The Roosevelt class Heavy Cruiser is the oldest large capital starship class still in the service of Earth Alliance. The class went into service about forty years before the Earth vs Minbari war. This ships served in the war against the Dilgar and performed quite well then leading Earth Alliance leaders to believe that they could fight the Minbari as well. Unfortunately, they were wrong. The Roosevelt cruiser could not hold up against Minbari ships and the Human race itself was almost made extinct. Although many Roosevelt class heavy cruisers were destroyed by Minbari during that war, a sizeable number of them have survived until today. The ships still serving in the Earth military have been heavily upgraded and updated and have almost the combat capabilities of modern warships. The ships are actually superior to many of the lesser navies ships but they are not as capable as the Omega or Nova class ships. The class will most likely be decommissioned in the future due to the extreme age of the ship and years of service have stressed the frame and supports of many of these elderly ships.
The ships is propelled by three ion engines. These engines cannot propel at as high an acceleration as the Nova and Omega classes but the acceleration is still as good as more modern Narn ships. The ship has a very limited fuel storage which means that the ship needs to be refueled multiple times for any long range mission.
These ships have had their armor reinforced and the ships can take more damage without being put out of commission than the original structure of the ships could withstand. Likewise, the ships weapons have been upgraded. The ships modern weaponry are two heavy plasma cannons, two plasma laser cannons, and eight medium pulse cannons. The ship also has an interceptor grid for defense of the ship against weaponry. The system is quite effective but is not as powerful as those mounted on the later Omega and Nova class ships. The interceptor grid fires low powered energy beams to intercept incoming fire and uses electromagnetic fields to disperse energy that is fired at the ships. The interceptor grid also employs a system designed to decoy incoming missiles. The systems is more effective against plasma cannons and pulse cannons (Actually another style of plasma cannon - does not work as efficiently on weapon systems that simply fire in pulses) than the system is on other energy weapons. The system quickly get overloaded though and cannot operate continuously and is not as effective as the shields on Minbari and Centauri ships.
When the Roosevelt Class went into service, the Earth Alliance had not yet perfected the drive shaft design required to build a rotating section on a ship. Thus Heavy Cruisers (unlike Omega Destroyers) do not have artificial gravity. The whole crew of the ship live in a "zero-gravity" environment. For long terms, this has a degrading effect on the human body. Because of this, these ships have been equipped with a special device referred by the crews as a "ferris wheel". This is a large ring inside the ship that rotates to provide 20 crew members an exercise area in an artificial gravity field produced by the centrifugal force of the rings movement. All crew members are required to spend at least one hour a day exercising in the "ferris wheel"
The ship carries 6 fighters in its fighter bay, far less than the Omega class or Nova classes but still useful in forward reconnaissance and ship defense. The replacing of Aurora starfuries with Thunderbolt Starfuries is at a very low priority due to the Roosevelt Heavy Cruisers reaching close to the end of their service careers. The ship can carry up to 200 marines but normally only carries a handful for ship defense.
Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Heavy Cruisers velocity and distance traveled:
Model: Earthforce Roosevelt Class Heavy Cruiser
Class: Escort Cruiser
Crew: 320 (20 Officers and 300 Enlisted)
Troops: Standard; 40, Maximum; 200
Vehicle Compliment:
| 6 | SA-23E Star Fury. | |
| 2 | Standard Shuttles |
M.D.C. by Location:
| Heavy Plasma Cannons (2, Front): | 800 each | |
| Plasma Laser Cannons (2, Sides): | 600 each | |
| Medium Pulse Cannons (8): | 400 each | |
| Launch Bay (1, Located on the Spine of the ship): | 2,500 | |
| [1] Main Sensor cluster (1, front): | 1,500 | |
| [2] Main Body: | 30,000 | |
| [3] Engineering Section: | 10,000 | |
| [4] Bridge: | 5,000 | |
| [4] Emergency Bridge: | 5,000 | |
| [5] Ion Fusion Engines (4): | 2,200 each | |
| [6] Interceptor Grids (6): | 2,000 per side |
Notes:
[1] The Main sensor cluster is located in front of the ship, and is
relatively exposed. Destroying it means that the ship will have -60% to
read sensory rolls, all sensor ranges are halved, and all long range weapons
have a -2 to strike.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the Heavy Cruiser out
of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support.
The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Destroying the engineering section means that ship FTL propulsion
systems are destroyed and maximum sublight acceleration is reduced to ten
percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).
[4] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the bridge through the ships armor. This ship also has an auxiliary
bridge. Even if both bridges are destroyed, the ship can still be piloted
from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be
at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the
ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[5] The Destruction of one engine reduces the ships acceleration by
one third. The destruction of two Ion Engines reduces the ships acceleration
by two third. Destroying all three Ion Engines means that the maximum sublight
acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).
[6] The Interceptor Grid gives only partial defense against energy
weapons and as the system absorbs more damage this percentage of damage
will be reduced. The system will absorb up to 2,000 MDC per side. Initially,
the system will absorb 80% of damage from plasma weapons and pulse cannons
(Actually another style of plasma cannon - does not work at this higher
efficiency on other weapon systems that fire in pulses). This is because
is it much easier to disperse plasma than an actually energy beam. The
system does not absorb damage from rail guns, other projectile weapons,
and from missiles. Initially, the ships will also absorb 40% of other styles
of energy weapons as well (This includes non plasma style pulse weapons
as well). For every 250 MDC that the system absorbs, the system will be
reduced in effectiveness by 10% for subsequent strikes (Example:
If an Interceptor Grid absorbs 500 MDC, the Interceptor Grid will only
absorb 60% of plasma damage and 20% of the damage for any other energy
weapon when struck next.) The defense grid recovers at the rate of 100
MDC per minute. The missile decoy portion of the system is described separately
below.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Space Propulsion: The starship does not have an effective top
speed but is limited by acceleration. The Roosevelt Heavy Cruiser can reach
a top acceleration of 3 G but due to high fuel consumption and extra strain
on the engines, the ship will normally travel at 0.5 G for any extended
trips. Top acceleration is only meant for emergencies and combat maneuvers.
Because the Heavy Cruiser is mostly unshielded from the effects of
radiation and hypervelocity atomic particles (It is not completely unshielded),
the destroyer is not operated at speeds exceeding 20% of the speed of light.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The Earth Force Heavy Cruiser cannot
operate within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will
crash.
Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to
reach a maximum of 8 light-year per hour. This means that the Roosevelt
Heavy Cruiser can cover the Galaxy in about 18 month (will need to refuel
periodically). The ship enters hyperspace by means of a jumpgate. This
ship can use an already made jumpgate or can form its own jumpgate.
The Roosevelt has enough power to open a jumpgate every twenty minutes
(80 rounds). The gate then takes one round to open, two rounds to traverse,
and another to close.
Maximum Range: Conditionally unlimited, while the fusion reactor
gives power for almost a decade of service, the ships propulsion is limited
by the ships reaction mass. The ship can be refueled at ground based facilities,
space stations, and other star ships as long as they have the special facilities.
The ship can also be refueled by fuel shuttles.
The Heavy Cruiser carries two month of reaction mass for travel at
0.5 G of acceleration. Double the consumption of fuel for 1.0 G of acceleration
and double the consumption again for every 1.0 G of acceleration beyond
1 G. This means the ship will burn the fuel 8 times faster than at 0.5
G of acceleration at maximum speed. The ship will often accelerate for
a period of time and then shut down the engine and travel using the ships
velocity. If the ships uses more than half of its reaction mass when accelerating,
the ship will be unable to decelerate fully and the ship will normally
only use a third or less of its fuel on accelerating so it does not run
into a problem.. If the ship runs out of fuel then it must be refueled
by another vehicle traveling faster or be lost.
If the ship has a large amount of flight operations, the ship is limited
to about one and a half months endurance at cruising speed from the fighters
using the ships reaction mass.
Statistical Data
Height: 853.7 feet (260 meters)
Length: 2,626.7 feet (800 meters)
Width: 541.8 feet (165 meters)
Weight: 5.7 million tons (5.2 million metric tons)
Power System: 3 Tokamak 420 Fusion Reactors (5 year duration).
However, it is recommended that the drive and power system have routine
maintenance every 2 years. Also, the ship only carries about a two month
supply of reaction mass.
Cargo: 100,000 tons
Cost: 9 billion credits to construct
Weapon Systems:
[ Phase World TM, Kreeghor TM, and CAF TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.]
[ Babylon 5 is copyright © Warner Brothers Television. ]
Technical Information from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!
CGI of Ship by Conor Clancy. More of his CGI pictures of B-5 Ships at Theophrastus
By Mischa (E-Mail Mischa) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
Rifts Conversion Copyright © 1998 & 1999, Mischa & Kitsune. All rights reserved.