Author Notes:
Fuck it. Research and writing go hand in hand, so here's an OBOM chapter with little to no sleep involved, I think?
Mom and I will be more than happy to see what you think about the chapter, and to see you visit the links below~! Thanks a lot!!!
https://www.patr-eon.com/Heartbreak117
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Heartbreak117
https://discord.gg/cVZxJ29ruh
https://www.webnovel.com/book/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich_23809095505377305
https://www.webnovel.com/book/in-the-grimdark-sector-with-a-system_31596105108346205
https://www.webnovel.com/book/my-soul.-occupied-body---please-the-other-me...!_35377211308783905
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2271569/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich/
https://photos.app.goo.gl/waZgkRa3UQhqKQBi9
OBOM Visual Guide:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/5fQs4Fv
Erika Hartmann-class DDG: https://postimg.cc/7CxG0Wgq
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The chilled winds batter the floor-to-ceiling glass panes on top of the observation deck as intermittent rays of sunlight try to pierce through the sudden onset of cloudy weather. It's a less-than-enthusiastic atmosphere out there, but after being stuck behind and beneath layers of rock and steel, even a storm would make for a nice change of pace. That's why, when Reizen suggested moving the meeting somewhere more open, Iris and Vi jumped at the chance to refurbish the uppermost floor of a mostly mundane building into our new venue. Even the artificial citizens of the Ascendancy are starting to find the dull military color of the headquarters stuffy and stifling to their creative minds, much less to Reizen and me.
Once we are situated on warm wooden furniture, with hot tea served alongside small trays of desserts by a few logistics Dolls, and are viewing the orderly streets of Everlight from up high, ideas about the making of our Navy come swiftly and decisively, far more so than they did before. This is evidenced by the fact that we delivered a viable guided-missile destroyer design in half the time it took to get the prior Admiral Talulah-class right.
The Erika Hartmann-class DDG, much like the Admiral Talulah-class being a destroyer in the guise of a frigate, is a cruiser in the form of a destroyer. A massive hull displacing 16000 tons, the Erika Hartmann-class is perhaps one of the largest, if not the largest, blue-water destroyers ever to take to the sea, judging from mine and the Eternal Reich's history. Sticking to the naming sense of the United States Navy in my world, vessels of this class of guided-missile destroyer are to be named after renowned figures in the Reich's history.
Apparently, Erika Hartmann is a name that belonged to the enduring Grandmaster of the Reichsguard, a unit akin to the Secret Service that protects the ruling body of the Eternal Reich, either offensively or defensively. The Reich Marshal, unironically our superior since we take up the Eternal Reich origin, trusts the Grandmaster implicitly for the protection of her life and those of her family. A part of me thinks that Erika Hartmann must probably be the alternate-universe counterpart to Erich Alfred Hartmann. Instead of being an Ace, Erika Hartmann is a loyal bodyguard through and through, and she has apparently upheld such loyalty for years on end. It makes sense that an entire class of warships is to be christened with the Grandmaster's name.
Now that a certain background element is made clear, one must know that the Erika Hartmann-class DDG is surprisingly conventional. Appearance-wise, it's practically an enlarged version of the Chinese Navy's Type 055 destroyer. Erika Hartmann adopts a conventional flared hull, much like the Type 055 it's based on. A continuous structure located amidships increases internal volume; even the smokestacks are enclosed to provide a cleaner look and an additional layer of protection against the environment while simultaneously lessening hazard to the crew. This is something that is presented on the Type 055 destroyer. The similarities between the two ships practically end there.
Taking some of my input into account, Iris designed the Erika Hartmann-class destroyer using the same techniques she employed in the Admiral Talulah-class frigate. Streamlined modular construction and maintenance, integrated mass that decreases internal complexity and further saves on available volume, a health monitoring system, and automation for simplified maintenance and reduced crew requirements and burden... Practically speaking, the Erika Hartmann-class destroyer shares a not inconsequential number of parts with the smaller Admiral Talulah-class frigate. It's expected that other vessels will be designed with the same language Iris is using, if she hasn't been doing so all this time, which I doubt. It's this small, seemingly insignificant detail that will save us a lot of operational cost in the future, when our Navy is unquestionably massive enough to cover this watery globe.
Having mentioned the enlarged hull with roomy exterior and interior, it's without a doubt that the Erika Hartmann is given a multitude of improvements over the smaller Admiral Talulah.
First of all, the operational range is slated to be an extensive 10500 nautical miles, with enough supplies for more than 60 days at sea with no external replenishment. While the supply count remains the same, the operational range sees a remarkable increase from Admiral Talulah's 7000 nautical miles. The Erika Hartmann is also faster than the Admiral Talulah by half a knot, which still counts for something since the Erika Hartmann is a 16000-ton class of destroyers.
Next comes survivability. With much more tonnage capacity, the Erika Hartmann-class sacrifices the stealth features of the Type 055 it's based on for a ship-wide improvement to armor protection, redundancy, and damage control features. This means the survivability of the class is much better than on the Type 055, and the largely removed stealth features will result in simpler maintenance protocols that will balance out the added complexity and cost to ensure the Erika Hartmann-class remains afloat with an 80% operational availability rate.
True to its mission to lead Frigate Squadrons and to facilitate command management of a battlegroup plus supporting elements, the Erika Hartmann-class features complete command-and-control and battle management systems. Additionally, the Erika Hartmann-class is specifically enhanced for anti-surface and anti-subsurface warfare. The ship structure contains more powerful electronics than those that will be available on the Admiral Talulah-class. A deployment port exists for variable-depth and towed-array sonar, with a large bulbous bow that contains a bow sonar. Much like the Admiral Talulah-class, it can embark two MH-1 Knighthawks and speed boats for additional utility and firepower.
As a dedicated ASuW and ASW with a secondary anti-air role, the Erika Hartmann-class features a massive firepower pool of 128 universal VLS cells, the same VLS technology used on our future frigates. This alone means the Erika Hartmann already has 3 times the firepower of the Admiral Talulah. The VLS cells are separated into two clusters: one cluster forward, another aft of the ship class. Being universal, each missile cell can accept all missiles that fit into its container. Nonetheless, being an AA missile slinger is not the duty of the Erika Hartmann-class, so most missile cells will be dedicated to anti-ship and anti-submarine payloads. It will still be capable of performing anti-air even better than the smaller frigate class, owing to a more powerful sensor mast. The destroyer class would have been able to pack more VLS cells if there were no need for a more sustainable solution.
To enhance its anti-surface capability and to support future amphibious invasion, the Erika Hartmann has one 155 mm, 62-caliber Clarent dual-purposegun system. The Clarent is designed to deliver precision munitions at a high rate of fire, with automatic reloading and a water-cooled barrel, and at over-the-horizon ranges, with extended-range guided munitions. Being a naval gun, the Clarent can accept conventional munitions like semi-armor-piercing or unitary high-explosive shells alongside more sophisticated ammo types. A rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute means its magazine of 400 shells can go away quite quickly. Fortunately, each shell, even the more expensive guided and extended-range ones, is projected to be much cheaper than a single cruise missile since we are aiming to mass-produce them for multiple destroyers and future land-based platforms.
This is much unlike the failed Advanced Gun System that was presented on USS Zumwalt and her sister ships. Although there's only one gun instead of two, it will still have the ability to deliver the firepower of a battery of six 155 mm howitzers, making it an indispensable part of naval gunfire support missions. Something cruise missiles generally aren't quite capable of, when replenishing them ain't a simple task. Better yet, the Clarent can be quite capable of suppressing, or even killing, larger threats, something the smaller Carnwennan 76 gun system on the Admiral Talulah-class may not be able to deal with.
And yes, I did name the main guns on naval warships after the famous weapons in Arthurian Legend.
Other than the Clarent gun system, though, the Erika Hartmann is similarly quite capable of providing a dense protective zone with the same self-defense systems as on the Admiral Talulah, albeit there are more of them.
In the front and rear of the destroyer class are two Millennium turrets: one on an elevated platform beneath the bridge, the other atop the enclosed hangar bay aft of the ship. Similarly mounted on the rear hangar superstructure are four MPLSs, two on each side of the ship. These MPLSs provide yet another layer of close-in defense against aerial and surface targets.
Between the hangar bay and the aft VLS cells, on each side of the ship, is a set of triple 13-inch torpedo launchers that can attack naval threats or intercept incoming underwater attacks. These torpedoes are built into the recesses just before the magazine of the rear MPLSs and are enclosed by the deck above it... Iris idly mentioned during the design phase that she wished there was room for a 21-inch torpedo system, something about designing a WMD torpedo for fleet-to-fleet action.
I bet the Russians would love to have a chat with Iris.
Moving on, situated above the two torpedo rooms are two RC-27 turrets. Flanking the bridge, and near the deployment bays, are two more of such revolver cannons. These four 27 mm turrets, alongside prospected .50-caliber machine guns, are the last line of defense on the Erika Hartmann against boarding actions and swarm attacks.
As you can see, the Erika Hartmann is armed to the teeth, and pushing beyond what a destroyer should be able to do. However, with the class being a commanding vessel of a multi-ship unit, she needs this level of firepower not just to protect herself but also her charges in this blue and unfamiliar world.
All of this firepower does come at a cost, however. The deployment bays on the Erika Hartmann-class are not multi-mission-proof. They are only capable of deploying high-performance rigid-hull inflatable boats and nothing else. This contrasts with the Admiral Talulah-class, whose mission bay can be configured to do many things. Additionally, the helideck of the Erika Hartmann is unable to accept an MH-2 Queen Stallion, making heliborne resupply dependent on the smaller MH-1 Knighthawk and Thomas-class AOE. Still, it's a worthy trade-off for a more specialized platform that is actually good at what it's supposed to do: anti-surface and anti-subsurface.
After making a general-purpose platform, the Admiral Talulah-class frigate, and the ASuW and ASW specialist, the Erika Hartmann-class destroyer, one must wonder where our anti-air specialist is, then?
To answer that question, we look no further than the cruiser hull of our Ascendancy Navy. Since the cruiser in our doctrine is supposed to perform high-profile fleet actions, it's the perfect AA platform to envelope the entire fleet in a protective circle. A cruiser hull is also massive enough to wield enough missiles and firepower to counter threats like that jet-powered dragon, Voltrak.
As for what the cruiser really is, I already have something in mind. Something that will blow the Admiral Nakhimov clean out of the water.
You only need to look North to the Future.