Prometheus-class Submersible Aircraft

Carrier (CVS)

DESIGNATION: Submersible Aircraft Carrier

CLASS: Carrier
AFFILIATION: Robotech Defense Force
TYPE: Carrier
ROLE: Carrier
COMMISSIONED: 2008
UNIT RUN: 2008 - 2016
NAMES AND DISPOSITION:
CVS-101
Prometheus
Operational loss at Macross Island, 2009.
CVS-102
Heracles
Vaporized Newport News in Zentraedi holocaust, 2011.
CVS-103
Vulcan
Sunk in the Skaggerak during 2nd Robotech War, 2030.
CVS-104
Neptune
Sunk in the Atlantic in Zentraedi holocaust, 2011.
CVS-105
Ceres
Sunk in the White Sea during Invid Invasion, 2033.
CVS-106
Phoebe
Missing and presumed lost in the Pacific Ocean, ca. 2033.
CVS-107
Chronos
Sunk in the South Atlantic, 2016.
CVS-108
Hyperion
Sunk in the Indian Ocean during 2nd Robotech War, 2029.
CVS-109
Demeter
Retired from the European Navy, 2048.
CVS-110
Bacchus
Sunk of the California coast during 2nd Robotech War, 2030.
CVS-111
Pluto
Sunk in the Caribbean Sea during the Invid Invasion, 2033.
CVS-112
Uranus
Scrapped after 2nd Robotech War, 2032.
CVS-113
Persephone
Scrapped on the building way, 2018.
CVS-114
Cerberus
Scrapped on the building way, 2018.
These ships were built at the Brest, Nikolayevsk, Newport News, Rotterdam and Yokohama shipyards and entered
service from 2008 through 2016.

DIMENSIONS:

Length: 512 meter (oa).

Height: 70 meter.
Width : 91 meter.
Displacement:

Surfaced: 263,000 tons.

Submerged: 377,000 tons.

SHIPS COMPLEMENT:

Ships' crew (2,996 men),

Air Group (500 men),
Life support limits are for a full combat complement and about 2,500 supernumaries (6,000 men total).

Main power system: 3 Rolls-Royce PWR-8 or General Electric D19W nuclear fission reactors with a rated
power of 184 MW each.
Propulsion Systems (4): Westinghouse CE-1 MHD engines mounted in two pairs at the lower stern of the
ship, with the exhausts surrounded by a heavy shroud for impact protection and infra-red signature reduction.
The total effective propulsive power is 370 MW (500,000 SHP).

PROPULSION SYSTEMS:

PERFORMANCE:
Endurance and mobility limits:

The dry stores endurance is 3 months maximum; after that, the Prometheus' need to restock, most
commonly from an underway replenishment ship. Potable water and oxygen can be obtained from the
surrounding ocean.
The effective core life of the fission reactors is 25 years.
The maximum speed is 34 knots surfaced and 14 knots submerged. The maximum diving depth is 250
meters operationally, and 300 meters in an emergency.
The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) are limited; the Prometheus is unable to sustain
continuous combat operations for much more than 4 days.
The missile magazines for the ships own launchers are typically empty after 2 major assaults.
The magazine for the ship's torpedo tubes can store 88 large weapons such as heavyweight torpedoes or
cruise missiles. Two mines or Derringer-D anti-ship missiles can be carried instead of one large weapon. The
total capacity (including weapons in the tubes) is 96 full-sized weapons.
A typical load out (ca. 2014) was 68 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 28 Mk48 mod 8 VADCAP
torpedoes.

ELECTRONICS/SHIP SYSTEMS:
ARMAMENT:
BEAM:
Bofors RLT-2 twin barreled laser turrets (12) : A fast-firing close-in weapon system. Each turret can fire a
15 MJ pulse of laser energy every 3.75 seconds (in anti-ship mode), or 300 kJ pulses at 800 rounds/minute
(anti- missile defense mode). There is no on-mount crew.
DISPOSABLE:
Raytheon MLB-10 missile launchers (12):

A 'pepperbox' missile launcher with 10 missiles ready to fire and another 30 missiles in the magazines for each
launcher. The system fires Hughes Warhawk surface-to-air missiles. The launchers line the deck edge.

Typically, each Prometheus carried 460 conventional and 20 nuclear Warhawk missiles.
Soleviev QRB-12 missile bins (12) : A flush mounted bin for quick-reaction anti-mecha missiles. Each bin
contains 8 high explosive, short range (maximum 3.2 km) Mach 3.0 combined IIR/passive laser homing
Lockheed Rapier missiles.

There are eight reloads for each bin, giving a total of 960 homing Rapier missiles.
Mk82 760mm torpedo tubes (8) : Conventional albeit large torpedo tubes. These can fire a large variety of
weapons. Weapons with a diameter of less than 760mm can be fired by using liners in the tubes. The
weapons used are most often Honeywell Mk48 VADCAP 533mm multi-purpose torpedoes and Tomahawk
cruise missiles such as the BGM-109R. However, older torpedoes and Derringer-D anti-ship missiles can
also be fired.

DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS:
ACTIVE:
PASSIVE:

AIR GROUP:
RDF (2010):
48 VF-1 Valkyrie,
48 F-203E Dragon,
24 A-12C Avenger,
24 A-16B Executioner,
15 Cat's Eye or VF-1E reconnaissance craft,
10 QF-3000 Ghost drone fighters,
11 Sea Sergeant ASW helicopters.
Southern Cross (2025):
48 VF-4 Lightning,
48 VF-6A Alpha,
48 A-16C Executioner,
12 Cat's Eye reconnaissance craft,
11 Sea Sergeant ASW helicopters.

STRENGTH INDICES:

Beam Firepower:
Torpedo Firepower:
Weapon Range and Accuracy:
Shield Strength:
Hull Armor:
Speed:
Combat Maneuverability:
Overall Strength Index:

DIPLOMATIC CAPABILITY
EXPECTED HULL LIFE:
REFIT CYCLE:
Minor:
Standard:
Major:

DESIGN NOTES:
The Prometheus class resembled a conventional carrier from the outside, although one of a size never before seen.
The interior was very different due to the submersible design and mecha hangars. The top inner decks were built to
accommodate the largest of mecha, and were thus 14.5 meters high. These two decks accounted for almost half the
vessel's height. There were twelve mecha-sized elevators serving these and the top deck.
Below these were man-sized decks housing crew, armories, magazines, workshops and all the rest needed to keep
over 3,000 men in fighting shape for a deployment length of up to 12 months. They also included the engineering
spaces. Fission reactors were used rather than Reflex furnaces, because at the time of design, these latter were only
limited available. The entire side protection system against torpedo hits doubled as a ballast tank, and additionally,
what appeared to be the lowest deck level was in fact also a ballast tank. All this tankage was needed to overcome the
enormous flotation ability inherent in so large a vessel.
Due to extensive automation these giant vessels needed less crew than their smaller predecessors. With a crew of
3,500, these vessels had almost half the complement of their ancestors.
As submarines these ships were hampered by their carrier design, and their speed was a fraction of what nuclear
submarines could make. In addition, there was no way these ships could run silently, and therefore no silencing
measures were seriously considered. Hence, in a conflict with Earth navies the class would be one large target for the
opponents' submarines, or would need an entire flotilla of attack submarines as escort. It was thought however, that
space borne invaders would not have the necessary sonar expertise to track these noisy vessels. This assumption
proved to be correct.

HISTORY:

After the crash-landing of the SDF-1 on Macross Island, military strategists began to realize that the fighting of a
Robotech war, and mainly in space at that, would mean that the armed forces as they were then were less than
useless. The average military strategist could foresee that the planet-bound forces would be of considerably less
importance to the war effort than the space-capable forces.
While nobody could totally deny this, there was a strong body of Navy and Army officers that felt threatened by the new
developments, and pushed for improvements of their (obsolete) forces. The Navy especially was vocal in this regard,
mainly because they were the most threatened by the new technologies. Their most powerful warships, the Nimitzclass supercarriers and their derivatives, were all surface ships, and thus slow and powerless against an opponent who
would sit in orbit 400 km above them and bomb them at their leisure. Thus the Navy began a campaign to incorporate
Robotechnology into Navy designs, and then on a campaign to get their designs built.
The rationale behind their designs for submersible warships of unprecedented size was as follows: if ever the orbital
forces would be defeated, the Earth would need both a line of defense on the surface of the planet and a mechanism
to keep open the lines of communication between the world's continents. Since the threat of orbital bombardment was
even more severe in that case, the new vessels needed to be able to escape such a bombardment, while still
counterattacking the enemy and keeping the communication lines open. The Navy pointed out that ground bases were

only a little less vulnerable to orbital bombardment than surface vessels, but that a submersible vessel would be
hidden from view and safe from attack.
Three of the first four hull laid down were transferred to the UN Spacy for use in their test programs, and were refitted
with anti-gravity systems and reaction engines. Ironically, the last of the first series of four, the Prometheus herself,
would be the ship the log the most space-hours, even though she was completed as a carrier and totally unsuited for
space duties. She was completed in time to be present at Macross Island on the launch day of the SDF-1 and was
caught up in the emergency spacefold the SDF-1 made that day. The crew of the Prometheus partly survived; those
that were on deck and in other unprotected spaces died, but those that were below decks in the airtight bowels of the
ship lived, and were hastily incorporated into the crew of the SDF-1. The subsequent changes the SDF crew made on
the carrier ensured that it would never again sail the seas; for instance, all propulsion systems were removed.
Until the Zentraedi Holocaust Prometheus class vessels were completed at a high rate, and when the Zentraedi attack
finally came, three years later, there were 8 vessels ready.
Of these vessels, Heracles was in the Newport News shipyard for repairs after the ship was damaged by an antiunificationist sea mine. The vessel was vaporized with the rest of the area when this important industrial center was
targeted by Dolza's fleet with a heavy particle beam. Her sister ship Neptune was sunk in the Atlantic, when she was
caught in shallow water close to the Azores. The ship took a direct heavy laser hit and broke in two, then sank in
minutes. All other vessels managed to survive by diving deep during Dolza's de-fold procedures. As intended, the
vessels could not be targeted by orbital craft while under water. The five units of the class on the building ways,
however, were destroyed. These were the Bacchus, Pluto, Uranus, Persephone and Cerberus. After the First
Robotech war, the RDF rebuilt some yards and started constructing five more Prometheus-class carriers. These ships,
given the name and number of five craft that were destroyed in the yards, were meant as a replacement for the losses
of this class, which was proving to be quite useful in the relief efforts immediately following the holocaust. Only three of
these ships, Bacchus, Pluto and Uranus, were to be completed though, because of advances in Robotechnology that
made orbital forces more effective as deterrents. Before this happened, though, the class was well used, especially
during the Malcontent Zentraedi Uprisings, when these ships served in the mobile base role for which they were
designed. The vessels were positioned off a hostile coast and provided the mecha teams with support that was not
possible otherwise, with land bases being short-lived against Zentraedi assaults. During this heavy fighting, only one
Prometheus, the Chronos, was lost to a Malcontent counterattack, sunk by a mixed force of Quaedluun-rau and Fighter
Pods.
In anticipation of the REF's fold-jump to the Valivarre system, the surviving vessels were transferred in late 2020 to the
Southern Cross Navy. The vessels served faithfully during the Second Robotech war, but led less charmed lives than
before. The Uranus was overwhelmed by Bioroids while defending the Scandinavian area against a Bioroid raid. The
raid was called off, but the Uranus was so heavily damaged she had to be scrapped. The Hyperion was blown up in
the Indian Ocean, off Madagascar, by orbital fire from a Robotech Master mothership; there were no survivors. The
Bacchus was destroyed by Tirolian Assault Craft off the California coast while defending a flank of Monument city
against attack. The Vulcan used her mecha in the last stages of the war to board and disable a Mothership, but was
directly struck by it. The Vulcan was pushed under the crashing vessel, but managed to remain between the
Mothership's 'insect leg' sensor housings while it sank. However, the Vulcan's ballast tanks were ruptured, and a large
percentage of its hull crushed. With half of Vulcan's crew dead, the carrier and the Mothership came to rest in the
Skaggerak. Using their battle armor, the remaining crew gained entrance to some of the dry parts of the Mothership
and fought their way up, until they came to the upper levels of the mothership, now sitting high above the 400-meter
deep water as the surface of a large island. There they were rescued by other Southern Cross units, but the Vulcan,
although still partly dry, was a total loss.
The Second Robotech War only left four carriers, and two of these, the Ceres in the White Sea and the Pluto in the
Caribbean, were destroyed by bombardment or mecha attack in the first hours of the Invid invasion.
The Phoebe disappeared in the Pacific during the Invid invasion, together with the submersible landing ship Achilles,
and their fate is unknown. However, rumors that these vessels waged guerrilla warfare against the Invid during the
early days of the Invid occupation are probably just that: rumors. The Demeter was in a subterranean dock in
Polyarnyy when the Invid invaded, and was abandoned by her crew. The ship was later salvaged by forces of Saxony
and was refit for use in Saxony's continued campaign against the Invid in Europe, serving valiantly in many conflicts,
and even participating in the final battle at Reflex Point. She was then made the flagship of the United European Navy,
and upon world reunification, was mothballed in the new dock built for her in Gdansk. She is now a floating museum,
and is Europe's most popular war monument.

ORTHOGRAPHIC VIEWS

MECHA HANGARS AND LAUNCHING BAYS

BRIDGE VIEW