Guys, remember we have Spoilers sub-forum for a purpose!

Based on that screenshot I can confirm that raiders are variable between games.

My raiders' only military class so far (three wrecked and salvaged to date) bring 4 20cm lasers and are a few hundred tons larger. They seem to have the same engines and also include decoys, which I discovered by salvaging them since I've been using railgun blitz tactics to bring them down.

Here is 6 months with a tiny amount of fuel dropped as well.

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Kvikk class Missile Boat      5,800 tons       167 Crew       818.4 BP       TCS 116    TH 480    EM 0
4138 km/s      Armour 3-28       Shields 0-0       HTK 49      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1-1      PPV 24
Maint Life 1.44 Years     MSP 588    AFR 269%    IFR 3.7%    1YR 312    5YR 4,679    Max Repair 240 MSP
Magazine 272 / 0   
Captain    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Orobos Turbines NPE-EP480M (1)    Power 480    Fuel Use 110.23%    Signature 480    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 255,000 Litres    Range 7.2 billion km (20 days at full power)

Temetor Ordnance S6ML (4)     Missile Size: 6    Rate of Fire 25
Temetor Ordnance MFC49-R20S (1)     Range 49m km    Resolution 20
Temetor Ordnance ASM6 Mk2 (45)    Speed: 19,200 km/s    End: 4.1m     Range: 4.7m km    WH: 9.00    Size: 6.00    TH: 64/38/19

Vivar Warning & Control AS52K-R50 (1)     GPS 4000     Range 52.6m km    Resolution 50

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes


If you are thinking just simple early game planetary defense. This doesn't seem too bad. Personally I'd add some more armor. 3 is really low for a ship that'll see combat. I like to do at least 5 or 6 and more as space permits.

I'm not sure what your missile design looks like so it's tough to say how hard it'll be to hit. Do you have decoys enabled for instance. If you don't have "smart" missiles then larger volleys are needed. 4 isn't much by itself, but if you make say 10 of these ships, now you have a pretty good sized volley.

Lastly, I highly recommend creating a second ship with anti-missile duty. I've had some games where the opfor shot missiles at my colony, not my ships. Bigger target I guess... And you'll want to be able to stop those. You can use STO ground forces for this if you like. Railguns or gauss canons.

I'd be pessimistic about those missiles less because of raider active missile defenses (my impression, not necessarily reliable, is that those are weak) but because the missiles look like they'll have a lot of trouble hitting the raider ships I've seen. Unless they're retargeting or something and it just isn't showing on the display.

No smeg? Well that's interesting for sure.

Crew space seems surprisingly small on larger ships. Keeping deployment short can be important when trying to cram as much ship as possible under the fighter or FAC tonnage limits, but not as much after that.

When designing, you should consider the overall design of your fleet before you design individual ships. For example, you might design an escort that will never be deployed alone, so it doesn't need long-range sensors. Or you might design a large missile warship with no point defence, because it will never go anywhere without escorts. Will you have tankers along, or do your ships need to operate at long distances without logistic support. Do you need fast ships, or just a type of fast ship within your fleet mix that can handle certain situations. When you consider fleet composition, you don't necessarily need a ship that can do everything, or deal with any situation.

I find this to be a pretty good source for that: https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/astromilitary.php#designingnavy
The image below is the general overview of the process to be done here: start on the left and work right, deciding things based on what you already know. Obviously not everything needs to be fleshed out in detail, especially personell management is something you don't really have to do most of the time in Aurora. The link gives a couple of example studies and some more text on what each step means.

When designing, you should consider the overall design of your fleet before you design individual ships. For example, you might design an escort that will never be deployed alone, so it doesn't need long-range sensors. Or you might design a large missile warship with no point defence, because it will never go anywhere without escorts. Will you have tankers along, or do your ships need to operate at long distances without logistic support. Do you need fast ships, or just a type of fast ship within your fleet mix that can handle certain situations. When you consider fleet composition, you don't necessarily need a ship that can do everything, or deal with any situation.

No smeg? Well that's interesting for sure.

 --- Cut that deployment time to 9 months at most. 24 months, two years, is a LOT of up time. Your ship's size will absolutely SHRINK.