Starships: Dreadnought

Mass Effect
The dreadnought is the ultimate arbiter of space welfare; millions of tons of metal, ceramic, and polymer dedicated to the projection of firepower against an enemy vessel of like ability. No sane commander would face a dreadnought with anything less than another dreadnought.

A dreadnought's power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts range from 800 meters to one kilometer long, with a main gun of commensurate length. An 800-meter mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one 2 kg. slug to a velocity of 283 km/s every 2 seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of 38 kilotons of TBT, three times the energy released by the fission weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.

When used to bombard planets, some of this kinetic energy is lost due to atmospheric re-entry friction. As a rule of thumb, each Earth-atmosphere of air pressure saps 20% of a projectiles impact energy.

The turian fleet presently has 37 dreadnoughts; the asari, 21; and the salarians, 16. Humanity has six, with one additional hull under construction at Arcturus Station. Alliance battleships are named for mountains on Earth.

Everest Class; Everest, Fuji, Elbrus

Kilimanjaro Class: kilimanjaro, Tai Shan, Shasta, Aconcagua (under construction)

Mass Effect 2

 * Note: The codex entry for Mass Effect 2 is under "Starships: Dreadnoughts".

The ultimate arbiter of space welfare, the dreadnought employs millions of tons of metal, ceramic, and polymer in the projection of firepower against an enemy vessel of like ability. No sane commander would face a dreadnought without a dreadnought of his or her own.

A dreadnought's power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts range from 800 meters to one kilometer long, with main guns of commensurate length. An 800-meter mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one 20 kg slug to a velocity of 4025 km/s (1.3% of light speed) every two seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of 38 kilotons of TBT, enough to destroy the infrastructure of a mid-sized city and kill half a million people.

Because of air friction, planets with atmospheres do not feel a slug's full devastation. Atmospheric drag reduces impact force by 20% per Earth-atmosphere of air.

At present, the turian fleet possesses 39 dreadnoughts, the asari 20, and the salarians 16. Each of the human Alliance's eight dreadnoughts is named for terrestrial mountains.

Everest Class; Everest, Fuji, Elbrus

Kilimanjaro Class: Kilimanjaro, Tai Shan, Shasta, Aconcagua, Orizaba