Rodger Young-class Function in the Terran Federation Fleet

 

 

In modern Earth navies, and indeed in sci-fi starship fleets, every ship has a purpose. A designation. First, let's go over modern ship designations.

 

In the modern US Navy, the dominant class of naval vessel is the CVN, or nuclear-powered carrier. Only three non-nuclear carriers (U.S.S. Constellation, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, U.S.S. John F. Kennedy) remain in commission, and all are due for decommissioning within the next two decades. However, that is far from the only ships in service. Outside of SSN and SSBNs, (prominently the Los Angeles-class and Seawolf-class attack subs plus the Ohio-class ballistic missile subs), you still have FFGs (Perry-class frigates), DDGs (Arleigh Burke-class and Kidd-class missile destroyers), DDs (Spruance-class destroyer), CGs (Ticonderoga-class missile cruisers, which are really just larger-than-normal Spruance-class hulls), and the LHD/LHA ships, specifically the Tarawa-class LHA and Wasp-class LHD. And those are the most prominent, as you also have smaller ships and auxiliaries.

Each ship has a purpose, a function, in the modern navy. The CVN, currently represented by the Nimitz-class supercarrier, is the core of the US Navy's power projection. Each carrier has it's own fleet formation, called a CVBG, or in simpler terms, a Carrier Battle Group. Each holds an airwing, and just two CVBGs can provide 24-hour attack capability. Simply put, the CVN is the queen of the seas. The United States is the only nation to possess supercarriers, although Great Britian is planning on building two large carriers for the Royal Navy in the coming years.

The frigates, cruisers, and destroyers each carry out a different role. Usually, frigates are anti-submarine, cruisers are anti-surface, and destroyers are anti-air. Each is a part of a modern naval CVBG or AVG. As for the Tarawa-class and Wasp-class, they are Amphibious Assault ships. They look like aircraft carriers, but they can deploy landing craft for onboard Marines, and contain the facilities to accomodate the MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) that they carry for deployment should it be necessary. They have aircraft, mostly helicopters plus the famous VTOL-capable AV-8 Harrier "jump jet". But they are not true carriers, as their role is to bring Marine Corp units to bear on an enemy, not project airpower like a CVN.

That all said and done, let's go to sci-fi fleets. The Empire from Star Wars refers to it's largest combat ship as a "Star Destroyer", with even larger flagships such as the Executor-class seen in TESB and ROTJ, to the monstrous Eclipse-class seen in the comic books. Starfleet from Star Trek doesn't even use modern designations: they refer to their ships as "starships" in most occasions. The Defiant is classified as an "escort", although it's more of a heavy attack ship in terms of performance (indeed, standing up to much larger ships such as the Lakota means it should be designated a destroyer). Babylon-5's designation system is the closest you'll get to modern: their heaviest cap ships are usually referred to as "destroyers", with other extras such as the Hyperion-class cruiser (as seen in "A Voice in the Wilderness Part Two"), the Olympus-class corvette as seen in "In the Beginning", and the Nova-class "Dreadnought" such as the E.A.S. Schwarzkopf as in GROPOS (note: in function the Nova seems to be an LHD instead of a modern dreadnought, but it's termed a dreadnought). And, of course, you have the Omega and Warlock-class "Destroyers", which seem to be "battleships" mixed with a bit of fighter carrying capacity.

Now, those are the three major sci-fis. But the Terran Federation's starfleet is not as covered by the movie. Indeed, we only see two classes of ship, which may in fact be the same class, just variants.

One of these ships is the Rodger Young-class (the nearer one, as shown by the comm tower and launch pad). Notice that both the distant ship and the ship near the bottom do not have fighter pads. This means one of two things.

1) They are seperate classes.

2) They are the same class, but variants.

Two seems to be the best option. Notice how the ships are identical in shape and form. The only difference is that one has a fighter pad and the others don't. This probably means they're only variants, with one losing the fighter pad so they can have more room on the ship for such things as ammunition, crew quarters, foodstuffs, the works.

Now, what functions does the Rodger Young perform in the movie?

We only see it launching dropships of troops, although the presence of the fighter pad on some indicates it is capable of launching fighters. Note that we never see anti-cap ship weapons used. Even if we did, it is still evident that the Rodger Young's function is to deploy troops and fighters. This closely resembles the Wasp-class LHD of the US Navy. The presence of launch decks for dropships supports this.

Therefore, it is a safe bet to say that the Rodger Young is not the warship some say it is: it is an LHD-type vessel used to deploy troops and aircraft. The craft without fighter pads are probably Rodger Young-class variants designed as escorts (meaning they may actually have superior anti-ship weaponry) or carry more soldiers and therefore deploy more troops, meaning they are basically large LPDs, like the current Austin-class vessel in the US Navy or planned San Antonio-class LPDs.

Acknowledgements:

Not really an acknowledgement, but I LOVE the Navy section at FAS. This is the link to where I get a lot of my info on modern US naval ships.