Hsun Hai-class Guided Missile Destroyer
The Swift Sea-class DDG was developed in the early 2000's for the Celestial Republic of Oumeiguo's Federal Navy.
Designed to fight near to shore and provide fire support to landing troops, 28 ships were constructed for each of Oumeiguo's four naval infantry divisions. With a reduced RCS compared to conventional surface escorts, the Hsun Hai is able to maximize its use of jammers, decoys, and close to "near visual" range to provide gunfire support even in the face of radar guided anti-ship missile batteries and anti-landing missiles. Armed with 80 peripheral VLS cells, a dozen large-caliber missile cells, and a double 5.5-ts'un (~175mm) smoothbore gun mount firing out to 300 li (~185 km), the Swift Sea carries a similar armament to the Gallic Admiral-class and Battle-class destroyers but in a more survivable and modern hull.
The present 28 ships are assigned on a basis of landing force requirements. Oumeiguo maintains four Marine divisions, and has a landing capacity of four regiments (approx. 16 battalions), each of which requires a specified amount of naval gunfire support to conduct an opposed amphibious landing. Based on the Celestial War requirements (A.D. 1946-1951) and the Directorate War (1983) each Marine Division necessitates between three and four gunfire support ships to be available at all times, to provide one "152-mm battery equivalent" to each landing battalion during the initial assault operation, and was considered adequate until the 1980's. Prior to the 21st century, this was provided by small frigates and destroyers, often operating close to shore, and at long-range large amounts of vertical take-off aviation and assault helicopters were used. Since the 2000's, this gunfire requirement now includes airmobile tasked Marine battalions, which often cannot bring their heavy howitzers into combat, and typically fight many miles inland.
Intended to provide "152-mm battery equivalency" for Marine vertical assault elements, each double gun mount fires at a combined 18 rounds per minute, fed by 360 round magazines (180 rpg). An additional 360 rounds is stored in a reserve stockroom, which must be manually accessed by the ship's crew when the initial magazine is expended. This provides a combined 40 minutes of fire from the ship, which is less than preceding designs, but the effectiveness of the gun itself can compensate for this. The rate of fire of the double gun mount combined with its larger capacity shells is considered to be slightly superior to a 152-mm battery in fire support capability. A pair of Gallic-built North Alarian Military Munitions (NAMMo) 3"/62 guns in Federal-designed zero-penetration deck mounts sit above the helicopter hangar and is the same gun mount design as used on the Snow Petrel-class gunboat.
With their novel design (similar to a tank cannon) the 175mm cannons can provide fire support out to the maximum extent of the air landing battalion (50 nautical miles inland) from 30 to 40 nautical miles off shore, beyond the range of the visual horizon. When staged near the assault helicopter carriers and amphibious transport docks, the destroyer also provides both anti-missile/aircraft defense and anti-submarine protection for the amphibious task force, freeing more conventional surface escorts to protect convoys. During transit, conventionally designed frigates and destroyers of the Escort Force of the Federal Navy provide protection against air attack and submarines. Each Marine Division's assigned Amphibious Task Force of a combined dozen LPDs/LHAs/LSDs has been allocated seven Swift Sea-class DDGs. They are organized into a combined fire support division which, when allowing for inevitable maintenance concerns, provides a consistent availability of the necessary three or four destroyers.
During the Alarian War, the Federal Navy's 2 MARDIV made extensive use of the Swift Sea-class to destroy several Frisian bunker complexes in support of Operation Adrenaline's assault landing in Frisian Gurinoko by the 27th Marine Regiment (cf. Operation KNUCKLE DUSTER) in 2050. The Alarian War marks the Swift Sea class's most notable main combat actions, which were performed near the ships' end-of-life, and their only combat actions against a "near-peer" enemy. Two Swift Sea-class destroyers were lost during anti-submarine operations between 2049 and 2051 to Frisian Walrus III-class fast attack submarines. 2 MARDIV also participated in Operation ANVIL as part of the Gallic 1st Field Army, under command of the generals Joachim Llewellyn De Vers and Gilles de Patrik, where the Swift Sea's powerful naval fire support capabilities were directly acknowledged in post-war interviews as contributing to the runaway success of the southern landing operations.
Similar ship designs of the Federal Navy include the smaller Snow Petrel-class of stealth gunboats, an 800 ton guided missile corvette based on the Gallic-designed Ysby-class corvette, and the Luoyang-class guided missile destroyer, which replaces the 175-mm guns with an additional 28 VLS cells. The former had 24 hulls completed for the "inshore division" of the Marine Division while the latter had 56 hulls built for eight
ultracarrier battlegroups and their replenishment groups.
Name: Swift Sea-class (Type 077) guided missile destroyer
Type: Fire Support/Escort Ship
Builders: Shimen Heavy Industries
Operators: Oumeiguo Federal Navy
Preceded By: -
Succeeded By: Sharp Sword-class (Type 088) fire support frigate
Built: 2012 - 2027
In Service: 2017 - 2072
Planned: 28
Completed: 28
Lost: 2
Canceled: 0
Retired: 0
Displacement (light): ~15,000 tons
Displacement (full load): ~17,000 tons
Length (w/l): 190 meters
Length (o/a): 195 meters
Beam (w/l): 26 meters
Draught (full load): 8.5 meters
Powerplant: 2x Yantey YR40 sprint turbines (40 MW ea.), 4x Alarian Motors Corporation (AMC) 20V4150 diesel generators (3 MWe ea.)
Propulsion: 2x superconducting electric motors (40 MW ea.)
Speed: >30 knots
Complement: 220 (250 surge)
Aircraft carried: 2 light helicopters, 1 medium-heavy helicopter, and 2-4 drones
Armament: 2x 175mm smoothbore howitzers; 80x 27" VLS cells; 12x 34.5" VLS cells; 2x 3"/62 automatic CIWS; 24x torpedoes/missiles/depth bombs for helicopter magazine
Boats carried: 3 (2x RHIBs, 1x enclosed personnel boat)