Doritea

Unit type: attack carrier
Manufacturer: Atlantic Federation
Dimensions: length 389.6 meters
Armament: 2 x 2-barrel 280mm cannon, all fore; 12 x 2-barrel antiaircraft machine gun, 4 port, 4 starboard, 4 island; 4 x 16-tube antiaircraft missile launcher, 2 fore, 2 aft; 6 x 20mm vulcan gun, 2 port, 2 starboard, 2 aft
Powerplant: 2 x pressurized water nuclear reactor, output rated at 104500 kW each
Performance: cruising speed 24 knots
Propulsion: 4 x screw drive
Hangar capacity: 40 mobile suits
Catapults: 4

Once the flagships of the Earth Federation's naval squadrons, the Doritea class is one of the largest surface warfare vessels fielded by any armed force in Earth's history. With a displacement of upwards of a quarter million tons, the catamaran Doritea appears at first glance to be two pre-mobile suit aircraft carriers joined together in a mirror image with a very large tower, and while the comparison isn't totally inapt, the ship was designed as a carrier for mobile suits from the ground up.

The Doritea was one of several ship classes that fell into the hands of the Atlantic Federation by proxy of its occupation of post-Interregnum EF Navy facilities in South America. With their heavy armament and ability to field dozens of Daughtress Fliers and Valients at once, the Doritea was something of a mobile fortress for Federation commanders, and included full command and control facilities for managing other ships and coastal assets during amphibious invasions. With cavernous hangars in each hull, up to forty mobile suits can be stored on their backs utilizng both deckside and centerline elevators used to bring them to the flight deck (and allow an upright posture). Archaic but functional steam-powered catapults are then used to fling flying mobile suits into the air or amphibious mobile suits into the sea. The carrier's sensors and electronics are somewhat outdated by modern standards, although this has been mitigated to an extent by numerous upgrades installed during the tenure of the Atlantic Federation. Likewise, the Federation installed a number of more modern weapon systems, including several missile launchers and radar-guided vulcan guns for local defense against incoming enemy munitions.

With the collapse of the Atlantic Federation, a number of Doritea-class ships have turned up in questionable circumstances. Vessels of this size and capability are extremely expensive to operate and with crews numbering in the thousands, ensuring that only very well-funded groups have been able to make use of the handful of survivors of the class. Most were sunk in combat with ZAFT forces during the first year of PLANT's Earth invasion, with more falling victim to infighting among the Federation's fragmenting warlords. It is known that the armed forces of the Council for the Defense and Security of the Americas (CDSA)'s member states operate at least a few examples, while perhaps several more have fallen into the hands of renegade operators with very deep pockets.