Lexington-class

The Midway-class fleet carrier if the Galactic Federation's premiere mobile suit carrier in Mobile Suit Gundam Alpha. Thirteen of these vessels would be constructed, one which being the main protagonists' warship Ark Royal.

Appearance
Essentially an enlarged Grey Phantom style Pegasus-class carrier. General design is that of the Phantom but changed around to reflect futuristic design aesthetics and far greater size, complete with aft engine blocks akin to the Girty Lue from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. Colors are the Federation's standard of gunmetal grey with navy blue highlights.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
Functionally equivalent to the modern day aircraft carrier, the Midway-class' primary role is to launch and recover mobile suits. For this purpose, they carry a far larger allotment of mobile suits than most other warships: their immense hangar bays can hold a total of forty-eight mobile suits, divided into four squadrons, a number only exceeded by the Federation's Trafalgar-class dreadnought and Zeon Empire's Bismarck-class super dreadnought. Because of this, Midway-class ships enjoy more freedom on the battlefield, since they do not have to stick in packs for protection against enemy mobile suits. Thus, as Midway-class ships carry their own MS with them at all times they are somewhat less dependent on their main guns and anti-aircraft/anti-MS guns for protection. To deploy them, the Midway-class holds a total of four linear launch catapults (two in each bow "arm"), which are capable of launching the carrier's total number of mobile suits in roughly four to five minutes.

For propulsion the Midway-class relies primarily on standard particle engines, of which there are eight, and holds two onboard Apollo Reactors to serve as its powerplants. The combination of these two features allows the Midway to reach sub-light speeds which surpass ships akin to its size, essentially marking them as fast carriers. For faster than light travel, the Midway-class is equipped with a Mk. X Hyperdrive, one of the highest rated hyperdrives around, allowing it to travel over large interstellar routes in less amounts of time than most other Federation ships.

As well, what makes this class particularly effective is the addition of a Combat Direction Center (CDC) within its bridge tower, a feature not employed on warships since the waning years of the Anno Domini era. This not only allows a Midway-class carrier to coordinate and direct its own mobile suits in the most efficient manner possible, but also those of other warships, thus establishing these carriers as centerpieces for entire taskforces and fleets. It is for this reason that the Zeon particularly fear this class, such that they've made their destruction a priority in any engagement.

For direct combat the Midway-class is equipped with eight two-barrel mega beam cannons for ship-to-ship combat and orbital bombardments, six of which are mounted at the base of each "arm" (three each on the top and bottom sections) and angled toward the bow while two others mounted just behind the bridge tower and angled aft (also on the top and bottom), forty "standard" beam cannons for point defense and forty missile launchers for mass barrages and projectile attacks. These armaments make the Midway-class as much a battleship as it is a carrier. Combined with its mobile suit loadout, these ships are formidable opponents, as verified by the combat records of ships like the Enterprise and Ark Royal.

Armaments

 * Mark XXXI Mega Beam Cannon
 * Main armament. As one can see from the name, these cannons are for more powerful than standard beam weapons, such that they hold enough destructive force to obliterate a cruiser in a single barrage. As well, their great firing range allows them to be used against targets beyond visual range, as well as be employed in planetary bombardments. However, this is offset by their slower rate of fire, which makes them highly ineffective in the point defense role.


 * Mark XXIII Beam Cannon
 * Secondary armament. While far less powerful than mega beam cannons, these "standard" cannons have a greater rate of fire, making them especially suited for point defense against enemy mobile suits, missiles and other small craft. The Midway-class in particular carriers forty of these around its hull, giving it far greater than average defense than most other Federation warships.


 * Mark XXXII Missile Launcher
 * Secondary armament. The Midway-class carriers forty missile tubes in its bow and stern, allowing it to enact full on missile barrages against enemy fleets. As well, these tubes can hold and launch a wide number of missile types, from standard high explosive weapons to beam diffusion warheads to even nuclear missiles. Its targeting system is also particularly advanced, such that very few targets are able to evade a lock on.

System Features

 * Combat Direction Center (CDC)
 * Considered the defining feature of the Midway-class, as well as the main reason the Zeon fear this class. A design element originally prevelent in ocean based warships (namely aircraft carriers) of the AD era, the Combat Direction Center was not passed on to Star Force warships, as ship bridges had since been redesigned to handle command and control operations directly. Even when Star Force warships began fielding fighters, and later mobile suits, they usually held a much smaller allotment of craft than the aircraft carriers of the past, thus only necessitating a single bridge officer (nicknamed the "Bridge Bunny", after the Federation's tendency to place women in this role) to handle CDC operations.


 * However, because the Midway-class was designed to carry a larger amount of mobile suits than most other ships to date, thus necessitating multiple operators to handle the different MS teams, the designers at Utopia Planitia Shipyards would revisit the ancient concept. As such, the Midway would become the first ship line in over three hundred years to be equipped with a CDC (which was placed under the bridge tower), thereby allowing for effective coordination of its mobile suit forces.


 * And as an added bonus, the CDC had an additional capability that had only been discovered in the initial battles of the First Galactic War; by linking its sensor and communications network to other mobile suits beside the Midways contingent, a single carrier could take control over an entirely fleet's mobile suit force, thereby increasing its organization and effectiveness by a large percentage. This proved to be a major boon for the Federation, as the centralized command and control that the Midways provided made battle tactics easier to implement, especially when the Zeon, having yet to adapt a similar system, remained disjointed in commanding their Zaku forces. As such, the Zeon would respond by specifically targeting Midways and then focusing the bulk of their forces toward sinking them, to the point that entire operations were planned for the sake of destroying even a single Midway.


 * Mk. X Hyperdrive System
 * The Midway-class carries an Mk. X rated hyperdrive, one of the highest ever rated, thereby allowing it to travel along entire stellar routes in only a matter of days' time. This makes the class highly effective as interceptors and rapid response vessel, as they are capable of responding to enemy incursions far faster than other Federation ships. The tradeoff is these hyperdrives require much in the way of power, thus necessitating the Midway-class to carry two onboard Apollo Reactors instead of one.

History
By the time the First Galactic War had begun, only twelve Midway-class ships had been produced and commissioned by the Galactic Federation. These ships usually served as power centers and flagships for their assigned fleets, where despite the ineffectiveness of their Guncannon series mobile suits against Imperial Zakus, the fleet carriers' sheer firepower and ability to coordinate MS attacks made them extremely successful in engagements. As such, the Zeon have made it a point to target these fleet carriers, which in turn made the Federal Forces all the more adamant of protecting them, creating sizable taskforces whose sole purpose were to escort and defend these carriers. Unfortunately however, the majority of the Midway-class would still end up being sunk early on, such that after the First Galactic War's onset, only four would remain: the Enterprise, Lexington, Soryu and Hiryu.

However, in GC 378, the Galactic Federation would produce a thirteenth Midway, the Ark Royal. At first it was no different than any of its sister ships, though she had notably taken part in several battles and fleet engagements early on. One of these engagements was the Battle of Arcturus, where the Ark Royal made her infamous retreat just after being nearly destroyed by Zeon ace Commander Char Aznable. This event would later be referred to as Bright's Retreat (after XO Commander Bright Noa, who gave the command), and would mark the ship with certain stigma throughout Star Force.

Upon her refurbishment following Arcturus, the Ark Royal would be assigned to newly promoted Captain Bright Noa, who succeeded the late Captain Paulo Cassius. From there, the Ark Royal would take part in other engagements against Zeon, including the infamous Battle of Riah. Much later on, she would be sent on a top secret mission to the distant space colony Shangri-La in the Durga System on the Outer Rim, which also served as secret proving grounds for new Federation weapons. The mission was to retrieve three top secret mobile suit prototypes and return them to Earth. This would mark the beginning of the Ark Royal's change in legacy, as upon retrieving the mobile suits she would be hounded upon by a Zeon taskforce led by the since promote Captain Char Aznable, forcing her to go into combat without a support fleet. From then on, the Zeon would take special interest in the fleet carrier, as well as the three prototype Gundam mobile suits that she was carrying, and the Federation would exploit this as a distraction against the Zeon Empire while they mustered their power to regain the offensive.

Fittingly, Midway-class was named after the Battle of Midway from World War II, while the individual ships were named after various aircraft carriers that participated in that war. After the pathfinder, six ships were named after American carriers, four after Japanese carriers, and two after British carriers.