Kongo-Class Battleship

The latest warship deployed by the State of Japan is the Kongo-class Battleship, a highly advanced design destined to lead the Japanese Cosmo Navy into a new era of spaceborne warfare.

## Technical Specifications

### General

At the time of its first serial production in 2180, the Kongo-class represents the pinnacle of space warfare not only for Japan but for all Terran nations. It achieved this position, not due to overwhelming firepower or sheer size – in both categories, the flagships of other nations do surpass the Japanese Kongo-class. Instead, the Kongo-class focuses on a compact, refined and above all versatile design.

Utilizing an unprecedented amount of modulized compartments and exchangeable components, the Kongo is designed specifically to allow for substantial repairs to be conducted rapidly and without the need for a dry-dock. Long term, this feature is also intended to allow for complete overhauls of the design, incorporating new weapons and defensive systems.

With this choice in design, the Japanese Cosmo Navy acknowledges rapid advances in technology and hopes to extend the service time of the Kongo as one of Japan's top-tier classes for decades.

### Armaments & Hangar

Designed as a flagship leading large fleet formations, the Kongo's main weaponry focuses on heavy ship-to-ship artillery cannons. The assembly of turrets on both the dorsal and ventral hull favors broadsides over direct frontal assault formations.

In terms of forwarding firepower, the Kongo does bring a set of eight Torpedo-tubes to bear. These are outfitted specifically to accommodate prototype warhead designs as well as combat drones.

The most notable feature of the Kongo, however, is the revolving hangar magazine, allowing for the storage and rapid deployment of a full squadron of auxiliary/strike craft. Since the advent of space fighters on spatial battlefields due to rapid advances in spatial aviation technologies, strike craft has been stationed mostly on stationary bases. The Kongo Class aims to forego the need for a dedicated carrier design and integrates the deployment capability for this highly advanced weapon directly into the battleship.

### Defensive

The reinforced kinetic Armor of the Kongo is not the heaviest, but one of the most resilient of all in modern cosmo navies. In addition to that, the Kongo boasts four sets of Point-Defense and Flak Cannon batteries, which have enough range to cover nearby escort vessels as well.

Several Kongo-class vessels have also been outfitted with special electronic warfare unit prototypes for defensive purposes.

## Tactics

Despite its intended primary role as flagship to Japanese fleets, the Kongo-class displays remarkable capabilities to be deployed on its own. Relying on its fighters and extensive defensive capabilities, the Kongo-class can reasonably operate with minimal escorts.

## History

The development of the Kongo-class was long kept entirely secret even internally in the Japanese Cosmo Navy, not only due to its strategic value but also due to heated controversy within the Admiralty regarding the viability of the design. Some concerns were voiced about the focus of this new design on versatility and reliance on space fighter craft.

In the end, the Kongo-Project prevailed and after successful testing of the first Kongo-class Battleship in the field, a contract for at least six more vessels to be deployed by late 2180 was signed.