Mainline: Starrover,the history of cruisers

The word cruiser appeared in the 10th year of the league calendar. The cruiser is not so much a classification of ships as a demonstration of the role and mission of such ships. In any case, this word is used to describe small, fast and suitable battleships for this role. In the early war history of Knight Galaxy, the main body of the fleet consisted of frigates. These ships were much larger, more expensive and slower than ordinary frigates, and were not suitable for long-distance missions (such as the northern vortex star area). Moreover, the frigate is too strategically important, and it is too risky to carry out continuous patrol missions. Generally, cruisers evade such battleships and do not participate in the inter-fleet wars between such battleships.

In the 50th year of the alliance calendar, the fleet began to register the number and configuration of cruisers, and then Loth-Wolf's fleet and other civilization forces behind it also caught up with this trend.In order to protect the commercial interests in Congress, Loth-Wolf enacted the Cruiser and Escort Law-began to focus the fleet's attention on commercial protection and manhunt with cruisers, instead of building more horrible and expensive frigates.In the early 100,000-year development of the Alliance, cruisers' ability to patrol the ocean was outstanding among many kinds of ships. Cruisers are small, fast, long-distance, and lightly armed (single-layer gun deck). They are mainly used for reconnaissance, transporting interstellar communication, destroying enemy trade lines, and so on.

In the 140th year of the Alliance calendar, cruiser gradually became the name of a lightly armed (only single-layer gun deck) battleship, which was light, fast and capable of long-distance cruise. It was mainly responsible for reconnaissance, escort, traffic destruction and other combat tasks.In the 19th century, particle fission power began to be used in battleships, and in the 250,000 year of the Alliance, experimental cruisers using particle fission power began to appear.The Alliance Fleet and Loth-Wolf Fleet were successively built with particle fission power. The hull was further enlarged and equipped with cruisers with large caliber naval guns, and then URU metal protection was added.

Cruisers with URU metal are collectively referred to as "protective cruisers". The earliest URU metal protection was just to lay a layer of horizontal URU metal on the key parts such as the engine room, making it a "Flat-armored Cruiser".However, there are many defects in laying only a layer of horizontal URU metal, so it is improved to a layer of "dome" horizontal URU metal with radians on both sides, which is called "Dome Cruiser", but there is still no side URU metal. Moreover, as the power of the ship is still relatively small, the caliber of the main gun is generally below 134 meters. In addition, there are some cruisers with URU metal installed on both sides of the ship's rail, but there is no dome. This cruiser is called "URU Metal Cruiser" and its power is often smaller than that of dome cruisers.

In the 300th year of the Alliance, the fleets of various civilizations began to use Particle Fission Power Battleships, and the experimental 2nd generation power cruisers began to appear.Loth-Wolf and Alliance Fleet began to build cruisers with long hulls and super-large laser launchers, such as Natalie and Angela. Over the next 100,000 years, heavy cruisers made of URU metal entered the fray. The earliest URU metal ships also had only one fort, because their uru metal was too heavy for other forts. Although they are large battleships with interstellar missiles and can fight like frigates, they are still used as cruisers.

Future planet's people started with the Pag launched in the 320th year of the Alliance calendar built many smaller URU metal ships to carry out the offshore cruise mission.

These "station URU metal ships"-a kind of URU metal ships born for the traditional cruiser mission of being fast, independent, searching and patrolling, are the beginning of the development of URU metal cruisers. The first truly URU metal cruiser was the Dominic of the Alliance, which was completed in the 360th year of the Alliance calendar. Loth-Wolf's Wendell went into service hundreds of years later.

For a long time, the appearance of such extremely light space battleships as cruisers made up the gap between the interceptor and frigate. Cruisers can withstand the attack of small space battleships, and can sail away from their own bases. Although frigates are very powerful in combat, their slow speed and the need for too much fuel (especially after using the 2nd generation energy core machine) make them very dependent on the supply fleet in long-distance combat.In most wars after the 500,000 year of the alliance calendar, cruiser is a fleet's long-range deterrent weapon, while frigate stays near the base. The main function of cruisers is to attack enemy caravans. Cruisers pay great attention to speed when they are designed: their slender hulls are especially conducive to high-speed navigation. In order to reduce the vortex of fluid, their bow and stern are tapered.

During the 400,000 and 700,000 years of the Alliance calendar, various civilized forces also built many smaller defensive cruisers. Due to the scarcity of URU metal, these defensive cruisers do not have URU metal on the side, but have bow-shaped horizontal armor on the deck.

At the same time, cruisers are also incorporated into the main fleet for investigation and patrol purposes.

With the increasing number of frigates, the power of cruisers is also increasing. URU metal cruiser appeared after fossil energy power was replaced by the second generation energy core power machine. Actually, they are relatively small and fast frigates.After the 700,000th year of the Alliance calendar,battleships developed so fast that cruisers that set sail several years later have surpassed previous frigates. The alliance's white fleet has been out of date for only tens of thousands of years after sailing among the stars. During this period, a fleet often includes both very old ships and very new ships, and the new ships are often much larger than the old ones.

From this time on, people began to distinguish between light cruisers and heavy cruisers. Loth-Wolf Royal Fleet pays special attention to cruisers, because they have a large number of colonies and need to keep a large number of cruisers to ensure the security of the colonies. These cruisers can detect the enemy's situation, protect the frigate fleet from going far away, and attack the enemy's large battleships.For example, in the 780th year of the alliance calendar, Heavy Cruisers "Candice" and "Julia" followed the alliance frigate "Lewis" until Loth-Wolf's frigate arrived and finally hit the Lewis.However, in the interstellar war at the Chamar estuary in the 950th year of the Alliance calendar, Loth-Wolf's heavy cruiser โ€œTheodoreโ€ and two light cruisers successfully dispersed the superior firepower of the Alliance's secondary frigateโ€Claireโ€. Although Loth-Wolf's space battleships were damaged, the alliance did not dare to fight, and finally decided to flee to the port.

After the 1.14 million year of the Alliance calendar, the upgrade of interstellar scanners and the large-scale development of interceptor ships have greatly changed the nature of interstellar wars. Even the fastest cruiser can't match the speed of the interceptor, and the combat range of the interceptor is constantly expanding. The search capability of the 2nd generation interstellar scanner reduces the dead angle of fleet monitoring, which reduces the chance of a single space battleship or a small unit to fight independently.

In the 1.24 millionth year of the alliance calendar, a super-large interstellar war broke out between Loth-Wolf and the Confederacy. The Todd heavy cruiser purchased by the Confederacy from the core area was destroyed by the laser emitted by the destroyer Loth-Wolf. Loth-Wolf fleet regards heavy cruisers as the foundation of their combat fleet, and then they are replaced by large cruisers equipped with a large number of missiles. Loth-Wolf is crazy about heavy machinery, but it can load a large number of missiles, and its new idea of saturation attack has a great influence on the development of fleet tactics.

At the same time, the core of alliance fleet is frigate. The Alliance once produced the experimental 3rd generation power cruisers during the Southern Star Wars, and all of them retired after the gorilla's tears meteorite belt war.Antony-class guided missile cruisers, which were built in the 1.24 million year of the Alliance calendar, were originally designed as destroyers. Their main function is to provide extremely strong anti-interceptor force. For the sake of public relations, these ships were renamed cruisers, with the aim of emphasizing the combat capability of the new generation of interplanetary defense system, but in essence they are still destroyers. However, since the launch of Antony cruiser in the 1.26 million year of the Alliance calendar, the space battleships of this class have made a series of improvements, which greatly enhanced their combat capability. Like their Loth-Wolf rivals, Antony cruisers can also serve as the center of the entire battle group.

In the subsequent development of cruisers, the Alliance also designed many third-generation power cruisers, such as the Daphne-class third-generation power guided missile cruiser. However, it is considered that the cost performance is not outstanding after use.After the 1.5 millionth year of the Alliance calendar, the difference between most cruisers and destroyers has been very small. It is not suitable to distinguish destroyers and cruisers by power and firepower in the traditional sense.

In order to cover up their military purpose, some civilized forces named some large surface ships close to cruiser as destroyers, including Gilbert class of Galen Empire and Future planet's destroyer "Glory ". Their power is completely close to the standard of warp flight. The latest Hyman destroyer of the Alliance has reached this standard, while the new Candic4721 destroyer has reached the power of 1.5 warp flight.

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