Phew, last one. Sorry for the lack of Quality Renders (TM) these past few builds. I'm home for break and my desktop is back at school, so I'm stuck with my old laptop that is surprisingly slower with Chunky than a custom gaming PC. Anyway, this has been a long-ish project of mine, one of my favorite starships. It feels good actually finishing another ship for CC, well, finishing the exterior that is. This one has some interior bits done, but still has a ways to go in that department like all of my ships. I had fun designing and building this ship, which deviates from most of the concept art I've drawn out of necessity (I'd lose the picture or be unable to make some element work) or out of preference (there were some things I wanted to change from the design after spending a year staring at the drawing). I hope the past few days work has been worth it, because I tried to bang it out for Christmas. Enjoy my third Celestial Chaos ship, filling the UTSSF's logistics needs!

Specs:


Class: Sprinter

Type: Fast Combat Support Ship (Designation AOES)

First Flown: 24/12/2017

Length: 410 m

Width: 135 m

Height: 68 m

Armament:

• • 2 Trojan Technologies 2GJ railguns (1000mm)
    

• • 2 Arrow Dynamics M275 10GW laser batteries.
    

• • 20 2-barrel Trojan Technologies 50MJ projectile turrets (CIWS)
    

• • 2 2-barrel Trojan Technologies 25MJ rapid-fire projectile turrets (CIWS)
    

• • 8 Raytheon Phalanx 20mm CIWS Gun Systems
    

Top Speed:

• • Sublight: 0.49c
    

• • FTL: 575c
    

Powerplant: 1 Mk. IX(s) Fusion Reactor

Thrust: 4 Zephyr Industries VA6 VASIMR Plasma Nacelle Engines, 4 Zephyr Industries VAN16 VASIMR Plasma Nacelle Engines, 12 Zephyr Industries VANR4 VASIMR Plasma Deceleration Engines

FTL: 4 Brony Aerospace FT550 Warp Coil Assemblies Mounted in VAN16 VASIMRs.

Shields: Electromagnetic Hull Plating, Carbon Nanotube Skin

Maneuvering System: Multi-Axial RCS Assemblies (40 all over hull)

Displacement: 420,000 tons

Commissioned Ships:

• • Skyship Sprinter (AOES-412)
    

• • Skyship Quicksilver (AOES-413)
    

• • Skyship Swift (AOES-414)
    

• • Skyship Whirlwind (AOES-415)
    

Crew: 320 (290 Enlisted, 30 officers)

Maximum Range: 3500 light years without replenishment

Cost: $25 billion Skylord Dollars ($50 billion USD)

Cargo Capacity:

• • Liquid Hydrogen Propellant/Fuel: 5,000,000 gallons
    

• • Ordnance/Dry Cargo: 10,000 tons
    

• • Refrigerated Goods: 725 tons
    

• • Bottled Oxygen Gas: 3,000 bottles
    

• • Water: 25,000 gallons
    

Auxiliary Aircraft:

• • 1 SV-35 Starhound General Purpose Utility Craft
    

• • 1 Brony Aerospace S10 Single Stage To Orbit Shuttle
    

• • 20 Brony Aerospace L6 Escape Pods
    

The saying "amateurs learn tactics, experts learn logistics" is one of many ways of saying an army is useless without supplies. The UTS takes this idea to heart in their naval strategies, always ensuring that ships can be replenished at a moment's notice to extend range and operational capabilities to the best extent. As the Space Fleet acquired more and more FTL warships of the Liberty and Archangel classes, and as civilian and government research and colonization efforts expanded to other solar systems, leadership realized that they could no longer rely on close-by resupply bases on various moons and planets of the Solar System. The Sprinter class was developed to keep the gradually increasing DESRONs operating. As fast as an Archangel, not terribly expensive, well armed, and capable of carrying far more supplies than a DESRON would ever need, the Sprinter was actually designed to fill a strategic role not yet open with the Space Fleet's current composition: a resupply unit for a carrier strike group. The Andromeda-class fleet carrier is still in the design stage, but once complete, it will flag the base unit for Space Fleet operations all around the sector, and the Sprinter will be responsible for ensuring the carrier and her escorts are supplied, armed, and fueled whenever they need it. With plenty of cargo room, planetfall capability with Room Temperature Directional Superconductors, and a heavy payload of weapons herself, Sprinter is a very multipurpose ship as well. The four active vessels have acted as colonization transports, cargo carriers, fire support platforms, landing ships, and even rudimentary carriers, and the Fleet often tries out new technologies on these capable logistics ships first before fielding them.

The Sprinter class is the largest active spacecraft built by humanity, very nearly eclipsing the Maersk Galactic-class cargo ships by only three meters in length. Its design is a combination of old and new technologies. Primary propulsion is provided by the same engines and FTL systems as the Archangel-class, easing maintenance for both platforms. The Brony Aerospace SSTO shuttle mounted on the ventral side is one of two auxiliary utility spacecraft carried, although it is primarily for escape and personnel transport. The SV-35 Starhound is meant for cargo VERTREP and transport for underway replenishment, and can enter the cargo bay of the Sprinter through an elevator and airlock. The Skylords lack the forcefield technology to trap atmosphere inside a shuttlebay, and thus must rely on a mechanical airlock to separate the elevator from the pressurized interior, although a well-practiced crew can get a Starhound from the landing pad to cargo bay in three minutes. The ship is studded with radars, quadars, and gradars, and on several occasions has served as a fleet command ship for a DESRON or system protection force. The Sprinter's future looks bright, as an expanding Space Fleet only means more and more uses for the platform, and in addition to ten new sister ships being ordered by the UTSSF, additional variants are under development.