Alicorn-class Submarine

The **Alicorn-class submarine** is a large submersible aviation cruiser. It carries numerous WMDs, including ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and on-board enlarged EMRG railguns, giving it the ability to shred through enemy fleets.

## History

The Alicorn-class was a project by United Cascadia to improve the nation's navy, the ECNF (Executive Cascadian Naval Force. It entered service on the 24th of December, 2022. It has been widely used since for scare tactics and intimidation. It is also saw major action in the Alpine War.

## Design

### Vessel

The *Alicorn* was a much larger and more ambitious design than other submarines before it, measuring at 495 m (1,624 ft). It features automation technology, 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* carried 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* 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*, 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 MQ-29s, while a large runway tunneling through the sail itself allowed for the operation of heavily armed carrier aircraft, such as CFA-44s. The *Alicorn* additionally featured a small radome atop the sail used to produce jamming signals.

### Weaponry

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 256 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. An article in November 2022 assumed these bays carried conventional naval rifles, but the ECNF's report 12 days 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 combat service, 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 75m and bore diameter of 500mm. 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 2,500km. The cannon's projectiles could change their flight paths using active aeroelastic wings in conjunction with terminal guidance provided by an MQ-29. 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.

The first plan was to have the SRC-03a utilize rocket-assisted shells similar to the Mark 51 Advanced Gun System (AGS) that used GPS/INS for guidance. However, in its production 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 shells. These 1 kiloton-yield projectiles were capable of killing anyone within a 300 metres 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 manned aircraft and UAV operations. The *Alicorn* featured a large carrier deck that allowed for CATOBAR operations. Additionally, eight large launch bays for MQ-29s 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. 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.

## Specifications

* Builders: Cascadian National Industries
* Length: 495m
* Beam: 115m
* Height: 54m
* Displacement: 810,000t submerged, 650,000t surfaced
* Propulsion: Two CNI nuclear generators
* Max. Depth: 500m
* Speed: 42kt submerged, 38kt surfaced
* Crew: 300
* Cost: 4b to aquire, 2b per year to maintain
* Decoys: 48 Acoustic Device Countermeasure Mk 3/4, 32 jamming buoys
* Armament: 8 Aplodinotus CIWS, 16 Phalanx CIWSs, 16 Agelaius AA guns, 16 Anodorhynchus SAMs, 2 Acinonyx EMRGs, 1x SCR-03a EMRG
* Aircraft: Classified number of aircraft, 80 MQ-29s

## Boats in Class

* *Scinfaxi*
* *Hrimfaxi*
* *Gullfaxi*

## Trivia

* The Alicorn-class is based off of the Alicorn from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown