Kuznetsov-Class Cruiser

Commissioned in 2455, the Kuznetsov-class cruiser was one of the more ineffectual warship classes in service during a period when the biggest threat to the UNSC were scattered smugglers and pirates. During the Insurrection, it proved totally ineffectual at supporting ground operations, though refits allowed a number of them to serve against the Covenant. A small number remained in service by 2552, but the last were destroyed during the Battle of Reach.
==History==
Developed at the height of the UNSC's Golden Age of Colonisation, the Kuznetsov-class cruiser was developed as an escort for colony ships against the scattered clusters of privateers and pirates that were setting themselves up along trade routes, preying on stray merchant shipping. As such, it was primarily designed along the lines of a small Carrier, able to coordinate the movements of a battlegroup, deploy fighters, and engage most smaller craft. In this role, it proved extremely effective, but as the rate of colonisation slowed the Kuznetsov-class found itself pressed into roles it was ill-suited for. The growing civil unrest among the colonies forced the deployment of many UNSC Marine Corps and Army units, and the Kuznetsov's found themselves serving as escorts for troop ships - much bigger and more valuable targets than they were used to. As an attempt to improve their effectiveness, they recieved additional hangar bay storage facilities and internal passengers storage, allowing them to serve as smaller troop ships themselves and carry a larger complement of fighters and dropships, but when the Insurrection began they nevertheless found themselves being outperformed by dedicated troopships and carriers, especially the Herald-class colonial support ships, which were experiencing somewhat of a rennaissance with their pioneering of the THOR Weapon System - the ultimate insult. Plans were made to retire the class, with a number scheduled to be decommissioned and converted into planetary-based museum ships.
As with many other ship classes, those plans were cancelled entirely when the Covenant began their xenocidal war of extermination against humanity. The Kuznetsov, and a number of other classes scheduled for decommissioning, were resurrected from storage, refitted with rudimentary weapons for combat, and pressed into service. Needless to say, the Kuznetsov proved a relatively ineffective ship class - it performed better in combat than, say, the Halcyon-class, but was nothing special when compared with other ship classes. By 2552, most of the class had been destroyed in combat - the last dozen or so were present at Reach when it was attacked, and were destroyed.
==Design==
Aesthetically, the Kuznetsov-class is representative of pre-Insurrection ship designs, mostly designed for ship-to-ship combat against small-scale pirate groups. For this purpose, it possesses sixteen 50mm CIWS hull autocannons with what was, for the time, a sophisticated Target Acquisition and Designation System. For larger threats, the ship carried twelve Archer missile pods for hitting the converted freighters or asteroid bases that they were expected to face. Ultimately, the Kuznetsov was a specialist ship, designed for only what the UNSC expected to face.
During the Insurrection, the UNSC Navy suddenly found itself in a poor position to counter a primarily ground-based insurgency movement. Attempts were made to rectify this, and the Kuznetsov-class were fitted with additional fighters and CIWS turrets to provide escort for troop ships and carriers, but still found themselves underperforming. The success of the THOR Weapon System on the Herald-class led some to propose its use on the Kuznetsovs, but they were eventually shelved, deemed not worth maintaining, replaced by the superior Halcyon-class cruisers in 2510, the majority being mothballed to await decommissioning.
After the outbreak of conflict with the Covenant, many of the Kuznetsov-class were reactivated and provided with extensive refits to make them combat-competitive. Their reactors and slipspace drives were modernised, and their armaments were substantially improved, including the addition of another ten Archer missile pods and a single MAC. A small number also recieved AI support, allowing improved combat performance. The most notable addition was the addition of a dozen THOR launchers to the underside, replacing the ODST HEV launchers, allowing it to provide fire support from orbit, a feature proposed during the insurrection but never followed through. The majority of them were deployed to protect the more important Outer Colonies, allowing more modern ships to take part in strike/response forces. In combat, the Kuznetsov's again proved woefully inadequate, though no more so than most other UNSC ships against the Covenant.
Internally, the Kuznetsov is relatively conventional, compared to the Halcyon-class that replaced it, with vertical deck arrangements meant to use the ship's momentum to provide artificial "gravity". After the development of rudimentary artificial gravity plating, this configuration would be abandoned in favour of the horizontal deck layout that would allow smaller ships to operate in atmospheric environments as well. During refit, the ships were gutted and the decks reconstructed in the modern layout.
Though designed as a Cruiser, its ability to carry and deploy space fighters technically makes it a Cruiser-Carrier. In addition, it also possesses passenger storage facilities for up to a battalion of Marines, a relic from its time as a combined cruiser escort/carrier/troop ship, though for the most part these went unused.
==Quotes==
* "Nothing much to say, really. "Meh" seems to pretty much sum it up."
* "This is what happens when a military remains inflexible - building a space combat warship during a period of small-scale conflict was a waste of manpower and resources. And don't get me started on its inadequacies during the Insurrection..."
* "I only saw a few of these things, and they looked like buckets of bolts. Still, at least they weren't as absolutely crappy as the Heralds! "
* "Give these things a few THOR launchers, a squadron of fighters, and it would maybe be equal to a frigate. MAYBE."
Category:Cruiser classes
Category:UNSC Ship Classes