The Kozane dō-class Heavy Cruiser, designed and built by the megacorporation Halcyon Industries for use in the Threshold's primary space force; the Federal Navy. The vessel is primarily designed to engage much larger targets from a distance with its hefty missile and torpedo compliment, only using guns as a last-ditch defense. The Kozane dō is a newer vessel, replacing older, more aging craft steadily. The cruiser is the smallest vessel in the Threshold fleet considered suited for combat against super-dreadnoughts.
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Development History
Following an aging line of cruisers, the Threshold sought out a replacement that could not only fend off other similarly sized ships but could make a dreadnought think twice about invading space with a single cruiser of Threshold's. With the Lodestar-class already fully in use and advertising that the Threshold did not trust the Coalition by any means, Threshold decided to mount torpedoes on their new cruiser class. In addition to making it heavily armored for a ship of its size, the Kozane dō has an impressive sensory suite to ensure it is adequately prepared for all ranges of battle.
The first of its' class, the Kozane dō, was launched in 3374 from Halcyon Industry's yards, with the first hundred and fifty being made by the same company. After Halcyon Industries was awarded the contract for the Kongo-class Battlecruiser, it was decided that many of the remaining contracts for the Kozane dō were to be awarded to ThunderOn and Asimov Heavy Industries. This led to slight differences between the different builder's ships, which allowed the Threshold Navy to test different layout theories. These would later be employed in all models of the Kongo-class battlecruiser.
Design
While not prioritizing guns nearly as much as smaller ships, the Kozane dō-line focuses on the armor placement and skill of the captain. It utilizes a full-forward firing configuration, allowing for all batteries to be brought to bear against targets in front of the vessel, with exception of Main Battery 3, which cannot fire directly forward as the torpedo-bays are in the way. This design allows for prolonged gun combat, should it be able to position itself such that it is not being flanked, as incoming rounds are unlikely to hit the broadside of the ship, and instead hit angled armor. For this reason, in large battles, it wishes to use the cruisers in pairs or to give the cruisers escorts.
Ideally, the Kozane dō was meant for much more ranged combat, to prevent it from needlessly exposing its broadside to enemy kinetic-weaponry, instead of focusing on missile-based combat and acting as fast-torpedo boats to dart around celestial bodies, hide among asteroids, and perform hit-and-run attacks in support of larger battleships and dreadnoughts.
For its size, the Kozane dō has a relatively large engineering section, supporting three main engineering units, each with two main sublight engines clusters in addition to their MAG drives.
In addition to the heavy armor, the cruiser was designed as the main support vessel for Expeditionary ventures and prolonged war-time loitering, allowing it to remain on-station with the potential for ambushing large dreadnoughts. To achieve this, the Kozane dō has a large number of radiative heat-transfer panels, allowing it to circumvent needing to enter the planetary atmosphere. The large diamond-shaped sections are placed all around the ship.
Operational History
As a relatively new vessel, the Kozane dō is largely untested and has been used more as a parade-ship and border patrol vessel. It is often a command-and-control ship for groups of destroyers, and may easily be the largest vessel in any given system at a time, especially in far-flung Threshold worlds nowhere near a termini or prefecture-capitol.
Operational Vessels:
499 Federal Navy
188 Expeditionary Corps
42 Commonwealth Guard
6 Halcyon Industries