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Text Data Extraction Search: Jane's Fighting Starships
Search criteria: CVS-101
SEARCH COMPLETE: MARCH 3, 2410

IPO photo by Chad Collier

IPS Prometheus
(CVS-101)

Overview

IPS Prometheus is the International Police Space Force's first carrier and the largest vessel in the IPSF fleet in terms of mass and crew size. Though she was acquired by the International Police Organization in 2399, well before the creation of the Space Force, she spent much of that time in an extensive refit and did not officially enter service until January 27, 2410.

Name/Model: Modified Hawkbat class
Manufacturer: Royal Saenar Fleet Systems
Combat designation: Spacecraft carrier
Entered service: January 27, 2410 (with IPSF)

Commanding officer: Captain Komilia D. Sterling, IPSF

Crew:
Starship operations: 1,250
Air wing: 850
Tactical Division: 150

Length: 1,680 feet
Mass (typical): 500 Kt

Power system: 2x RSFS Mark LXVII Wave Fusion Engine®
Propulsion system: 2x RSFS Mark XCIX tandem impulse drive
Speed rating: 55 MGLT
Flight control cystem: RSFS Mark CXI integrated reaction control system
Maneuver rating: 12 DPF
Navigation: British-AnimeTech Model 2190 superluminal isolinear computer core
FTL: British-AnimeTech 1337 metaspace transition point generator
Secondary FTL: RSFS Mark MC motivator drive unit (hyperdrive)
Hyperdrive rating: 0.75

Shields: International Police Yards Mark IB projective deflector shield system
Shield rating: [CLASSIFIED]
Armor: Composite reinforced tritanium alloy hull
Armor rating: [CLASSIFIED]

ARMAMENT
Fixed armaments: 14x Taim & Bak KX5-4R sensor-guided point defense quad blaster turrets
6x ExoSalusia Model 17 twin turbolaser batteries
4x WDF Armory P-112 point phaser arrays
2x WDF Armory G-950 strip collimated phaser arrays
Expendable armaments: 2x WDF Armory Mark VII photon torpedo launchers
4x ExoSalusia RSM-20 missile batteries

AEROSPACE COMPLEMENT
Combat Air Group: 50x Stonewell Bellcom VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech aerospace superiority fighter
50x WDF Armory SF-8Z Super Crusader fixed-configuration aerospace superiority fighter
30x Stonewell Bellcom VA-1 Judicator Veritech attack fighter
10x Boeing SB-17G Astrofortress space bomber
Support Air Group: 10x Boeing SC-97C Astrofreighter cargo spacecraft
2x Boeing SB-17H Rescuefortress SAR spacecraft

TACTICAL COMPLEMENT
Tactical Division detachment: 100x Tac Div Marine jump/vac infantry
10x GENOM AVC-19C Pelican aerodyne dropship
1x GENOM HAV/w-A6 Juggernaut assault vehicle
5x ExoSalusia M12A Warthog light reconnaissance vehicle
5x ExoSalusia M12G1 Warthog light anti-armor vehicle
8x Kallon Industries RFL-5J Rifleman aerospace defense Destroid
8x Destroid Improvement Group RX-78GP01-F Gundam Zephyranthes space Destroid
4x ExoSalusia HBV-05 Raiden Cyber Trooper® heavy space Destroid

History

The starship now known as IPS Prometheus began her long and illustrious career in 1992 SC, when she was commissioned WDF Prometheus, the second vessel in the Wedge Defense Force's then-small fleet.

The ship was originally laid down at the Royal Saenar Fleet Systems shipyard orbiting Salu II in 1989, but had not yet been completed when Salusia entered into its formal military alliance with the fledgling WDF. While still in her fitting-out dock, the unnamed ship was re-engineered and significantly modified with the aid of WDF engineers to prepare her for docking with the WDF's flagship, the Wayward Son (SDF-17). When commissioned as a WDF warship, she retained her original Royal Salusian Navy hull number, CVS-101.

Along with her companion vessel, WDF Daedalus (SLV-111), Prometheus spent the bulk of her WDF career as part of the SDF-17, and though she had her own name and number, she was not considered a separate command within the WDF during that time. On the rare occasions when she operated as an independent vessel, she was commanded by a member of the SDF-17's crew on temporary detachment (usually the Commander, Air Group, Commander Benjamin D. "Gryphon" Hutchins of Valkyrie Squadron VVF-261).

Prometheus escaped the destruction of the SDF-17 in 2288 and spent the next several years on the run, evading GENOM pursuit forces on the Outer Rim, before disappearing altogether. Legends claimed that she had misjumped and been lost in hyperspace, or simply vanished on purpose into the great wild blankness beyond the Rim. The truth would turn out to be even more mysterious: in 2367, a Royal Salusian Navy survey ship discovered the vessel orbiting the uninhabited planet Remban III while conducting a chart update survey of the Remban system.

The Salusian sailors discovered that the ship had been very deliberately placed in a high parking orbit and carefully trimmed so that minimal thruster power would be required to keep her orbit from decaying, then left with engines barely idling and token life support in operation. No sign of any crew could be found on board; all personal effects found by the surveyors turned out, on later investigation, to belong to people who were not aboard Prometheus when she retreated from the SDF-17's final battle. No escape pods were missing. No information could be found in the ship's computer systems to indicate where the crew went or why.

The Royal Salusian Navy took the ship back to the Salusa system and placed her in the RSN mothball fleet anchorage at Salu II, not far from the yard where she was built. The intention at the time was to return her to the WDF when and if that force reappeared, but when the WDF was re-established in 2380, she needed such an extensive refit to be made battle-ready that the project was deferred until after the GENOM crisis was resolved.

In the end, Prometheus wasn't removed from mothballs until 2399, when WDF Field Marshal David Ritchie and Queen Asrial I of Salusia arranged to present the vessel to Gryphon, by then a retired WDF Grand Admiral and the principal organizer of the IPO. He had no way of making use of her at the time, but a few years later, when he began developing the IPO's Space Force division, he started making plans.

Refitting the ship to modern technological standards was time-consuming, but not overly difficult. The Royal Salusian Fleet Systems yards at Salu II had already developed a program for updating Hawkbat-class carriers, and an International Police Yards team under Zefram Cochrane worked to integrate the IPO's more direct access to Zetan overtechnology into that program.

At the same time, the IPO undertook a massive (by IPSF standards) staffing program, so as to provide the rebuilt Prometheus with the requisite crew. Advances in starship automation reduced the vessel's operational complement considerably, but did nothing for the aircrew and aerospace technician requirements. Captain Komilia Sterling, a former WDF pilot and member of VVF-261, spearheaded this operation, and when the starship re-entered service in early 2410, it would be under her command.

ANALYSIS

Though the basic design of the Hawkbat-class carrier is centuries old, Prometheus remains a significant figure in any battlespace where she might find herself. Though her type designation of spacecraft carrier has not changed, her updated defensive capabilities and firepower - considerably greater than those found in her original configuration - make her the equivalent of a small battlecarrier.

As one of only two IPSF vessels equipped with an integral metaspace jump point generator, and the only one in the fleet lacking warp drive, Prometheus is expected to spend much of her operational time as a task force flagship and/or rapid response asset. Her lack of warp drive makes her unsuitable for the more customary IPSF strategy of long-range realspace patrol.

Prometheus also carries considerable tactical assets which can be deployed in the event of a surface conflict. This is more in keeping with the IPSF's pre-existing practices; most IPSF vessels have a proportionally large Tactical Division complement which can be used to repel boarders, provide security, and reinforce allied agencies and forces which have requested assistance. Standing orders prohibit these assets from being employed in foreign conflicts unless the IPO's assistance is requested, either explicitly (by a call for help) or implicitly (by the conditions of an existing defense agreement).

CRITICISM

Prometheus's limited utility in the IPSF's traditional policing role has drawn fire from some authorities, primarily those associated with forces politically opposed to the Republic of Zeta Cygni, who assert that the vessel is a prima facie indication that the Space Force is realigning itself into an aggressive force. However, at this point the ship has been operational for such a short time that no impartial conclusion can be reached.

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