UED Solaris

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

This article is about the ship class. For the lead ship of the class, see UED Solaris (WiH)

The be-all and end-all of the UEF, the UED Solaris is the sole destroyer and carrier class of the UEF in Blue Planet, as well as the largest and most powerful ship class in the entire Federation. The UEF has three of these behemoths in service, and each of them serve as mobile fortresses and a base of operations for the Federation's three fleets and their commanding officers.

The firepower that the Solaris wields is immense: of its 67 turrets, twelve of them fire swarms of anti-warship torpedoes that can threaten even the GTVA's most powerful warships. Its anti-warship and anti-fighter armament is spread out evenly across the entire vessel, virtually eliminating any and all weak spots on the ship's frame.

The fact that the Federation—and to some extent, the Ubuntu Council of Elders—only has three active Solaris destroyers, however, means that Solaris-class destroyers are rarely seen on the front lines of battle despite their offensive and defensive capabilities. Instead, standard UEF doctrine has it that each Solaris destroyer deploys its complement of spacecraft for virtually all operations, while the destroyer in question is kept in a holding position around the planet or installation it is stationed at. The deployment of a Solaris destroyer in battle is often only used as a last resort, when it has no additional spacecraft to assist, or if the deployment of a smaller space-faring warship such as a Narayana-class frigate is infeasible or impossible. In addition, because each Solaris destroyer holds nearly an entire fleet of spacecraft, the destruction of any of these vessels will deal a crippling blow to the military strength and morale of the UEF and, in turn, the Council.

Description:

The UED Solaris

Blue Planet: War in Heaven Tech Description

Prior to the outbreak of the UEF-GTVA war, the Solaris class Destroyers were the most controversial pieces of military hardware in use by the Federation. They represented a massive investment of resources and manpower that, according to critics, was fundamentally unnecessary. Designed by an ad-hoc committee of the Federation's best engineering and tactical thinkers and built at Mars' Bradbury Fleet Yards, these enormous warships seemed like answers to a nonexistent problem.

There are currently 3 ships of this class in service: the Solaris under Admiral Byrne, the Eris under Admiral Netreba, and the Toutatis under Admiral Calder. They each serve as both flagships and primary strategic deterrents for their respective fleets. The Solaris class' primary firepower is delivered via 12 Hwacha Mk 2 missile launchers, each capable of firing up to 4 missiles before a reload cycle. Secondary armament is comprised of fast-firing mass drivers designed to kill enemy turrets, supplemented by a comprehensive suite of point defense and flak guns.

They also carry a sizable fighter complement, befitting their role as carriers. While the Solaris destroyers themselves have barely seen combat in the war, their impact on the strategic situation is enormous, and the actions of their fighter wings are critical in the Federation's defensive efforts. Each Solaris serves as a single-handed 'fleet in being', deterring a crushing GTVA assault.

Developer Notes

This ship is derived from Esarai's Arashi concept, which was in turn inspired by the UEFg Karuna and FD Vexor. However, there are several differences between it and the first concept. The original Arashi design was flipped to provide a stronger, more grounded appearance, the turret layout was built to custom order, and the ship's maps and animations were produced by a collaborative effort between Esarai, The E and Herra Tohtori. This first iteration was supposed to appear in Earth Defense as a flagship of solar forces and under original name of GTSD Arashi. ED team intended to assign FreeSpaceKing to paint alternate textures to resemble Orion. This version was used for majority of development of Earth Defense, but never received final textures.

This model is also somewhat infamous for breaking FSO at a few points, as its original iteration was too detailed for the pof model file format.

Credits

• Concept based on UEFg Karuna and FD Vexor, both by Steve-O
• Original concept and model by Esarai
• Ship textures and animation by Esarai, Herra Tohtori and The E

Name Origin

Named for the classic science fiction novel by Stanislaw Lem, which was notable for portraying truly unknowable aliens.

Performance:

Statistics

Name	UED Solaris
Type	Destroyer
Manufacturer	Bradbury Fleet Yards
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	200.0, 200.0, 200.0 s
Max Velocity	15 ms-1
Hitpoints	180 000 pts
Length	3496 m
Turrets	67 turrets
Fighter Complement	16 squadrons (192 spacecraft)

Armaments

• Turrets

BP: WiH
Turret Type	Amount
Apocalypse	12(x4)
Gattler Turret	12
Burst Flak	16
Point Defense Turret	20

Gallery

• 

  The UED Solaris, flagship of the First Fleet.

• 

  The UED Toutatis, flagship of the Jovian Rim Fleet.

• 

  The UED Eris, flagship of Second Fleet Mars.

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

It's designed to be better than an old (GTA-era) Orion in every aspect, and it pulls it off with a bang. Its main armament is in its missile launchers, which routinely fire Apocalypse torpedoes, and they are designed and placed in such a way that, no matter where an enemy ship is in relation to the Solaris, it will always be in the line of fire of at least 6, most often 9 and regularly all 12 launchers.

The Solaris still remains vulnerable to shock-jump attacks, such as by the GTVA's Titan class destroyers and Chimera or Bellerophon class corvettes. The Raynor is theoretically weaker (according to UEF analysis.)

For much of War in Heaven Part 1's development cycle, the FD Vexor was used as the Solaris. It was only near the final stages of development that the decision was made to pull the Vexor out of the campaign on technical grounds and replace it with this new model.

This ship is capable of a missile barrage unlike anything else in Blue Planet; 12 launchers that fire swarms of 4 Apocalypse torpedoes is 48 potential bombs in the air every 20 seconds. It proved more than a match for the GTD Hood, a GTD Hecate class destroyer during a direct engagment and BP canon says that the Solaris carries around 40 more strike-craft than the Hecate. Its anti-fighter defenses are comparable to GTVA warships like the GTCv Deimos and GTD Raynor but it lacks the shield piercing power of AAA beams.

While an incredible ship with great capabilities, it's a case of "Awesome, But Impractical": they are very expensive, and despite the nature of the UEF-GTVA War, none have been built--only the 3 Solarises that were built in the years prior. While boasting an impressive array of offensive and defensive armament, the ship is likely a logistical and financial nightmare to deploy--most of its weapons are munitions-based and operate on the principle of spamming as many attacks as possible, as soon as possible. Additionally, while the damage output of its weapons is fearsome, it does that damage comparatively slowly, and some of its anti-ship weapons can be easily shot down (such as its torpedoes, which are only effective because of the incredible numbers that can be rapidly deployed), thus giving the beam-centric destroyers of the GTVA an advantage in some circumstances. Thus (especially with its massive fighter complement), Solaris destroyers are fantastic for defensive roles, especially in critical and logistically-established areas, but are rather inefficient and somewhat vulnerable when on offense.

Download

• Download as part of the War In Heaven campaign - Blue Planet Website | Hard-Light Productions.net