Clop class cruiser

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Clop class cruiser

Fast Facts
Ship Type	Light cruiser
Class:	Clop
Launched:	Universal Century 0093
Class Fate:	Inactive as of UC 0223
General Characteristics
Displacement:	Unknown
Length:	292 meters
Beam:	133 meters
Draft:	Unknown
Armament:	2-barrel main gun x 2 2-barrel secondary gun x 2 machinegun x 12 missile launcher x 6
Mobile Suit Complement:	4
Ships of the Line:	Ra Clop, Ra Chatter, Ra Kiev, Ra Caim, Ra Keim, Ra Eym, Ra Zym

In the fictional Gundam universe, the Clop class (also called the Ra Clop class) was introduced in UC 0093 as a replacement for the Salamis class cruiser. These ships are light cruisers, and resemble the Ra Cailum class mobile battleship in design. Three of these are assigned to Londo Bell, and saw action in the Second Neo Zeon war.

The first ship of the class, Clop, was commissioned in UC 0093 at the same time as the new battleship and Londo Bell flagship Ra Cailum. This scaled down version of the Ra Cailum is equipped with two, two-barrel main turrets, two twin secondary turrets, six internal missile launchers (or torpedo tubes) and twelve anti-aircraft guns mounted in the aft, below the bridge. The Clop class sports six engines, but only one Mobile Suit hangar.

The ship's design superficially resembles the Zeon Musai class cruiser used during the One Year War. The Clop lacks the ability to shoot directly to port and starboard, as its main weapons are mounted on vertical walls of the ship rather than horizontally. Unlike its predecessor, the Salamis class, the Clop class's hangar deck is somewhat more exposed, especially during mobile suit operations. Because of its greater firepower and better-protected mobile suit deck (despite myriad disadvantages), the Salamis class remained in service alongside the Clop class for much of the Second Universal Century.

The Clop class never underwent any class-wide overhauls; however, the Space Ark seen in Gundam F-91 appears to be a Clop-class ship stripped for the training role.