Sketches – deWulf Heavy Cruiser

Almost immediately after the 1st Contact War, the need for bigger and better hulls was clear. Design work had actually begun towards the end of the war, but it wasn’t until a year or two that the first deWulf Heavy Cruiser left the shipyard in Fenris orbit. While the prototype Light Cruiser hull was fitted with laser mounts, the heavy cruiser instead was fitted with a heavy plasma torpedo armament. Wartime experience had underlined the importance of larger salvo density, and with datalink hardware not being up to the task, the best way to increase density was to carry more launchers on a single ship.

This design came right on the heels of the Heavy Cruiser bridge sketch that I did, and represents a fairly straightforward expansion of the destroyer hull concept, with two almost identical hull modules on the sides that collectively double the volume of the hull. This design is intended to be a rough-lines sketch of the standard deWulf Navy heavy cruiser, the Director-class. The design carries four torpedo launchers (two on port and starboard), with an underslung capital laser mount. While this design requires some modifications going forward, it’s basic hull form is fairly on-point for what I was aiming for.