Leviathan-class assault carrier

Considered the harbinger of modern battlecarrier design, the Leviathan-class assault carriers were a series of unusually heavily-armed planetary assault ships commissioned by the CMA Navy in the wake of the Inner Colony Wars. Although they served prestigious careers throughout the Pax Humana, by the time of the UNSC-CMA Cold War they were considered slow, outdated, and too poorly protected for modern fleet service. In light of this, many would be sold or transferred into service of colonial defence forces, often as part of arrangements that aligned governments with the CMA's political doctrine.

Development
The Leviathan-class were conceptualised and laid down as large slipspace-capable cruisers or "Interstellae Cruisers", whose origins could be traced all the way back to the CMA's failed "Galactic Capability" procurement bid of the 2350s.

Chosen as the winning bid out of four separate entries, the proposed cruiser configuration called for a high-endurance large cruiser. Measuring almost 1,300 metres long and massing in at over eight million metric tons, it was only somewhat more powerful than existing cruiser designs, with the extra missiles being used to extend operations. Instead, most of its tonnage went towards electronics and space for sensors, command-and-control, and cyber capabilities. Its AI core, for instance, dwarfed all those built before it, and its flag deck had been based around configurations used for the UNSC's proposals for their new FLEETCOM Headquarters on Earth. Surveillance satellites, new defensive countermeasures, and a squadron of seven fighters rounded out its capabilities.

The first three cruisers were approved and laid down in PassiGear Manufacturing Company's drydocks above Earth and the Jovian Moons in 2389. The escalation of the Inner Colony Wars led to the oxymoron that despite more ships being ordered, redesigns to incorporate wartime experience and delays with allocating enough drydock workers meant that even by 2395, none were close to completion.

Converted Purpose
The first proposals calling for the conversion of the Leviathan-class hulls into planetary assault ships first appeared in 2394, amid the expulsion of the CMA garrison from Falkirk. Subsequent attempts to pacify the colony saw the CMA task forces being humiliated, with the Army Expeditionary proving far too small to invade the planet on a large scale. In addition, the rebels acquisition of CMA naval weapon stockpiles meant that conducting close naval support was fraught with considerable risk, with issues redirecting enough escorts into the theatre to give them subsequent protection.

It was here that the CMA admiralty began looking at the paused hulls of the Leviathan-class. Analysts estimated that modifying the hulls would allow them to be completed in half the time of a purpose-built carrier, and would give them a much faster and more heavily-armed ship to boot. That these reports only calculated the best-case construction scenario did not seem to be taken into account. As a result, PassiGear and their subcontractors, which now included SinoViet Heavy Machinery and Halifax Space were, were given approval to begin the conversion.

Despite the changes being implemented in 2396, the first ship to be completed, CMA Colossus, was commissioned in 2401, almost a year to the day since the UEG implement their reforms that ultimately ended the Inner Colony Wars. Although the idea was raised to scrap the ships or even reconvert them back into cruisers, the CMA ultimately succeeded in arguing to complete all 22 ships in their modified state.