Hai-Xing is one of the capital ships intended for collaborationist navies raised in countries defeated by what would become founders/permanent-members of the United New Order Nations, part of a gradual-relaxation of the unwritten policy exercised by core UNON members that client states, whose governments exist more often than not just to rubber-stamp UNON occupation of overseas territories, shall never be given qualitative parity. In the past, only patrol craft and old destroyers were sold or otherwise given to collaborationist navies; even if agreements were made on the transfers of several warships of light cruiser class or above, most ended up being negated, and for all intents and purposes those warships are to serve core UNON navies until they fall apart.
Over time, however, home-grown political tensions in core UNON members and subsequent operations to suppress domestic dissidents have spreaded their military strength thin, prompting them one by one to consider giving their client states a more substantial role in the defence of their interest overseas. An impressive-looking array of collaborationist armies would also serve as useful propaganda tools. To that end, at first some capital ships that had venerable combat services were sold off, and they were later joined by newly-constructed vessels that were deliberately made significantly better than what collaborationist navies had but less capable overall than warships serving core UNON navies.
Like other ships built for this purpose,
Hai-Xing itself appeared impressive on paper, offering a fixed-wing naval aviation capability and a suite of heavy naval artillery to a navy that lacks both in a single package, but at the same time the design is a compromise- and not a very refined one. Due to the two twin 12"/50 gun turrets and eight twin 140mm gun casemates, the flight deck and hangar space are too small for a truly multi-role airwing; that space ends up being shared by a small air defence detachment (this became especially apparent when the air defence detachment enters supersonic age- the F-8 Crusader is acquired because one, the collaborationist government's request for the F-4 Phantom is blocked by core UNON nations, and two, the ship is unable to support the F-4 or its swing-wing evolution anyway) and a helicopter detachment. The ship's main and secondary guns are effective against both naval (light cruisers and below) and shore-based targets, but it is vulnerable against retaliations from 6-inch guns and heavier as well. It's axial-deck aviation facility means that the experience of being catapulted over forward turrets would also prove somewhat turbulent to fighter pilots serving aboard. All in all, it combines the capability of a large light cruiser with that of an escort carrier, but considering the collaborationist navy flagship that it replaced is a 860-ton gunboat, it represented an improvement nonetheless.
For all its shortcomings, however, the ship does have adequate speed and maneuverability to actually keep up with UNON fleet operations, and its crew- always hand-picked out of a pool of personnel well-trained by a meticulously-run local naval academy- are known for their discipline, professionalism, and loyalty to the collaborationist government. Throughout its career its captains, crew, and naval aviators have played their roles intelligently and professionally given the limitations of their ships, a fact that was respected even by Resistance captains who fled the UNON and collaborationist forces from the world's Far East region and therefore resented what it stands for as a collaborationist fleet flagship.
The ship has been very active in providing convoy escort and naval gunfire support to UNON and collaborationist forces, and while
Hai-Xing was never converted into a full carrier because core UNON members are reluctant to allow client states to possess aviation vessels with greater capacity than that of an escort carrier, continuous upgrade has been made to keep it as relevant as possible, and the ship's crew took very good care of it in the meantime. Along the way the ship gained a true blind-fire capability for its main and secondary guns, some anti-ship missiles, a new island, more space for provisions used by onboard aircraft complement due to the removal of the forward twin 140mm guns, modern CIWS, and finally two octaple VL SAM-16 active-radar-guided point-defence missile launchers located between the island and the smokestack at starboard side. The helicopters were replaced with a type that has an AEW variant (although this eats into the number of ASW/SAR heloes embarked), and the F-8 fighter jet detachment ditched their overworked mounts in favour of zero-timed airframes taken from storage and then given cockpit and weapon upgrades. Some old 25mm autocannons were retained in single mounts for use against close-in surface targets such as small boats and floating mines.
Now, decades after its entry into active service and having been joined in the fleet by a fast escort carrier,
Hai-Xing is about to be involved in the ensuing chaos following UNON's first encounter with explorers from parallel universe......
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This was originally intended as a "shoot" idea to be named "Shi-Lang"...... but then I spent too much time on it and decided that it's more acceptable to see the darn thing as just something crazy than as a shoot. Nonetheless, comments and suggestions are welcomed.
