| Irish class battleship |
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| Fast Facts |
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| Ship Type | Battleship |
| Class: | Irish |
| Launched: | Universal Century 0087? |
| Class Fate: | Production ended UC 0088 |
| General Characteristics |
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| Displacement: | Unknown |
| Length: | Unknown |
| Beam: | Unknown |
| Draft: | Unknown |
| Armament: | 2-barrel main gun x2,
main gun x5 |
| Mobile Suit Complement: | 8 |
| Ships of the Line | Irish, Radish |
In the fictional Gundam universe, at the outbreak of the Grypps Conflict, the Anti-Earth Union Group (AUEG) relised that it would require more than just the Salamis Kai-class ships to effectively fight against the Titans, so it was decided to comission a limited number of battleships to act as command vessels for the AEUG's officers. The result of their work was the Irish class battleship.
The Irish class was the first battleship ever comissioned by the Federation with the ability to carry and deploy Mobile Suits, as such it is not as dependant on its main guns, as was the case with the Magellan class and Birmingham class battleships. The Irish class sports two two-barrel main beam turrets, and five secondary single-barrel beam turrets. The ship also sports three launch catapults- two on the bow and one in the aft, which gives the Irish class a clear relation to the Argama-class assault cruisers, which were under construction around the same time as the Irish class. The Irish class was designed and equiped with twelve rear thruster, giving the class a speed advantage against enemy ships, not unlike the American designed Iowa class battleships. It does not appear that these ships were given any anti-aircraft defense, meaning they probably relied on their own mobile suits for defense against enemy MS.
The Irish class performed exceptionally well during the Grypps Conflict, and the remaining Irish class vessels were reportedly circulated back into the Earth Federal Space Force at the end of the conflict. The Irish class would become a model for future Federation battleship development due to its successes in combining firepower with MS capabilities. However, at the same time, the loss of Radish at the end of the war underscored the vulnerability of large ships to mobile suit assault.
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