George Washington class Space Cruiser:
The George Washington was supposed to be the first military large space ship built by the United States military. The Washington was also the last. The ship had been contracted from Boeing Aerospace and built by them. The ship was commissioned only four days before the coming of the Rifts (or the Flash as people in Orbit call it) and while the ship was still on tests, the ship was a marvel of engineering for it time. It also was both the largest starship and the largest vehicle that has ever been built by the original residents of the Earth and the Earth's Orbital Community. It is still the largest ship in orbit of Rifts Earth. The ship is a product of the United States Air Force and is crewed by Air Force personnel and the crew uses both the Air Force's rank structure and terminology. Naval terms are not used by the ship's crew due to there being a certain prejudice against the Navy. This ship was designed so that a large artillery platform, fighters, and large numbers of troops could all respond to a hot situation if necessary. This ship was also built to be as independent as possible so that the ship could deal with situations that take long periods of time to be dealt with.
The period that this ship was constructed was a time of unrest and the unrest was beginning to spill into orbit. While the American ship was the only complete, many governments including the Russians, Chinese, and European orbital interests were all building ships as well.
The ship is long but blocky in the main body with the rear area being slightly wider to accommodate the engineering section. The ship has a rotating cylindrical section that is partially enclosed on the sides by the hanger bays. On each side of the ship is a fighter bay.
The ship's propulsion is eight pulse fusion engines. This allows for both fast accelerations and for long distance operations. The engine uses reaction mass in the form of deuterium and helium 3. Most of the fuel is carried in a frozen form to increase the storage ability of the ship. This gives the ship a four month endurance (three with constant flight operation because the fighter use the same fuel).
The ship is very well armed. For the ships main non missile weaponry, it has four heavy ion cannon forward and two heavy ion cannons to the rear. The ion cannons are a similar but are a longer ranged version than what is carried of the submersible carrier, U.S.S. Ticonderoga. The Washington has twelve rail guns for both support of the ion cannons against large targets and to be used against fighters, power armors, and missiles. The ship also has twelve automated laser close in weapon systems that normally act as the ships point defense but can be designated on other targets if needed. The ship carries eight long range missile launchers for both anti-ship and anti-fighter use. The ship has also have eight medium range missile launchers that are used for anti-fighter and anti-missile defense. The ship also has an automated mini-missile launching system that is used as inner anti-missile point defense.
This ship is also equipment with the most sophisticated ECM systems better than any other system belonging to any human culture on Rifts Earth (Kittani equipment is more advanced than this system). The computer systems are designed with double hardened systems to prevent either jamming or EMP from damaging the ship's system or any systems of equipment inside the ship. While the ship does not have a force field, the ship has a special magnetic shield that reduces the effectiveness of particle beams. The ship also carries four defensive chaff launchers and eight advanced decoys. The radar system on the ship is very sophisticated and uses two towers all equipped with phase array systems. This system is used for both tracking and fire control. The systems partially cover each other so the loss of one tower will only cause minimal loss of tracking and targeting.
This ship is not laid down like a traditional ship. All sections except rotating crew sections have the floors towards the rear of the ship. This means that while the ship is accelerating or decelerating (The ship simply flips to decelerate) the crew have the comfort of the appearance of some gravity and the forces of acceleration will not be striking the crew members sideways. This means the crew can do most jobs at full efficiency though some jobs would seem to be done sideways when compared to traditional naval ships. The control center is also laid out in a novel way to take advantage of the ship's design. The ship is also equipped with a special section that rotates to always give the crew an environment with a gravity of one standard G. Inside this section are crew quarters and exercise area including a small running track that goes around the entire outside of the rotating section. Entrance to this section is made through the central hub area. The rotating section is kept rotating in the same way an electric motor spins in basic principle. The system is free floating and requires little power to continue to spin.
The ship has an extensive hydroponic section to greatly extend te ships supplies and to help augment the life support. Special plants have been engineered for the hydroponic section that provide all the nutritional needs of the crew but the hydroponics section does not grow enough food so that the ship must carry food supplies as well.
The ship was classified as a Cruiser but both has a large fighter compliment and carries space assault troops (originally formed from Air Force Special Operation but act like space marines) equipped with power armors. The ship has two hanger bays that each normally carry 40 fighters each but can maintain up to 60 allowing one hanger bay to take up some of the slack of the other hanger bay. The hanger bays are long sections that are external to the main body. These hanger bays have large hatches that open on the front and back for landings and have thirty smaller hatches on the sides of the hanger bays to launch fighters. When the hanger bay is not being used for flight operations, it is pressurized and all doors are closed. When the hanger bay is being used for flight operations, the fighter bay is a vacuum and airlocks prevent air loss from the rest of the ship. Fighters and assault/cargo shuttles land in the hanger bays by approaching the bay from the rear. They are caught by hooks bars that are mounted on both the top and bottom of the hanger bay. These hooks ride in electromagnetic rails and the hook bar will be gradually slowed down by electromagnetic force. Vehicles can land without need of the electromagnetic rails but they make vehicle operations quicker. The hanger bay is open on both the front and the rear to prevent vehicles from crashing into the front of the bay and shuttles are launched from the front of the bay. Fighters can leave the hanger bays under their own power but are normally launched by an electromagnetic catapult. This is done so the fighters clear out of the landing path of other incoming vehicles without the fighters engines doing damage to the hanger areas. The fighters are hooked to a harness that is then accelerated along an electromagnetic bar. Thirty fighters can be launched from each bay at one time using the catapults. The ship has grapnels to grab disabled vehicles and can actually approach a disabled vehicle very carefully and then have the hanger crew secure the vehicle while in the hanger bay.
The George Washington follows theoretical information about starships operating non chemical propulsion in space. This has meant much greater speeds and accelerations. Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Washington's velocity and distance traveled:
Because the revised starship rules may not be desirable by all groups, vehicle statistics have been listed in standard Rifts levels as well. Using standard Rifts level, the starship's performance is only a fraction of listed performances for the revised writeup.
Vehicle Type: Space, Combination Cruiser/Carrier
Crew: 1,160 (40 officers and 1120 Enlisted) standard
Troops: 825 Assault troops, 60 Specialized shuttle crew members,
180 fighter pilots, and ship can carry up to 200 additional passengers
Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:
Power Armors:
| 400 | Space SAMAS | |
| 40 | USA-G10 Glitterboys |
| 80 | SF-70 Star Talon Fighters |
| 6 | Assault/Cargo Shuttles | |
| 4 | Fuel Shuttles |
M.D.C. By Location:
| Heavy Ion Pulse Cannons (6, 4 forward and 2 aft): | 500 each | |
| Rail Gun Turrets (12): | 250 each | |
| Laser CIWS Turrets (12): | 150 each | |
| Long Range Missile Launchers (8): | 300 each | |
| Medium Range Missile Launchers (8): | 200 each | |
| Anti-Missile Mini Missile Launchers (4): | 100 each | |
| Defensive Chaff Throwers (4): | 50 each | |
| [1] Main Body: | 35,000 | |
| Hull Per 40 ft Area : | 200 | |
| [2] Control Center: | 5,000 | |
| [3] Sensor Towers (2): | 2,000 each | |
| [4] Rotating Crew Section: | 10,000 | |
| Hanger Bays (2): | 10,000 each | |
| Front And Rear Hanger Bays doors (2 Front / 2 Rear): | 2,000 each | |
| Fusion Pulse Thrusters (6): | 1,000 each |
Notes:
[1] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the Cruiser out of
commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support.
Rotational crew section will stop rotating. The ship itself will be an
unsalvageable floating wreck.
[2] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the control center through the ships armor. This ship does not have
an auxiliary control center. Even if the control center is destroyed, the
ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and
all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge
that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or
near the bridge.
[3] The destruction of one sensor tower will cause
a 25% reduction in sensor effectiveness. The destruction
of both sensor towers will effectively blind the ship except using
fire control systems as sensors.
[4] If the MDC of the Rotating Crew Section is reduced to less than
half, the crew section will loose power to the rotational system. The rotating
crew section will slow down at the rate of 10% of its speed for every hour
that the power is out for rotating the Rotational Crew System. In 10 hours,
the rotation will completely stop.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Space Propulsion: The starship does not have an effective top
speed but is limited by acceleration. The Cruiser can reach a top acceleration
of 3.2 G but due to high fuel consumption and extra strain on the engines,
the ship will normally travel at 0.4 G for any extended trips. Top acceleration
is only meant for emergencies and combat maneuvers.
Because the Cruiser is mostly unshielded from the effects of radiation
and hypervelocity atomic particles (It is not completely unshielded, the
cruiser is not operated at speeds exceeding 20% of the speed of light.
[ For gamers who do not wish to use revised rules, assume the ship's
engine is combination of a plasma drive with a top speed of Mach 8 and
a traction drive. Note: If consider the ship this way, the ship cannot
operate fighters or power armors at high traction drive speeds]
Planet Bound: The ship cannot operate within an atmosphere and
if the ship was to ever enter the atmosphere, the ship would crash into
the planet.
Maximum Range: Conditionally unlimited, while the fusion rector
gives power for over two decades of service, the ship's propulsion is limited
by the ships reaction mass. The reaction mass consists of Deuterium (Hydrogen
2) and Helium 3. The ship can be refueled at ground based facilities, space
stations, and other star ships as long as they have the special facilities.
The ship can also be refueled by fuel shuttles.
The Cruiser carries 4 months of reaction mass for travel at 0.4 G of
acceleration. Double the consumption of fuel for 0.8 G of acceleration
and double the consumption again for every 0.8 G of acceleration beyond
0.8 G. this means the ship will burn the fuel 16 times faster than at 0.4
G of acceleration. The ship will often accelerate for a period of time
and then shut down the engine and travel using the ship's velocity. If
the ship uses more than half of its reaction mass when accelerating, the
ship will be unable to decelerate fully and the ship will normally only
use a third or less of its fuel on accelerating so it does not run into
a problem. If the ship runs out of fuel then it must be refueled by another
vehicle traveling faster or be lost.
If the ship has a large amount of flight operations, the ship is limited
to about three months endurance at cruising speed from the fighters using
the ship's reaction mass.
The ship has a hydroponic section and with ships stores and the hydroponic
ship is capable of operating for three years without resupply.
[ For gamers who do not wish to use revised rules, assume the cruiser
duration is effectively unlimited by drive systems]
Statistical Data:
Length: 4,268.3 feet (1,300 meters)
Height: 1,641.7 feet (500 meters)
Width: 2,298.3 feet (700 meters)
Weight: 620,000 tons (563,960 metric tons) fully loaded. The
ship carries 160,000 tons (145,280 metric tons) of deuterium and helium
three for fuel. Without fuel the ship weighs 460,000 tons (417, 680 metric
tons)
Main Engine: The Ship is power by fusion reactors that will
theoretically operate for 25 years and can provide effectively unlimited
electrical power. However, it was recommended that the drive and power
system have routine maintenance every 5 years. Also, the ship only carries
about a four month supply of reaction mass.
Cargo: Ship has twelve small cargo holds that are each 20 x
20 x 20 feet (6.1 x 6.1 x 6.1 meter) in dimensions. The ship has a total
of 96,000 cubic feet (2718 cubic meters). Each enlisted crew member has
a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship's officers have more
space for personal items. Most of the ship's spaces are taken up by extra
ammo, armor, troops, weapons, engine, reaction mass, equipment, and hydroponics.
Cost: Any station in orbit would spend billions of IOU to purchase
this ship.
WEAPON SYSTEMS:
Other Systems:
The Cruiser has all systems standard on a robot vehicle plus the following
special features:
[ Mutants in orbit TM, Triax TM are trademarks owned by Kevin
Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and
Palladium Books Inc.]
By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
Drawing by Mischa (E-Mail Mischa ).
Copyright © 1998 & 2001, Kitsune. All rights reserved.
