With supporting ground forces and planetary attack forming an increasingly important part of the DDS' fleet role the DDS is looking into providing a dedicated fire support role in future. Although any warship with guns can fire on a planet from orbit DDS weapons like the Z cannon are optimised for space combat and their efficiency is degraded by atmospheres. Also ground attack requires a greater number of shorter duration bursts. Targetting from orbit is not easy either without specialist equipment.
The DDS have developed a ground attack version of the Z cannon, known as the Z5g. This will initially be fitted as a combat module to the Rome class multi-role OPV. The module will include a Z5g, extra power management for extended fire and specialist targetting sensors. The DDS hope to have the first ground attack module ready for testing by the early summer. The first Rome is due to enter service around may.
