Escort Carrier Course Notes {ESC}

Introduction:
The Escort-Class Carrier (its true name is still unknown, so it is presumed that Kuat Drive yard simply called it an Escort Carrier) is a truly specialised ship. As the name suggests, the Escort Carrier is not a ship-of-the-line, but a support ship which provides large TIE fighter support to an imperial fleet. In that respect, this ship excels at its job: it carries a whole wing of fighters. As most specialised ships, the Escort Carrier does have it's drawbacks, but unlike most support ships, the Escort Carrier makes up for them by its fighter complement. Although a position in this ship is not as prestigious as an Imperial-Class Star Destroyer or even an Immobilizer 418, the crews of these ships are always highly experienced and trained, especially in fighter operations and tactics. Escort Carriers also have a secondary use: as a large scale troop transport.

General Statistics:
Name/Model: Escort Carrier - Heavy Starfighter Carrier
Manufacturer: Kuat Drive Yards
Length: 501 Meters
Crew: 3,845 (20 gunners, 1,500 skeleton crew)
Troops: 800 Troopers
Hyperdrive Capacity: x1 Multiplier
Hyperdrive Backup: x8 Multiplier
Speed: 12 MGLT
Hull: 1370 RU
Shields: 2880 SBD

History:
The need for a TIE Carrier became apparent after the battle of Ton-Falk. The Empire lost that battle due to "inadequate TIE support". Kuat Drive Yards was contracted to design and develop a new design of ships, a design that would enable such ships to carry and maintain a large number of TIEs. Thus the Escort Carrier was developed, fitting the specifications exactly. Over the years the Escort Carrier has proven to be quite an extremely good ship, thanks mainly to the large TIE complement carried by this ship. However, due to space limitations, the Escort Carrier has proven to be an expensive ship to maintain. Fortunately, a low number of these ships is necessary to boost the fighter support of any fleets quite considerably.

Design:
The Escort Carrier has a very unique, and some people would say ugly, design. The whole ship is basically box-shaped, with one end opened to allow transports and fighters inside the huge cavernous hangar. The surface of the carrier is relatively smooth, except for the strategically placed turrets that give the ship a 360o field of fire. This enables the Escort Carrier to fire at ships coming from any side, be it the back, the bottom or the top of the ship. The bridge of the ship is at the front of the craft, nestled within the numerous sensors and antennas that allow the carrier to track the position of its fighters accurately. The reactor and engines of the carrier are installed at the back, but several modifications had to be done to the reactor to allow for the large hangar space.

Weaponry/Security:
Within the Imperial Navy the Escort Carrier is used in two ways, although it only sees service in limited areas. The first way is very well known: starfighter support. Thanks to the large hangar space, the Escort Carrier is able to carry one whole wing of TIEs, something comparable with the ISD. Unlike the ISD, the Escort Carrier is able to do this and only be 1/3 of the size of an ISD. This is quite a large achievement for a ship this small. Thanks to the large number of TIEs it carries, the Escort Carrier can hold it's own in a fight quite well. Captains of such ships should still remember that the carrier is still a highly specialised ship, but unlike other specialised ships such as the Interdictor, the strong shields and armour of the Escort Carrier make this ship more a combat ship than a support ship. Although the Escort Carrier fares well with medium to small sized ships, against large ships with large complements of fighter, the carrier will struggle, mostly due to the lack of decent guns on the ship. Although the combination of a wing of fighters, 10 Taim & Bak H8 Dual Laser Cannons and a Krupx VL-6 Warhead Launcher make a adequate defence against any starfighter attacks, the total lack of turbolaser make this ship totally inadequate in ship vs. ship combat. In terms of raw firepower, even an Interdictor can beat an Escort Carrier. Fortunately, the heavy armour and shields make this ship far more durable than any ship of comparable size.

The second way that this ship is used is far less known than the first: the escort carrier can be used as a troop transport too. For a ship of its size, the troop complement of this ship is impressive: up to 800 troopers can be carried in this ship, almost as many as an ISD (with 960 troopers). Thanks to the numerous transports and shuttles that can be carried by the carrier, the troopers can be deployed swiftly and efficiently, making the Escort Carrier an excellent choice for any planetary and space based landings. By taking off the racks for TIEs, the Carrier can be made to carry AT-AT barges and Transport Carriers, making the ship a very good ship in a planetary assault, to either provide TIE support or to land additional troops on the planet.

It is almost impossible for an enemy to board an Escort Carrier. First of all, the enemy would have to contend with the large number of troops deployed in the ship. Secondly, the enemy would only be able to land in the large cavernous hangar. This gives the defenders a good chance to mow down the enemies as they step off their transports, since finding cover in such a large hangar is very hard (the occasional crates and boxes are the only exception, since most of the fighters are held up by means of the TIE racks). The only time where there is enough cover to move out of the freighters would be if the carrier is used as a troop transport, but it goes without saying that this would be extremely foolhardy and possibly suicidal.

Propulsion:
Due to modifications done to the reactor (to improve hangar space), the Escort Carrier can only move at the relatively slow speed of 12 MGLT per second. This forces the carrier to lag behind an Imperial Fleet if the fleet makes large sub-light journeys. The hyperdrive is the standard 1x multiplier, with the usual 8x multiplier as backup.

Defensive Systems:
Heavy shields and good hull strength make this ship quite heavily armoured for a ship of its size. The difficulty of destroying this ship has left quite a high survivability record for the carrier.

Crew/Troops/Starfighters:
The crew of this ship is 3,845 people, 20 of which are gunners. Two troopers are assigned to each gun. Most of the crew are engineers that are in charge of maintaining fighters/walkers/shuttles. A significant part of the crew is also in the tactical division and is in charge of starfighter operations and tactics. The normal complement of starfighters in the Escort Carrier is 1 full wing. The type of ships in each squadron varies quite considerably from ship to ship, but originally the Escort Carrier carried a single squadron of TIE Interceptors and the remaining squadrons were TIE Fighters.

Tactics:
Normally, Escort Carriers are positioned at the back of a fleet, protected by many ships so that they don't fall under starship attack. Other than that, tactics for Escort Carrier are at the discretion of the ship captain. Except that, the Escort Carrier can also be used as a starfighter transport, carrying fighter from space station to space station. Carriers, as said before, can also be used as troop transports and sometimes even as advanced scouts if they are fitted out with TIEs with advanced sensors.

Divisions within a Escort Carrier:
Divisions within an Escort Carrier have extremely different roles compared to other ships in the Imperial Navy Fleet. The Engineering section is divided in two parts: one part is in charge of the often-unreliable reactors. These are always prone to damage and the engineering officers in charge of these will always have to work hard to make sure that the Escort Carrier has enough power. The other part of the engineering division is in charge of repairing ships and crafts that are in the Escort Carrier. This is not such a long job but during battles the engineering will often have to work overtime to make sure that the fighters are in tip-top shape. The tactical division of an Escort Carrier has also a multitude of jobs. The Tactical division commander normally will take the role of the Wing Commander of the fighters. With the rest of the tactical team, he will co-ordinate fighter operations with the command team. The command team takes the standard roles of any other command teams in the Directorate Guard, although their specialities are focused more on starfighter positioning rather than ship positioning.

Conclusion:
The Escort Carrier is a good ship, with an excellent starship complement for its size. Although it lacks guns, it makes up with decent armour and shields. Overall, the Escort Carrier is a nice ship to command that will test the strategical acumen of any ship captain.

Links:
http://frankg.dgne.com/swsv/kdy/#escort
http://www1.theforce.net/cuswe/search.asp?search=escort+carrier#
http://members.aol.com/jkh03/starwars/ships/starships/ESC.html
http://www.furryconflict.com/tech/technopedia/imperial/starfleet/escort_carrier.html