Prinz-class Carrier

The Prinz are a class of multirole, polyvalent support ships, officially designated as 'Support and Assault Carrier' fielded by the Volksmarine. They greatly resemble in function and purpose the Amphibious Assault ships fielded by NATO navies, but it was decided that the name was inadequate as it implied the ship was, logically designed primarily for amphibious assault. The Prinz-class are designed for a variety of roles which include amphibious assault, but also anti-submarine warfare roles and mobile air power projection roles. Its nomenclature is set after the electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, which were called princes, thus 'Prinz'.

Background
As part of the Volksmarine rearmament program, it was decided that a versatile means to carry and support air power in reasonable quantity to support the fleet's operations was required. Like with other branches of the program, the warship both needed to be capable of multirole operations and met with significant hurdles. As German research into air power was not only outdated, dating back to early WWII, but also incomplete, the lacks were seen as almost insurmountable. Additionally, East Germany lacked any facilities able to service, let alone build carrier-sized vessels. The construction of one such facility was ordered as part of the Neptun Werft expansion plan, alongside that of other large-scale drydocks.

In order to properly construct these facilities, outside advisors were brought in from Greece, with whom a contract had been negotiated to have two Prinz-class carriers built using their installations in the meanwhile. The need for outside intervention was seen as a major failing by the Council of Commissars. Likewise, foreign vessels were observed in depth in the preliminary phases of the Prinz class's conception. There have been no accusations of industrial or military espionage, though a number of conspiracy enthusiasts abroad have taken to spreading such rumors in the wake of the rapid expansion of the Volksmarine.

The Prinz was not initially intended to support amphibious operations, but the analysis of foreign vessels showed that the vast majority of small support carriers were almost always constructed in such a way in the west. Thus the mission profile was tentatively added. Another change that was made during conception was the shift from a pure-helicopter initial vision to a design that could accommodate some degree of naval aviation, at least experimentally.

Superstructure
The Prinz-class support carriers are 237 meters long overall with a beam of 35 meters, for a draft of 7.2m deep. Like other East German ships, it is constructed of High-Strength Low-Alloy structural steel and protected by OM-S803 steel alloy plating backed by Stahlseide fiber spall lining. It features a double hull and compartmentalized bulkheads with automated and segmented fire-extinguishing systems that are standard in other Volksmarine ships. Additionally, bulkhead-like emergency shutters are also present in the hangar in order to mitigate damage in the event of fire or other issues, as large hangars have always been an Achille's Heel in carrier structure.

The armor scheme of the Prinz-class is identical to that of the Dresden-class cruisers, in that it features a turtleback-style armor layout with two-levels of the 40mm OM-S803 plates and boron carbide ceramics across its belt, with the additional reinforced 50mm of metal matrix composite with boron-nitride fibers interweaved onto its critical components such as the citadel and powerplant, resulting in a total thickness of 80mm overall and 130mm on citadel before composites. It also features a heavy armored deck backed by lighter a spall deck and preceded by a spaced detonation deck.

The flight deck of the Prinz is straight, or axial, and features the island on the left side. While it is intended to operate a combination of helicopters and/or VTOL aircraft, it does feature steam catapults to enable it to launch aircraft with higher payloads and arrestor wires as a redundancy method in case an aircraft must make an emergency landing with its VTOL systems malfunctioning.

For amphibious assault and support operations, the Prinz have a well deck to launch its Dyugon landing craft as well as a modular cargo section that can be used to either transport a combination of troops and armored fighting vehicles in amphibious attack role, or cargo (often additional supplies, ammunition and spare parts) when operating in an ASW/fleet support role. It can carry up to a maximum of 32 Ocelots -or- 16 Jaguars, and up to a maximum of 928 soldiers including both marines and airborne assault troops. Finally, it also has a medical deck with up to 50 beds.

Propulsion
Power aboard the Prinz class carriers is provided by a pair of MKrE1 marine nuclear reactors. These are fast neutron reactors cooled using a bismuth/lead solution of liquid metal and fueled using highly enriched U235. These reactors are optimized for full electrical output rather than steam and power a turbo-electric transmission, which includes two electric motors and propeller shafts. These also supply every onboard systems, including the catapults. The Prinz is somewhat underpowered by the standards of the Volksmarine, this is due to limitations imposed on the design by the presence of large elements like the hangar and cargo, which make structural integrity more difficult to achieve and thus limits the presence of particularly heavy nuclear reactors. It remains nonetheless fast and capable of functionally unlimited autonomy, however.

Armament
The Prinz class carriers follow somewhat in the Soviet hybrid ship design by carrying both aircraft and missiles onboard, although the latter are in much more limited numbers than on the Soviet vessels. two sets of 2x8 universal launch cells are located one fore and one aft of the island, for a total of 32 missiles available. These are almost exclusively reserved for 3M-54 Kalibr anti-submarine missiles or S-300FM air defense missiles, depending on the mission profile.

For its air power, the Prinz is rated to carry a variety of medium helicopters depending on its missile profile. These include mostly Soviet models such as the Mi-17T transport gunship, the Mi-14PL anti-submarine warfare helicopter and the Mi-35M3 attack gunships. More recently, the East German KH-1 Habicht has been tested operationally as well. Finally, the ship may also carry Yak-41M Soviet VTOL fighter aircraft.

Electronics
The main sensor suite for the Prinz-class is the Satellit module of the Goliath system, which includes X and L band multifunction radars as well as active and passive sonars. It is capable of independent actions, but was designed to be capable of networking with others through a Core module for vastly increased performance. Due to the primary role of Anti-Submarine Warfare vessel, particular attention was given to the Sonar half of the suite and a towable sonar can be released to scan with minimal interference.

Countermeasures
The most easily noticeable countermeasure of the Prinz carriers are the anaechoic tiles covering its hull, above its armor. These serve to reduce outgoing noise signature and to partially absorb incoming sonar waves. They are also degaussed via coiling in order to reduce their magnetic signature, further adding to their stealth in Anti-submarine missions. For more conventional countermeasures, the vessel features 4 Kashtan CIWS systems for air defense, one at each corner of the flight deck, and 4 RPK-8 12-tube Anti-submarine rockets capable of taking out torpedoes, divers, and even damage whole submarines. These are set at one third and two third length, on each side.

Bradenburg
The Bradenburg is part of the Kampflotte Reinhard taskforce and is operating in the southern ocean. It is currently outfitted with a mixture of transport and attack gunships

Bohemia
The Bohemia is currently operating in the Baltic area and coordinating Anti-submarine drills and patrols.

Saxony
The Saxony has been ordered for construction at the new Carrier dock at Neptun Werft in Rostock. There are rumors about modifications and updates to the design being under study.