Dreadnought (Red Alert 2)

"Cruise and fire!"

- Dreadnought

The Dreadnought is employed by the Soviets as a long range artillery ship during Third World War and the Psychic Dominator Disaster.

Background
This massive ship carries twin rockets which reload faster than conventional land-based V3s. It is intended as a naval siege unit, beside a floating command center. This gives them the equal role as the Allied Aircraft Carrier and the Boomer submarine. Dreadnoughts have thick armour and can inflict greater damage than Aircraft carriers, but with reduced accuracy and range.

In-game unit
The Dreadnought has little ability to defend itself from other ships and would fall to Allied Destroyers if not protected. Despite their heavy armour, they are still vulnerable to air strikes and coastal defenses should the Dreadnought venture close to shore. If there is a lot of anti-air defenses, its rockets can be shot down before they hit. The Dreadnought can, however, effectively attack ships (especially heavy ones like Aircraft Carriers or rogue Dreadnoughts). When destroyed, the missile may inflict damage in the area below it (a sign that the missiles are armed with a large fuel-air explosive).

In addition, the Dreadnought is also vulnerable to squids' entanglement. The Dreadnought's mass makes it hard to maneuver the waters.

Deployment History
Dreadnoughts played a major role in the initial invasion of the United States. They were used along with V3 Launchers to bombard costal military bases and significant portions of New York City before the eyes of the Allied Commander and Tanya as they moved around New York City to defend it. Tanya quickly retaliated by sinking the Soviet Dreadnoughts in the harbor with C4 charges. They were also notoriously used in an attempt to demolish the Statue of Liberty, which was ironically accomplished by their land-based brethren, the V3 launchers. Other major battles in which Dreadnoughts played a significant role in were the Battle of Hawaii and the Invasion of Florida.

General Vladimir is known to use a specially upgraded Dreadnought. This type of Dreadnought stands taller than the original design and sports more communication devices. The ship was utilized as his command center before he moved inland (to the White House). Apart from its appearance and minor armour upgrades, this type of Dreadnought is not different from the base ship.

Aftermath
The Dreadnought was redesigned by the time of the War of the Three Powers and was upgraded with abilities to increased rate of fire.

Trivia

 * On the illustrations,  dreadnoughts are also equipped with smaller missile launchers ahead of the main - probably anti-aircraft or anti-submarine - but  they aren't used in the game.
 * Early artwork for Red Alert 2 depicted the Dreadnought as being armed with a set of large triple-barrel gun turrets, similar in design to real-life battleships (and in turn, the old Allied Cruiser). The idea was scrapped, likely because the Red Alert 2 engine could not handle more than one turret.
 * In real life, the Dreadnought was a type of battleship that were largely in service during World War I. They were big-gun capital ships.
 * In real life, the Soviet Navy did use a class of large missile-armed warship known as the Kirov class atomic cruiser. They are still used by the Russian Navy today, although only one is active and three of them are in refit, but they are armed with long-range supersonic cruiser missiles instead of tactical ballistic missiles of the Dreadnoughts.
 * In real life, the Soviet Navy once designed the Project 1080 missile cruiser, armed with the 200 9K72 "Elbrus" missiles (known also as SS-1 Scud-B). The project, developed in the 1970s, intended to create a ship that could effectively support amphibious operations strikes against ground targets at a distance of 500 km. The concept of this cruiser is almost identical to the concept of a Dreadnought.