Patrol and Reconnaissance ship of the United Terran Federation

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

The Terran Federation spans over a dozen inhabited systems and likely twice as many systems with some other form of minor presence such as mining facilities, stations and/or military installations.

In order to keep track of all civilian traffic and make sure no alien presence threatens the federal operations in any part of space many different classes of ships have been designed to defend this vast space. Below are one small aspect of this described in the brand new class of small patrol and reconnaissance vessels in military circles known as the Raven class Frigate.


RV-300  Raven class Recon Frigate
The Raven is a small recon and patrol ship with the main role of reconnaissance. It has some defence capabilities but are not suppose to engage any military armed combat ships. They do have some defence against torpedoes and a small railgun for point defence and to engage small crafts at close distances. The class came about in order to have a cheap and effective ship able to provide sustained control in a system. The class is also designed to operate with military strike groups to act as advanced scouts, they can then be operated from the Tigris class Support Carrier.

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RV-300 "Raven" class Recon Frigate      2,500 tons       71 Crew       540.3 BP       TCS 50    TH 122    EM 0
4876 km/s      Armour 3-16       Shields 0-0       HTK 14      Sensors 66/84/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 6.52
Maint Life 2.92 Years     MSP 185    AFR 50%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 32    5YR 483    Max Repair 182.8125 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 100 tons     Magazine 24   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Flight Crew Berths 2    Morale Check Required   

SAAB  Ion Star Drive  P650-S (1)    Power 243.8    Fuel Use 145.01%    Signature 121.875    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 178,000 Litres    Range 8.8 billion km (20 days at full power)

Rheinmetall 10cm Railgun V30/C3 (1x4)    Range 30,000km     TS: 4,876 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 30,000 km    ROF 5       
West Electronics BFC  Tyoe-X  R64-T5k (1)     Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 5,000 km/s     84 69 53 38 22 6 0 0 0 0
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor R3-PB40 (1)     Total Power Output 3    Exp 20%

Class-15  AMM  Fixed Launcher (16)     Missile Size: 1.5    Hangar Reload 61 minutes    MF Reload 10 hours
Ashton-Harrison AMM-FC  C7 (1)     Range 7.6m km    Resolution 1
Viper  Mk-II  Anti-torpedo-missile (16)    Speed: 37,467 km/s    End: 0.3m     Range: 0.7m km    WH: 1    Size: 1.500    TH: 312/187/93

Active Search Sensor AS5-R1 (1)     GPS 8     Range 6m km    MCR 537.4k km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor AS38-R50 (1)     GPS 1200     Range 38.1m km    Resolution 50
Thermal Sensor TH6-66 (1)     Sensitivity 66     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  64.2m km
EM Sensor EM6-84 (1)     Sensitivity 84     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  72.5m km

Strike Group
2x SC-150  "Orion"  Type-C Recon Craft   Speed: 5159 km/s    Size: 0.48
2x SC-150  "Orion"  Type-S Recon Craft   Speed: 5159 km/s    Size: 0.48
Orion class Recon Craft
The Orion is the standard recon craft platform of the Federation, the Raven class Frigate have room to house four Orion class shuttles.

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SC-150  "Orion"  Type-C class Recon Craft      25 tons       1 Crew       10 BP       TCS 0    TH 3    EM 0
5159 km/s      Armour 1-0       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 10.31 Years     MSP 5    AFR 5%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 10 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 15 days    Morale Check Required   

Boeing Ion Star Drive  EP25 (1)    Power 2.5    Fuel Use 3394.11%    Signature 2.50    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 3,000 Litres    Range 0.66 billion km (35 hours at full power)

Active Search Sensor AS22-R200 (1)     GPS 640     Range 22.1m km    Resolution 200

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SC-150  "Orion"  Type-S class Recon Craft      25 tons       1 Crew       10 BP       TCS 0    TH 3    EM 0
5159 km/s      Armour 1-0       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 10.31 Years     MSP 5    AFR 5%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 10 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 15 days    Morale Check Required   

Boeing Ion Star Drive  EP25 (1)    Power 2.5    Fuel Use 3394.11%    Signature 2.50    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 3,000 Litres    Range 0.66 billion km (35 hours at full power)

Active Search Sensor AS13-R50 (1)     GPS 160     Range 13.9m km    Resolution 50

SS-230  Tigris class Support Carrier
This commercial class ship is built to support small corvette or frigate sized craft in remote places in the form of repair, refuel, rearm and transportation. The class have three large hangars each capable to support up to 2500t of ships and a minor 500t bay for servicing minor utility crafts. The Federation currently have three ships in active service (Tigris, Mekong and Volga).

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SS-230  "Tigris" class Support Carrier      30,848 tons       273 Crew       2,019.4 BP       TCS 617    TH 750    EM 0
2431 km/s      Armour 4-87       Shields 0-0       HTK 55      Sensors 11/14/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 3,540    Max Repair 187.5000 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 8,000 tons     Magazine 300   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 160   

SAAB  Ion Star Drive  C500-X (3)    Power 1500.0    Fuel Use 3.75%    Signature 250.000    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,300,000 Litres    Range 202.3 billion km (962 days at full power)

Viper  Mk-II  Anti-torpedo-missile (92)    Speed: 37,467 km/s    End: 0.3m     Range: 0.7m km    WH: 1    Size: 1.500    TH: 312/187/93
Barracuda Mk-I  M-Class  Torpedo (23)    Speed: 28,543 km/s    End: 24.3m     Range: 41.6m km    WH: 9    Size: 7.000    TH: 114/68/34

Active Search Sensor AS22-R200 (1)     GPS 640     Range 22.1m km    Resolution 200
Active Search Sensor AS13-R50 (1)     GPS 160     Range 13.9m km    Resolution 50
Thermal Sensor TH1.0-11.0 (1)     Sensitivity 11.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km
EM Sensor EM1.0-14.0 (1)     Sensitivity 14.0     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
What type of patrol and recon do you employ to provide security or general awareness aside from ground based detection centres?!?

[nuclearslurpee]

RV-300  Raven class Recon Frigate

Very little to note here as the design is solid all around. One comment would be if there's some consideration for mounting a 12cm half-size (2 shots) railgun, which would only be half as effective for PD but offers a bit more anti-ship ability to disable a small craft on the first shots due to penetrating the first armor layer. I say half-size because with C3 tech this would still yield ROF 5, but given that most anti-ship missiles fire in 10+ second increments a larger 12cm railgun with worse ROF would be fine if you wanted a bit more anti-ship power. Maybe a triple-shot with C2.25, a smaller reactor, and a bit more BFC range with the tonnage freed up would be effective.

The new reduced-size railguns in 1.13 really offer a lot of flexibility for small ships like these.

SS-230  Tigris class Support Carrier

Also a solid design, and commercial so very efficient. I'm not sure why it has ASMs in its loadout though, but I presume this is because it supports other ships with more offensive purposes.

What type of patrol and recon do you employ to provide security or general awareness aside from ground based detection centres?!?

In terms of big ships I usually prefer large sensors of active and passive types. While fighter-based are more cost-efficient they are also micro-intensive and to a certain degree you have to know where you need to look first. The advantage of big sensors is that all angles of approach are monitored equally, so there are no (well, fewer) surprises.

I do also use recon fighters. In my experience the NPRs sometimes struggle to figure out what to do about sub-50 ton craft so I avoid using the kind of 25-ton ships out of fairness. Usually my recon designs have been 250 tons in the past but built for longer range. For shorter-range missions 200 tons works fine.

I also like to use small sensor platforms in two varieties. One with size-1 active/EM/thermal sensors and one with size-0.2 which has no crew and is a bit more RP-friendly in that respect. These can be toted around by small shuttles or tugs to monitor jump points for alien traffic. More recently with the changes/fixes to commander auto-assignment it has been viable to put buoy droppers on survey ships so I experiment with this in occasional test campaigns. These might end up replacing sensor platforms for me in 1.14 since commercial ships will require engineering spaces, so my no-crew RP consideration will be frustrated.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Most decisions are role-play related and in general I don't mind the micro. I also try to use the escort mechanic as much as possible to make micro as little as possible.

In terms of large versus small active/passive I think I use both, this is just one part of the entire fleet. The thing about large sensors is that a big part of it is wasted. If you travel in a specific direction you waste almost half of it where several smaller ones placed in the direction you travel are way more efficient. You also can combine both small and large sensors to get a really good coverage. The other thing is time and cost... as I usually play with really low technology progression (down to 10-15%) time is of the essence.
Role-play is another... I know that the AI might not have ships of certain sizes but I still like to provide coverage in all areas despite this as if I played against an intelligent opponent that would change the size of their ships or sensors. The other thing is that I often play mutli-factions (not in this instance though) so I most often design ships as if I did no matter what.

The really small scout certainly can feel like a "cheat" versus the AI but I have so many restriction in other areas that they probably even themselves out anyway, the choice is basically role-play not efficiency.

The missiles on the Tigris are there as the ship often serve the Cobra class missile boat that is an 800t craft specifically for attacking enemy ships. Each hangar on the Tigris is designed to operate three Cobras so a total of nine Cobras can fit and be reloaded for extended operations within a System. Realistically only six Cobras and one Raven can be operated on the Tigris at one time as the magazines is not deep enough to reload none Cobras in one go. But six cobras also give two full reloads of the AMM missiles for a single Raven at a total of 300 magazine space.

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FAC-190  "Cobra" class Missile Boat      800 tons       16 Crew       173.6 BP       TCS 16    TH 141    EM 0
11728 km/s      Armour 1-7       Shields 0-0       HTK 10      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 6.3
Maint Life 0.68 Years     MSP 30    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 44    5YR 664    Max Repair 117.1875 MSP
Magazine 42   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 2 months    Morale Check Required   

Warren-Long Engines Limited Ion Star Drive  EP187 (1)    Power 187.5    Fuel Use 1322.72%    Signature 140.6250    Explosion 30%
Fuel Capacity 138,000 Litres    Range 2.35 billion km (55 hours at full power)

Class-70  AST  Fixed Launcher (6)     Missile Size: 7.00    Hangar Reload 132 minutes    MF Reload 22 hours
Hobbs-Harrison AST-FC  CX-48 (1)     Range 48.2m km    Resolution 50
Barracuda Mk-I  M-Class  Torpedo (6)    Speed: 28,543 km/s    End: 24.3m     Range: 41.6m km    WH: 9    Size: 7.000    TH: 114/68/34

Active Search Sensor AS13-R50 (1)     GPS 160     Range 13.9m km    Resolution 50

In regards to the 12cm railgun I actually did not consider that, worth considering a bit better range for less shots. I will see if that type of design decision will get through approval in the senate next time around...