Ra Cailum class battleship

In the fictional Mobile Suit Gundam universe, the Ra Cailum (sometimes spelled Lar Kairum, both pronounced Rock-eye-loom, first of its eponymous class) was the last battleship line commissioned by the Earth Federation. The class was designed to both excel in conventional ship-to-ship battles and support mobile warfare, incorporating 2 launch catapults for a maximum of 8 mobile suits. The class has 4 duel-barrel main beam turrets, 22 secondary anti-aircraft guns, and six missile launcher tubes. The class also has eight engines and a pair of cooling fins to help improve fuel consumption and increase speed.

In design, the Ra Cailum class owed a great deal to the previous Irish class battleship and the Alexandria class cruiser. Very little design legacy remained from the old, mothballed Magellan class battleships. The Ra Cailum class also served as a model for the Federation's Clop class cruisers, which were constructed around the same time as the Ra Cailum class. The Ra Cailum class battleship was one of the largest and most powerful warships ever launched by the Earth Federation Space Forces, and remained in service until the last days of the Federation.

The first Ra Cailum class battleship, the Ra Cailum, debuted in UC0093 as the flagship of the Londo Bell task force. The Ra Cailum was commanded by Captain Bright Noa, and played a major role in the Second Neo-Zeon War, by first rescuing a disabled civilian shuttle carrying important government officials, then later launching an impressive nuclear barrage against the asteroid Axis, and lastly by infiltrating a team of mini-moble suits (or MMS) to destroy Axis from the inside with nuclear explosives.

Decades later, during the League Militaire's struggle against the Zanscare Empire, the LM leader Hangelg Uso managed to persuade support from a regular Federation fleet under the command of Admiral Mubarak Stern, who used a Ra Calium class ship named Jeanne d'Arc as the flagship. Interestingly, the Jeanne d'Arc was fitted with a beam shield, which reduced the damage done by an enemy ship'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 immediately available.

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