Rége Arturo class

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ARC Rége Arturo in the Concordian Ocean, 2020
Class Overview
Builders:

Σacani Shipworks, Lansai, Tavaris

Arsenale Corric
Operators: Royal Antoran Armada
In commission: 2005-present
Ships building: 2
Ships completed: 2
Ships active: 2
General characteristics
Type: Guided-missile destroyer
Displacement: 5,700 tonnes
Length: 127.1 m (418 ft)
Beam: 16 m (54 ft)
Draft: 6.9 m (22.5 ft)
Installed power: 3 x Sistemos Armada Jaguár BT7 refined gas generators producing 5.8MW each
Propulsion:

CODOG system

2 × Sistemos Armada Ultíma 10kDG-16 16-cylinder diesel engines generating 10,000 hp (7,500 kW) each

2 × Sistemos Armada 36kGTG gas turbines producing 36,000 hp (27,000 kW) each
Speed: 36 kn (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range: 12,000 nmi (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Endurance: 60-90 day cycles
Boats & landing
craft carried:

2 RHIB

1 long-range tactical launch
Troops: 24 marines
Complement: 13 officers and 99 crew, 30 passengers
Sensors and
processing systems:

SVA/G20A+ 3D surface-search and air radar

SVA/84-H Electronic Support Surveillance Equipment

Luz Libertad ETRS-8 fire-control radar and tactical systems suite

ElectroBeam ISSD-5 sonar (hull mounted)
Electronic warfare
& decoys:

2 × Lima Alto Maestro EWAR system

2 x AQUILA countermeasures/chaff/decoy/active kill launching suites
Armament:

Guns

1 × 100mm HerCan Armas-6/T naval gun

1 × Guacamayo TEA-05/Mk2 CIWS

4 × crew-served 12.7mm machine guns

Missiles

1 × 18-cell Modelo 9KF9x2 vertical missile launching system (Avia ABRGO4 surface-to-air missiles)

4 x Quad-cell Balista-99 tactical missile tubes (Avia DBMO3 anti-ship missiles) or

(Grullar STSSAM cruise missiles)

Space for but not with rolling airframe missile launcher

Anti-submarine

2 x 324 mm dual torpedo tubes (Arma Nautico Modelo 11F1 smart warhead torpedos)

2 x 24-tube Porcupíné anti-submarine mortars

Space for but not with 2 x depth charge racks
Armor: 4 cm
Aircraft carried:

2 x H-22 Macana 4 utility/anti-submarine helicopters or

1 x H-20 Marsopa utility helicopter
Aviation facilities: Flight deck and Hangar

The Rége Arturo class are a series of multi-role naval vessels originally designed and built for the Royal Tavari Marshalls Coast Guard Division as the Nežeren class. Tavaris originally ordered 12 of the vessels, which were intended to replace the Coast Guard's entire fleet of cutters. However, in 2020, citing "operational and strategic changes" in military needs, Tavaris sold four of the vessels to the Royal Antoran Armada, who renamed them the Rége Arturo class. The remaining 8 Nežeren class cutters remain in service with the Tavari Coast Guard Division.

The rollout of the class in Tavaris was part of that country's series of significant upgrades in naval capacity in the 21st century, after deployment in the Volscine Civil War in 2004 and 2005 made it clear to Tavari officials that they had fallen behind. Unlike the Royal Tavari Navy's broadly popular moves of constructing two aircraft carriers and two nuclear submarines, however, the Nežeren project saw public backlash in relation to its cost, which exceeded $8 billion SHD. This led to an average cost-per-vessel of $740 million SHD, significantly higher than the predicted $650 million SHD cost in the 2005-2006 Tavari defense budget. However, at the time the program began in 2005, the ships were cited as top-of-the-line and deployable in a wide variety of operations including nearly all environments in which the Coast Guard Division operated: search-and-rescue, in ports and waterways, counter-terrorism, anti-drug trafficking, law enforcement, as well as deployment when needed in defense operations. The vessels were designed to be able to function in both low- and medium-threat combat environments with capability in anti-surface and naval gunfire support and limited capability in anti-air. The vessels have a reduced radar cross-section giving them a higher degree of stealth than previous generations of similar vessels.

The Bureau of Procurement for the Royal Antoran Defense Forces set aside a controversially large sum for the purchase and refit of the Nežeren class - over $6 billion SHD. This amount accounted for two fiscal years of military modernization funds, and drew extreme scrutiny from both public press and the Popular Assembly. As a compromise, the BoP was allowed $2.5 billion SHD to purchase the four vessels outright and access to a trust fund of $300 million SHD per year for refits. The refit of the Nežeren class into the Rége Arturo class involves extensive changes to internal systems, armaments, and power generation. The Armada took responsibility for the process via the state-owned Arsenale Corric shipyards in Porta Armada.

The new destroyers were intended to fulfill a niche within Antoran naval doctrine that had never been addressed: long-range independant vessels with heavy armaments capable of engaging any threat. This mission profile, the result of increased pressure via the Royal Cabinet for the Armada to escort domestic shipping long distances, required many complicated changes and additions to the Nežeren class hulls. The most extensive and prominent of these were the addition of many new weapons systems and entirely new power plant and propulsion architecture. The Tavari-made 76 mm deck gun was exchanged with a 100 mm HerCan Armas-6/T cannon derived from the armament of the Gracia class helicopter cruiser. The 12-cell VLS missile system was replaced with a larger 18-cell launcher compatible with Antoran anti-air missile designs. This anti-air capability was supplimented by the addition of a Guacamayo TEA-05/Mk2 Close-In Weapons System on the rear superstructure. In order to perform anti-ship and long-range surface strike missions, four missile tubes with four cells each were added forward of the CIWS on the top of the superstructure. These tubes, also derived from the Graciai classes armament, can carry sub-and-super-sonic cruise missiles with ranges of up to 700 km. As a final weapons package, two turrets mounting triple torpedo tubes were installed on either side of the helicopter pad, two Porcupíné anti-submarine mortar launchers were added to either side of the helicopter hangar, and space for depth charge racks was allocated on the rear boat launch. These armaments, in conjunction with the new ElectroBeam ISSD-5 sonar, provide substantial protection against submersibles for situations where the destroyers are not operating alongside Régeñe Natalia Romero class frigates.

The power plants of the ships were reverse-engineered and redesigned to run cooperatively but independantly from the populsion systems, boosting the available grid capacity of the ships from 1.8 to 6.6MW. The extra power is shunted to capacitors when not in use to provide auxiliary electricity in case of power failure. Another benefit of the increased electrical power is the potential to include more demanding weapons systems in the future. The populsion systems were removed and replaced with a Combined Diesel or Gas (CODOG) drive. The tandem 16-cylinder Ultíma 10kDG-16 diesel engines and the 36kGTG gas turbines provide an overall kilowattage of 69,000 and combined horsepower of 92,000. This output makes the Rége Arturo class the most powerful ships in the Antoran fleet by gross power-to-weight ratio, enabling them to reach flank speeds of 36 knots.

Most of the Tavari-made sensor systems were removed in favor of domestic Antoran alternatives to ensure the destroyers were compatible with existing Armada networks. New models of radar, tactical suites, and electronic warfare systems were included in this package. The new systems are tied together by the SVA computer architecture, allowing the missiles, guns, and subsurface munitions to each have a dedicated subsystem within the ETRS-8 tactical systems suite. The Lima Alto Maestro system and the AQUILA countermeasure suite are both new developments exclusive to the Rége Arturo class. They allow the crew of the vessel to detect, infiltrate, and decrypt enemy communications, encrypt and protect shipboard electronic systems, and deal with incoming aircraft and munitions with a variety of soft kill/hard kill options.

There are currently two Rége Arturo class destroyers in service: Rége Arturo, the flagship of First Fleet's Squadron 2, and ARC Rége Marius Alejandro, the flagship of Squadron 3. Two more ships, as-of-yet unnamed, are undergoing the refit process and are expected to be commissioned in 2023 and 2024.