Manco Cápac-class cruiser

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Manco Cápac-class cruiser

Type	Auxiliary light cruiser
Displacement	13,892 metric tons
Length	125 metres
Beam	35 metres
Powerplant	2× diesel engines 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) ea
Propulsion	1× gas turbine 25,000 hp (19,000 kW) ea
Ships ordered	60
Ships laid down	2

The Manco Cápac is a class of auxiliary light cruiser ordered by Federal Navy of Nouvelle Alexandrie from the Pontecorvo Firm and ESB Armada, as part of the concerted Federal response to the threat posed by the Confederacy of the Dispossessed.

Emergency Shipbuilding Program

At the direction of the Department of Defense, the Pontecorvo Firm and ESB Susa were instructed to halt all ongoing work in order to refocus upon immediate naval requirements.

The initial order was for sixty ships to be built, with the work to be divided equally between Pontecorvo and the Honourable Company shipyards in Nouvelle Alexandrie, with these to be launched by the end of the year, with the fitting out of armaments, sensors, and command and control systems to be conducted by Javelin Industries and partners, utilising off-the-shelf systems available for use. Only existing technologies were to be utilised, with R&D work actively prohibited with regards to the program.

Commissariat agents from the National Ordnance and Procurement Board were duly dispatched, during the fourth month of 1719 AN, to establish a Department of Defense presence at the following shipyards:

• Pontecorvo Shipbuilding Yards (Pontecorvo, Alduria)
• Rothborne Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex (Rothborne City, Alduria)
• La Fortaleza de Melusina Yard Complex (La Fortaleza de Melusina, South Lyrica).
• Port Tablot Shipyards (Port Tablot, Isles of Caputia)
• Aldurian Shipbuilding Yards (Alkhiva, Alduria)
• ESB Armada (Alkhiva, Alduria)

Accordingly, each yard faced the obligation to lay down and launch ten hulls within the space of a year. It was a task that was met with a certain level of scepticism in the industry as details first began to be made known. These doubts began in turn to be noted by the various trade press publications. This had the inevitable result that speculation began to appear in left and liberal leaning national news coverage as to the feasibility of the programme, and moreover what sorts of trade offs would be required in order to achieve the requisite number of hulls laid down within the stipulated time.

The depth of the scandal was only realised when, during VII.1720 AN, word leaked out that, instead of sixty vessels being laid down, work had only commenced upon two, and even these were not yet launched. Moreover, as these ships took shape, it became obvious to all observers that the "cruiser" shared obvious commonalities with the Andronikos-class auxiliary cruiser of the Constancian Navy, which in turn had been built off the pattern set by the SS Andronikos, a decrepit and ancient Babkhan merchantman, now gently rusting at anchor in the fetid port of Tiegang. Some naval analysts however maintained that the troubled ships would eventually reveal themselves to be up-armed and up-armoured iterations of the Logistic Support Vessel, a design now sixty-five years old.

Ironically, a part of the delay in the shipbuilding programme had been occasioned by jurisdictional conflicts between the National Ordnance and Procurement Board under the Department of Defense and the Joint Production Accelerator Cell within the Office of Procurement, which reported directly to the Office of the President. Both entities in turn reacted against attempts by the Naval Forces Office and Military-Industrial Relations Bureau of Keltia Command to reorientate New Alexandrian shipbuilding towards launching escort corvettes capable of escorting transoceanic trade fleets, whilst fending off the continuous entreaties of Trans-Euran Command for a focus instead upon landing craft and minesweepers capable of operating within the Gulf of Zinjibar.

Ships of the class

• Manco Cápac (Hull No. 001, Pennant No. TBD) – work commenced on 7.IV.1719 AN at the Port Tablot Shipyards;
• Basileus Giakoumis (Hull No. 002, Pennant No. TBD) – work commenced on 8.IV.1719 AN at the Pontecorvo Shipbuilding Yards;