Nelson-class battleship

During the First and Second Bloody Valentine Wars, the Nelson-class served as the backbone of the Earth Alliance space fleet, and was close to an even match for its ZAFT counterpart, the Laurasia-class frigate, in most areas aside from mobile suit capacity.

Two hundred and fifty meters long, the Nelson-class mount seven heavy beam cannons in three dual and one single turrets, arranged with the single turret mounted forward on the dorsal side, and the dual turrets arranged with one each fore and aft of the bridge tower, and the third on the ventral hull. For close-in defence, the Nelsons mount eight twin autocannon turrets, with four dorsally mounted and four covering the ventral side. It is unclear whether the post-war refits with linear catapults cost the Nelsons any weaponry.

In addition to these weapons, they are also possessed of six bow-mounted missile launchers and an eight-cell VLS system amidships, and anti-beam depth charge launchers for further defence. As well as its formidable firepower, the Nelson-class can also serve as an effective, if small, carrier, able to carry and deploy four Moebius mobile armours, or the same number of Strike Daggers, Dagger Ls or Windams. After the First Blood Valentine War, the surviving Nelsons were refitted with twin linear catapults to expedite deployment of their craft.

Due to the fact that, until the post-war refits, the Nelsons were unable to quickly deploy their carried mobile suits/armours, standard procedure was to launch those units on first detecting hostile craft.

In spite of their inferiority to ZAFT's latest design, the Nazca-class fast destroyer, the Nelson-class gave excellent service throughout both Bloody Valentine Wars, proving a well armed and durable combatant. Unfortunately, many ships of the class were lost at the Second Battle of Jachin Due, although most were not destroyed in ship-to-ship combat; like all deployed Earth Alliance units, the Nelsons suffered most of their casualties from the GENESIS superlaser.

The Nelsons continued to serve through the Second Bloody Valentine War. It was still effective, in spite of ZAFT finally having produced enough Nazca-class ships to largely phase the Laurasia-class out of frontline service. However, most of the surviving Nelsons were destroyed either along with the Arzachel Lunar Base, or in the combined Orb Union/Terminal assault on the Requiem Cannon.

Record 1402 - vehicle/ship class - Last update 28 Mar 2007, 23:15:51

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