Delhi WarShips
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Delhi WarShips | |
---|---|
Corporation Profile | |
Affiliation | |
Previous Name(s) | Delhi Ships[1] |
Headquarters | Capella[2] |
Leadership | CEO |
Product(s) | WarShips |
Manufacturing Plant(s) | Carver V |
Overview[edit]
Prior to the early twenty-fifth century,[3][4] Delhi Ships was a small manufacturer of military transport vessels with a corporate headquarters on the world of Capella. That changed when Delhi Ships successfully won the competition to supply a new class of corvette WarShips to the Terran Hegemony, a relatively unusual event given that Delhi Ships was based outside the borders of the Hegemony.[1]
Several factors came together in providing Delhi Ships with this particular business opportunity. Firstly, the Terran Hegemony had identified a need for a new corvette to replace the older Bonaventure and Vigilant classes,[1][3][4] whose performance was becoming increasingly lackluster in comparison to the demands placed upon them. Secondly, the Terran Hegemony had recently recaptured Terra Firma from the Capellan Confederation, and had received significant reparations from the Confederation paid in L-Bills, freeing up funding for a new class of WarShips - L-Bills Delhi Ships were willing to take payment in. Thirdly, Delhi Ships was prepared to build a new facility at Carver V,[5][See Notes] inside the borders of the Hegemony, to handle production of the new corvettes while preserving Hegemony technological secrets. Lastly, Delhi Ships had designed a WarShip that met all of the stipulated requirements.[1]
The design that launched Delhi Ships into the world of WarShip manufacture was the Vincent-class corvette, a design that benefited greatly from the "smart modularity" Delhi Ships built into the design, allowing for commonality of parts from various different manufacturing concerns as well as making new technologies and upgrades easy to embody.[1] The Vincent would stay in service for more than three hundred years, with more than five hundred ships being manufactured; by the time Stefan Amaris launched his coup no less than thirty-nine different build standards of the Vincent had been introduced to service[3][4] and Delhi Ships had become Delhi WarShips.[1]
The Vincent would be Delhi WarShips greatest success. In the twenty-eighth century the company attempted to enter the big leagues with a new, revolutionary WarShip design at a much heavier weight; that new class of ship was the Soyal, a heavy cruiser designed and marketed as the replacement to the aging Avatar-class heavy cruiser. The Soyal was intended to capitalize on new, highly classified weapons technology—the Mass Driver class of weapons—but proved a commercial failure where the Star League Defense Force was concerned, a result of SLDF research already showing that Mass Drivers were unsuitable for use given current doctrines and the inherent limitations the massive weapons had to operate.[1]
Despite the problems with the Soyal, including the sheer size of the design because of the demands placed upon it—a size comparable to a number of battlecruiser and battleship designs—the Capellan Confederation saw the Soyal as an opportunity to modernize its navy, and purchased a number of the design. That prompted both the Free Worlds League to purchase a small number of the ships, and public outcry demanding to know why the SLDF hadn't introduced Mass Drivers to service. Sadly, the Soyal proved a limited design, outlived by the earlier Vincent.[6]
Delhi's shipyards at Carver V were effectively unavailable to Delhi WarShips, and the Carver system would remain under siege until 2773. Delhi WarShips smuggled the plans for both the Vincent-class corvette and the Essex I out of the Amaris Empire and restarted production of both classes at their Capella shipyards. Delhi's actions were condemned by both Stefan Amaris and Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky over the blatant misuse of intellectual property belonging to the Star League, but neither was in a position to be able to do anything about it at the time. Production continued unabated at the Capella shipyards, building up a substantial navy for the Confederation, although both classes were somewhat underweight and outdated in comparison to the other fleets active at the time.[5]
At some point during the Succession Wars the former Delhi WarShips facility on Capella became a part of the Rashpur-Owens company,[7] although there was likely little remaining as both the Capella and Carver V shipyards operated by Delhi WarShips were considered to have been destroyed during the First Succession War, and the Rashpur-Owens shipyard at Capella was damaged.[8]
Manufacturing[edit]
Delhi WarShips had manufacturing centers in the following systems:
Capella[edit]
Components produced at Capella:[5][6] | |
---|---|
Component | Type |
WarShips | |
Soyal[6] | Heavy cruiser |
Essex I[5] | Destroyer |
Vincent[5] | Corvette |
Carver V[edit]
Components produced at Carver V:[1][5] | |
---|---|
Component | Type |
WarShips | |
Essex I[5] | Destroyer |
Vincent[1] | Corvette |
Notes[edit]
^ Field Report 2765: Periphery described Delhi WarShips as orbiting Carver V while First Succession War listed it in orbit of Carver IV.[5][8] IlKhan's Eyes Only later clarified that any mentions of the shipyard in orbit of Carver IV were in error.[9]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Technical Readout: 2750, p. 126: "Vincent"
- ↑ The Star League, p. 131: "Weapons Industries - Manufacturers"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Technical Readout: 3057, p. 134: "Vincent (Corvette)"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Technical Readout: 3057 Revised, p. 132: "Vincent (Corvette)"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Field Report 2765: Periphery, pp. 30–31: "Essex I (Destroyer)"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Field Report 2765: CCAF, p. 21: "Soyal (Heavy Cruiser)"
- ↑ BattleSpace, p. 27: "JumpShips and WarShips"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 First Succession War, p. 125: "Shipbuilding Casualties of the First Succession War"
- ↑ IlKhan's Eyes Only, p. 138: "Liberty"