"William Forstchen - Wing Commander 3 - Fleet Action" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

former territory of the Hari.

"Here, for the last five years, a new class of carriers has been tested and
developed, overcoming the difficulties of translight jumping of ships above
a certain size and mass. These new carriers, what we call the Hakaga
class, are capable of carrying and servicing our newest Vaton-class
fighters to be launched next year. With their increased size the carriers
have shield generation systems capable of repulsing nearly any weapon the
Confederation now has, including their Mark IV & V antimatter
torpedoes."

The image in the holo screen shifted and a carrier appeared. The clan
leaders looked at it excitedly and then Thrakhath pushed a button on his
monitor. Beside the carrier appeared a second image, that of a current
fleet carrier. The room echoed with shouts of surprise.

Even Jukaga could not conceal his curiosity. Though he had read the
spy reports, the only images he had seen so far were grainy two
dimensional shots clandestinely taken by a transport captain in his
employ. The new carrier was at least twice the length of the old design,
and bristled with six launch bays, three aft and three forward. As the
image slowly turned inside the holo field he saw that the vulnerable engine
nacelles were completely concealed and armored.

The first of the carriers is already operational," Thrakhath announced
proudly, "and undergoing final testing in the far reaches of Hari space far
beyond any prying eyes of the Confederation."

He looked back at Jukaga as if saying that it was also beyond the prying
eyes of anyone else.

"What is its capability?" Vak asked.

"When fully loaded it carries three eighties and six eights of strike craft
and fighters, launching from six separately contained bays. Its ship
defense capabilities include four eights of mass driver quad batteries, four
eights of neutron and laser batteries, and six gatling launch tubes for
anti-torpedo defense. It has three concentric layers of interior armor, and
all six bays are self contained. Thus we can take hits on three, even four
bays and keep on fighting, shifting fighters from one part of the ship to
the other by internal access corridors. As you can well guess, the material
required to build this carrier equals over six times that of a normal fleet
attack carrier. In addition we are building more than eighty escort ships
of frigate, destroyer and cruiser design. That is why we suffer the
transport shortage now. More than two hundred of them were committed
to the hauling of all that was needed from the Empire to the far side of
Hari."

He looked around the room and saw the nods of understanding.