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Dreadnought (ship)
A Capital Ship of the largest scale (term now rarely used)

A very large (> 1 km, sometimes 10 to 20 km), very expensive, very heavily armed and defended, relativistic Capital Ship, crewed by a compliment of both hyperturing and SI:<1 sentients, equipped with an efficient biosphere and self-repairing nanotech, and capable of extended and independent operations across interstellar distances. Usually a Dreadbnaught is supported by a fleet of smaller front-line warships, including cruisers, tenders, and escort vessels. Only polities and empires with a strong ultratech industrial base can afford to construct and maintain Dreadnaughts. The development of the wormhole nexus, and the rise of higher archailects rendered the dreadnought obsolete in the Inner Sphere and throughout most of the developed regions; but some dreadnoughts are still used by expansionist barbarian empires in the outer volumes
 
Appears in Topics
Interplanetary TransportShipsWarfare
 
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 09 October 2001.

 
 
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