UEFg Murugan

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

Murugan Dreadnought Initial Concept.

Revised Murugan Dreadnought Concept.

The Murugan was a class of warship designed for the Federation Navy.

Description:

Blue Planet: War in Heaven Tech Description

The Federation fleet had a powerful defensive core in the Solaris flagships but was brittle on the offensive. In 2376 Admiral Calder's Jovian Rim Fleet had routed the Gaian Effort in the decisive Battle of Eris Base, ending a protacted and costly campaign against the militant organisation. However, the conflict had exposed shortcomings of Navy assets, specifically the undergunned and underarmoured Purusha light frigate and the modern but fragile Karuna frigate carrier. A paradigm shift in warship design was called for by the Admiralty and several proposals for a next-generation warship were considered.

Admiral Calder's concept was as bulldog as the man himself. He envisioned a dreadnought suited to his aggressive, unsubtle practice of warfare. The ship's dimensions would approach destroyer-scale, but the ship would forgo a fighter hangar for increased armour. The Murugan sported a bruising main battery of frigate-scale mass drivers in four triple-barreled turrets. Long range strike capability came in the form of a pair of spinal gauss cannons. A suite of point defense turrets provided antifighter fire and warhead interception. The Murugan was a brute of a ship, all muscle, built to brawl against cruisers and prevail.

Fresh from victory over the Gefs, Calder utilised his considerable clout to push for the allocation of resources towards the Murugan. Construction of a prototype vessel was commenced at the Bradbury Fleetyards, but was halted barely two months into construction when computer simulations identified problems with the ship's combat effectiveness. The ship was essentially undergunned for her size and role, and the design was revisited and refined. The ship's primary battery was doubled, supplemented by a new secondary battery of cruiser-grade mass drivers. Four torpedo launchers were installed, each capable of firing a swarm of Apocalypse antimatter missiles. Finally, the point defense suite was enhanced with several flak turrets. The firepower of the refit design would come close to exceeding that of the Solaris-class destroyers.

At this stage the budget had blown out to five times the initial estimate and construction was considerably behind schedule. It would be years before the first Murugan would roll out of the yards and Third Fleet needed to replenish its losses from the campaign against the Gefs. The Murugan project was put on indefinite hold, and resources would instead be directed towards the Narayana heavy frigate.

Developer Notes

This ship was created by Esarai for the HLP Modding Contest.

• Release post | Hard-Light Productions.net

Credits

• Original concept and model by Esarai

Name Origin

Murugan is one of the many names of the Hindu god of war. He is the son of Shiva and the commander of the army of the Devas.

Performance:

Statistics

Name	UEFg Murugan
Type	Dreadnought
Manufacturer	Bradbury Fleet Yards (cancelled)
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	125 - 125 - 125 s
Max Velocity	25 (60) ms-1
Hitpoints	125 000 pts
Length	1857 m
Width	513.92 m
Height	403.99 m
Turrets	49 turrets

Armaments

• Turrets

Concept A		Concept B
Turret Type	Amount	Turret Type	Amount
Mass Driver#Karuna	4x3	Mass Driver#Karuna	8x3
		Mass Driver#Sanctus	12x2
Gauss Cannon#Narayana	2	Gauss Cannon#Narayana	2
		Apocalypse#Karuna	4
Point Defense Turret	12	Point Defense Turret	14
Dart	3	Dart	3
		Flak Screen	6

Gallery

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  Size comparison with other frigates

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

About 2/3rds again the size of a Narayana, the Murugan packs a lot of firepower, but most of that firepower comes from Karuna- and Sacntus-scale mass drivers, which have a low damage output compared to the beam cannons Tev warships bring to bear. It does sport a pair of extreme-range gauss cannons, which are useful for taking out turrets or subsystems from beyond the range of reprisal, but unlike the Narayana's artillery refit, these guns are not supplemented by equally-long range mass drivers or torpedoes, somewhat defeating the extreme range advantage of these gauss cannons. Still, the ship and its design perfectly reflects Admiral Calder's personality--get directly in the fray, overwhelm the enemy with direct firepower in a brawl, and be aggressive to keep the enemy off-balance and seize initiative. Against the Gaian Effort--the primary foe this ship was designed for--such a design would make sense, since the enemy would lack the heavy firepower needed to compete with the Murugan and lack the subspace agility to outmaneuver it. Against the Tevs, however, this kind of design would be grossly inefficient at best, since a single Chimera-class corvette could match the damage output of this dreadnaught, while also having much greater subspace agility and superb point defenses. The lack of a fighterbay means that the Murugan would be vulnerable to a concentrated attack by enemy strike craft as well. However, there's no denying that having a heavy brawler like this dedicated to pounding enemy warships into submission would be greatly welcome to the UEF, even if it was just a one-off ship whose resources could have been better spent as a 3-4 Karunas, or two Narayanas. Still, the fact that the only Murugan hull--which was itself not completely finished--has long since been pulled into becoming either the basis of or at least a vital component for Project Shambhala, it's likely that this ship will never see action in Blue Planet--or if it does, it will be without its heavy armament, as a ship to be protected from enemy attack.

External links:

• Initial concept
  • Download | Mediafire
• Blue Planet Complete:
  • RELEASE — Blue Planet