The history of imperial airships (usagipost)

*The Yabounousagi Empire has a rather brief history with their use of airships, mostly due to their aerial warfare doctrine involves high speed, high intensity combat and an emphasis on mobility. As airships usually do not fit well within this type of doctrine, military officials had traditionally saw them as a niche, useful for only close-air support and battlefield reconnaissance. Thus the empire only operates two classes of airships, with a third to enter service soon. An important aspect to take note is that all airships are registered and operated by the Imperial Okuno Navy’s Imperial Fleet Air Arm instead of the Imperial Okuno Air Service and all airships follow the same naming convention as other naval assets.*

*Chiyodagata-class gunship*

*The empire’s first domestically developed airship, it had served for many decades as their only combat airship. It was developed to provide close-air support to amphibious and ground forces as well as naval patrolling. The Chiyodagata-class’s design followed that of a conventional zeppelin with slight modifications to overcome most environmental challenges. The airships are powered by 8 Hachisuka Ha-5 air-cooled radial engines and helium is used increase buoyancy. Their armour are 25 mm super-duralumin armour protecting the canvas and 31 mm steel armour for the canopy. It is equipped with either ten Type 92 heavy machineguns or ten Type 92 13mm autocannons as its main armaments. It also features HF two-way radios and four search lamps for night-time operations. Despite the increased capabilities of air units, the Chiyodagata-class provides superior firepower than other in-service ground-attack aircraft. The Chiyodagata-class include the Chiyodagata, Maya, Atago, Akagi, Choukai, Ohshima and Banjo.*


*Mimasaka-class Special Purpose Airship/Sky-battleship*

*Due to the increased sophistication and firepower and increasing potency of airships deployed by several nations (like the Luana’s Wrath and the Will of Asmodeus), both the Ministry of Warfare and the Ministry of National Defence were forced to revaluate the importance and place of airships in conventional warfare and contemporary use. The sudden prevalence of these heavier airships led to the term ‘sky-battleship’ in news and civilian media, due to the destructive power wielded by these aircraft being comparable to that of a battleship. In response to this potential threat, both ministries approved many defence programs, the first of which were to investigate the characteristics of these aircraft, their roles and designs and the later being development programs. Both the Army and Navy Technical Research Offices offered each a solution these airships. The Army’s proposal was a class of aircraft that are equipped with high-calibre armaments to engage these battleships, named airship-destroyers. The Navy’s proposal was a ‘sky-battleship’ design of their own, arguing that the empire such also invest in this type of airship. Both proposals were accepted and the Navy Technical Research Office had begun with their ‘Ten-year project’, a series of smaller research programs to develop all the technologies needed to produce a ‘sky-battleship’, all the while their design would be revised and modified to accommodate those developments. The end result was the Mimasaka-class Special Purpose Airship.*

*The Mimasaka-class Special Purpose Airship was designed as a sky-battleship, heavy bomber and airbourne light aircraft carrier. Mimasaka’s profile still followed that of a zeppelin, due to its aerodynamic stability and use of lighter-than-air gasses to provide a portion of lift due to buoyancy. The Mimasaka is powered six Mitsuoka Mirai axial-flow, elemental turbojet engines and contains three helium gas pods for buoyancy. The armour is 310 mm micro-recrystallised titanium-super-duralumin alloy around the main fuselage, layered with 55 mm of nylon-steel mesh cladding, providing equivalent protection as the empire’s mainline naval battleships. 345mm micro-recrystallised super-duralumin armour is used for the internal flight deck. The Mimasaka’s main armament is two Type 97 450mm aircraft cannons, a modified version of the Type 94 naval gun and its secondary armaments are four Type 5 150 mm anti-aircraft guns, controlled by two Type 100 fire-control computers. The Mimasaka are equipped with 12 Type 96 semi-automated 25mm twin autocannon turrets, controlled by three Type 1 fire-control computers. The turrets can be manually overridden if there is a fault with the computers or if the computers’ are disabled for some reason. The Mimasaka has two bomb bays built around the internal flight deck, which can carry 2,900 kilograms of bombs, six air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles, three Type 93 torpedoes or a single Type 0 implosion-type nuclear bomb each at high altitude or 9,100 kilograms of bombs, fourteen air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles, eleven Type 93 torpedoes or one Type 0 implosion-type nuclear bombs each at low altitude. It can carry 8 Type 45 heavy fighters, 12 Type 86 jet fighters, 12 Type 61 fighter planes or 8 Type 27 air-superiority jet fighters. The Mimasaka features HF radios, one Type 99 bombing-assist radar, two Type 98 magnetic anomaly detectors, one Type 91 ESM antenna, one Type 0 airbourne early warning/intercept radar, two Type 1 arcano-mechnical scrying sensors, one Type 1 cognito-protection computer and two Type 99 point-defence barrier projectors. The Mimasaka was completed and christened on 3**^(rd)* *day of the 4**^(th)* *month on the 2685**^(th)* *year and saw its first combat deployment during the Planer Siege against Bel’s forces. Only the Mimasaka is included in the Mimasaka-class, but three others are on order.*


*Amagi-class Sky-cruiser*

*As the construction of the Mimasaka was nearing completion, the Navy Technical Research Office came to the realisation that creating an entire sky fleet of Mimasaka-class airships would be financially unfeasible. Instead of drafting a completely new design, they opted to use a smaller and much more simplified version of the Mimasaka’s design. Currently, only the Amagi has been constructed, but is still completing trials. The Amagi is powered by two Mitsuoka Mirai axial-flow, elemental turbojet engines and has a single, central helium gas pod for buoyancy. The armour is 122 mm micro-recrystallised titanium-super-duralumin alloy around the main fuselage and 140 mm micro-recrystallised super-duralumin armour is used for the internal flight deck. The Amagi’s main armament is two 225 mm Type 91 naval guns and 10 Type 96 25mm twin autocannons. The Amagi also has two bomb bays around the internal flight deck, which can carry 1,300 kilograms of bombs, one Type 93 torpedo, one air-to-air or air-to-surface missile each. It can carry three Type 86 jet fighters, three Type 61 fighter planes or one Type 27 air-superiority fighter. The Amagi features HF radios, one Type 99 bombing-assist radar, one Type 91 ESM antenna, three Type 100 aerial-intercept radars, one Type 99 point-defence barrier projector, one Type 1 cognito-protection computer. If the Amagi completes its trials with satisfactory performance, it and other airships of its class will supplement the Mimasaka-class airships.*