|This article, Minerva-class Prowler, was written by Ajax 013. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission.|
- "Go silent. They'll never spot us then."
- ―Captain Vivian Benato, Third Battle of Linna
The Minvera-class Prowler is the UNSC's primary stealth vessel for low profile infiltration, exfiltration, information gathering and interdiction. The vessel is virtually invisible to both the naked eye and the scanning systems of nearly everly every faction. It is coated in ablative stealth systems and stealth paint, rendering it RADAR absorbent and near invisible to RADAR, reducing its cross section to something closer to flotsam or jetsam found in space. Matte black paint and active camoflague systems render it invisible to the naked eye also, meaning even when ships are normally visible against suns or planets, it remains invisible. Thanks to heat and radiation sinks as well it is incapable of giving off cherenkov radiation or heat signatures, meaning it cannot be detected leaving slipspace. These however are a double edged sword and depending on how active the ship is these sinks must be dumped, giving off massive heat and radiation signatures or the crew will be cooked or irradiated or both, while still alive. The ship can operate for a few days under full silence without having to dump its sinks or a few hours under full motion. The Slipspace engine dumps into a seperate radiation and heat sink, meaning it can be charged or left charged without fear of it killing the crew and left charged during a operation for a speedy exit. The ship itself is barely armed, with a handful of point defence lasers and missiles and a few Archer pods. During operations both the shielding and the point defence lasers are left offline or in standby, with at least the lasers ready to operate to reduce the chance of their energy signature being picked up, being visually seen or being a target. The ship features a wide range of electronic warfare gear including short range slipspace scrambler, radio scramblers, active cancellation pods, counter guidance systems and warfare direction systems. It also features a deep scan, high power Synthetic Array RADAR that is mounted in a linear fashion along the keel of the ship that is used for observing ground positions The ship is shaped much like a arrow head with two egg shaped engine pods. The hull is on one part, smooth plating and on the other angular shrouds, reducing its chances of detection. It is possible for the ship to go into 'silent running' where it simple lies still, drifts or goes into a stable orbit, with all systems focused on stealth and keep the engines, slipspace drive and defence weapons on standby, with little else being powered, par life support. While 'silent running' it can quietly observe the enemy or lie in wait for days on end.
The augment it's sensor array it has a Magnetic Array. This array detects magnetic anomalies caused by ships, through long-range electric and electromagnetic field detection arrays of great sensitivity and uses this to home in on them. The Magnetic Array is incredibly accurate and has a long range of 200,000 kilometres and is highly resistant to jamming methods, detection and interference. On top of that, stealth systems, such as RADAR resistance and optical camouflage, don't effect its capabilities.
In it's electronic warfare role, it carries not only the standard electronic warfare systems of UNSC warships, but it also mounts PAVE RAPTOR and PAVE PALADIN electronic warfare systems. The PAVE RAPTOR is capable of intercepting and deciphering radio systems, intercepting RADAR transmissions and intercepting MASER transmissions and then tracking the source and jamming it through low detectable directed narrow ban jamming or wide area jamming, at the cost of stealth. It has the added functionality of being able to feed false information to any of the above sensor or communication systems, further confusing enemy forces or preform active cancellation, sending out directed, well timed signals on the correct wavelength to 'cancel' enemy RADAR, Radio or MASER signatures, resulting in a 'silence'. The second pod is a Electronic Protection system, the PAVE PALADIN that interferes with enemy attempts to intercept and jam communication and detection systems by producing narrow beam 'burn outs' that confuse and jam enemy attempts to jam them. Along with that, it uses a CPU driven decryption system that protects against attempts to intercept communication systems or boost cyber warfare attacks by the ship-board A.I..
"Apparently there were three Minerva classes at Linna. I never saw them..."
"Sure, its not as potent as the Athena is but its alot nippier and less of a target."
"Served on one for four years... its like a oven... all the time."
Ships of the line
- UNSC Minerva
- UNSC Windtalker
- UNSC Theron
- UNSC Black Lagoon
- UNSC Fuchikoma
- UNSC Wagner
- UNSC Black Summer
- UNSC Idolator
- UNSC Silent Assassin
- UNSC Kisaragi