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Sunflower-class Space Agricultural Vessel (SAV)

Names and Disposition:

(NNS = Newport News Shipyard)

Ships' Complement:

• Ships' crew (1000 men)
• Space Naval air group (1600 men)
• Space Marine unit (20,000 men)
• Civilians (100,000 men)
• Life support limits are for a full combat complement and about 768,000 supernumeraries (800,000 men total).

Note: The given numbers are approximations; the exact number of personnel varied somewhat due to operational realities and different ships.

Dimensions:

• Length: 2750 meters overall
• Height: 3250 meters overall
• Width: 2750 meters overall
• Fuel Mass: 250,000,000 metric tons
• Operational mass (typical): 1,900,000,000 metric tons without Blue Jay-class Carrier
                                           1,900,480,000 metric tons with Blue Jay-class Carrier

Propulsion Systems:

• Main power system: RRD Mk 9 anti-matter-fueled reflex furnace. The powerplant can deliver up to 20 Exawatts of power, and can operate for ten hours minutes at maximum power before overheat initiates autoshutdown.
• Maneuvering thrusters (24): Overtechnology MRT-05 fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters mounted with steerable nozzles across the main hull of the ship.
• Reaction-mass thrusters (4): Rolls Royce MRE-12 fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with anti-matter energizer. These engines are mounted in the engine blocks of the ship two per block.
• Secondary thrusters (20): Pratt&Whitney ARE-7 fusion-plasma Reaction Thrusters with anti-matter energizer mounted on top and below the main engines, ten per block.
• Anti-gravity system: 60 RRD Minotuar anti-gravity pods.
• Sublight drive (6): Shizuma Drive GDD-9 local, monopolar-induced gravitic space-time distortion drive.
• Space fold (1):  RRD Mk19f spacefold. This system is conformal to the vessels surface. The problem with the vast majority of the previous generation of fold systems was that the fold bubble weakened the state of the structure to the extent that they needed a refit after only five years of service. As such the RDF mandated the use of conformal systems similar to the old Zentraedi systems which also allows for much higher speeds.  The Mk19f was created by placing five Mk19 drives together to increase the fold mass.
• Planetary capabilities: The Sunflower-class has atmospheric capabilities through its reaction thrusters and anti-gravity system. However, the ship cannot land on solid ground due to the design of the hull without serious damage. A water landing is possible however.

Endurance and Mobility Limits:

• The dry stores endurance is theoretically unlimited due to the fact that the ship is the supply center for dry stores. The extensive recycling installations ensured that only incidental biomass losses needed to be replenished. Water stores were recycled almost completely.
• The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) are fairly extensive, and can sustain continuous combat operations for one month against an enemy. However, battles against the powers with capital ships will exhaust the anti-ship missile supplies at a faster rate, and these operations cannot be sustain for more than one week.
  The ship launched missile magazines should suffice for six large battles or about ten or more smaller skirmishes.
• At full power, the main propulsion systems can produce up to 80 Teranewtons of thrust at a minimal reaction mass efficiency profile, or as little as 1.6 Teranewtons of thrust at a maximum efficiency setting. At lower power levels, these thrusts are commensurately smaller.
• At full power, the Sunflower-class can achieve a maximum delta-v of 368 kps at the cruising acceleration of 0.1G, a maximum delta-v of 73.6 kps at the battle acceleration of .68G, and a delta-v of at most 19.9 kps at the flank acceleration of 1.7G. At lower power levels, these ranges are commensurately smaller.
• Sublight drive acceleration is 500 g, but the vessel's maneuverability is reduced to such a degree that only minor course corrections are possible. Typical cruising speed is .15 c.
• The fold systems are not navigationally guaranteed for any single jump beyond 5 kiloparsecs. If longer voyages are required, the ships must conduct multiple fold jumps.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed is limited to sub-sonic speeds. A higher speed could be attained while accelerating to orbit, or in emergencies, but this stressed the engines to above their sustainable heat tolerances. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems was limited only by maintenance requirements.

Weapon Systems:

Circa 2063

• Bofors PL-7 point defense turrets (40): Mounted behind movable panels in the main hull. These standard RDF weapons can fire 53 MJ of particle energy four times per second at a range of 20 km.
• Raytheon Mk 255 surface to air missile launchers (20): A missile launcher mounted in a twelve tube pop-up turret, firing anti-mecha/missile missiles, though the projectiles can guide on point-blank enemy ships. When the missiles are released they are already on their intercept vectors, or very close to them.  The launcher is designed to fire the SA-12 Arrow medium range surface-to-air missile. Each turret has a reload time of 6 seconds and a magazine with a 1200 round capacity.  These turrets are mounted behind armor plating and pop up when firing and are mounted on the main hull.

Electronics Systems:

• Hughes DSP-6 pinpoint barrier defense system(4): Uses four movable disks of force field, conformal to the ship's surface, to repel light torpedo attacks, or particle beam fire.

Air group and mecha complement:

(circa 2055)

(Space Naval air group)

• 15 VF-11 Thunderbolt Veritech fighter
• 17 SC-45 Hawk Personnel and cargo shuttle
• 50 VC-25 Samson Heavy VSTOL cargo transport
• 80 VC-27 Hercules Light VSTOL cargo transport

(Space Marine unit)

• 5,000 VR-071 Protector Veritech cyclone
• 5,000 VR-077 Firefly Veritech cyclone
• 5,000 VR-074 Gorilla Veritech cyclone

(circa 2063)

(Space Naval air group)

• 15 VF-19 Excalibur Veritech fighter
• 14 SC-52 Vulture Personnel and cargo shuttles
• 20 VC-37 Perseus Heavy VSTOL cargo transport
• 50 VC-39 Ajax Light VSTOL cargo transport

(Space Marine Security Unit)

• 5,000 VR-071 Protector Veritech cyclone
• 5,000 VR-077 Firefly Veritech cyclone
• 5,000 VR-074 Gorilla Veritech cyclone

Note: The given numbers are approximations; the exact number and type of mecha varied somewhat due to operational realities and different ships.

Design Notes:

To protect this essential part of the fleet the Sunflower vessel has two forms of defense. Its first being the Blue Jay-class Space Escort Carrier that controls all of the functions of the platform whilst attached. In the event of the carrier disconnecting itself from the Sunflower, control is passed over to the emergency bridge of the Sunflower. The second line of defense are the 14 Shield sections that give the Agricultural Platform its name. In shell down mode the 14 shield sections are down and cause the platform to resemble a Sunflower which the ship is named after. In the event of an attack these sections immediately and swiftly come up to cover the semi-transparent dome of the vessel to shelter the dome and protect it from a breach.

In the event that a colony fleet encountered a habitable world, the Sunflower platform would work with both the Riviera and Einstein-class vessels to determine if the prospective colony world is capable of supporting life.

History:

The first Sunflower-class vessel was launched from the Newport News Shipyards on Luna in June of 2050 and joined Colony Fleet 1 on its mission towards the galactic core.  Since then a Sunflower-class vessel has accompanied every colony fleet and continue to serve with distinction.  The only vessels to be lost are UES Dandelion which encountered Varauta Forces soon after landing on Planet Rex and UES Tulip which was destroyed by a large Marduk Fleet in 2066.

Layout adapted from Robotech Reference Guide

Content by Jeffrey R. Spillner
Copyright © 1998-2002 Jeffrey R. Spillner

Page Last Updated on January 21, 2002 @ 14:00 GMT