User:RelentlessRecusant/F779 Predator-class interceptor

F779 Predator-class Interceptor

The Cydonia-class fleet carrier was a heavy carrier classification operated by the UNSC Navy during the Galactic Era. Introduced to fulfill the increasingly perceived "carrier gap" in the UNSC's naval forces, the Cydonia-class fleet carrier instigated a paradigm shift in the UNSC Navy, leading to the increasing use of carriers and fighters for UNSC force projection.

Specifications
The Cydonia-class fleet carrier was the first novel major UNSC carrier classification to be constructed for several decades after the closure of the Human-Covenant War. As a paradigm shift in UNSC doctrine and naval technologies, it represented novel advances in UNSC warfighting technologies.

Its keel was 1850 meters in length, half again as long as the 1191-meter-long Marathon-class Cruiser, the former symbol of UNSC naval might, and was comparable in dimensions to its distant predecessor, the Trafalgar-class Supercarrier.

The fleet carrier's more prominent asset was its onboard compliment of spacecraft; it boasted two full wings of starfighters (144 starfighters), the largest onboard compliment of any UNSC warship of the Galactic Era, largely comprised of F506 Piranha-class interceptors and B82 Tigershark-class bombers. Some carrier squadrons would be equipped with the newer F779 Predator-class interceptors and B3 Specter-class stealth bombers.

The carriers, while typically relying on escorts and fighter screens for protection, were also well-armed with a heavy battery of anti-capital ship and anti-fighter weapons in the event that enemy formations broke through the escort shells. Each Cydonia-class fleet carrier was armed with three Mark IV Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, upgraded variants of the MAC weapons systems sported during the Human-Covenant War, as well as a hundred SSM-42 Crossbow-class Missile Pods, the advanced successor to the Archer-class missile systems. This was supplemented by sixty Mk. 16 Flurry-class Close-In Weapon Systems, point-defense cannons to track destroy enemy missiles and fighters at close range, as well as four Mk. 72 Ship-to-Ship Torpedo Tubes against lighter enemy capital ships.

Doctrine
According to standard fleet doctrine, the Cydonia-class fleet carriers were supposed to be battlegroup-level assets, always escorted by cruiser-type and destroyer-type vessels and screened by interceptor screens. Because of their large cross-section for firing radars and poor maneuverability, the fleet carriers typically deployed their fighter wings from afar to assault enemy capital ships and intercept enemy fighter squadrons. The sheer number of fighter squadrons carried aboard the Cydonia-class ensured that virtually any battle group supplemented with a fleet carrier had a numerical superiority in fighter-to-fighter engagements.