USS Massachusetts (BB-1012)

The USS Massachusetts, a modern battleship.

* Base
* Top

"Concept of a large multi-mission future stealth battleship. Hull and superstructure were designed to have a reduced radar cross-section." - In-Game Description

"The answer? Use a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun." - Engineer, 2009

## Overview

USS Massachusetts (BB-1012) is a US tier 3 battleship now. It was a cruiser, but its hull designation is BB-1012, which aptly describes its role pretty well. It is for most intents and purposes, a heavier version of the Zumwalt that completely tips the scale over towards into battleship territory that comes packed to the brim with firepower, rivaling that of the RF Moscow. While the Moscow and Massachusetts have completely different cannons, it can be assumed that within the Modern Warships universe, the Massachusetts was the American answer to the Moscow class missile battleships. You are big, you have bigger guns and rockets, you are the literal embodiment of the American Military industrial complex at their peak.

## Background History

BB-1012 is a fictional hypothetical warship design that makes use of the latest advancements in railgun and laser weapons technology to bring back the battleship as a viable ship class, with some inspiration from the concept of arsenal ships.

The original BB-1012 design was created by Deviantart artist planetrix15. Fortunately, unlike the RF Moscow which the administrators and editors of the wiki had to make a fan history of, the Artist's original art page has a rather detailed and frankly well written rundown of the ship. The history of the ship according to the artist themselves is as goes:

The NATO Class Battleship was a cooperative effort between members of the NATO alliance in 2051. Spearheaded by the United States, the ship was meant to fix the problems inherent with the Oregon Class. All members offered financial support with the U.S providing the construction and weapons systems, the UK providing the Radar and Fire Control and Germany providing the Propulsion and Reactor. 2 ships, the U.S.S. Massachusetts and the U.S.S. New York would be manufactured for the U.S. Navy, The UK would receive 1 H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth II, Germany 1 Kaiser Friedrich and 2 ships the N.W.S NATO and the N.W.S. Aegis would be constructed for the fledgling NATO Combined Fleet. In a sense, the Ship was the Opposite of the Oregon Class, rather than trying to fit as much firepower as possible into a single ship it followed a much more balanced philosophy. Designed to counter China's growing global ambitions, which no single Western Nation could counter on its own, the ship would be the first built for the new NATO Combined Fleet, an international Navy meant to protect the interests of NATO countries around the world. The ship had enough stealth in its design to render it nearly invisible to radars and sonars more than 30 years old, which made up the majority of systems used by its potential enemies and partially invisible to systems less than a decade old. It achieves this by having the most of the outer hull be transparent to radar waves one way and opaque the other, the waves then meet a radar-absorbent surface, and any that are reflected out meet the radar opaque surface. Vital areas of the hull, including crew quarters and ammunition storage, are protected by advanced composite armor consisting of layers of carbon-fiber kevlar, ceramic plate, and non-Newtonian fluid. This armor is effective at stopping low caliber kinetic rounds (<155mm) with zero spalling and diffusing shaped charge warheads. It is not designed to prevent damage entirely, rather it is intended to mitigate damage such that the ship and crew can continue operations safely.

The two standout features of the ship were the Sovereign Defense System and its railguns.

The Sovereign Defense System, designed in the UK was a spiritual successor to the Aegis System. Its claim to fame was its "Absolute Detection Zone", theoretically any object within 22nm on the surface and 14nm subsurface would be detected instantly regardless of altitude, stealth, or jamming interference. The system would then make use of the 6 AN/SEQ-6 Lasers, 14 AN/SEQ-9 Lasers, and 4 Arbiter Mark III Missile batteries to defend the ship from missiles, aircraft, or even torpedoes and submarines. The system was claimed to be so effective that it could intercept two dozen low observable missiles traveling at hypersonic speeds before they got within 15nm of the ship.

The BAE MJ-L-12 Railguns are the first railguns in history with "Orbital" ability, meaning they can launch a shell into orbit to either attack satellites or travel intercontinental distances. The rounds fired are made of an advanced tungsten-carbide alloy and can not only withstand immense heat but don't begin to glow until around 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit. While not the largest railguns, at around 10.2 inches, they are unquestionably the most powerful, able to launch the 1.5-ton shells at over Mach 37 at full power. The resulting impact is equivalent to over 91 tons of TNT and is capable of penetrating over 750 feet of armored steel. The Compression head shells, rather than penetrating a target, "compress" upon impact and impart most of their energy to the surface of a target. The massive recoil created by the weapon is managed by a series of ultra-high pressure hydraulic fluid lines, which use the force to spin high-pressure turbines, which in turn charge a capacitor, readying the weapon for the next shot. This system allows for very rapid firing, only being limited by the auto-loader and the coolant system. On average the system can manage up to 10 rounds per minute for up to 24 seconds (or 4 rounds per barrel), then dropping to around 3 rounds per minute for continuous fire. The Railguns are powered by a series of batteries charged by the main reactor. When preparing to fire the batteries will dump charge into a set of capacitors (2 per gun) which in turn supply the power for the guns.

Full Specs:

Power Plant: 1x 4.43 GW DKW-5507T Nuclear Reactor driving Pratt and Whitney Electric Generators

Propulsion: 3x  GE-1184 Electric Motors driving contra-rotating "Feather Propellers"

Drive Total:  2.37 GW (220,000 Shaft Horsepower)

Speed: 42 kts

Displacement: 31,000 long tons

Range: Unlimited 35 year reactor fuel lifespan, Cruise @19 kts

Draft: 31 feet

Beam: 114 feet

Length: 859 feet

Height: 122 feet

Crew: 120 (+ up to 400 Marines with LAV's, Tanks and Amphibious Assault Hovercraft)

Sensors:

AN/SPY-15 Multi-Function Radar (MFR) (X-band, Scanned Array)

AN/SPY-17 Volume Search Radar (VSR) (S-band, Scanned Array)

AN/SPS-70 Surface Search Radar

AN/SPY-91 Sovereign Search Radar (Multi-band, Scanned Array)

AN/BQQ-18 Sonar Array (Active, Passive and Towed Array)

Armament:

4x MJ-L-12 Railguns (Intercontinental Range, Mach 37+ Kinetic, Mach 35+ Compression Head)

6x AN/SEQ-6 Laser Weapon System (27nm)

14x AN/SEQ-9 Laser Weapon System (8.4nm)

4x Arbiter Mark III Missile Battery (21nm, Mach 6)

8x Mk 59 Auto-loading VLS Modules with 3 launchers per module (24 silos total) with a total complement of 144 missiles including under normal loadout;

36x SSM-54 Sea Phoenix (250nm, Mach 5)

40x RIM-180 SAMRAAM (210nm, Mach 3.5)

24x ASM-77 Javelin (400nm, Mach 4)

18x BGM-119 Tomahawk III (2,300nm, Mach 0.95)

14x APM-90 KDPM Kinetic Deep Penetrator Munition (Intercontinental Range, Mach 6 En route, Mach 21+ Terminal)

12x RUM-144 VL-ASROC (22nm, Mach 0.7/50kts)

12x Vertically Launched MQ-300C Recon Drones, unarmed.

The ship is equipped with two recessed hangers and an air wing comprised of 2 A/UH-97F Raider Stealth helicopters, 1 MV-24 Albatross VTOL and up to 4 MQ-88 Stingray mini-helicopter drones

A/UH-97F Raider

Speed: 255 kts

Range: 180nm

Altitude: 14,000ft

Crew: 2, + up to 8 additional

Payload: 1x SEQ-9A Laser, up to 2x MJ-17 23mm railgun, up to 16x Hellfire, up to 8x Stinger II up to 4x MU-105 aerial torpedo w/ dipping sonar, up to 2x D5T LRAD, Standard SAR.

MV-24 Albatross

Speed: 340kts

Range: 410nm

Altitude: 27,000ft

Crew: 4, +40 additional

Payload: 1x SEQ-9A Laser, up to 8x Hellfire, 1x ventral mount (2x M2 .50 cal Browning/1x GAU-19 .50 cal Gatling/1x M44 20mm Gatling/1x Mk-21 40mm Grenade Launcher)

MQ-88 Stingray

Speed: 190 kts

Range: 80nm

Altitude: 12,000ft

Payload: 1x SEQ-11F Micro Laser, up to 2 MJ-19 10mm Railgun, up to 6x Hellfire, up to 2x MU-105M Mini-aerial torpedo, up to 2x Stinger II.

Additional Aircraft may be carried based on mission requirements.

## Tactics

### Playing as Massachusetts

Massa is a light battleship. Compared to any other cruiser at tier III, just about all of them boast superior agility and or speed. It is not exactly an optimal position to be in but you got plenty of firepower to make up for that. For one, you are absolutely loaded with all kinds of weapons ranging from the ultra heavy railguns, triple missile slots, dual torpedo slots, a grenade launcher that suffers practically no accuracy loss, triple autocannons, and copious amounts of laser CIWS.

It is highly recommended for the player to get into the battleship mindset when playing with a Massa. Players familiar with either the Moscow or Missouri will feel right at home with the Massa, with their playstyles being very similar. Where the Massa completely outstrips the other battleships however, is its ASW capabilities. With its already extremely stacked weapons loadout against surface vessels, players can opt to equip either YU-7 or UGST torpedoes and RUM Swarmer missiles to become the bane of every submarines existence, with such a loadout capable of continuously sending hate towards the target whether they are underwater or not.

For those who prefer a more surface oriented playstyle, it is highly recommended to swap out the stock CHAMP missiles with either Zircons, DF-17's or P-700 Granits. Sit back at the first half of the match and take pot shots at the enemy with the railguns and missiles. As the battle gets closer to its apex, start drawing in closer to the fray to bring the full firepower of your grenade launchers and torpedoes to bear, quickly melting any adversary in a one on one fight.

It should also be noted that despite the Massa's extremely stacked AA defense, one should always keep at least one teammate nearby to ward off bombers and aircraft in general as carriers will likely focus you down as their first priority. While you are a nominally a cruiser, you are undoubtedly a battleship (Hell, even your hull code is BB for battleship) and the threat you pose to carriers will make it in their best interest to sink you as soon as they can.

### Playing Alongside Massachusetts

When playing alongside a Massachusetts, the best course of action is to follow it. This way, you can provide an additional layer of air defense to her and can augment her firepower. Do be advised however one should stay out of a Massa's arc of fire as shots blocked by friendly units in the way are not only frustrating but could even lead to the loss of a game.

As a carrier, you can have your fighters loiter around the Massachusetts player to provide them a much welcome extra layer of air defense against enemy aircraft and especially bombers. For all it's defensive capabilities, a skilled bomber player can just slip through the holes or commit to a dive bomb and dump their thermonuclear payloads on the Massa since CIWS does not intercept bombs.

### Playing Against Massachusetts

Against a Massachusetts is going to be a nightmare for most surface ships due to the sheer amount of firepower it can lay down on you in a short period of time. As such, weaker surface combatants are highly advised to not only stay away, but also avoid getting hit by those railguns.

Other battleships such as the Moscow, Missouri, and Yamato are more than a match for the Massachusetts, as they have the required firepower to go toe to toe with a Massachusetts head on. However, even then it would be a very close fight so one should be careful not to get into knife fighting range where the Massachusetts full potential can be unleashed.

Carriers can send their bombers early in the game for the express purpose of sinking the Massachusetts before it becomes a threat to them or their team. Despite it's extremely stacked AA stat, most bombers are able to survive the flak long enough to deliver their payloads through it's defensive net and cause some serious damage.

Submarines are not exactly in their element against a Massachusetts unlike most other ships. This is due to the fact that the ship not only has double torpedo slots, it has a grenade launcher that loses practically no accuracy during its burst and if you are extremely unlucky, the player has ditched heavy missiles in favor of swarmers. As such, it is highly advised to stick to islands and cover as you close the distance to the point weapons are ineffective (IE Right up against the ship or under it) before unleashing your missile payloads. Otherwise, stay back, remain undetected, and keep on slinging missiles and torpedoes to keep the ship busy and run down it's chaff supply.

"Massachusetts can easily sinked by cruiser warships" -Eugen 1934

## Suggested Armaments Setup

### Missiles

* Zircon (If player has access)
* X-51 (High damage, manual control)
* P-700 Granit (Maximum damage)
* RUM-139 Swarmer/YU-8 (Anti submarine)
* SCALP Naval (Semi-High damage, use this if you're to busy using other weapons)

### Torpedoes

* Mark-48's (Good balance of damage, reload time, and speed)
* YU-7 (Spammers)
* UGST (Maximum damage)
* F21 Artemis.

### Autocannons

* Oerlikon Millenium (Good all round choice)
* Gibka (High damage, susceptible to chaff.)
* Marlin (High damage, high range)
* RAPIDFire (Best)

### Air Defense

* Excalibur Laser
* Pantsir-ME (Can double as autocannon with no aircraft nearby, adding even more damage output at close range.)
* Garpun 30 mm (Improved version of the Pantsir).

## Advantages and Disadvantages

### Advantages

* Heavy railguns
* Good AA defense
* Comes with torpedo slots
* Triple missile slots can save some upgrade costs
* Not as vulnerable to submarines unlike most other ships and in fact even excels at killing them with certain setups
* Absolute bruiser at close range

### Disadvantages

* Rather slow.
* Railguns have a charge time before firing.
* Not as great at long range, with rather run of the mill damage output.
* Is a rather big target for bombers which it is vulnerable to.

## Trivia

* She was a cruiser before.
* Her railguns are supposed to have a velocity of Mach 37 and an intercontinental range. Unfortunately this is not implemented in game as such a weapon would predictably render everything else obsolete.
* According to the original design artist, she is able to double as an amphibious assault ship with a contingent of 400 marines along with their accompanying LAV-25's, MPF light tanks, and hovercraft.
* She is supposed to be invisible to the radar of ships built in the 2020's and 30's. That is clearly not the case in game.
* Often called the Massa in chat and the community as most players cannot be bothered to type her full name.