Ra Cailum class battleship

In the fictional Gundam universe, the Ra Cailum (pronouced Rock-eye-loom, first of its eponymous class) is the last battleship line built. The class was constructed to make use of Mobile Suits, so it incorporates two launch catapults into its design. The class has four two-barrel main beam turrets, twenty-two secondary Anti-Aircraft guns, and six missle tubes. The class also has eight engines and a pair of cooling fins to help improve fuel comsumption and increase speed.

In design, the Ra Cailum class owed a great deal to the Anti Earth Union Group's Irish class battleship and the Earth Federation's Alexandria class cruiser. Very little design legacy remained from the old, mothballed Magellan-class ships. The Ra Cailum also served as a model for the Federation's Clop class vessels, which were constructed around the same time as the Ra Cailum class.

The first Ra Calium class ship debuted in U.C.0093 as the flagship of the Londo Bell task force. The Ra Cailum was commanded by Captain Noah, and played a major role in the film Char's Counterattack, by first rescue-ing a disable civilian shuttle, then later launching an impressive nuclear barrage against the astroid Axis, and lastly by infiltrating a team of mini moble suits (or MMS) to destroy Axis from the inside.

Several years later, during the League Militare's struggle against the Zanscare Empire, the LM used a Ra Calium Class ship named Jeanne D'Arc, which was under the command of Admiral Mubarak Stern. Interstingly, the Jeanne D'arc was fiited with a beam shield, which reduced the damage done by an enemy mobile suit's beam weaponry.

There was only one major Ra Cailum-class refit program, in which at least one ship, Admiral Tianem, was refit. However, statistics on this refit type were not immediatly avalible.

As battleships, the Ra Cailum class combined good defense, large mobile suit carrying capacity, powerful engines and weapons and long endurance. However, their service was largely unremarkable owing to the steadily deteriorating state of the Earth Federation during the second Universal Century.

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