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Baron Battle Carrier

"Before the first standard Baron even entered active service it was recognized that the lack of fighter cover and point defense would leave Baron squads highly vulnerable to strike craft attack unless supported by the older pre-war time Avador class escort carriers. Since these carriers were very few and extremely valuable they were already spread thin patrolling and protecting much of APF space without needing to escort larger vessels like the Barons. To remedy this issue a proposal was made to modify Baron hull numbers 14, 15, and 16 into a battle carrier variant that could carry a small fighter escort into combat. This modification involved reworking the super structure to include a deck on top for holding 2 fighters as well as swapping one main turret for another deck for a third fighter. This combined with the swapping of the 2 side turrets for 2 rapid fire dual purpose assault turrets reduced the overall armament slightly, from 5 main turrets down to 2 with 2 secondaries. However the main rail battery remained intact and combined with the ability to carry strike craft made the Battle Carrier variant a fearsome foe at long range. There were some flaws with this stopgap rushed designed such as a lack of support facility for the craft it carried due to being a conversion. While the design saw some success operating with other Barons and providing fighter cover the reduced weapons of the design made it less suited for the aggressive and high speed tactics that began to be used by Baron crews and the design fell out of favor when new carriers could be introduced to fill the role."