Of all the world's powers, only the Hegemony of Rhydin and Renor Xukuth truly advanced into the realm beneath the waves; each side producing their own classes of "cruiser" submarines designed to fill the role of capital warship and long-range carrier. Rumours began circulating in Renor Xukuth that the RIRN was working on a newer, larger replacement for the ageing Xar'zith (Ice) Class HCSN. While Xukuthite industry was capable of producing vessels of that scale with relative ease, the foreseen difficulties in building something that large prompted the Xukuthite leadership to believe that such a warship was still well out of the Hegemony's industrial and technological reach.
Design work commenced in 1998 on a class of vessel that would be capable of meeting this requirement. The design brief called for a capital-sized gunship/carrier with the capacity to function as a taskforce of its own, independent of the support of other fleet units. HQLT's vast efforts in weapons research played a major role in the realisation of the concept; including the growing interest in ship-mounted cavitation weapon systems.
The research and development of the technology which the QHLT has conducted during the 2000's bore results that were generations ahead of anything the Xukuthites had ever achieved; the ability to effectively render a 350-meter-long battleship hull completely invisible to visual, acoustic and electronic detection was as shocking for the XIN as it was devastating. A conclusion now being drawn again by the Xukuthite's allies. HQLT constructed weaponry will advance the cause of whatever nation utilizes it. There are no counter-measures for the craft constructed within our shipyards, no defense against our vessels, save perhaps other vessels of make and class.
Hull
Double Titanium hull with composite armour/sound attenuating external plates. External hull formations providing sophisticated Stealth, Jamming and Active Camouflage defences. The system, is two-fold; The ship's hull plating is capable of rendering itself virtually indistinguishable from its immediate environment. The second part of the system,a result of the raised plating found across the ship's hull, is an evolution of adaptive camouflage theory, and distorts and bends light around the ship's hull; effectively masking it from visual sensors, and laser-based hyper-sonar arrays as used by the RIRN it's most hated enemy the XIN and most other advanced underwater organizations. This, combined with standard sound-attenuating techniques render the ship practically invisible at medium to long range. Conventional targeting systems have difficulty in tracking this technology, and severely hampers weapons performance at even close range.
Sensors
Hyper-sonar technology relies on a combination of 'traditional' acoustic monitoring equipment such as active and passive sonar, and laser-based range finding, it stands for Hypersonic Navigation and Ranging; as the name implies, it uses faster-than-sound technology to detect shipping, map terrain and aid in navigation. The Il'a class mounts a total of twelve parabolic hyper-sonar arrays mounted bow, stern, midships dorsal and ventral hull.
Operating passively, hyper-sonar sensors are able to work in conjunction with the ship's computer to use repeated, low-band particle beams to build up a 3D picture of the environment while an integrated passive array intelligently detects and identifies acoustic signatures within that environment. This is the preferred method of operation, as it maintains complete stealth capability for the submarine while still providing at least a marginal picture of the environment around the vessel - while there is no guarantee that a submarine will be detected by the passive components of the array, the laser array ensures that even if targets cannot be identified, they will be detected, ranged and targeted. Only next-generation active camouflage systems employed by those vessels like the Il'a have the capacity to evade passive hyper-sonar entirely.
Used actively, hypersonar becomes a double edged, but ultimately infallible sword - First sweeping the area with a high-sensitivity laser array to gather preliminary data, the ship's computer then isolates targets of opportunity which are then battered with a series of uni-directional audio pings, the system literally bounces sound waves off specific solid objects in the water repeatedly and reflects them back to the array, with each ping building up an incredibly detailed picture of the target in real time. The only draw back to this system is that the target being 'illuminated' will also have access to the same information - active acoustics work both ways.
Nonetheless, the system is a marked improvement over first-generation active sonar technology used throughout the later part of the 20th century where a single ping could be detected by any submarine in the area. The new directed-array used in hypersonars will limit the 'saturation' of the ping to one specific vector, thus maintaining the submarine's stealth against any other target in the area. Only a sophisticated inter-ship battle network (Such as the encrypted, globe-spanning communications system used by the RIRN military) would be able to make use of another ship's sensor information in real time, and forces which do possess such communications ability are very rare; most certainly, the Battlenet has been one of the RIRN's major advantages over the Xukuthite navy's own command and control network which is not as sophisticated.
Combining active hypersonar on a single ship with such a network between a task force would enable an entire battlegroup to receive real-time and incredibly detailed target information without revealing their locations.
Armament
The Il'a represents the pinnacle of HQLT-RIRN naval technology to date; being the most advanced, heavily armed and most well-protected submarine ever produced by the shipyards of HQLT. Armed with more weapons systems than even its predecessor, the well-feared Reverence class Battlecruiser, the Il'a class serves as the flagships of the RIRN fleet; boasting an impressive primary armament of 26 auto-loading torpedo tubes capable of firing the Mk. 3 RAFIT (RApid Firing, Independently Targeting) torpedos.
Computer Specifics
The absolute cutting-edge of computer technology as of 2010, the XA series Neural-Optical computer core was developed as a predecessor to the most sophisticated command and control system ever derived for a ship of war utilized by the RIRN High Command. Designed specifically as a test bed for advanced Deep Submergence technologies, the XA-N3C marks a revolutionary step in computer development, as it completely does away with synthetic wiring systems found in earlier generation computers.
It is the third core to make use solely of genetically-engineered nerves; in essence, there is no limit to how fast the core is capable of processing information - only a limit to how quickly the operator can interpret it. The computer core memory banks have a capacity in the area of nearly seven petabytes of information storage (1 Petabyte equals approximately 1 million gigabytes)
Neural network technology is controlled by the RIRN's bioengineering corps; a division of the Military Science Bureau.
Bioskin
Anechoic, genetic hull-skin developed as an acoustics countermeasure, with additional protection from light to medium weapons fire. The genetically-engineered material - a living organism by any other definition - covers the exterior of the hull as three layers, each approximately 4 inches thick at their most heavily-developed surfaces. Over the length of the submarine, this gives the Reverence a layer of protection some 12-inches thick in the most heavily protected areas of the ship, on top of reactive armour plating. The bioskin layers are highly tensile, densely composed structures which absorb and distort active acoustic signals such as sonar pings, thereby drastically reducing the effectiveness of sonar equipment directed at the vessel.
Secondly, the bioskin attenuates sounds emitted from the submarine - especially from engine machinery. This substantially reduces the sonar visibility of the submarine, rendering it effectively stealth to passive detection at extended ranges.
Thirdly, the bioskin possesses self-regenerating properties that enable it to seal any external breaches to the pressure hull. Being a third-generation skin, the more mature genetic properties allow a rate of regeneration which can completely seal a compromising hull-breach up to 80 feet wide in just less than 20 minutes, allowing the internal compartments to be isolated, sealed and then siphoned of water to allow extensive internal repairs to otherwise crippling damage without the need for a dry-dock or harbour facility.
The reactive armour of this class was developed as a countermeasure to Subduction weaponry, even as it is a theoretical weapon design, it is estimated that it will become standard in less then ten years at the current rate. Such technology could then also be in the hands of it's enemies. Composed of six layers of composite materials (the exact details of which remain classified) the armour is designed to absorb the heat of kinetic energy weapons, and in extreme cases; shatter and then expand to form a callous-like protective crystalline shell that becomes incredibly durable against directed energy weapons.
The indigenously-reactive nature of the layered composites make the armour an extremely effective countermeasure against Xukuthite subduction weaponry widely deployed on heavy cruiser hulls. Subduction weapons - which use particle decelerating technology - cut through complex materials by breaking them apart at the molecular level. When this electrochemical reaction occurs, the reactive armour found on the hull of the Reverence class forms a 'slurry' which - when mixed with the other composites of the armour - rapidly re-solidifies, and absorbs the energy of the attack, thus protecting the hull beneath.
Reactor
The HQLT FR-3 system operates in a repeating cycle, with each cycle culminating in a burst of fusion energy.
Each cycle will involve:
• creating plasma of deuterium and tritium,
• trapping the plasma within a magnetic field,
• compressing the magnetic field and the plasma within it to thermonuclear conditions, and
• capturing the heat that results from the fusion reaction and using it to generate electricity and power for all of the submarines needs.
Physically, our generator will consist of a spherical tank filled with a liquid mixture of lead and lithium. The liquid will be spun by tangential injection to create a vertical cylindrical vortex cavity in the centre of the sphere. The two plasma toroids, one from each injector, will meet in the centre of the vortex and combine to form a single magnetized plasma target, somewhat analogous to the combination of two soap bubbles. This combined plasma at the centre of the reaction chamber will have a maximum life of a few hundred microseconds before it dissipates.
The outside of the spherical tank will be studded with 200 pneumatic pistons. These pistons will impact the tank, inducing a spherical acoustic compression wave in the liquid metal that will travel to the centre of the sphere. As the acoustic wave travels through the lead and focuses towards the centre, it will become stronger and evolve into an intense shock wave. When the shock wave arrives in the centre, it will rapidly collapse the vortex cavity and the plasma confined within it, creating thermonuclear conditions in the process.
The pneumatic pistons will be controlled by a system that times their impacts precisely to create a symmetrical compression shock wave in the cavity. The control system will adjust the timing of individual piston impacts to control the shape of the cavity as it collapses; compensate for physical and thermal effects and variations within the generator; and, adjust for changes over time as equipment wears and parameters vary.
The fusion reaction will release energy in the form of charged helium atoms and free neutrons. The neutrons will pass out of the plasma and will be slowed by the surrounding liquid metal, transferring heat to the lead in the process. The neutrons will eventually be absorbed into the nuclei of the lithium dissolved in the lead, transforming it into tritium and more helium.
After the reaction ends, the lead will be pumped out of the chamber and passed through a separator that removes both the tritium and helium from the lead solution. The tritium will then be separated from the helium and directed back to the plasma injectors as fuel. The harmless helium will be released into the atmosphere.
The lead will then pass through a heat exchanger that transfers the heat to water to create steam. Approximately half of this steam energy will be used to re-power the pistons and the remaining half can be used in a standard turbine to generate electricity. Each fusion pulse will result in approximately 100 MJ of net electrical output. Varying the cycle repetition rate will control the overall power plant output; if repeated once per second, the net output will be 100 MW. At this power output, a power plant would consume only 18 kg of deuterium and 60 kg of lithium per year.
Information
Class: Il'a Class Dreadnought / Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV)
Commissioned: Dec, 1998
Keel Laid: Jan, 2005
Crew Complement: 1,000
Vessels Currently Serving: 3
Nleviran SB-1 – 2005
Ilelalvam SB-2 - 2006
Ammileanir SB-3 - 2008
Dimensions & Weights:
Length: 350.0m
Beam: 208.0m
Height: 58.0m
Submerged Displacement: 170,000 tonnes
Performance:
Crush Depth: Estimated 3,578 m
Propulsion: (2) HQLT Taurus fusion reactors powering (5) double Aqua-return propulsion drives
Maximum Speed: 60 kts
Standard Cruising: 28 kts
Sensors
Internal: Hyper-sonar; active and passive sensor suites
Effective Range : Approximately 200 nautical miles
8 Deployed WSKRS satellites
6 Deployed enhanced WSPRS
Maximum Effective Range : Approximately 500 nautical miles
Armament
26 Mk. 3 RAFIT (RApid Firing, Independently Targeting) Six-Tubed 21-inch Torpedo Batteries (mounted bows, midships)
10 SLR-81 "Hades" Supercavitating 25mm Gatling Cannons (mounted bows & midships)
12 SLR-81 "Hellfire" Supercavitating 18mm Gatling Cannons (mounted bows & midships)
20 Sea Shadow III Hypersonic Cruise Missile VLS tubes (nuclear or conventional payload) (mounted midships)
Defensive systems
Intercept Torpedoes
ECM Packages and Noise Makers
Active Camouflage
Optical Distortion Field
EVA Assets
46 Cenah Sub Fighters
22 Nota'Man Sub Fighters
12 Lairilweam Stealth Fighters
12 Medium Transports
8 Light Transports
If interested in purchasing, please visit here to fill out the proper paperwork: Harl L' Qu'mados Technologies