The WTF 1 was one of Earth's earliest deep space cruisers, long before artificial gravity was commonplace amongst starships. In order to generate gravity, the living quarters of the ship had to be situated on either ends of a rotating segment, with gravity greatest at the far ends due to centrifugal forces. A curious advantage to mounting the missile batteries at the far edges of this rotating segment allows the ship's AI to alter the rotational speed of the rotating segment, as well as the missile's initial launch velocity, in order to achieve varying levels of forward motion and outward spiral of the launched missile. This allows the WTF 1 the capability to launch missiles at an almost perpendicular vector to that of the ship. In more than one occasion, such a tactical advantage has allowed the WTF 1 to destroy enemy vessels even before the long axis of the ship is aligned for a firing solution.
About this creation
Wolfhamptom class Tactical Fortress (Cruiser class equivalent): WTF 1
Length: 450m
Width: 240m including rotational section
Displacement: 95,000t
Propulsion: 7 x Dorven Fusion Plasma Reactors powering 28 x vectoring thrusters.
Armament: 2 x Jorsden JD-MAC Long-Range Mass Accelerator Cannons. 16 x anti-ship graviton torpedo launchers with 4 sets of munition reloads, 8 x "phalanx III" CIWS, 1 x Smakron particle beam projector.
Launch Facilities: 1 x frontal and 1 x dorsal launch/recovery bays. 12 x Raven Mk.1 trans-atmospheric fighters, 8 x shuttles.
Crew: 300 officers and enlisted men
AirWing: 40 pilots and 100 maintenance crew
Atmospheric Capability: No
This ship was inspired by 3 fictional vessels: 1) EAF Agememnon from Babylon 5, 2) Leonov from Space Odyssey 2010, and 3) HMS Camden Lock of Hyperdrive. All 3 ships have rotating segments that generate artificial gravity via centrifugal forces.
This is the part when enemies exclaim "What the....." when they see a barrage of missiles coming their way at impossible angles.
Achieving gravity via a rotating segment poses technical and physical challenges to the design and operation of the ship. Just like wheels on a car, the rotating section has to be balanced or else a nett force would ensue, which may skew the trajectory of the entire vessel's long axis. Although both ends of the rotating section serve as counter-masses to each other, wrongful allocation of munitions or internal equipment and fittings may occasionally create unbalanced issues.
Notice the great preponderance of engine nacelles. They don't build ships like they used to...with redundant thrust and power for unforseen situations. Besides, the design language mirrors the early Earth Force ship designers' inferiority complex, seeing as how other alien races all seemed to have artificial gravity generators at their disposal.
Seen from the front, the forward launch bay is evident. This complements the topside dorsal hangar bay in the launch and recovery of fighter craft.