UNN Jump Carrier

Here's the finished concept art for the UNN Jump Carrier, courtesy of Rube. Go show him some love here:  https://twitter.com/justrube

The Jump Carrier is the flagship of most UNN fleets. With a length of 400 meters and a beam of ninety, it's one of the largest vessels in the field. It's able to carry between six and ten thousand personnel, and up to ninety aircraft, including up to forty that can be delivered immediately upon landing thanks to its launch tubes.

The vessel is powered by six nuclear fission reactors. While the technology may seem outdated compared to fusion technology, which is readily available, the vessels use a process known as thermo-chemical cracking to produce their own oxygen and fuel while on deployment. Water is used to cool the reactors, which can be readily obtained from water ice in an emergency. The intense waste heat separates the hydrogen from the oxygen molecules, creating oxygen for the crew, and hydrogen fuel that is then used to power the conventional engines.

The generators are necessary not only to power the carrier's systems, but to charge the superlight drive, which has the longest range of any UNN ship. The designation Jump Carrier comes from the vessel's ability to create a large superlight wake, which can be ridden by an entire fleet in close formation, resulting in every vessel exiting at the same time and place regardless of their individual energy capacity.

The vessel is also heavily armed, with twenty-four torpedo tubes, twelve CIWS point-defense cannons, and eighteen 100mm railguns. The majority of the main guns are mounted beneath the prow of the ship, their primary purpose being ground support during planetary invasions. The strikes are usually conducted from the secondary bridge, which gives a clear view of the battlefield below once the gravity well has been cleared of hostiles.
When combined with its squadrons of Beewolf superiority fighters and Penguin gunships, the Jump Carrier is more than capable of both defending itself, and inflicting severe damage on enemy fleets.