IPO photo by Chad Collier

IPS Normandy
(SR2)

Overview

IPS Normandy is an experimental starship combining elements of the International Police Space Force's Next Generation Warship program with tried-and-true Salusian shipbuilding techniques, intended to fill a niche left unaddressed by the Defiant and Steamrunner classes.

Name/Model: Normandy class (Mark II)
Manufacturer: Royal Saenar Fleet Systems, Ltd.
Combat designation: Stealth reconnaissance frigate (SR)
Entered service: Expected June 2410

Crew: 40
Length: 720 ft.
Mass: 275 Kt

Power system: International Police Yards microsingularity core
RSFS Mark LXXVI fusion reactor
Propulsion system: IPY Tantalus Mk IV gravity gradient drive
4x RSFS Mark XCVII fusion impulse thrusters
Speed rating: 100 MGLT
Flight control system: IP Tech Div/Haanatuvu Meltrandi Arsenal Inertia Vector® maneuver system
Maneuver rating: 50 DPF
Navigation: British-AnimeTech Model 2195 superluminal isolinear computer core
FTL: IPY Tantalus Mk IV gravity gradient drive
Warp speed rating (cruise): Warp Factor 10
Warp speed rating (flank): Warp Factor 15.75
Secondary FTP: RSFS Mark MXCV motivator drive unit (hyperdrive)
Hyperdrive rating: .4

Shields: QuarTech Cyclonic Barrier® multicore projective deflector shield system
Shield rating: [CLASSIFIED]
Armor: Stark Industries Silaris® carbon/alloy composite plating
Armor rating: [CLASSIFIED]

ARMAMENT
Fixed armaments: Palaven Heavy Industries Thanix Magnetohydrodynamic Weapon
2x WDF Armory G-950 multifocal phaser arrays
2x WDF Armory P-112 point phaser arrays
Expendable armaments: 2x WDF Armory Mk VII photon torpedo launchers

AEROSPACE COMPLEMENT
ExoSalusia UT-47 Kodiak drop shuttle

TACTICAL COMPLEMENT
ExoSalusia M35 Mako cavalry fighting vehicle
Ares Corporation Landmaster hostile environment exploration vehicle

History

In 2275, the Wedge Defense Force requested proposals a new type of light starship. The operating spec for the vessel called for a ship no bigger than 500 feet long, utilizing the latest starship automation technologies to reduce the required crew size as much as possible, and equipped with the Internal Emission Sink passive stealth system originally developed at Utopia Planitia Naval Shipyard for the Royal Salusian Navy's Barghest-class destroyers. The new ships were intended to supplement, and if successful eventually replace, the active-stealth Vigil-class scouts then employed by the WDF's Reconnaissance Command, as part of a planned force buildup that would have seen the WDF expand to a full fleet-level operation by the year 2310.

The winning proposal, filed by the firm of Royal Saenar Fleet Systems, Ltd., of Salusia, led to the commissioning in 2280 of a prototype vessel, WDF Normandy (SR-1), which was put in the hands of Commander Virginia E. Shepard for an exhaustive practical testing period. The experimental ship performed well in trials, and the WDF was prepared to order further examples and begin the fleet expansion program when the organization disbanded following the coordinated GENOM Corporation attack codenamed Operation Götterdämmerung. The Normandy was destroyed in that attack.

In 2406, Commander Shepard joined the International Police Organization as one of the Experts of Justice. (How she survived the Normandy's destruction and where she's been since are not matters of public record.) Over the next several years, she searched the galaxy for surviving members of the Normandy's crew, assembling them (and a few new people she recruited along the way) into a Special Assignment team. By 2408, it had become clear that she would require a larger starship than the CR90-class corvette she'd been using in order to provide the team with a proper mobile base of operations.

IPO Chief Benjamin Hutchins considered several options, including assigning Shepard to the command of a Defiant- or Steamrunner-class destroyer detached into the Space Force's Irregular Projects Division, before settling on the construction of a wholly new vessel, tailored specifically to the strengths and talents of Shepard and her team. Since the IP Yards and their prime contractor, Kanzaki Heavy Industries of Ishiyama, were both working to capacity building the Next Generation Destroyers and developing Project Surprise, the job went to the WDF Normandy's builders, Royal Saenar.

RSFS's engineers dusted off the 2280 Normandy spec documents and revised them heavily, with a good deal of technological cross-pollination from the DDNG projects and Royal Saenar's other IPSF contract, the refurbishment of the spacecraft carrier Prometheus, then well underway. The result was a vessel that was roughly 50% larger than the original and different in many respects, but with an instantly recognizable common profile. Other names were considered for the new class, including Kadesh, Zeta Cygni, and Elysium, but in the end sentimentality prevailed and the new ship was named, like the original, Normandy.

ANALYSIS

IPS Normandy SR2 represents a fusion of tried-and-true Salusian shipwrighting principles and the Zetan overtechnologies developed for the IPO's Next Generation Warship initiative, along with several newly developed systems sourced from the IPO's technological development arm and several of its partners around the galaxy. Fast, maneuverable, and heavily armed for her size, the Normandy possesses excellent passive stealth capabilities thanks to her Internal Emission Sink system and experimental gravity-gradient drive technology.

The Tantalus gravity gradient drive system is the centerpiece of the Normandy's arrangement of beyond-bleeding-edge technologies. It's a multifunction system that manipulates gravitation to produce several different effects. In one mode, it can be used for sublight maneuvering by creating gravity vectors the vessel "falls" toward, enabling the Normandy to move without using her conventional fusion drive thrusters, which would tend to spoil the ship's stealth capabilities. In another, it creates a Cochrane space distortion field, enabling faster-than-light travel (standing in for a conventional "warp drive"). It may have other functions that remain classified.

The ship's offensive and defensive systems are similarly advanced. The Normandy's deflector shields are based on the quarian development company QuarTech's proprietary Cyclonic Barrier Technology, making them more efficient and capable than conventional systems installed on ships of comparable size. Should they be overcome, the vessel is armored with Stark Industries Silaris tritanium alloy/carbon composite plating - the same material which makes up the outer shells of the famous Iron Man and War Machine battle suits.

As to weapons, the Normandy mounts one of the most powerful offensive arrays to be found on a vessel of her size. Her batteries of conventional and multifocal phasers, along with a pair of the IPO's very capable Mark VII photon torpedo tubes, would give her the punch of a Defiant-class destroyer by themselves, but on top of those, she is equipped with a turian-designed superweapon, the Palaven Heavy Industries Thanix magnetohydrodynamic cannon. The precise workings of this remarkably destructive device are a closely guarded trade secret, but its makers have noted that it is only found on the heaviest of turian warships. Its presence in the Normandy's arsenal is only made possible by the tremendous output of the Tantalus system's microsingularity generator core.

(As an aside, thanix is a Palavese word with no direct translation to Standard; it is an interjection of astonishment or fear, considered slightly profane, and was supposedly applied to the weapon because one of the Turian Hierarchy Defense Force officers present at the prototype's first test firing uttered it upon seeing what the weapon could do.)

The Normandy is able to function with a relatively small crew thanks to the extensive use of automation and control software developed by a team of QuarTech and IPY engineers for the DDNG project. The ship is also equipped with an RSFS machine intelligence bay, similar to those found aboard the company's Andromeda- and Arcadia-class battleships, but to date there have been no reports of any AI core being installed. If such a system were to be put in place, it would presumably be a HalOS module like those found on the larger combatants of the Royal Salusian Navy.

CRITICISM

It's difficult to know how well the various technological advances - and in some cases outright gambles - embodied by the Normandy's unique brew of starship technologies will work until the vessel has completed her trials and entered service. It seems obvious on paper that the ship will be extremely capable, but the experimental drive core and energy systems, as well as the oversized weapons, may cause problems. Some authorities predict that, though rated engine core output is sufficient to power the Thanix Cannon, the ship's energy management systems won't be able to cope with the strain, and others say that equipping a ship designed for stealth and speed with such heavy armaments is a classic case of the IPSF not knowing what it's trying to do with its ships. Moreover, passive stealth is considered passé in most modern schools of tactical thought.

However, all these concerns are merely conjectural until such time as the Normandy is in service. What is clear from the ship's documented capabilities is that, though the DDNG-derived control systems may reduce manpower requirements, the Normandy will not be a forgiving vessel for an ill-prepared crew to operate. The helmsman, in particular, will need to be highly experienced, almost supernaturally talented, or both to extract anything like the ship's maximum performance from her overbuilt and complicated drive suite, and the engineering and armory staff will need to be similarly elite to discharge their responsibilities without disastrous consequences. Without more knowledge of the IPSF's intentions regarding the ship's complement, predicting whether that will happen is impossible.

At any rate, owing to the extremely specialized, custom-tailored nature of the project, it seems unlikely that there will ever be more than one Normandy-class frigate constructed, at least to these specifications. Whether a watered-down edition, more amenable to regular fleet service, might be produced is difficult to say, though since such a ship would probably be less capable than a Defiant-class destroyer (to say nothing of the planned Surprise-class Next Generation Frigate), that also seems unlikely at this time.

DISPOSITION

The sole ship planned for this class, IPS Normandy SR2, is currently undergoing fleet acceptance trials under the direction of the Chief Engineer of the Fleet, Captain Nadia Davion, and RSFS's Master Shipwright of the Yard, Sir Hanwald Travis, at the Royal Navy's proving ground in the outer Salu system. If all goes well, she is expected to enter service by early June.

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