SCIROCCO CLASS CRUISER | The MCRNs swiss army knife of a space ship | The expanse lore

Generic greetings and welcome to the scirocco, a wonderfully powerful and interesting warship in the martian navy. A heavy assault ship designed to fill almost any role in combat and fit a wide range of mission profiles outside of it. A ship so varied and versatile that it can even roleplay as an old age of sail pirate. A ship so chonky the best description of it is either a cinder block or ‘Oh LAWD he coming’. A ship so jam packed with stupid and badass that it could swing either way.
So settle in and enjoy as a SCI and Steve regale you with the scirocco.
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[@bohba13]

"I hate you, I hate you so much!" The true sign of friendship.

[@NicolaiVE]

I love the Chonk. It's well equipped and can handle itself well.

[@CMDR_Saber84]

late, but obligatory; "For a brick, he flew pretty good!"

[@basketcase289]

"The Scirocco has boarding claws"... so you're telling me someone could yell "FIRE THE URSUS CLAWS!!!" and have it be an actual command?

[@MM22966]

"No ship can withstand....THE CLAW!!!!"

[@planetfall5056]

@@MM22966 The CLAAAAW! \o°o/

[@Scott11078]

The Flechette part of flechette rounds are darts. We used to have "Beehive rounds" filled with THOUSANDS of them.

[@darkleome5409]

Easier to call them shrapnel rounds honestly

[@Danyal_aka_Amagibestfox]

Grape shot

[@MS-qx9uw]

@@darkleome5409flechettes are not just shrapnel, they’re basically small arrows (pointy tip, long body, fins in back)

[@triple7988]

30:00 - It's common (and safe when done properly) practice in aviation to reuse parts that have been in an accident, just like with cars. It's entirely possible you've flown on a plane with salvaged parts.

[@mattstorm360]

You know, unless the parts turn out to be haunted.

[@GregPrice-ep2dk]

@@mattstorm360 Ah, you know the story of the Ghosts of Flight 401.

[@limabravo6065]

Yeah the second to last novel Naomi's navy has a couple Donnenger class ships built from cut up hulls awaiting scrapping.

[@anthonyparsch3959]

GREEBLES, Sci! The name for them is greebles! Also, you're welcome for the algorithm fodder.

[@triple7988]

It works because the enemy will be soo overwhelmed by its size that they don't know what to shoot at!

[@elvisibra]

What the hell is this guy talking about? Scirocco class can't point all it's PDCs to same direction? And Roci can all 6 that Roci has? Yeah, cause Scirocco is large, but still can point MORE PDCs to any direction than Roci can: 8 (+ 1 possible) forward, 7 aft (+2 possible), 10 port, 10 starboard, 7 (+ 2 possible) dorsal, and 9 ventral. Additionally, it is not 18th century to have "10 guns covering your broad side at close range", and 3, 4 guns shooting one target, crossfiring 50 meters distance of the ship, it is about 1 gun shooting 2,3 targets and two guns "crossfiring" at +5km distance. Obviously in space, latter is the thing, cause of accuracy by lack of air resistance and gravity, all it takes is long high pressure barrel to achieve max muzzle velocity, and guns do not have to spray 100 nor 50 rounds per second to cover for lack of accuracy, instead they are "low rate" fire (12 to 18 rounds per second), only instead one or two barrels, six barrels doing it, making individual barrel extra low rate of fire, what suits durability and prevents overheating (no air in vacuum to take over the heat, thus overheating is an issue), obviously with addition to cooling system that can be for each barrel separately (MCRN, wrapped around barreles, looks like plumbing), or joint system for all barrels that often has different than circular shape, thus six barrels look like "one triangular, or square-shaped" barrel, and joint system we often see on UNN PDC guns. I say PDC guns, cause gun is not PDC, gun is just one component of PDC, and gun alone will be just a gun.

[@sumukhvmrsat6347]

​@@elvisibra that's exactly what I was thinking , 1 turret on roci might have 2 or 4 barrels and lower rate of fire compared to scirocco having 6 or 8 or 10 -12 barrels on a single turret , with a comparatively higher rate of fire and also chonky scirocco would have very huge amounts of pdc rounds compared to a roci

[@triple7988]

Big thing make mind go boioioing.... Tale as old a time.

[@HardcoreCheese]

I like the info dump of stats right away. And then the background in-depth at the end. Good work!

[@darkage5]

What are you talking about right away? They rambled a bunch of nonsense for a while before they even got to the stats. I forget how far i had to advance before they actually started talking about the ship.

[@admiralcasperr]

All hail the gunbrick

[@A-Legitimate-Salvage]

Small correction, as I recall the Scirocco slightly predates the modernization program that introduced the Corvette and Donnie

[@patrickasplund]

She for sure got drydocked for retrofit.

[@SignalJones]

the Scirocco has a capital ship railgun, the Rossi's is like- a 75mm railgun.

[@elvisibra]

Roci railgun says: 1kg tungsten slug (by tungsten density, that is a 40mm caliber slug, and like that not longer than 60mm), and railgun fires at only 10km/s (PDC round is about 5km/s), so FAKE recoil we see on the Roci which is about 2000 tonnes (highly likely more) mass, would actually be about 6mm (milimeters i.e. 0.6 cm), momentum, -6 mm/s, and even if 1kg slug is what is being lsunched, while there is 9-10 kg more of expendable material used as conductor, and turned into plasma by heat, thus helping creation of "magnetic tunnel" during railgun fire (immitates what would be phyical arty tube around rails), then recoil momentum would be - 6 cm (centimeters)/s. Scirroco has railgun about 32-34 meters long, probably firing larger slugs, and at about 500km/s, but also has about 35× more mass, because it is larger, so recoil with 50× more velocity and 3× more slug (+ other) mass, would be only about 4× more i.e. -2.4 cm/s to -24 cm/s.

[@Debbiebabe69]

Its more a medium railgun, similar to the railgun on the Leonidas class.

[@Hammerhead137]

I still can't for the life of me understand why they only put one rail railgun on that ship. You literally got place for three of those things! Wasted opportunity.

[@botheringthewildlife9641]

21:00 I'm playing the BattleTech PC game while watching and.... Steve's right.

[@robrib2682]

MFW the only thing the Davions have more then princes is horrible war industry and supply lines

[@sunixjester]

Martian cinderblock to yeet at ye olde Earth

[@derekburge5294]

Imagine being a Martian marine on a boarding pod that misses its target. You're braced for impact, but there's no clang. It keeps going. Hope you brought a snack!

[@EvelynNdenial]

Says there is no competent strategy in battletech "Why are you booing me, I'm right!"

[@ragnarrocksoft9096]

That's what comstar wants you to think! But the comgua- *blam*

[@bohba13]

honestly? The Sirocco is a great multi-mission cruiser. especially as the bays can be changed out depending on the mission, especially for disaster relief. Throw on some med bays and boom, surge capacity for local med centers. Need more emergency supplies? Cargo pods. need a bunch of really angry athletic alcoholics to solve a problem? Pack it full of marines and forget the problem existed. Need to introduce some earthlings to the sun? this thing can fit _so many_ thermonukes.

[@elvisibra]

Scirocco class is not multi-mission cruiser, it's hull classification abbreviation is EML (Marine Landing), so it is what in our world would be combination of LHD/LSD/LPD (various amphibious landing docks) and CG (cruiser).

[@sumukhvmrsat6347]

And fit one or 2 or 3 smaller Corvettes or patrol destroyers too

[@bohba13]

@@elvisibra which are exactly what the USN uses in those situations. The moment they made the cargo-pods interchangeable they made a multi-mission cruiser. (With the exception of nuking of course)

[@bohba13]

@@sumukhvmrsat6347 ah the MCRN and their Russian-nesting ships.

[@elvisibra]

@@bohba13 Scirocco class is obviously not a cruiser. It is amphibious landing dock, only with some armaments, instead of just moderate or low defense, so it can go out without needing extensive escort, like high-class/type combatants can. Only cruiser (pure blood cruiser) we saw in the show is that unknown MCR cruiser (Pella).. While for example UNN Leonidas, called battleship by fandom, but it is actually UNN version of MCRN scirocco, by presented purpose, role, size, armament etc..

[@4thObserver]

I love the utility of this Ship, Kind of a Jack of All trades compared to other MCRN ships. Reminds me of real life Amphibious assault ships packed with a lot of Mickey marines.

[@crashstudi0s]

You telling me the scirocco is a BUFF of sorts? can do

[@DarkVeghetta]

This format really reminds me of the Mythillogical series, but for SciFi instead of mythology. Turns out I really like the two bros podcast style. Also, space chonc assault ship go brrr.

[@OptimusJedi]

As a chonky boi myself, I always appreciate a bit of chonk in my SciFi. Of course you need the smooth, sleek and sexy too but a little utilitarian and chonk is welcomed.

[@zonerdarkrevention6223]

ursus claws... the Martians have bloody ursus claws... the world Eaters send their regards...

[@Scott11078]

Y'all might like to know MK41 VLS can quad pack certain missiles. Other VLS systems can also quad pack but I mention MK41 only because my last ship had 90ish cells.

[@andyb1653]

I drove an '84 Scirocco.

[@TalberNalliso]

The Scirocco looks like it has an extra hardpoint for another rail gun, like the Donny having 2 extra hardpoints its empty sides. *Replace Marines in breaching pods with explosives. Boom.

[@charlieturner5831]

Can you please do a video on the Tripathia-class Third-Rate Ship of the Line from the sojourn?

[@andreykuzmin4317]

This ship gives me Dreadnought-class vibes from Star Wars. Ugly, old, low-tech, hits like a brick, has "yes" amount of big guns.

[@limabravo6065]

The ships as described añd later shown in the expanse are amazingly detailed reality based designs. And remember kids "walk softly but carry a couple kilo slug of tungsten accelerated to a detectable percentage of C

[@admiralgalactica]

Did he..did he just insult the donnager..how dare you! Insulting the only ship in this universe thats flown by pure middle finger energy

[@MM22966]

If you told me this was an engine block, not a ship, I would have believed you. I couldn't visually describe a single Expanse ship to you, despite watching several seasons. They just don't have much pizazz compared to Trek, BSG, SW, etc.

[@basedeltazero714]

"Like someone made a warship instead of an art piece." :) More seriously, Expanse ships have very angular lines, tend to have quite a few block-outs on a generally rectangular shape, are vertically oriented (sometimes noticeable, sometimes not) and have very big engines.

[@MM22966]

@@basedeltazero714 True; they are more "practical" (or what current science would estimate as practical) from a space-faring perspective given the known tech, but from from storytelling perspective, I would be reduced to saying "Roci is...ugh small, bulgy, angular. Has guns sticking off it." or words to that effect. But if you showed ANYBODY a version of NCC-1701, they would immediately know what show it is.

[@CharliMorganMusic]

I think that McDonald's varies quite a bit in quality between one franchisee and the next. Like, there is one McDonald's in my town that is absolute fire. Everyone there is smiling and happy, and it feels like chic filet but real, idk. It's wild. And every other McDonald's in town is mid at best.

[@MojaveWolfe]

The expanse RPG book has a layout that is less chonk and with internal hangar bays.

[@djones1391]

I imagine several other people have said already but boarding tobidos Warhammer 40K

[@MonarchRigel]

you have a problem with Grapplers? you need to watch some Outlaw Star.

[@kilrathi827]

"Competent strategy unlike other universes like say Battletech". Sir. You can't just speak truth like that. Hanse Davion, Aleksandr Kerensky & SunTzu Liao's feelings just got absolutely obliterated.

[@OkiFool66]

Love Steve

[@s3strik3r]

There was one other series and ship that used grapple hooks it was the star trek enterprise nx-01

[@elvisibra]

grapples are "TV lore" gibberish and nonsense by Spacedock and his so called "Force Recon". They messed up, specs, scales, everything. Lack of understanding of physics, but sure Spacedock is good in making up stupid names for weapons manufacurers. Other than that entire TV lore is WRONG and upside down, includin all inacurrate scales. Spacedock is A BUFFOON, who at one point Officially Stated that Donnager carries additional 6 Morigan Class ships in its hangar bay by "hanging them down" from the hangar bay ceiling.. I mean, imagine having an absolute nitwit like that, creating your TV lore? No wonder it is ALL CRAP.

[@elvisibra]

That on the Donnagar is not a tube, we can see ship launching 3,4 missiles from different sides of that "tube" which is huge, and those anti ship ones look tiny compared to "tube" and other than 3,4 anti ship tubes, it has a room there for one large. It just a design choice, down below, there are actual tubes, and a hatch probably. Aft launchers are same design, only way smaller (large only for two tubes for all calibers anti ship missiles)

[@ultimateanthony1883]

Nice would be cool if you nake a video of battle star Galactica vs expanse universe who would win

[@silverliew0093]

I could be wrong but when they said buck shot shells, wasnt that bird shot shell in the picture they show

[@Hitchclif]

Absolutely love the "A uh ship in space"

[@PostprandialTorpor]

Scirocco is a flying bull pup assault rifle and looks the part

[@jakinluk2513]

I'm glad that someone finally made an epstein joke

[@darwinskeeper421]

So this chonky middle sized ship shares its named with a small VW sporty coupe that was a sleeker version of the VW Rabbit.

[@user-cu2bu6el7r]

@SCI could you do an expanse video on the Nathan Hale Class battleship?

[@elvisibra]

There is no Nathan Hale class battleship. Only unit/ship of entire production model (Nathan Hale class) is Zenobia, and has hull classification abbreviation (Ship Type/Military class) LCC (Command Ship), and it is LCC 20 meaning that it is 20th unit of that shyp type built since formation of UN Navy. On the Expanse wiki fandom those ship type/hull classification like LCC, or ECF (for Corvette class production model) light frigate, and other, are by lack of knowledge listed as "ship registrations", while ship registration is obviously embedded in transponer ID and it is subject to changes, depending on current overall fleet numbers and regional belonging (deployment) same as license plates (registration) changes when person moves to a different city.. Battleship ship type abbreviation is BB or "DRN" (Drednought), and those top combatants that fleets have in very low numbers will never be "reporposed" for Command Ship (non-combatant) either, instead, LCC hulls will be built for "LCC" purposes (only 1,2 needed, cause navies do not operate more than 2,3 Command ships at the time), and if navy will repurpose combatants for Command Ships (non-combatants) navy will use cruiser (CG, CL, CA), CLG, CAG) that are large enough, already Command/Control/Flag equipped by factory standard, and exist in more numbers compared to battleships, and will reclasify hull classifucation to CC (cruiser command), unless navy operares battlecruiser (CC), in case of which it will be CLS (cruiser command light)

[@josephmontanaro2350]

Flaccheets are closer to darts then buckshot but yes its a close analog

[@augurseer]

A favorite of mine

[@logicplague]

For a brick, it flew pretty good..

[@oliverb.9121]

Sounds like a logistical nightmare t keep a flotilla of these stocked with all those missiles though

[@darasoth8117]

Do 40k ships next :D

[@craigmorris4083]

Steve!!

[@julianmolder8162]

it is funny how dead sci sounds

[@vladimirmihnev9702]

KISS Railgun to the Face!

[@barrybend7189]

Aztecing is the proper term for hull panel detail. So yeah not pretty hull on Martian ships. 34:27 shame on you Star Trek did it several times and it's hilarious.

[@IcyMan143]

So it’s a missile truck

[@lonurad1259]

If I knew how many people dmed you I wouldn't have recently. I am so sorry. Also if you read this, that project I had is on hold because other projects got in the way... I will get back to it I swear

[@lexmats6709]

Hello Steve. I would like to talk to you about our lord and savior Jerome Blake. Hugs and kisses, A very peaceful and most certainly not fanatical Word of Blake apostle

[@PeachDragon_]

The scirocco feels very unsc

[@peterkallend5012]

Might I point out that we currently have the ability to fire subsonic munitions to intercept hypersonic ones. The concept of breaching pods isn't stupid. You clearly don't understand the concept of orbital/celestial mechanics. We've literally been conducting rendezvous and docking in space since the 1960's, and that's what boarding is.

[@comradeblin256]

Docking and boarding is not the same. One is consentual and wish both ship to combine properly and safely, one is nonconsentual yeeting of a bunch of people inside a missile falsely named "boarding pod" and hope those guys still alive at the end of the engagement.

[@kiwiwarrior3012]

It’s a fat Larry

[@supsup335]

first comment?

[@sunixjester]

yes

[@supsup335]

@@sunixjester wow

[@darkage5]

You need to do better research next time. Flechette rounds are darts not buckshot. Also boarding claws and tow cables in space combat make perfect sense. Just because you don't understand doesn't make it bad. If the breaching pods are launched to put a boarding party on board to capture a ship and disable it. Well it's been disabled and is stationary. They can harpoon it and use the cables to come along side. Attaching the cable could also assist in arresting a roll if the ship was disabled. Reel the enemy ship in and extend a boarding tube or tubes airlock to airlock and put more troops aboard en masse. There is no scifi magic to this. You just have a limited imagination. This video could have been 12 minutes long without all the unnecessary banter and filler.

[@elvisibra]

no. "space gapples" for boarding a ship is just another Spacedock crap. Better forget all that Spacedock said, cause it is all wrong, includin scales. Spacedock is a buffoon. Grapples can be used, for different purposes. As for boarding, EMP projectiles (shuts down targets abilities to resist by manuevering, for at least some time period, before they reboot their systems, if they have that ability) then just match the constant velocity (vector) with the target, and you can board it (with breaching pods, or otherwise)..

[@elvisibra]

Scale chart you are using is NOT accurate. "Official" scales for the show are incorrect (everything underscaled, ships' airlock doors only about 1.5 meters tall in proportion with ships themselves). For more realistic and accurate scales go see: List of alternative ship scales, on The Expanse fandom WIKI page. For example: MCRN 40mm 6 barrel PDC gun is about 4 meters long (not 2.93 meters that gun size in proportion with Rocinante 46 meters gives, thus Rocinante is more like 64 meters, and with 64 meters, airlock door are about 2meters tall, instead of 1.5meters), while outer PDC chamber frames visible on MCRN ships are from 7.3 to 8.6 meters long (depending on robustness of the frame). Scirocco class is by all that about 250 meters long, 92 meters widest (side mounts for railguns + railgun turret), while body is about 75 meters wide. Missile launchers in the Expanse are like in subs (ships are also closed design as subs, only vertically oriented), standard minimum for MCRN ship to ship missiles launcher is two tubes and "rottary magazine" of 10 missiles, below the tubes, and that standard minimum is what every ship has. In case of Morrigan Class "Patrol Destroyer" i.e. corvette, and Light Frigate i.e. the Roci, that MCRN minimum tube/missile/magazine standard is all they carry overall i.e. have two launchers each, meaning 4 tubes and 10 misdile magazine added to each launcher. And all that is visible on screeen during the show at some point. Ship to ship missiles also come in 2,3 different callibers (larger ships have larger tubes for all calibers, smaller ships have smaller tubes for only smaller calibers only). Ship to ship tube caliber is also visible by introduction of MCRN heavy frigate, that has 6 launchers (two on the sides are for smaller calibers like Light Frigate and Morrigan have, 4 in the middle are larger i.e. for all calibers), then Light Cruiser (which is not 89 meters, and instead about 170 meters) has all large ship to ship tubes (6 launchers i.e. 12 tubes) + 3 more launchers with larger tubes, for light grade large missiles (those are missiles for other than just ship to ship), same as Scirocco class has those five large ones, only Scirocco has them larger (have more tubes for light grade , or same number tubes for medium grade). That is just a small portion of everything that "official sources" just failed, or didn't bother to "bother with" when they did all that incomplete, inaccurate, incorrect, sloppy job of "ship scales and specs"

[@dreci3001]

You both seem misinformed how real NAVYs work, especially when you have 38 countries supplying weapons against a 1970 cruiser. Let's keep it SCI Fi and refrain from commenting on stuff you have no idea about.

[@elvisibra]

Exactly. Even their SCI FI talk is only partially accurate, cause they base it on Real World, because the Expanse bases it on the real world, not fully, but to large extent.

[@elvisibra]

Scirocco class doesn't have "engines on par" with Donnager class. Don has about 40meters cone diameter, Siro 18meters. And they are not almost as large as Amun Ra, which is almost 120 meters long.. Awfully incorrect "official" scales as part of TV lore, preemptively and immediately kill all the sense, no matter how hard one tries to make sense. They must be abandoned and ignored, if all these "breakdowns" will aim to make sense.

[@MattisLegend]

Steve is extremely annoying. Please don't feed him this weekend.