Designation: Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva class Amphibious Command Ship

Note: While Zentraedi ships have been assigned Terran naval/space type designators, it must be stressed that their size and armaments placed them in a class of their own, matched only by contemporary Tirolian and modern Terran construction of like designations. As such, their designations must be viewed as indicators of intent and use rather than absolute strength. In addition, the proper translation of the Zentraedi vessel designations into English was never completely agreed upon; for instance, some texts call the Queadol Frandnitsz-class amphibious command ship a 'landing control vessel' or 'assault leader vessel'.

Names and Disposition:

These ships were built at numerous locations throughout the Robotech Mercantile Empire from 1268 through 1809 and on board the Zentraedi Factory Satellite from 1807 through 2009. There have been at least eight consecutive versions, with the first version having a very small production runs (243) and surviving units upgraded to the newer versions as they came in for refits. The total number of constructed vessels is 96,178.

Of this number, approximately 17,300 were destroyed or scrapped due to advanced age prior to 2010. The Ci'Vonian defection (1519) included 4,119 Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva command ships (all connected to Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs hulls) of which approximately 3,890 were confirmed as destroyed (this number includes units with action damaged assessed to be so heavy to become probable constructional total losses) during subsequent offensives and skirmishes. The fate of the remaining vessels is unknown. The Imperial Fleet contained 25,110 Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva-class vessels (with attendant Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs hulls) all sharing in the "infection" of that fleet. Of the remaining Tirolian controlled ships approximately 43,650 were part of the Grand Fleet. After the Zentraedi Holocaust, an estimated 6,000 Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva-class ships remained intact or salvageable. Most of these failed or were decommissioned due to protoculture depletion prior to 2020.

Ship's Complement:

• Ships' crew (400 men),
• Air Group (80 men),
• Troops (1500 men),
• Life support limits are for a full combat complement and about 1000 supernumeraries (3000 Zentraedi total). Approximately four times this number can be carried for a limited period of time, or eight times this number for two or three days only. This latter option was usually only utilized during an actual assault landing.

Dimensions:

• Length: 1204 m over all.
• Height: 551 m over all.
• Width : 349 m over all.
• Mass : 25,000,000 metric tons operational (typical).
• Fuel mass: 6,200,000 metric tons maximum (typical).

Propulsion Systems:

• Main power system: Zorrelev-290-Trafla protoculture-fueled Reflex furnace cluster. The powerplant of a Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva-class vessel can nominally deliver up to 24.8 Petawatts of power, and can operate for 45 minutes at maximum power before overheat initiates auto-shutdown.
• Maneuvering Thrusters (36): fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters with steerable nozzles. Eight are mounted on each engine blister, eight more around the nose, and twelve around the center hull.
• Reaction-mass Thrusters (3): Two Varrelev Frnitzs-Verilla fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters with protoculture energizer mounted in two blisters protruding aft of the lower hull, and one Frnitzs-Alar fusion-plasma reaction thruster cluster with protoculture energizer mounted in the upper aft part of the hull. Each cluster has five subthrusters.
• Plasma-shock expansion thrusters (11): Two Vallilev Tsandratzs plasma shock expansion engines mounted next to each other underneath the Frnitzs-Alar thruster, one Vallilev Libesmik-p and one Vallilev Libesmik-s plasma shock expansion engine in a horizontal bank in the lower aft hull, one Vallilev Reualatzs plasma shock expansion engine with two exhaust ports between the Reualatzs and the Libesmik engines, and eight Vallilev Whuuna plasma shock expansion engines mounted in blisters, two on each dorsal Frnitzs-Verilla blister and four others under the aft hull.
• Anti-gravity System (1): 50 Rastraz anti-gravity pods.
• Planetary Capabilities: The Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva-class has atmospheric capabilities through its reaction engines and anti-gravity systems. The hull has sufficient structural strength to make a cold landing, but the lower sensor antenna will need to fold inside the hull first to avoid crushing them.
  The ship will float in an ocean, but only the upper ingress/egress ports will open above the waterline, which greatly hampers access to the ship.

Endurance and mobility limits:

• The dry stores endurance is 2 months maximum; after that, the ships of this class need to restock. Water stores are recycled almost totally. If fewer or no auxiliary vessels are carried, the freed hangar space can be used to store additional consumables.
• The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) are reasonably extensive, the Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva-class is able to sustain continuous combat operations for more than 9 days.
  The missile magazines for the ship's defensive missiles are typically empty after three major space battles.
• The Reflex furnace can function for about 35 years at normal usage levels before an energizer rebuild is necessary.
• At full power, the main propulsion systems can nominally produce up to 815 Teranewtons of thrust at a minimal reaction mass efficiency profile, or as little as 15 Giganewtons of thrust at a maximum efficiency setting. At lower power levels, these thrusts are commensurately smaller.
• At full power, the Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva can nominally achieve a maximum delta-v of 172 kps at the cruising acceleration of 0.1 gees, a maximum delta-v of 30.2 kps at the battle acceleration of 1.0 gees, and a delta-v of at most 9.4 kps at the flank acceleration of 2.3 gees. At lower power levels, these ranges are commensurately smaller.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed is Mach 5. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems is limited only by the protoculture supplies and maintenance requirements.
• Including regular refits, the hull is designed to have an anticipated lifetime of 640 years.

Weapon Systems:

(Note: only the types carried by the last version are mentioned. All older versions of the Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva were refitted with these systems).

• Makral Deim 649 particle cannon (4): The main anti-ship weapons are four heavy particle cannon. They are mounted around the protruding nose section of the vessel.
  The particle beam has an effective range of 300,000 km. and a full power discharge of 2 Terajoules, equivalent to 400 tons of TNT. Although the cannon could be fired at lower power settings (and commensurate increases in the rate of fire) the highest power setting was typical in combat. The rate of fire at this setting was approximately one salvo per minute per gun due to the limited power generation possible on board the Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva. If the vessel was docked to a Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs-class vessel, the maximum rate of fire at maximum yield was six discharges per gun per minute.
• Makral Mossil 918 particle cannon (30): For centuries this combined particle beam and laser weapon has been the standard medium cannon armament on Zentraedi vessels. Two different beam weapons (variable frequency laser and particle beam cannon) are provided on one mount so that the discharge medium can be chosen as the optimum for the local target and environment conditions. Both weapons have the same yield at the muzzle. The laser can be fired in a low power mode directly before the particle beam fires, this setting is typically used to burn a vacuum path for the particles through an atmosphere. Because of the slow recharge time of the larger weapons, and the flexibility inherent in the double mount, this cannon turret is the weapon system most often utilized on board Zentraedi vessels.
  For ground support, it is the only effective weapon as the other systems are to heavy to be used around own troops.
  The cannon, as most Zentraedi beam weapon systems, has an effective range of 300,000 km. Each full-intensity shot has a yield of 1000 MJ, and the cannons can cycle through their firing sequence once every three seconds. The cannons are mounted for spherical coverage.
• Touwhaug Rasar 481 (30): A missile launcher mounted in a pop-up turret, firing anti-mecha/missile missiles, though the projectiles can guide on point-blank enemy ships. When the missiles are released they are already on their intercept vectors, or very close to them. Each turret has a reload time of 3.6 seconds and a magazine with a 100 round capacity. They are mounted for spherical coverage.
  The missile system used is the SAA-1 Granite (Gliquoun Touwhaug), a weapon with a conventional blast fragmentation warhead of 278 kg and an atmospheric range of 112 km. at a speed of Mach 7.5.

Air Group and Mecha Complement:

• 6 Liewneuatzs shuttle craft,
• 600 Regult infantry mecha (four versions) ,
• 300 Nousjadeul-Ger cavalry mecha,
• 24 Glaug ground/air command mecha and aerospace sleds,
• 50 Gnerl fighters.
  Note: a very few ships had half of their Nousjadeul-Ger and Regult mecha hangars replaced with hangars for a smaller number of Quaedluun-Rau mecha. There were plans to do this on all ships, but lack of resources delayed this indefinitely.

Design Notes:

The Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva was better known as the nose section of the Queadol Magdomilla task force command ship. Given that the two sections nearly always operated together however, the Magdomilla name was used in common speech for the combined ship, as it will be in these writings where appropriate.

Externally, the Quaedol Magdomilla-Whouva is one of the most 'bumpy' Zentraedi ships, with a very elongated nose an a huge bulging superstructure towards the rear. The aft end is composed almost entirely out of engine clusters, with three fusion-plasma engines for space flight and numerous secondary plasma-shock engines for additional atmospheric thrust. Several secondary engines are mounted in streamlined clusters on top of the other engines; these give the ship the appearance of having fins. A mecha release hatch is located in the bottom. Four sensor aerials are mounted on top and a another cluster is under the nose. The forward hull of the class is more heavily armoured than other Zentraedi ships as one of the designed missions was 'hot landing zone insertion', in which the ships could expect to encounter voluminous enemy fire.

Internally, there are seven deck levels. The command spaces and crew quarters are mounted in the 'hump', the service and mecha hangarage in the hull proper. The forward spike houses turret machinery and the high-resolution sensor arrays of the Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs. All mecha launch through the same hatch, in the bottom. While this is not desirable when action damage to the hangar is considered, the installation does allow for a concentrated combat drop by the infantry. The Gnerl fighters also launch through this hatch from the Magdomilla-Whouva. When the Magdomilla-Whouva and the Magdomilla-Luhoutzs are coupled, combat launches by Magdomilla-Whouva mecha are often made from the Magdomilla-Luhoutzs section.

The armament of the Magdomilla-Whouva was at the same time heavy and underpowered. The heavy guns of the Queadol combination, four heavy anti-ship cannons, are mounted directly behind the prow, but the small size of the ship and hence of the generators severely limits the available power capacity and thus the rate of fire. The Magdomilla-Whouva has between 20% and 25% the normal rate of fire for these weapons, if the ships are disconnected. When connected, the generators of the Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs will add their power to that generated by the Magdomilla-Whouva and allow a normal firing rate. Although the vessel does mount the standard Zentraedi medium cannons and defensive missiles, there are no heavy torpedo tubes, as these are all mounted on the Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs.

History:

In 1265 the Queadol Magdomilla concept was devised as an efficient means of building a task force command and amphibious assault command ship in one. The solution to built two ships, one with the means to carry out assault landings and command duties and one to haul the large engines, mecha complement, fold drive and other equipment that were not required for the assault task, was at first considered a high risk, but as the first series of ships proved itself in service, the critics were silenced, and massive production efforts began.

Due to the position on the bow of combat vessels, and its assault taskings during landings, the Magdomilla-Whouva class suffered heavier losses than its larger sister, the Magdomilla-Luhoutzs. Therefore, production of the former outstripped that of the later. The Magdomilla-Whouva was very effective as a landing command and/or assault vessel, and was therefore one of the first classes to be refitted with the modern Quaedluun-Rau power armours. In combat, the Magdomilla-Whouva often air-dropped its infantry right after the initial bombardment, using its heavy construction and defensive armament to smash through any remaining defenses. With an initial landing zone secured, the more vulnerable Zentraedi ships and auxiliaries could begin ferrying troops and supplies. This gave the Zentraedi forces a credible 'hot-zone' insertion tactic; the vulnerability of the other craft limited them mostly to dropship-delivered troops at a point a safe distance from the defended target. However, care still had to be taken that the Magdomilla-Whouva was not employed against an enemy position without orbital softening up first, or worse, alone against another ship. The armament might have been impressive on paper, but in reality the Magdomilla-Whouva was a sitting duck, slow and lacking a solid punch against these targets. It took the Magdomilla-Luhoutzs section to achieve an acceptable (even favourable) vessel against such threats.

As with the majority of the Zentraedi, this class was mostly destroyed in the Solar System during and after the Zentraedi Holocaust. Although numerous Queadol Magdomilla-Luhoutzs ships survived the fighting, the three survivors that didn't leave the system with non-assimilated Zentraedi were among the first vessels drained of whatever protoculture remained and placed in reserve. This was because there was relatively little demand for their specialized taskings in the RDF Zentraedi fleet, as these were stationed in the Solar System exclusively, with the inhabited planet in friendly hands. The ships outside the Solar System soon met the fate of their other brethren and lost generator power at such a rate that almost none remained after 2022. Those three vessels that were mothballed and stored in the Sol System are effective total losses after the Invid scavenged and wrecked them.

See additional design notes.

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Copyright © 2004, 1998 Robert Morgenstern, Peter Walker, Pieter Thomassen