Athfhuaim-class submarine

Athfhuaim class

Class overview
Builders:	Sae Breach Lahan
Operators:	Faneria
Preceded by:	Cinneadh
Succeeded by:	Gallant-class
Built:	1984-1992
In commission:	1988-2010
Planned:	12
Completed:	8
Cancelled:	4
Lost:	1
Scrapped:	6
Preserved:	1
General characteristics
Type:	Nuclear Cruise-missile submarine
Displacement:	5,900 tons submerged
Length:	368 ft (112.1 m)
Beam:	33 ft (10 m)
Draft:	30 ft (9.1 m)
Propulsion:	Single-turbine propulsion powered by 1982-CN(M) PWR nuclear reactor
Speed:	20 knots submerged 15 knots surfaced
Range:	Unlimited
Endurance:	40+ days submerged
Test depth:	700 ft (210 m)
Complement:	96 crew
Armament:	16x VLS cruise missile cells 2x 20 in torpedo tubes, fore (8 torpedoes)

The Athfhuaim-class submarine (Aen. Resound) was a type of nuclear-powered Cruise-missile submarine developed and built by Faneria. Built off of technical plans of the Caphirian Portunus class and lessons learned from Faneria's first nuclear-powered submarine, it aimed to fill the same role as the contemporarily-developed Caphirian Venilia class as a long-range, ambush-based antishipping submarine cabable of harassing enemy fleet groups and destroying vulnerable shipping.

Whereas the Caphirian navy could afford to fund the production of whole squadrons of such vessels for major naval engagements, the Fhainnin Army of the 1970s and 1980s both lacked the budget to fund a squadron-oriended cruise missile submarine program and the desire to commission a large class of nuclear-powered warships while only working off the single in-house example set by the Cinneadh. As a result, the initial proposal of twelve vessels was reduced to a total of eight completed hulls. In reality, Army leadership and planners desired to only produce two or three examples for training a cadre of crews and run through any emerging design issues, but political pressure to deploy submarines to compete with ships of the Kiravian Union and deter Socialist interference the vital Kilikas trade lanes meant building an appreciable number was unavoidable. In an ironic twist, the Union would collapse and ended up being formally reintegrated with the Kiravian Federacy the day after the first hull was laid.

Fears about the newness of Fhainnin crews to nuclear submarines were nearly realized in 1990, when the lead vessel in the class, Athfhuaim, sank in 1990, requiring extensive recovery efforts to recover the reactor and properly decommission it. The retrospective discovery that the reactor's safeguards had already shut it down, working perfectly even submerged hundreds of meters below the surface, helped reassure military officials enough to approve the development of the successive Gallant-class in larger numbers. In spite of this, the loss of the engineers aboard even one of the new ships hampered the training of new nuclear technical specialists and marred the reputation of the class among servicemen.

The second-in-class, Nechtan, was named for the pagan Caphirian god Nethuns in honor of Caphirian contributions to Faneria's nuclear submarine program. Nechtan was the only vessel of the class to be preserved (minus its reactor), and as of 2030 was undergoing further refurbishment work prior to sale to a private Cartadanian citizen as an 'experience hotel'. The role of the class was entirely superceded by the more capable Gallant-class which followed it, which were capable of both a cruise and ballistic role and posessed a range of hard and soft-category improvements over the Athfhuaims.