Parizhskaya Kommuna -part I

The Парижская коммуна (Parizhskaya Kommuna) battleship is one of the oldest ships displayed in the blog. It was the first battle torchship that was gas-giant and even Kuiper-belt capable -albeit at slow speed. Later reclassified as coastal battleship then monitor, it was with its sister-ship Октябрьской революции (October Revolution) a class of its own until the Chinese launched the similar Ting Yen class (the United States initially opting for smaller vessels).

The design itself is quite straightforward: the whole ship is built around its powerplant -weighting more than 80% of its total dry displacement. A single forward laser turret and a nose torpedo accelerator make up the main armament. The helium 3 tanks are protected by the hull and the lateral battle radiators.

When engaging targets in the frontal arc (as shown in the picture above with the laser in firing configuration), the Parizhskaya Kommuna has a good profile with well slanted armor.

The engine is the massive Soloviev D-80S inertial confinement fusion reactor. The fuel is helium 3 and deuterium, contained in six well insulated spherical tanks. The tanks are of advanced design and show limited leakage, especially compared with Chinese ones.

Although it is heavily armed, the Parizhskaya Kommuna suffers from unsufficient heat dispersing capability -a flaw inherent to many early soviet designs. It is notably incapable of firing both its engine and weapons without a 10 minute cooldown period. The October Revolution would be later modified with larger non-foldable radiators that would alleviate the issue, at a price of an increased vulnerability.

Both ships of the class would meet a tragic fate, as they were both lost with all hands in accidents when test-firing their engines after a periodic overhaul.