Terran Empire Navy Destroyer Norfolk

This work is part of a commission for

The Terran Empire Navy Destroyer Escort Norfolk (DDE-207) in her red and gold warpaint. Ships of the Terran Empire Navy's Strike Squadrons (STRIKERON) are often garishly colored to reflect their bold natures as fast cavalry units affecting and exploiting breakthroughs to raid and harass behind enemy lines. These missions are always perilous, and no small amount of courage (or at least bravado) is necessary if you wish to crew one of these ships going into harm's way.

Destroyer Escorts like the Norfolk act as consorts and goaltenders for larger vessels, usually a light carrier. Their job is to defend their consort, and if need be, this means putting themselves between their charge and enemy missiles and fighters. To this end, ships of this class possess a formidable laser-based point defense armament, excellent detection, tracking, ESM/ECM arrays, and a dual purpose primary armament consisting of three 300mm x 1500mm Electrothermal Revolver Cannons coupled to a single tube reloading 1200mm antiship missile launcher. The use of tube artillery on a warship is unconventional, but allows the DDE to utilize a mix of ordnance to surprising effect. Solid tungsten KEP rounds provide maneuver constraint against approaching enemy vessels forcing them to either avoid their path (and go where the DDE wants them to go to optimize the weapons of the other ships/strike craft of the squadron) or else face them down and hope their point defense lasers can vaporize enough solid tungsten in the time allowed them to destroy/redirect the incoming rounds. Given the 4 to 5 km/sec muzzle velocity of the 300mm Electrothermal cannon, this can be a serious risk. The cannons may also deliver 300mm FLAK rounds, beehive fragmentation shells that put up a wall of iron and lead shrapnel against incoming missiles/fighters. The high rate of fire of the revolver cannon, plus the variable muzzle velocity allowed with the use of electrothermal propellant, allows the FLAK rounds to burst with maximum effectiveness. Two guns can stagger their fire while the third returns to battery position to reload its six shell revolver magazine and then get back on the firing line so that there is no interruption of fire against incoming targets. The nominal alpha strike capability of the three tandem antiship missile launchers is augmented in STRIKERON ships with triple rack External Ordnance (XO) packs. Six XO packs on a DDE allow for up to 21 missiles to be unleashed simultaneously at targets in a critical situation as might be faced by a raider squadron behind enemy lines.

Modeling notes:

This was an at times difficult challenge for me, translating [S S S A A A Z H Di Di W Xr Di Di W IIII Di I] plus a few drawings from the game books or attempts at 3D modeling this vessel by others into something that was both accurate to the game stats listed here, and be visually interesting and somewhat realistic. The W stat in particular was a head scratcher. In game terms, it's a dual mode weapon. It is both an antiship missile launcher and a gun, and can be fired as one or the other each turn. I had to depict this weapon system in such a way as it might actually make sense to use it, and turned to the idea of a revolver cannon exposed out on the hull when deployed that could dispense six rounds rapid, then return the weapon to battery position to push fresh rounds from deep inside the ship into the revolver cylinder for another rapid fire burst. The antiship missile launcher works the same way - you can see the ports for reloading both weapons on the base of the turret. Conventional explosive propellants are limited by chemistry to certain low velocities that would make them unsuitable for use as weapons in space - but electrothermal propellants have much higher limits. They might be plausible here, and shows like Battlestar Galactica have put it into peoples' minds the effectiveness of a wall of flak against missiles and fighters.

The Norfolk is studded with AESA phased array radar systems, the small hexagonal phased array ESM/ECM systems, and IR/VIS/UV band telescopes for detection and tracking. Radiator arrays are aft, relying on the DDE's tactic of putting itself nose-on to its enemies to keep these fragile systems out of the line of fire. Back up ice-heat sinks with flash vents to space serve as the final line of defense against heat build-up. The wide pad-like fins aft protect the engines from direct fire and also serve to radiate drive heat.

The colors were chosen especially to be bold, even garish in the spirit of Peter Elson, Chris Foss, and Angus McKie - space artists from the 70s and 80s during the time when STARFIRE first got started.
Modeled with Trimble SketchUp. Rendered with Kerkythea.