Alicorn Class

## Etymology

"Alicorn" is a Latin term originally meaning "unicorn's horn," and in modern times refers to winged unicorns. The submarine's auxiliary hulls on the side are the "wings" of the *Alicorn*, while the "horn" is the hidden rail cannon. Due to a lack of knowledge regarding the *Alicorn*'s rail cannon, *Navy Times* writers believed the "horn" was the flight deck.

## Design

The *Alicorn* was a much larger and more ambitious design than the *Scinfaxi* and *Hrimfaxi* before it, measuring at 495 m (1,624 ft), in contrast to the *Scinfaxi-class*'s reported length of around 300 m (980 ft). It inherited automation technology from the Hrimfaxi, allowing its crew to be heavily reduced as compared to a conventional warship of its size. The *Alicorn* was a trimaran design - amidships, the vessel divided into three separate stern sections: the central hull and two large auxiliary hulls that contained its powerful arsenal of weaponry, plus its large pump jets. The *Alicorn Class* carries two medium-sized liquid-metal cooled nuclear reactors within its central hull that powered the entire vessel. Its hull and pump jets were designed to make the *Alicorn* Class faster while submerged than it was while it was surfaced, leading to a submerged speed that was several knots quicker than its surfaced speed.

The *Alicorn Class*, like most submarines, featured the ability to generate oxygen underwater, allowing crew members to survive when the sub was submerged, even in the case of an accident. The submarine's hull featured sixteen large bays used for launching multiple types of UAVs, while a large runway tunneling through the sail itself allowed for the operation of heavily armed carrier aircraft. The *Alicorn Class* additionally featured a small radome atop the sail used to produce jamming signals.

### Weaponary

Unlike a conventional submarine, the *Alicorn* was intended to operate not as a traditional strategic missile submarine, but instead as a "submersible aviation cruiser" - an underwater missile cruiser with the ability to conduct aircraft carrier operations. As such, it mainly relied on guns, missiles, and its aircraft.

The *Alicorn* carried heavy anti-air armaments along the length of the boat, including CIWS emplacements, AA guns, and surface-to-air missile launchers that were deployed from hatches within the hull. Upon submerging, these weapons retracted into the hull, followed by the hatch closing up.

24 VLS tubes were placed within both auxiliary hulls, for a total of 48 launchers. They supported various short-range anti-air and anti-ship missiles, along with long-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles. At one point, it was reported by the public media that the *Alicorn* was a "doomsday ship" with 256 SLBM tubes, each capable of launching missiles equipped with 200 kt nuclear warheads, but this was proven to be false reporting.

The *Alicorn* featured two gun bays, one on each auxillary hull, ahead of the VLS launchers. *Navy Times* article in April 2012 assumed these bays carried conventional naval rifles, but the OIA's report 12 years prior indicated that based on the materials taken to its construction site, the *Alicorn* likely "[carried] railguns as its main guns". At the time of the writing(2028), each gun bay carried one large railgun turret, each with the ability to fire up to 80 rounds per minute. The sabot in each railgun was 200 mm with a barrel length of 6.5 m (33 caliber) and the capacity to support 155 mm projectiles, guided by GPS/INS. The projectiles ranged from Armor-Piercing Composite Rigid (APCR) shells to High-Explosive Anti-Ship (HEAS) shells. The turrets could rotate a full 360 degrees and pivot upward, allowing for them to target aircraft.

In addition to its main guns, the *Alicorn* was also fitted with a far more powerful SRC-03a rail cannon hidden as part of the flight deck. This 128-caliber weapon boasted a barrel length of 76.5 metres (251 ft) and bore diameter of 600 millimetres (24 in). Its primary use was for long-range strategic bombardment of both land and air targets. When the gun fired at minimum-energy trajectory, its effective range exceeded 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi), though its total range remains unknown, since its listed specifications and its actual performance differed after a refit by GR Marine and Ships. The cannon's projectiles could change their flight paths using active aeroelastic wings in conjunction with terminal guidance provided by an unmanned aerial vehicle. However, should the UAV be destroyed, a failsafe forced the projectiles to immediately self-destruct. Additionally, the terminal guidance transmission could be jammed, thereby making the cannon less accurate.

As designed, the SRC-03a utilized rocket-assisted shells similar to the Mark 51 Advanced Gun System (AGS) that used GPS/INS for guidance. However, in its later configuration, it could load discarding sabots armed with armor piercing anti-structure shells, high-explosive polynitrous anti-aircraft rounds, and most devastatingly, NAR-01b-S nuclear shells. These 1 kiloton-yield projectiles were capable of killing anyone within a 400 metres (1,300 ft) radius around the impact site instantaneously, while dealing minimal structural damage to surrounding areas.

Unlike most submarines, the *Alicorn* did not feature torpedoes. This was a choice made by the designers to maximize internal space, and the empty space was occupied by aircraft, crew quarters, munitions, and supercapacitors.

### Aircraft

The *Alicorn*'s aircraft operation model was a blend of the *Scinfaxi*'s manned aircraft and the *Hrimfaxi*'s UAV operations. Unlike the *Scinfaxi*, which featured a V/STOL configuration, the *Alicorn* featured a large carrier deck that allowed for CATOBAR operations. Additionally, eight large launch bays for SLUAVs and barrier drones were located on each side of the submarine's sail. These bays could be used even while submerged. The *Alicorn*'s catapults were originally steam-powered, but these were later swapped out for electromagnetic catapults that permitted increased efficiency and stealth, while fixing a fatal issue that precdelayed the *Alicorn*'s commissioning until 2019. Carrier-capable multirole aircraft also reduced the amount of aircraft needed aboard the sub, which in turn reduced the number of air crew required to maintain them. The sail had a large hoist near the rear that could be used to reposition landing aircraft, which were stored inside the submarine's hangar using two large elevators. While conducting simultaneous launch and retrieval operations, the *Alicorn*'s forward elevator was used to deploy aircraft, while the rear one stored landing aircraft.

It was originaly planned to aquire Su-33SMs for the ship from Russia but these plans were cancelled following Venezeuala sending North Korea military aid during the Third Korean War. In between 2015 and 2018 numerous different plans for airgroup procurement were drawn up ranging from J-10s to second hand F-18s. These plans culminated in the aquisition and reverse enginering of a Rafale M in 2018. The new aircraft designated the CDR1-M(Caza de reacción 1 Marítimo) was brought into service in 2019.

## History

### Development

Following the completion of the *Scinfaxi*-class submersible carriers, Venezeula initiated Project Tiburón in 2010 to create a larger submarine - dubbed officially by the Central Intelligence Agency as a "*Alicorn*-class" submarine - that combined the capabilities of the *Scinfaxi* and *Hrimfaxi* into one package. The CIA's Advanced Weapons Analysis division observed sand carriers actively excavating underneath Maracaibo in 2011. The subterranean construction sites—collectively referred to by the CIA as closed city BSC-1 —already housed two 400-metre (1,300 ft) docks to repair and maintain the *Scinfaxi*-class boats, but it was noted that sand carriers were still excavating an estimated 1,000 cubic metres of sand every day.

The CIA suspected that, within a year, Venezuela completed construction of a new 600–700-metre dock for the new submarine, internally referred to by the Venezuelans as District B4. The CIA observed steel and weapons being delivered to Maracaibo and used them to estimate the *Alicorn*'s capabilities. The Advanced Weapons Analysis division completed its report on the new submarine on March 27, 2014.