Daring-class Battlecruiser

The plans for the Daring-class were conceived from desperation in the months during the Imperial War of Aggression. The War exposed certain glaring inadequacies in the CDU Navy. Heavy on small (albeit heavily armed), relatively fragile vessels, the sloops, frigates, and light cruisers of the Union suffered heavily against the Imperial ships of the line. The few battleships and heavy cruisers that the CDU had managed to complete were stretched thin, limiting options for retaliatory actions. Worse, many of the heavy combatants still under construction had been destroyed in their scaffolds by the Empire, or scuttled by retreating CDU forces.

An ambitious project was commenced, but it would be years before any of the new battleships were completed, and needs for credible power-projection capabilities increasingly apparent. Attention turned to a collection of ancient Dreadnaughts residing in the fleet's mothball yards. Most such ships in the Union's possession are survivors of Admiral Blake's campaigns in the Rebellion. Others were abandoned in various less than operational states by the Empire as they retreated from what is now Union Space following the Battle of Endor, or acquired through salvage, trade, or other means. Generally speaking, they have sat idle since then, save for occasional use as an experimental test-bed, freight-hauling, or on at least one inglorious occasion, as test targets for the 'new generation' of the Union's warships.

But even in their rust-out state, these hulls were spacious, rugged, and powerful. The interest was by no means unanimous. The manpower requirements of the old hulls were immense, the internal workings complicated, and most had unrepaired battle-damage. Many questioned the urgency of the need, and more pacifist, Caspar-centric elements questioned the need for combatants of this scale at all. Nevertheless, less than one year after the cessation of hostilities with the Empire, the former Republic Navy Dreadnaught Daring was grappled to a hyperspace tug and delivered to Lokkai Starworks' Nenawirth Yards at Kasputin Yar for experimental refit.

The vessel was found to be in remarkable shape, structurally, and save for the repair of battle damage, the cutting of new turret-rings, and the amputation of unnecessary superstructures, the hull remained almost entirely untouched. The vessel's reactors and power-distribution systems were deemed to be more than adequate for their needs (incorporating near-perverse levels of capacity). It was deemed that there would be considerably difficulty in replacing these systems, and the hyperspace drives, so these systems were only slightly modified. Most other systems were gutted and replaced with modern hardware. To keep costs and teething difficulties down, Lokkai limited itself to using proven hardware.

The remaining hull, now considerably lighter, was mated to a faster, modern sublight drive (using the high-impulse thrusters originally developed for the Hurricane-class carrier), resulting in a faster, vastly more responsive vessel. Modern sensor arrays were added, both for search and fire control. Since the original hull escaped radical rebuild, the ship was not quite as durable as a modern ship of the line, but the Lokkai engineers took every opportunity to arm her to the teeth. In addition to a good balance of heavy turbolasers, quad-lasers, and ion cannons, much of the 'dead-space' was packed with heavy missile cells (using the simpler Dymek -brand launchers yanked off of impounded or damaged foreign ships) fitted with cellular anti-blast magazines to prevent ammunition mishaps.

Even with the upgraded armament, and notably improved living conditions aboard, the CMS Daring still had sufficient space to embark a battalion-sized task force of Marines, and hangar-space to support up to 24 starfighters. The design conceived by Lokkai was not a true battleship, but a battlecruiser, lighter and more mobile. In wartime she is ideally suited as a convoy and installation raider. In peacetime the flexible vessel makes a potent tool for peace-keeping and piracy suppression. It also makes an ideal flagship for lighter task forces, possessing a large, well-equipped 'flag bridge' for managing maneuvers of large numbers of vessels.

The reborn CMS Daring surprised her detractors by completing space-trials without blowing herself to pieces, and performed well enough that the Admiralty was willing to authorize follow-on vessels. At present there are 16 Daring-class battlecruisers in CDU service, deployed in two squadrons (one presently based at Kichnar Naval Depot, the other at Krittain Major). All of these vessels have been considerably active, but no additional ships of this class are planned.