This is a station I designed for a TC AU I was working on. The drydocks are on the small side- if you want larger ones you could just reduced the number of drydocks, using the space that is freed up to increase the size of the larger drydocks. (i.e. dropping all 4 550,000 ton dry docks and 1 250,000 ton drydock would let you have a 2.45M ton drydock.) or you could switch to unpressurized drydocks which greatly reduces the weight. (2.5% of the rated capacity versus 7.5% for a pressurized drydock).
Norfolk Naval Shipyards
In Service: 2364(?)
Mass: 2,175,500 tons
Thrust: 0.1G (0.2 thrust points)
Fuel: 10,000 tons
SI: 1
Armor: 100,000 tons (fore: 6670 + 1 Sides/Aft: 6666 + 1)
Heatsinks 15,000
Fighters: 216
Small Craft: 100
Crew: 44,490 (4,490 officers, 40,000 crew/laborers)
Lifeboats: 4,000
Escape Pods: 0
Grav Deck: 4 (300 meters each)
Cargo: 244,361 tons
Other Equipment:
1 Pressurized Dry Dock 925,000 ton capacity
2 Pressurized Dry Docks 700,000 ton capacity
4 Pressurized Dry Docks 550,000 ton capacity
2 Pressurized Dry Docks 425,000 ton capacity
6 Pressurized Dry Docks 375,000 ton capacity
2 Pressurized Dry Docks 250,000 ton capacity
Ore Processing Facility, Manufacturing Facility (500,000 tons)
Hydroponics facilites (10,000 tons)
Bays:
Bay 1: Fighters (216) 4 doors
Bay 2: Small Craft (100) 4 doors
Bay 3: Cargo
Weapons:
Forward:
100 Large Lasers
20 NL/55s
Fore Left/Right:
100 Large Lasers
20 NL/55s
Aft Left/Right:
100 Large Lasers
20 NL/55s
Aft:
100 Large Lasers
20 NL/55s
[Editor's Note: This file is based on a information from a high ranking ROM agent who has been operating under deep cover in the Taurian Concordat Navy for the last 30 years. While this report seems to be quite fantastic we have every reason to believe it to be true as we have managed to obtain corroborating evidence to support a number of claims made by the ROM agent.]
Overview:
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is one of the best kept secrets of the Taurian Concordat. Until recently much of what was known about the history and capabilities of this facility were based on rumors. [Editor's Note: We don't even know where the shipyard is located. We believe it is located some where near the Hyades Cluster in an uninhabited system with many large asteroids. Our agent, who has been to the facility, reported that the Taurians take extreme measures to hide the location of the base, even from their own people. After the dropship our agent was on docked with the jumpship that was taking it to the facility, the dropship's navigational computers were disabled by the captain of the jumpship. Apparently the only people on the jumpship who knew where the ship was headed were the Captain and the Navigator and the Jumpships bridge was forbidden to everyone but the bridge crew. Further our agent reports that the trip took 3 jumps from Taurus to arrive at the system containing the shipyards and took 4 jumps to return back to Taurus. So all we can say with any certainty is that the system is within 90 light years of Taurus.] It is believed that the
facility began operation some time around 2364, several years after the Taurians
rescued the Capellan citizens from Bell who were being used as slave labor by the Federated Suns at Tentativia. After freeing the captured Capellans, Richard Calderon became concerned about the threat posed by the Federated Suns and began building a Navy to defend the Concordat. The first warships were built in the Taurus system, at the Concordat's existing facilities, which ceased production of civilian transports in order to concentrate on building warships. While the first ships were being produced, Richard Calderon not only saw the need for even more warships, but also to continue producing non-military jumpships to support colonization efforts and the Taurian economy. Rather then expand the size of the Taurus facilities, he ordered that the Concordat look into building a new shipyard which would provide redundancy in case the either facility were destroyed by an enemy attack.
It is believed that Concordat explorers discovered the Norfolk system around 2360. There is very little that is known about this system, other then there is a large asteroid belt which is very rich in metals, including Titanium, Germanium, Iron and Copper. Realizing the value of the ores in the system, Richard Calderon ordered the construction of the new shipyard in this system. The fledgling Concordat Navy was concerned that the new shipyard would be a primary target for any attacker and so they looked at a variety of ways to hide the facility. They finally settled on building the shipyard inside of one of the many large asteroids located in the system. Since the shipyard would be located inside the asteroid, there would be nothing to draw the attention of an attacker to that system. The work required to build the facility was carried out by many of the Capellans rescued from Tentativa, who were very happy to be citizens of the Concordat and wanted to repay the Concordat for their freedom. The
work was slow, and at times very dangerous, with the construction teams working for several years to hollow out the asteroid. The first ship Dry Dock was completed around 2364 and immediately began producing warships for the Concordat Navy. Several other Dry Docks were also completed between 2364 and 2400, as were the ore processing facilities, electronics fabs, and machine shops.
From what little evidence we have been able to uncover, the facility continued to turn out warships for the Taurian Navy until some time around 2585, when the Manufacturing lines were shutdown to give the appearance that the Concordat was no longer capable of building warships anywhere other then in the Taurus system. The shipyard did however continue to serve as a base of operations for the Concordat's surviving warships, including the famed raider, the TCS Lexington. At the end of the war the shipyard was used to house the Concordat's remaining warships, which were placed into mothballs for future needs.
The facility continued to secretly operate as a naval research and fleet crew training center for the Concordat throughout the entire Star League era. This ensured that the Concordat retained the capacity to design and construct new warships, as well as train the crews needed to operate them. It also appears that the Concordat continued to expand the facility, adding more Dry Docks and increasing the crew capacity of the station.
During the Periphery uprisings of 2765 the Concordat considered deploying warships against the SLDF but ultimately decided not to, as that would risk exposing the existence of the Norfolk shipyard. [Editor's Note: This is one of the major problems with a military and secrets. Sometimes the military values a secret so much, that they are afraid to use it even when it would be to their advantage. In the case of the Norfolk Shipyards, they were so secret that other then the personnel assigned to the facility who knew of it’s existence were the Protector and commander of the TDF, neither of whom were willing to risk the exposure of the base.] With the fall of the Star League, the Concordat began using the shipyard to produce civilian jumpships to replace loses from attrition. Contingency plans were also drawn up for reactivating the warships stored at the shipyards in the event of an emergency, but these plans were never implemented. With the major losses suffered by the Successor States early in the 1st Succession War, the appearance of Taurian warships would have drawn unwanted attention to the Concordat and their shipbuilding capability, making them a prime target for House Davion and Liao.
The shipyard operated through out the Succession wars, producing new jumpships for the Concordat as well as providing maintenance for the Taurian jumpship fleet. The shipyard was also responsible for the design and construction of the Concordat class jumpship, which quickly became the back bone of the Concordat's colonization program in the late 2900s. Personnel from the shipyard were also involved in the Concordat’s attempt to salvage the Tripitz, a Black Lion class Battlecruiser that was discovered by Taurian explorers in 2979. The Tripitz, however, was destroyed by unknown attackers before the Taurians could salvage it. [Editor's Note: Or so we think. The Tripitz was of course destroyed by the Com Guards to prevent it from falling into Taurian or Capellan hands. Several weeks after the attack we were able to investigate the hulk of the ship before it crashed into the planet it was orbiting and discovered that the ship was not in fact the Tripitz, but rather the Hood, a Black Lion Class Battlecruiser that was reported lost in the fighting against the Concordat. One possibility is that the ship was simply misidentified by the Taurians as the Tripitz. Another, more disturbing possibility is that the Taurians some how managed to switched the Hood for the Tripitz. We know from intercepted Taurian communications that the Tripitz was in fairly good condition and needed only relatively minor repairs to make it operable. Is it possible that they switched the Tripitz with the Hood? From studying the remains of the Hood we were able to determine that the ship had suffered severe damage before it was attacked by the Com Guards, which is inconsistent with the Taurian reports on the condition of the ship. What is even more interesting is the fact that we discovered a number of jury rigged repairs to the KF drive. When we studied these repairs we discovered that the components were of relatively recent manufacture and there were also indications that the KF drive on the ship had been used recently.This is a very puzzling mystery and we are very concerned that the Concordat may have an operational Black Lion battlecruiser.]
In recent years the Norfolk Shipyard has resumed the manufacturing of warships, producing the Taurus Class Corvette and the Calderon Class Destroyer. The Taurians have also resumed construction of the Trailblazer class explorer ship, to support their colonization efforts, and there is a rumor that they will also be producing an improved version of the Lexington Class Strike Carrier, as well as larger ships for their fleet.
Capabilities:
[Editor's Note: This entire section comes from our agent in the Concordat Navy. While our agent was at the shipyard he was able to meet with some of the command staff and gather background information on the facility. There was however a lot of data about the shipyard which was considered classified and for which our agent was not cleared. We have done our best to fill in the missing information and extrapolate the available data where possible.]
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is probably one of the 3 most impressive shipyards currently in existence. [Editor's Note: The other 2 being the Titan Shipyards in the Terra system and the Snow Raven shipyards at Lum.] The most impressive aspect of the shipyard is that it is located inside of a hollowed out asteroid. There are very few features located on the outer shell of the asteroid, making it almost impossible to tell that the asteroid containing the shipyard is different from any other asteroid in the system. [Editor's Note: Our agent was able to a glimpse of some of the surface facilities. The defensive weapons, engines and even the launch doors were disguised as craters or other surface features and were virtually indistinguishable from naturally occurring surface features. This helps explain why no one has ever been able to locate the shipyard.] The inside of the asteroid is partitioned into a number of pressurized Dry Docks, manufacturing plants, ore processing plants and crew quarters. Since the entire facility is pressurized the construction crews are able to work without the need of pressure suits, greatly speeding up production.
The Norfolk Shipyard has 17 Dry Docks. Currently there are 2 Dry Docks capable of handling ships of up to 250,000 tons, 6 Dry Docks for ships of up to 375,000 tons, 2 Dry Docks for ships of up to 425,000 tons, 4 Dry Docks for ships of up to 550,000 tons, 2 Dry Docks for ships of up to 700,000 tons and 1 Dry Dock for ships of up to 925,000 tons. Each Dry Dock can be used for either performing repairs and upgrades on ships or for constructing new ships.
[Editor's Note: While the shipyard currently has a large number of Dry Docks, we are not really sure when they were originally built or even what size they were when they were originally built. However we do know that shipyard has been undergoing continual expansion and upgrades since it came on line in 2364. We have learned that many of the Dry Docks were originally much smaller, for example some of the 375,000 ton Dry Docks were originally only capable of handling ships of up to 250,000 tons, and were later enlarged so that they could handle bigger ships. We have also learned that the 925,000 ton Dry Dock was originally constructed in the 2560s so that the Concordat would be able to refit their Monsoon class Battleships. We have reason to suspect that the 700,000 tons Dry Docks were completed around the same time for use in the refit of the Concordat’s Winchester class cruisers. There is also strong evidence indicating that several of the Dry Docks are less then 100 years old. We believe that 4 of the 375,000 ton Dry Docks were constructed after the fall of the Star League. Our agent also saw some evidence that indicated that the Taurians are working on a new Dry Dock that is far larger then any of the existing ones.]
In addition to the large number of Dry Docks, the shipyard also has a large ore processing and manufacturing complex. Many of the raw materials needed for the construction of warships (including Titanium, Germanium, Iron, and Copper) are mined in the system. There are 100 shuttles based at the shipyard which are used to locate resource rich asteroids in the system and mine the ores found on them.The ores are then brought back to the shipyards, where they are then refined. These materials are then used to manufacture any of the components needed for the ships that are under construction at the Shipyard.
The manufacturing facilities located at the shipyard are capable of producing any parts needed for the ships being produced there. Prior to the start of the Reunification War many of the components (Weapons, electronics, jump sails, etc) needed for the ships being produced at the Norfolk Shipyards were shipped in from other facilities, where they could be produced more efficiently. The main components that were produced at Norfolk included KF cores and field initiators, armor plating, structural components and the maneuvering drives used on the ships being built there. With the out break of war, and the need to keep the facility secret, the Norfolk Shipyard was required to become completely self sufficient. The manufacturing capabilities were expanded to be able to manufacture any of the components needed for the ships that were being constructed there. This posed a serious problem, as there were only a limited number of assembly lines, which meant that the lines could not be dedicated to the manufacture of specific components, but rather had to be constantly retooled depending on what was needed for the working being done by the shipyard. This has resulted in the development of a large logistics group at the shipyard which is responsible for coordinating what is produced in by the manufacturing group with what components will be needed for upcoming repairs, overhauls and new ship construction. [Editor's Note: It appears that the Logistics group has become very good at ensuring that the necessary components are available when they are needed. According to our agent, there are rarely any delays in construction due to the unavailability of parts.]
In addition to the large manufacturing areas, the shipyards maintain what can only be described as a small city for the crew and construction workers assigned there. The base has the capacity for up to 44,490 personnel. While the quarters are by no means luxurious, they are fairly spacious and comfortable. There are 4 300 meter grav decks and very large recreational facilities on the station for the crew. Food is provided from a large hydroponic farm, which makes the station largely independent of the need to import food supplies. However in order to maintain morale, the Concordat does attempt, whenever possible, to provide meat and other foodstuffs that can not be produced at the base.
Despite all the high value assets at Norfolk the base is not heavily armed. The primary defenses are 600 Large Lasers for defense against aerospace fighters and 120 Heavy Naval Lasers for use against dropships and warships. [Editor's Note: We believe the reason the Taurians rely on lasers for the defensive systems is that the lasers can use a small diameter opening and do not require any sort of barrel, allowing them to be easy hidden on the surface of the asteroid.] In addition to the built in weaponry the shipyard also has 4 regiments of aerospace fighters assigned to it for defense. [Editor's Note: Ever wonder why the Concordat has always been short on aerospace fighter pilots?] As far as we can tell there is no conventional armor on the asteroid but rather the shipyard relies on the thick layer of rock which comprises the outer shell of the facility to provide protection from enemy attacks. We assume there is some sort of internal structural reinforcement of the outer rock layer but have been unable to confirm this. [Editor's Note: We estimate that the rock provides the equivalent protection of 100,000 tons of standard armor.]
Deployment:
The Norfolk shipyard has been producing ships for the Taurian Concordat for over 700 years. During that time it has produced a variety warships and civilian jumpships. It has served as the Concordat's premier maintenance and renovation facility for warships and as a storage facility for the Concordat's surviving warships from the Reunification War.
Since the fall of the Star League the shipyard has used some of the smaller Dry Docks (250,000 and 375,000 ton) for the construction of civilian jumpships, initially the Invader and Merchant, and later the Concordat class ships. Recently the base has resumed the construction of new warships for the Taurian Navy. The 250,000 ton Dry Docks are being used for the production of Concordat class jumpships, while the 375,000 ton and 425,000 tons Dry Docks are being used for the construction of the Taurus class Corvette. The 550,000 ton Dry Docks are being used for the production of the new Calderon class destroyer. The 700,000 ton Dry Docks appear to be used for the construction of the Trailblazer class explorer ships. [Editor's Note: Our agent has learned that the Concordat plans to build 1 improved Lexington Class Strike Carrier for every 4 Trailblazers that are completed. We also believe the Concordat may also be planning to build a cruiser somewhere in the 600,000 ton range at some point in the near future.] The 925,000 ton Dry Dock is currently off limits to unauthorized person and is working on a top secret project. [Editor's Note: Our agent was unable to learn what was being done in that Dry Dock. One theory is that the Concordat is developing a new battleship, another is that the rumors about the Monsoon class battleship the Admiral Peyton surviving the Reunification War are true and that the Concordat is refitting the ship for use as the flagship of the Taurian Navy.]
