Earth Alliance Sagittarius Class Variants

 

Anake Patrol Carriers (Sagittarius Sub-class)

After the end of the earth minbari war several derelict Sagittarius Class were found close to the sol system. While they were repairable, it was decided that returning them to their original configuration was impossible due to the costs involved and the obsilescence of the type. With the decimation of the earth fleet, lots of the colonies lacked any ships for defense against raiders and alien incursions into earth terratory. It was decided to turn the salvaged sagis into light carriers.

The converted ships could not carry starfuries of any type, even the older tigers were rejected as impossible without a major rebuild of the ships. With the addition of launch rails, Delta-V`s could be carried, not a standard ea fighter, a very basic fighter in fact but still able to do the job. They managed to squeese three flights of the fighters onto each ship. One flight of deltas was usually kept on the sagi for quick responce to intruders while the other two were stationed on the defending colony, and only transferred to the carrier when a longer patrol was required, also for ease of repair and to reduce the stress on the pilots (who were not very happy at flying low performance fighters after being used to furies!).

Besides the three flights of deltas two missile racks were added, neither were L-racks (one S-rack and one A-rack) since most of the surviving L-racks were stripped off for use on other ships. Lastly they were able to fit two more particle beams on the hull. Within 8 months the refurbished ships entered service as the Ananke(necessity) class system patrol carrier, the ships name was redesignated for political and morale purposes only. Two of the ships were re-equipped with other weapons as proof-of-concept vessels. Neither worked out too well.

They were beset with power and structural problems from the out set, and were NEVER liked by those assigned to them, but they got the job done and averted the sacking of many outposts during the first few years after the war. B y the time B5 was built only four of the original nine were left, 1 at Proxima, 1 at Beta Durani, 1 at Altair and 1 at Eridani. Of the five that were lost, three were destroyed by large raider attacks, one was lost in hyperspace en-route to it`s assigned colony and the last was used for spare parts to keep the rest going.

During the EA civil war the ships at Proxima and Beta-Durani wer both destroyed defending their respective colonies while trying to repel Clarke`s forces. After the civil war the two remaining ships were retired from active service and used for training cadets in the Sol system.

An export version was offered to smaller nations such as the Mentabans, but they declined, using cheaper, slightly more reliable Belt Alliance and other readily converted civilian hulls for the role. They had their interceptors removed (being replaced by standard particle Beams) and a small number of medium particle cannons.

(Note: This design was thought up by "jal" on the B5wars online forums.)