Brought into service in the late 26th Century, roughly fifty years before the outbreak of
the Terran/Kilrathi War, the Yorktown-Class Light Carrier was a popular but largely outdated
vessel, that became a crucial part of the Confederation Navy long after its scheduled
decommissioning.
Following the catastrophic losses suffered by the Confederation in the so called ‘False
Armistice Incident’, hundreds of outmoded vessels previously relegated to patrol duties
were redeployed to serve as the primary Terran fighting force in the war with the Kilrathi,
placing the Yorktown Class Carrier at the centre of almost every major engagement.
720 meters in length with a dry weight of 28,000 tons, the Yorktown’s frame is simple
and utilitarian, built around a single long flight deck, open at both ends, and designed
to refuel, rearm and redeploy strike craft with total efficiency.
The Yorktown is only moderately armoured but carries very powerful shields, allowing the
vessel to protect both itself and its embarked craft from harm.
The carrier is not to designed to engage hostile warships, but rather to provide a staging
ground for strike craft, and as such, the ship relies entirely upon its battlegroup
and fighter complement when under fire.
The Yorktown’s weapons complement is geared almost entirely toward anti-fighter defence,
and consists of eleven dual-mount laser turrets spread across the carrier’s frame.
Should the vessel be forced into combat with a hostile warship with no apparent means of
escape, it can employ a single anti-capital missile launcher, capable of loading a variety
of warheads, but this is considered to be a weapon of last resort, and should not be
relied upon regularly.
The standard strike craft complement of a Yorktown Class Light Carrier consists of 40
ships, normally made up of F-27 Arrow-5 Interceptors, Hellcat-5 Attack Fighters, HF-66 Thunderbolt-7
Heavy Fighters and FA-76 Longbow Torpedo Bombers.
Under extraordinary circumstances, some Yorktown class vessels have also been provided with
a small number of F-103 Excalibur Space Superiority Fighters, a ship famed for its near-perfect
combat record, and advanced stealth capabilities.
Easily the most famous example of a Yorktown Class Carrier, is that of the TCS Victory,
commanded by Captain William Eisen in the closing years of the Kilrathi War.
Enduring months of brutal combat against vessels far superior to itself, the Victory and her
fighter wing, commanded by the legendary Colonel Christopher Blair, were able to turn the tide
in the confederation’s favour across numerous systems, and were ultimately selected to play
a crucial role in Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn’s final strategy, with which he hoped to completely
destroy the Kilrathi Empire.
In 2669, the Victory and her battlegroup were deployed to escort the newly developed TCS
Behemoth, a colossal mobile superweapon intended to destroy the Kilrathi homeworld, but after
the Behemoth was destroyed by Kilrathi stealth fighters in an unexpected ambush, the Victory
and her crew were forced to quickly improvise a new strategy.
The carrier was provided with a prototype weapon known as a Temblor Bomb, designed to
exploit the natural seismic instability of the Kilrathi homeworld, and in a near-suicidal
long-range fighter attack, the Victory’s squadrons were able to carry the weapon to
their target and destroy the Kilrathi homeworld, though they lost many veteran pilots in the
attempt.
The incredible accomplishments of the TCS Victory and her fellow Yorktown Class vessels,
had a powerful effect on the post-war Confederation Navy, inspiring a number of new designs closely
based on the Yorktown and its contemporaries.
Most notable of these was the Concordia Class Fleet Carrier, whose design closely follows
that of the Yorktown, while heavily modernising its equipment
and technologies.