Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Iowa-class Battleship

"The capital pride of Aquilan navy."

-Iowa-class Battleship

The Iowa-class battleship are the oldest, but active fast battleships that serves as the main Capital ship of the Federation of Aquila. Planned to be voiced by

Tactical analysis

 * No plans to retire:
 * Still a contender for Naval Warfare:
 * 3:
 * 4:

Appearance
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History
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The Iowa-class battleships were designed in 1938 V.C, when the Navy proposed a new class of battleships that were to develop on the lessons learned from the development and construction of the North Carolina-class and South Dakota-class of battleships. Of exceptional concern was the Voshkod's Sovetsky Soyuz battleship. Wishing to have an apt and equal response, the construction of the Iowa-class was approved. These factors culminated in the Aquilan, Hawke and Fereldan invoking the "Escalator Clause" of the second naval treaty, which permitted 16 inch guns and 45,000 long tons standard displacement.

With the emergence of aircraft carriers and the need to protect them from surface threats, the concept of “fast battleships” came into prominence; ships designed with the speed and the endurance to keep pace with carrier groups and serve as a major deterrent to surface attack. To fulfill this role, the design called for a top speed of 33 knots from 8 boilers connected to 4 turbines; each turbine to a propeller shaft. This layout produced a total of 230,000 shaft horsepower. Furthermore, the ship had a greater waterline length-to-beam ratio, making the ship longer than its predecessors, as well as notably faster.

In response to the increasing military power of Voshkod during the Cold War and the Voshkod Navy commissioning the Kirov class of missile cruisers and the Potemkin-class of battleships, the Aquilan Navy began refitting the Iowa-class units and modernizing them for service.

Originally, the Navy considered several proposals that would have removed the aft 16-inch turret. Martin Marietta proposed to replace the turret with servicing facilities for 12 AV-8B Harrier STOVL jump jets. (Charles Myers), a former Navy test pilot turned Defense consultant, proposed replacing the turret with vertical launch systems for missiles and a flight deck for Marine helicopters. Plans for these conversions were dropped in 1984 V.C. in favor of upgunning the Iowas to counter the Potemkin.

(lore incomplete)

Trivia

 * The configuration of the Iowa is based on the 1980s refit configuration.