A series that explains the mechanics of battleships that appear in the rebooted Space Battleship Yamato series from Yamato 2199 to REBEL 3199. The 7th installment is about the combat aircraft carrier Hyuga, which appeared in Yamato 2205 with Asuka. With the phase transition to “Operation DAD,” Hyuga attempted to retrieve the crew of the former 65th Escort Squadron on Earth and deliver them to the Icarus Observatory, but was captured by the Dezarium fleet. With the release of the plamodel coming up, we’re curious to see what Hyuga will do in the future, so let’s take a closer look at it.
by Yuka Minagawa
● Specifications and performance
Type of ship: combat aircraft carrier
Identification number: DCV-01
Length: 295.0m
Width: 77.0m
Height: 98.0m
Main engine: Dimensional wave engine • 6-axis nozzle × 1
Auxiliary engine: Kelvin impulse engine, 3-axis nozzle × 2 (stern composite nozzle)
Kelvin impulse engine • 6-axis nozzle × 1 (bottom composite nozzle)
Aircraft and boats: 2 squadrons
16 Cosmo Tiger IIs (fighter attack squadron)
16 Cosmo Pythons (operational test squadron)
2 Cosmo Seagull transport aircraft
2 Type-100 space reconnaissance aircraft
3 medium-sized fireboats
4 small fireboats
The aircraft and boats are from the training voyage in 2205, and the number varies depending on the mission and operation. The maximum number of aircraft that can be carried is 32 on each of the two storage cylinders.
● Artillery weapons
Wave-Motion Gun
30.5 cm triple-barrel convergent compression-type shock wave turret x 2
Six-barrel large energy cannon
Twin-barrel anti-air pulse laser turret × 2 (on both sides of the bridge)
Triple-barrel anti-air pulse laser turrets × 2 (on both sides of the bridge)
Four-barrel torpedo launchers
Depth charge launchers
Close combat 4-barrel side-mounted beam projectors
Close combat 6-barrel side-mounted beam projectors
4-barrel anti-ship grenade launchers × 2 (on both sides)
Bow torpedo launchers x 4 (2 on each side)
Small torpedo tubes x 7 (4 on the starboard side, 3 on the port side)
12.5 cm twin positron impact turrets × 2 (on both sides)
Diffusion-type triple-barrel anti-air pulse laser turrets × 2 (on both sides)
Twin anti-air pulse laser turrets × 2 (both sides)
Triple anti-air pulse laser turrets × 4 (2 × 2 on both sides)
Eight-barrel missile launchers × 2 (both sides)
Short torpedo launchers × 9 (6 on starboard, 3 on port)
Triple torpedo launchers × 2
Missile launchers × 8 (hull bottom)
(Hyuga-class weapons)
A: Wave-Motion Gun
B: 2 x 30.5 cm triple convergent compression shock wave turrets
C: Large six-barrel energy cannon
D: 2 x two-barrel anti-aircraft pulse laser turrets (both sides of bridge)
E: 2 x three-barrel anti-aircraft pulse laser turrets (both sides of bridge)
F: 4-barrel torpedo tubes
G: Depth charge launcher
H: 4-barrel side beam projector for close combat
I: Close-combat 6-barrel side-beam projector
J: 2 quadruple anti-ship grenade launchers (both sides)
K: 4 bow torpedo launchers (2 x 2 sides)
L: 7 small torpedo tubes (4 starboard, 3 port)
M: 2 twin-barrel 12.5 cm positron impact turrets (both sides)
N: 2 diffuse triple-barrel anti-aircraft pulse laser turrets (both sides)
O: 2 twin-barrel anti-aircraft pulse laser turrets (both sides)
P: 4 triple-barrel anti-aircraft pulse laser turrets (2 x 2 sides)
Q: 2 8-barrel missile launchers (both sides)
R: 9 short-range torpedo launchers (6 starboard, 3 port)
S: 2 triple-barrel torpedo tubes
T: 8 missile tubes (ship bottom)
High-speed continuous aircraft launch port
A launch port exclusively for the port side aircraft storage cylinder. Equipped with a forced catapult that allows continuous launch at high speeds comparable to the Andromeda-class aircraft carrier type. In addition to aircraft, it can also launch large special warheads.
Twin cylinder hangar
The structure of each cylinder is inherited from Yamato‘s aircraft hangar, but a palette can move to either the left or right cylinder, and aircraft can head to the first deck from either elevator on either side. The palette can be adjusted to accommodate not only attack and fighter squadrons, but also early warning and anti-submarine squadrons of different sizes.
The Hyuga-class combat aircraft carrier Hyuga was built based on the concept of a multi-functional composite standard battleship under the Fourth Defense Plan formulated in 2204. It has the armament of a battleship, heavy cruiser, or battlecruiser in the previous classification, and also functions as an aircraft carrier.
The designation “aircraft carrier” comes from the classification used by the United Nations military before the Garmillas War. In the past, small spacecraft were broadly divided into space type and aircraft type. Aircraft that could operate in both atmosphere and outer space developed rapidly during the Inner Planet Wars, and as of 2207, aircraft are classified as spacecraft (such as space reconnaissance aircraft) in terms of operation. But when building a full-scale carrier, the Space Army, which developed from the Air Force, requested the name “aircraft carrier.”
Built as the first ship of the Hyuga class, Hyuga was completed by repurposing an unmanned Dreadnought class main battleship that was left under construction after the abandonment of the time fault, just like the Asuka-class supply carrier Asuka. Because it is based on the Dreadnought class, the Hyuga class has a smaller overall length and flight deck area than the Andromeda class carrier type used during the Gatlantis war. For this reason, the first ship, Hyuga, is limited in function to being a test bed for a future full-scale “regular aircraft carrier,” and is classified as a “light aircraft carrier” along with the Asuka class. Two aircraft storage cylinders are arranged in parallel to accommodate four squadrons in the limited space inside the ship.
The front half of the hull structure is almost the same shape as the Dreadnought class, and the bow is equipped with the same type of Wave-Motion Gun. The rear half has been converted into an aircraft hangar and has a flight deck.
An angled deck (11.0 degrees) is used for the flight deck to allow for quick landing and storage of aircraft. The first deck is equipped with two high acceleration catapults for large aircraft (heavy lift class) and two elevators to accommodate the operation of the new space attack aircraft Cosmo Python. The fourth deck has a launch port that can launch aircraft continuously at high speed from the port-side aircraft storage cylinder.
Two aircraft launch ports are provided on the left and right sides of the bottom of the ship, and like Yamato, launch and landing can be performed from below. The lower launch ports are intended to be used for covert takeoff at sea.
The entire superstructure, including the conning tower and main gun turrets, is offset to the starboard side, and the conning tower, which is extended aft while keeping the overall height low, forms an island. Although it is a light aircraft carrier, it has standard fleet command functions, so the performance of the communication equipment has been improved compared to the conventional Dreadnought class.
The ship is manned, reflecting lessons learned from excessive unmanned operations during the Gatlantis War, but efforts have been made to reduce manpower, and the number of crew members was set at approximately 150 during the 2205 training voyage. Labor-saving measures are mainly achieved by using AU-type robots (40 AU-19 types) as the support crew.
The first ship, Hyuga, was built as a modified version of the Dreadnought class, and was initially called the Dreadnought modified class (officially known within the military as the Dreadnought modified Hyuga class). However, as the mass production plan was implemented, the official name was changed to that of the first ship, just like Asuka, and a new class of ships, the Hyuga class, was created.