the ship to easily move to side for slide-slip maneuvers as well as allowing the destroyer to move up and down at will. This is complemented by use of the superconducting armor to create magnetic fields that can redirect the ion streams in all matters of angles. As a result, the Juaire is likely one of the most maneuverable capital ships of any navy.

Hull Construction: The Juaire uses the second generation of Kashan armor. The frame of the ship is still composed of Ferrocarbon, giving it excellent structural strength, laminated with carbon and Trimantium fibers to increase the frame’s tensile strength. As with the Pegasus, the major innovation is the addition of Electric Reactive Armor.

Each Ultrachrome plate is made by liquefying the metal with ion fusers and flash-freezing it by the vacuum of space or any number of cooling agents. This quenching process makes the metal abnormally dense than even typical Ultrachrome. (Ultrachrome is an incredibly-dense metal was used in the production of vibroshields and other forms of blades, since it could withstand high temperatures and maintain a razor-sharp edge despite hard usage. When connected to a power supply, ultrachrome became a form of superconductor, absorbing energy and shunting it aside… (CUSWE)). The Ultrachrome is connected to the ship’s power supply, allowing it to absorb energy weapon attacks and transfer that power to reserve power cells of the vessel’s Power System. In the advent of excess energy, the power grid system will automatically vent the excess energy into space as heat until more power storage becomes available. It should be noted that all weapons and other systems that bulge out from the main hull are equally protected as the main hull itself with Ultrachrome plating.

Because warheads are among the gravest threats facing modern-day capital vessels, the Juaire armor is of the Electric Reactive Armor type. Obviously the ultrachrome plates serve as the conductive plates in the armor whereas an carbon polymer serves as the insulator of the armor. Explanation from Wikipedia:

A new technology of electric reactive armour is in development, where the armour is made up of two or more conductive plates separated by some space or by an insulating material, creating a high-power capacitor. In operation, a high-voltage power source charges the armour. When an incoming body penetrates the plates, it closes the circuit to discharge the capacitor, dumping a great deal of energy into the penetrator, which may vaporize it or even turn it into a plasma, significantly diffusing the attack. It is not public knowledge whether this is supposed to function against both KE-penetrators and shaped charge jets, or only the latter. This technology has not yet been introduced on any operational platform.

Shields: The Juaire carries fairly typical shield technology for any modern warship. However, because most of the ship’s power is dedicated to weapons and speed, the shields are actually weaker than those of most modern vessels(They do recharge as fast as normal ones hower). As in the Seraph-class, the main innovation is that both the main and back-up shield generator systems are identical. This leads to easier maintenance and improved battle capabilities. All shield generators are located below the Ultrachrome armor plating. Thus, the shields themselves are situation just on top of the hull plating.

Kashan Hyperdrive: The Hyperdrive found on the Juaire is derived from that of the Seraph-class, which is in turn derived from the Acclamator-class Military Transport. While the design team did not have an actual Acclamator hyperdrive available to them, they did have several engineers and mechanics who worked on them during the Clone Wars. To the best of their abilities, it was reconstructed. Nonetheless, it still was slower than that of the Acclamators. In the end, the hyperdrive’s rating was raised to Acclamator levels by brute force engineering. It was modified to accept more power. In order to prevent the engine from overheating and melting, it was made with Dallorian Alloy and given an advanced cyro-cooling system.

Weapons: The Juaire is mainly designed as a capital ship raider, and as such, carries heavy weaponry. While it carries conventional armament, the ship also carries two new forays into the weapons field by KDI: the Tachyon Cannon and Gravitational Field Disruptor.

KDI IV-7 Tachyon Cannon: The KDI Tachyon Cannon is a particle beam weapon that works by slowing down tachyon particles, which naturally travel faster then the speed of light, by the use of powerful electromagnetic along with the electromagnetic properties of the ships Ultrachrome plating. Once these particles are decelerated and forced into streams, their potential damage increases monumentally. Those tachyons can be clearly seen as a yellow-white beam, the coloured light is a harmless byproduct of the process (the beam itself is deadly).

The weapon does not suffer from range limitations albeit its refire rate is twice as slow as that of a heavy turbolaser. The IV-7s potence and power usage is equivalent to that of four heavy turbolasers. Because of the size of the weapon, it cannot be mounted on a turret for a ship’s this size and as such, has been placed in a forward firing arc. It is clearly visible as the lower cylinder on the bow (the upper one is the Gravitational Field Disruptor). Note that this is a particle weapon, not an energy weapon.

KDI IX-9 Gravitational Field Disruptor: This tool developed during the last decades of the Old Republic, these devices were commonly used by merchants and transport operators to temporarily alter the gravity surrounding a specific object. The dedicated field created by the disruptor can be set to allow heavy loads to moved about with ease. They can also be modified to work in reverse, causing an object to suddenly become much heavier (CUSWE). The Juaire-class uses the disruptor as a gravitational weapon whose effects are similar to that of the gravity bombs used by the Yevatha. As such, the weapon rapidly disrupts the target's gravity and pressure levels, making it substantially higher and lower, which in turn can kill or injure living beings by suffocation or high pressure. After multiple shots to the same area, the field disruptor begins to structurally weaken the ship in a manner similar to a tensor rifle, another gravity-beam weapon.

The weapon's effect depends on the range. The closer the target is, the more damage and area is effected by the weapon. The Field Disruptor's maximum range is slightly above that of an average turbolaser. However, at that range, its effects are minimal and are unlikely to kill or damage anything. At point-blank range, it is capable of severely damaging an opposing ships structure and killing the target area's crew.

KDI XIV-9 Dual Heavy Turbolaser Cannon: The XIV-9 is the smaller, twin-gun version of the XIV-7 used on the Pegasus-class. Like that weapon, it has the Stysor blaster chamber's prismatic crystal housing and galvern pattern, that boosted the static pulse output from the weapon's actuating module for a higher range. When this is combined with the ion sheathing and particle accelerator technology currently employed on the Seraph-class, the weapon has 150% of the range as a standard heavy turbolaser.

KDI L-W4.3 Point-Defence Laser Cannon: The L-W4.3 is the reverse of most KDI weapon technology; instead of working of increased aim, the L-W4.3 is intentionally designed with a very short range. However, it’s bolts are as powerful as those of a heavy laser cannon. In addition, the Dallorian-plated weapon has been fitted with a Merr-Sonn advanced rapid-pulse energy module, giving it a high rate of fire. With it’s small size, the servos have little difficulty in rapidly tracking a fast target, making it an ideal defence against missile attacks.

KDI Starflare-class Missile Tube: The Starflare-class Missile Tube launches hyperspace missiles of the Kashan Fleet. In order to switch warhead types, the Juaire uses a revolving rack of the warheads. To prevent premature detonation, the warhead changing process takes place behind durasteel blast doors aside from the Ultrachrome Hull plating. Also, each warhead is automatically armed only after it leaves the launching tube.

Hansen FeatherTouch Heavy Tractor Beam Projector: this tractor beam unit is capable of amazingly fine operations. They can harmlessly pull a bird out of mid-flight, or rip a small freighter to pieces. The FeatherTouch is turret-mounted, allowing it to be used in a multitude of configurations (CUSWE). The particular version used on the Juaire-class is the heaviest one available, and can perform as well as any other capital-grade tractor beam as well.

Carrying Capacity: Unlike most warships, the Juaire-class does not have an internal hangar. However, it does sport two racks located under the wing stubs for the CG-10 Centaur Troop Ships, which are used for boarding operations. In terms of the ground complement, it is equivalent to that of the venerable Marauder-class Corvette.

Magnetoran Sweep: This Kashan Gunship carries a single powerful magnetoran sweeps, a wide-beam device was used to disrupt targetting computers(CUSWE). Unlike most magnetoran sweeps, this one utilizes the entire hull of the Juaire to create the electomagnetic field that disrupts and jams enemy weapons and ship subsystems. This system can only be deployed in an arc in front of the Juaire-class. It is an area-effect weapon, meaning that both friendly and hostile vessels to the ship will be equally effected to it if both are in the area. As such, the Magnetoran Sweep is generally used in the opening of the battle before the two lines of ships usually meet.

Integrated Kashan Battle Computer: The Integrated Kashan Battle Computer is actually multi-purpose network that is connected to every vessel of the Kashan Fleet, whether it is a patrol starfighter or a War Destroyer. The main purpose of the Battle Computer is to intertwine, triangulate, and transmit sensor data collected from each ship.

This allows the ships to instantly gather target acquisition data and triangulate that data. The triangulation process ensures excellent target data, foiling most anti-targetting and sensor-jamming systems.

More importantly, the network can also provide navigational data from each ship along. Each vessel automatically transmits its location to the other vessel and shares navigational data with it as well. This allows the vessels of the Kashan fleet to act as navigation beacons for hyperspace jumps. As such, it is possible for Kashan ships to make instant intra-system micro-jumps to a Kashan vessel with the Battle Computer.

Security: Aside from the typical security monitors, security passes, and checkpoints, the Juaire uses Ultrachrome for the bulkhead lining of the entire ship. When an intruder is detected, it runs electricity through those linings, which then. Thus, the intruder is fried by the electric current, whether it be a living being or a droid. The power settings of the electricity can be adjusted from a shock that will normally knock a living being unconscious to the highest level, which can start circuits on fire.

Command Facilities: Like the Seraph-class, the Juaire sports two bridges. The observation bridge, which resembles a stout Imperial bridge tower, for normal operations. A battle bridge, located underneath the observation bridge tower near the core of the ship, for instances in which using the observational bridge would be dangerous to the ship's command crew.