Russian Space Forces collar insignia

While the Novik--class destroyers were overall very well received by the VKS, one aspect of its design came under fire from very early on, namely its missile armament.  The KS-100 Uragan (Silka) missile, while one of the best missiles in the world when it first entered service in 2270, was already showing its age by the time of Central Asian War where it found to be an inadequate means of combating ever larger, faster, and more powerful warships.  The rapid rate of naval construction and introduction of new technologies meant that the Uragan was quickly approaching obsolescence and was definitely not the right weapon to arm destroyers whose doctrine called for inflicting crippling damage on enemy ships with first missile salvos.  The Uragan was both too slow and carried too weak a warhead to guarantee inflicting heavy damage on enemy ships before the latter were able to retaliate.

The new missile, named KS-300 Shkval, entered service in 2295 in two versions:

• Shkval-A, the standard armament of the Noviks with a 15x2 warhead.  (There is an armor-piercing version designed for use against heavily armored Kafer battleships with a 7x4 warhead, if using the optional rule from "Invasion".  This version is designated Shkval-A1.)
• Shkval-B, a drone variant carrying a passive sensor array with range of 10.

Although the Shkval represented a significant advance over the Uragan, the Space Forces Command was seriously concerned by the new missile's cost.  Studies revealed that in a full-scale war existing stocks would be depleted in a matter of weeks and production rates could never equal rate of expenditure.  Furthermore, Russia did not possess sufficiently large stockpiles of Tantalum to allow itself the luxury of expending it in detonation missiles.  This problem was solved through the introduction of Shkval-V, the submunition-carrier version of basic missile.  This weapon replaced the 15x2 warhead with three 5x2 submunitions and was officially accepted in 2301.  The missile may deploy any number of submunitions per turn, but all must attack the same ship.  Using technologies first used in the French DA-2290 missile, Shkval-V combines the best features of stutterwarp missiles and submunition dispensers, allowing delivery of detonation laser packages to targets while preserving the missile itself for future use.  It also degrades the effectiveness of point-defense systems which now have to cope with up to three times as many targets.

KS-300 Shkval

All signatures: 1; Profiles: -4 radial, -3 lateral
Mass: 19.5t; Powerplant: 0.3 MW fuel cell; Fuel: 0.7 tons
Warp Efficiency: 4.31; Movement:9
Diameter: 2m; Length: 6m
Hull hits: 1/1/1; Power plant hits: 1/1
Warhead:
        15x2 detonation laser, mass 1.5 tons (Shkval-A);
        7x4 detonation laser, mass 1.5 tons (Shkval-A1);
        three 5x2 submunitions, mass .5 tons each (Shkval-V);
Sensors: none, except for Shkval-B which has a passive sensor with range of 10
Cost: Classified

Bays for the Shkval

Mass per Missile: 48 tons
Volume per Missile: 48 m3
Exit Port for Missile: 4 m2

Standard Missile Pack for the Shkval

Capacity: 4 Missiles

Mass: 19 tons
Volume: 204 m3
Surface Area: 71 m2
Reflected Sig: 36
 

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Mike J.
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