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Retou Delholto-class Scout Frigate

Note: While Zentraedi ships have been assigned Terran naval/space type designators, it must be stressed that their size and armaments placed them in a class of their own, matched only by contemporary Tirolian and modern Terran construction of like designations. As such, their designations must be viewed as indicators of intent and use rather than absolute strength. 

Class History:

Of these 6.8 million that were built from 2050 to 2068, 5.2 million of these were lost in the 4th Robotech War (2063-2068).  56 of these were destroyed during the Neld Invasion of 2057.  199 of these have been lost through various other causes be they accident or otherwise.

Ships' Complement:

• Ships' crew (100 men)
• Air group (250 men)
• Troops (400 men)

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

Dimensions:   

• Length: 489 meters overall
• Height: 87 meters overall
• Width: 75 meters overall
• Fuel Mass:  850,000 metric tons
• Operational mass (typical): 2,153,000 metric tons

Propulsion Systems:

• Main power system: Dealmalunn Melkezants Mk II anti matter-fueled reflex furnace cluster. The powerplant of a Retou Delholto-class vessel can nominally deliver up to 3 Petawatts of power, and can operate for 60 minutes at maximum power before overheat initiates auto-shutdown.
• Maneuvering Thrusters (60): Thun Varredoush Mk III  fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters with steerable nozzles.  There are 10 on the forward and aft dorsal hull, 16 on the central dorsal hull, 8 on the forward and aft sides, 10 thrusters low in the nose, 10 mounted on the forward ventral, 4 in the central ventral and 4 in the aft ventral.
• Reaction-mass Thrusters (3): Varretszalnna Mk II fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with anti matter energizer mounted in a vertical row of three in the stern of the ship.
• Anti-gravity System (1): 5 Degrashan Mk IV anti-gravity pods.
• Space Fold (1): Siquetzs Mk II spacefold. This system generates a hull-conformal fold.
• Planetary Capabilities: The Retou Delholto-class has atmospheric capabilities through its reaction engines and anti-gravity systems. The ship cannot make a cold landing without exerting fatal pressure on the underslung plasma cannon unless the ship touches down on an extensively prepared landing field with docking clamps or in an ocean. The ship will float in the latter. Furthermore, only the upper ingress/egress ports will open above the waterline, which greatly hampers access to the ship. In all, the captains of Retou Delholto-class craft preferred to remain in orbit or spacedock.

Endurance and mobility limits:

• The dry stores endurance is 6 months maximum; after that, the ships of this class need to restock. Water stores are recycled almost totally. If fewer or no auxiliary vessels are carried, the freed hangar space can be used to store additional consumables.
• The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) are adequate; the Retou Delholto-class is able to sustain continuous combat operations for more than 12 days.
  The missile magazines for the ship's own launchers are typically empty after two major space battles.
• At full power, the main propulsion systems can nominally produce up to 866 Giganewtons of thrust at a minimal reaction mass efficiency profile, or as little as 17 Giganewtons of thrust at a maximum efficiency setting. At lower power levels, these thrusts are commensurately smaller.
• At full power, the Retou Delholto's powerplant can nominally achieve a maximum delta-v of 644 kps at the cruising acceleration of 0.9G, a maximum delta-v of 128.8 kps at the battle acceleration of 2.0G, and a delta-v of at most 40.3 kps at the flank acceleration of 3.9G. At lower power levels, these ranges are commensurately smaller.
• The fold systems were not navigationally guaranteed for any single jump beyond 5 kiloparsecs. If longer voyages were required, the ship had to conduct multiple fold jumps.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed is Mach 2.0. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems is limited only by the anti-matter supplies and maintenance requirements.
• Including regular refits, the hull is designed to have an anticipated lifetime of 200 years.

Weapon systems:

• Thatzsral Mossil 5 plasma cannon(1): This is the  Zentraedi version of the plasma cannon.  The Zentraedi version has a much larger discharge of 72.2 TJ, but a range of only 200,000 km making among the most short range capital ship weapons.  It does have a excellent refire rate of once every 3 seconds making superior in terms of firepower and fire delay to the Terran cannon .  Each turret contains three cannons and can rotate a 360 degrees in the horizontal axis and from -15 to 75 degrees in the vertical axis. The cannons is mounted in the hull on the bow of the vessel.
• Inral Mossil 6 ion cannon(14):  Based on the venerable Makral Mossil series particle cannon, these cannon form the bulk of the anti-starship firepower on Zentraedi vessels.  The basic Makral Mossil has been improved by replacing the aging particle cannon with an ion cannon.  While having a rather weak discharge and range, the cannon has a very impressive rate of fire of once every second at maximum.  The cannon still mounts the low power laser cannon to cut a path for the ion cannon though.  The ion cannon has a range of 60,000 km and can discharge at 1.9 GJ every second.  Although these cannons are mounted to provide fire on all bearings, the highest concentration is in the nose and on the sides of the nose
• Point defense turrets (8):  In a doctrine change from the old Zentraedi to the new Zentraedi, all new Zentraedi warships now mounted a modest point defensive suite built around both missile turrets and particle cannon.  In battles against the Invid during the EF's struggle against them, the Zentraedi bore witness to the need for  point defense for their ships and incorporated them into all new designs.  Mounted behind movable panels in the main hull. These standard turrets can fire 50 MJ of particle energy three times per second at a range of up to 15 km.
• Deuawhaug Rasar SLBM launchers(10):  A reloadable Silo Launch System (RSLS), or as it is better known, a torpedo tube, capable of firing large anti-ship and ground bombardment torpedoes. The tubes can reload in 5 seconds, and have a 6 round magazine close-by. These launchers are mounted in the lower forward hull, between the lower and upper amour mantels.
  The missiles used are the DH-1, DH-2, and DH-3 missiles. The DH-1 is a nuclear missile with a 10 MT reaction warhead, the DH-2 is a conventional tipped missile with a warhead of 5.2 metric tons, and the DH-3 is a multi-warhead missile with thirty MIRV with a nuclear warhead of 5 kT each.
• Touwhaug Rasar 10 surface to air missile turret(8): A missile launcher mounted in a pop-up turret, firing TH-1 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. Each turret has a reload time of 5 seconds and a magazine with a 250 round capacity. They are mounted for spherical coverage.

Electronics:

• The Retou Delholto mounts extensive flush EM receiver arrays, mostly on the forward dorsal and the forward ventral.

Air group and mecha complement:

• 60 Relotzor Tactical Battle Pod (four versions)
• 3 Gilouza Glaug Officers Battle Pod
• 6 Holto Queadluunkah Strike Power Armor
• 8 Holto Queadluun Power Armor
• 1 Holto Queadluuntiet Command Power Armor
• 50 Reraulon've Aerospace Fighter/Attack Plane
• 15 Harsz Dakan Veritech Fighter
• 20 Makral Zjendral Unmanned Defense Drone
• 3 Reliewneuatzs Personnel Shuttle
• 1 Renauglar Nodral Refueling Tanker
• 1 Requel Quallie-class Theatre Scout Recon

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

Design Notes:

History:

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