Designation: Rineunadou Lojmeuean class Monitor

Names and Disposition:

These ships were built at numerous locations throughout the Robotech Mercantile Empire from 1590 through 1850 and at the Robotech Factory Satellite from 1850 through 2007. There has only been one version of the class, but subsystems such as sensors and weapons were continuously upgraded as the ships came in for refits, thus keeping them up-to-date. The total number of Rineunadou Lojmeuean class monitors constructed is 73,687.

Of this number, 5,137 were destroyed prior to 2010. Due to their low rate of production, these vessels were among the first to feel the protoculture shortages. While all Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class vessels still capable of fold travel were incorporated into the Grand Fleet, their numbers did not amount to more than approximately 13,600. The Terrestrial salvage crews counted 435 Rineunadou Lojmeuean wrecks among the ships that had crashed onto the planet. The remaining ships of the Grand Fleet had been destroyed outright. All other Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class ships had become incapable of fold travel, and were left in their guard positions over the Empire's planets. Most of these were scuttled by their Zentraedi crews, acting under orders not to let these ships be captured by the Invid or Disciples of Zor.

Ship's Complement:

• Ships' crew (275 Zentraedi),
• Air Group (80 Zentraedi),
• Troops (60 Zentraedi),
• Life support limits are for a full combat complement and about 200 Zentraedi supernumeraries (620 Zentraedi total).

Dimensions:

• Length: 1215 m (over all).
• Height: 380 m (over all).
• Width : 550 m (over all).
• Mass : 21,000,000 metric tons (operational).
• Fuel Mass: 7,800,000 metric tons (typical).

Propulsion Systems:

• Main power system: Zorrelev-398-Trafla protoculture-fueled Reflex furnace cluster. The powerplant of a Rineunadou Lojmeuean class vessel can nominally deliver up to 18.4 Petawatts of power, and can operate for seventy-five minutes at maximum power before overheat initiates auto-shutdown.
• Maneuvering Thrusters (44): fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters with steerable nozzles. Eight thrusters are located on each armour flange outside of the secondary engines, four are located on each side of the nose, four are located on the flank of the cannon sections, six are located on the dorsal hull of the ship and six on the ventral hull.
• Reaction-mass Thrusters (2): Two Varrelev S437 fusion-plasma reaction thrusters clusters with protoculture energizer mounted in a vertical row in the aft end of the ship. Each cluster has three exhaust ports.
• Secondary thrusters (2): Two Varrelev Qualdran 78 fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with protoculture energizer mounted aside the main engines, partially buried in the armour flanges.
• Anti-gravity System (1): 55 Rastraz anti-gravity pods.
• Space Fold (1): Nolfantom-proldarc'lev 350 spacefold. This system generates a hull-conformal fold.
• Planetary Capabilities: The Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class has atmospheric capabilities through its reaction thrusters and anti-gravity system. The hull has sufficient structural strength for the ship to make a cold landing on it. Note that the ground underneath should be as firm as possible. The ship will float in an ocean, and this is the preferred landing method unless a land location has been extensively prepared.

Endurance and mobility limits:

• The dry stores endurance was limited to about 12 months with a full crew complement. After that, the monitor needs to restock. Water stores are recycled almost totally.
• The mecha consumables supplies (mainly missiles) were limited due to the limited hangarage designed into the ship. The Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class could sustain continuous combat operations for not far over 5 days.
  The ship-launched missile magazines sufficed for two large battles or three or more skirmishes.
• The Reflex furnace can function for about 35 years at normal usage levels before an energizer rebuild is necessary.
• At full power, the main propulsion systems can nominally produce up to 473.2 Giganewtons of thrust at a minimal reaction mass efficiency profile, or as little as 9.1 Giganewtons of thrust at a maximum efficiency setting. At lower power levels, these thrusts are commensurately smaller.
• At full power, the Rineunadou Lojmeuean can nominally achieve a maximum delta-v of 249 kps at the cruising acceleration of 0.1 gees, a maximum delta-v of 51.2 kps at the battle acceleration of 1.0 gees, and a delta-v of at most 15.6 kps at the flank acceleration of 2.3 gees. At lower power levels, these ranges are commensurately smaller.
• The fold systems were not navigationally guaranteed for any single jump beyond 10 kiloparsecs. If longer voyages were required, the ship had to conduct multiple fold jumps.
• The maximum sustained atmospheric speed was limited to Mach 3. A higher speed could be attained while accelerating to orbit, or in emergencies, but this stressed the engines to above their sustainable heat tolerances. The maximum hover time on the anti-gravity systems was limited only by the protoculture supplies and maintenance requirements.

Weapon Systems:

• Makral Yver 174 Reflex cannon (1): This weapon, which is so large that it forms more than half the length of the vessel, fires a particle beam to an effective effective range of 300,000 km. The effects against planets are equal to the heat and blast effects of the detonation of a fusion weapon of 12 megatons, if fired at full power. However, the rate of fire was measured in minutes between salvos rather than seconds.
  If utilized against starships, the largest vessels can be destroyed with the leakage of the beam. A direct hit will vaporize the target vessel. The weapon can also be set to a wider dispersal. While not nearly as effective as a tight beam against warships, it is capable of clearing a wide area of fighters and other mecha.
  Note that at the time of the Zentraedi holocaust progressive generator failure in the monitors gave most cannons a maximum yield of 300-500 kilotons.
• Makral Mossil 918 particle cannon (25): For centuries this combined particle beam and laser weapon has been the standard medium cannon armament on Zentraedi vessels. Two different beam weapons (variable frequency laser and particle beam cannon) are provided on one mount so that the discharge medium can be chosen as the optimum for the local target and environment conditions. Both weapons have the same yield at the muzzle. The laser can be fired in a low power mode directly before the particle beam fires, this setting is typically used to burn a vacuum path for the particles through an atmosphere. Because of the slow recharge time of the larger weapons, and the flexibility inherent in the double mount, this cannon turret is the weapon system most often utilized on board Zentraedi vessels.
  For ground support, it is the only effective weapon as the other systems are to heavy to be used around own troops. The cannon has, as most Zentraedi beam weapon systems, an effective range of 300,000 km. Each full-intensity shot has a yield of 1000 MJ, and the cannons can cycle through their firing sequence once every three seconds.
  As these weapons are not intended for assault, as they are on most Zentraedi vessels, they are mounted for spherical coverage.
• Touwhaug Rasar 481 (30): A missile launcher mounted in a pop-up turret, firing anti-mecha/missile missiles, though the projectiles can guide on point-blank enemy ships. When the missiles are released they are already on their intercept vectors, or very close to them. Each turret has a reload time of 3.6 seconds and a magazine with a 100 round capacity. They are mounted for spherical coverage.
  The missile system used is the SAA-1 Granite (Gliquoun Touwhaug), a weapon with a conventional blast fragmentation warhead of 278 kg and an atmospheric range of 112 km at a speed of Mach 7.5.

Air Group and Mecha Complement:

• 50 Regult battlepods,
• 50 Gnerl fighter pods,
• 3 Glaug battlepods,
• 2 Zentraedi shuttlecraft.

Design Notes:

The best known capability of the Zentraedi armada was to effectively destroy planets with heavy Reflex cannon salvos, and the Rineunadou Lojmeuean were the ships built to carry out the bombardments. Apart from planetary bombardment, the Reflex cannon armed vessels also served as very capable guardships over the Empire's planets.

The Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class was made from the two booms of the Reflex cannon, with the reaction engines added to the back. Two armour flanges stood out at about 60 degrees upward from the engines, giving the impression of short and stubby wings. The two main reaction engines were positioned vertically, with the two nozzles of the auxiliary engines to the sides of these, buried in the roots of the 'wings'. The total impression was that of a flying brick equipped with a Reflex cannon, which was of course the correct one. This vessel was often mistaken for a Queadol Magdomilla-Whouva force command ship bow section or a Thuverl Salan by the untrained eye.

There were numerous sensor spikes; one large one, a rudimentary fold sensor, was mounted at the lower stern, directly under the lower main engine. Four sensor spikes were mounted directly forward, three on the dorsal nose and three on the ventral nose, six were mounted around the fold sensor and one large EM receiver was mounted on a bridge-like structure on top of the main hull, behind the cannon section.

Internally, there were five decks. The upper deck housed the air group and its personnel, the lower deck housed the Regult teams and their armaments, and the decks in between were the main decks of the vessel itself with command, engineering, and personnel sections for all other tasks. The Reflex cannon booms were not intended for habitation, but much of the free space in them was used as the supply lockers, since the cannon was rarely fired anyway. This did mean that some supplies became irradiated after a main battery salvo, but it never led to any operational problems. The two shuttles were carried on top with the fighter pods.

The armament was not as diverse as on other Zentraedi ships. The Reflex cannon was the weapon of choice against enemy starships, although its rate of fire was not impressive. However, Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class vessels usually deployed in flotillas of thirty to fifty, and few enemies remained after a combined salvo from such a group. The other armaments did not include heavy anti-ship cannons or torpedo tubes. There were the normal medium energy cannons and defensive missiles. These were mounted for spherical coverage as their main tasking was to defend the monitor against attacking ships. Due to the small size of the crew space (the Reflex cannon made up most of the ship), the mecha forces stationed aboard were small, with only a rudimentary air group and an equally sized Regult group to back them up. The Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class relied mostly on escorts and numbers for defense.

History:

The ultimate in Tirolian firepower was the Reflex Cannon. This cannon, which could destroy entire cities with one shot, was difficult to construct, as well as a weapon with major political impact. In the first centuries of the Tirolian Mercantile Empire, the Reflex Cannon was therefore reserved for the Tirolian Masters themselves and the most reliable Zentraedi. This meant that the cannons were only installed in Tirolian ships and rare Zentraedi vessels. However, as the Empire's enemies began to press harder on the core, and the fringes became so extended that they became unwieldy for normal patrols, it was decided to built Reflex cannon in numbers, and mount them both on Zentraedi fleet units and Border Fleet vessels. The Zentraedi platforms would be stationed in flotillas near the Empire's most important systems and installations (like Tirol and the Homebase) were they would be under firm political control, and also highly visible to would-be rebels. This would also preclude the misuse of Reflex cannons by wayward or triggerhappy Zentraedi commanders.

The Rineunadou Lojmeuean monitor, or 'Cannon Ship' as it was also known, was designed as the most economical way to mount numerous Reflex cannons. Although it was as mobile as other Zentraedi line vessels, it was designed to be the smallest, yet still technically feasible platform for a Zentraedi-manned Reflex cannon, and as a consequence the Monitor carried little in the way of secondary batteries or mecha, relying on their escort ships instead.

The monitors were built and deployed as was planned. Occasionally, they were to marshalled into bombardment fleets, and send out to support a large offensive against the Invid or the Disciples of Zor, or to raze an entire planet's surface, if such a demonstration was necessary in the eyes of the Masters. The Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class performed well in its designed tasks, forming feared bombardment fleets as well as providing a very strong fleet cover for the vital planets.

Later, near the end of the Tirolian Empire, the Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class, like all Tirolian vessels, suffered from protoculture depletion. Dolza incorporated all operational Rineunadou Lojmeuean vessels into the Zentraedi Grand Fleet, and they folded with him to Earth. Fortunately, energy depletion was so progressive at this point that most vessels could fire their cannons only at reduced power, or the Earth would not have seen any survivors of the Holocaust. All Rineunadou Lojmeuean were priority targets for the allied fleet and none survived the battle. The SDF-1 Macross was destroyed by a refurbished ship of this class that had crashed on Earth, and this ship was destroyed with the SDF-1.

See additional design notes.

Return to Zentraedi Index

Go to Robotech Reference Guide Home Page.

Robotech (R) is the property of Harmony Gold. This document is in no way intended to infringe upon their rights.

Copyright © 2004, 1997, 1996, 1995 Robert Morgenstern, Peter Walker, Pieter Thomassen