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Kingsnake Light Destroyer

Description:
The Kingsnake class "Light Destroyer" is a particularly interesting design born out of unique circumstances. She is one of the most modern Warships the Free Eriwick Republic possesses, and the most feared surface-borne threat to any Castleship Captain. Boasting a modern active and passive radar suite with active broadband sonar and a nose mounted SLLQ-125 "Sniffer" passive sonar. For offensive armament this ship is equipped with two large radar guided SLM-49 "Castleship Killer" cruise missiles designed to crush through a castleship's main armor belt outside of CRAM range, making these ships particularly nasty. These missiles extended range is complemented by a defensive LAMS construct that has been "aquired" by undisclosed means and more importantly swats incoming missiles and CRAM shells out of the air. In terms of conventional gunnery, Kingsnake is equipped with a double barrel 250mm frag gun firing 2m shells at 130 rpm(TOTALLY NOT AK-130 INSPIRED) for lighter opponents, or to snipe exposed internals. She also has anti torpedo decoys lining each side of the ship (exact same system as Nightsnake). Other active defences are quad rocket assisted IR and radar decoys(Split half IR and Half Radar). Three Point defence X-16 "Brushwacker" radar guided anti-air missiles deter airborne threats. At the ship's stern, Kinshake has 4 large anti-ship torpedoes for the "cu de gras" upon any castle shaped ship foe.

History:
The history of the Kingsnake Class comes down to necessity. At the advent of the Free Eriwick Republic's Naval war with the Onyx Watch. Nightsnake Captains were hopelessly outgunned and outmatched against larger Castleships, often having to do daring and suicidal torpedo charges into oncoming fire. On top of all of this these ships were far too small for the terrifyingly large swells of the Cauldron, meaning some attritional losses were taken during storms. With the gap in capability clear it was time for a more suitable frigate sized escort to be developed. On the size controversy, it is called a light destroyer by the fact it has the form factor of a frigate; but the firepower of a destroyer escort. Initial specifications called for a fast firing main armament, with possible Missile or LAMS defense, and a hefty bow sweep in order to avoid the lower decks being swamped by seawater In the Cauldron's infamous storms.

The source of this ship's contraversy is how modern it is in comparison to the perceived manufacturing capabilities of the Free Eriwick Republic. In fact upon reviewing satelite imagery of one of these ships, Vice Admiral Robert Ficsher of the Steel Striders remarked during a press briefing, "While presumably being a modern and capable Warship, the whole thing reeks of corruption and underhanded strong-arming that speaks volumes to this rougue state's growing dominance in the seas surrounding our homeland."

Specifications:

Cost: 297,154
Firepower: 151.18
Volume: 11,365
Length: 103m
Width: 17m
Height: 20m
Top Speed: 22m/s pushed off a cliff

Additional Notes: CPT 012A: "Strange smell eminating from Captain's quarters shower."