The bulk of the Cosfor fleet is composed of four classes of vessel.
- Fightercarrier
- Cruiser
- Destroyer
- Corvette
The Agincourt is an orca class vessel of which Cosfor possesses only five: Agincourt, Crecy, Poitiers, Harfleur and Troyes.
Specifications
|
|
Fightercarrier |
Cruiser |
Destroyer |
Corvette |
|
Length (m) |
750 |
500 |
250 |
150 |
|
Top speed (c) |
2000 |
1800 |
1900 |
1700 |
|
Weapons |
Coherent energy projectors
Plasma cannons
Fusion missiles
Antimatter torpedoes (500) |
Coherent energy projectors
Plasma cannons
Fusion missiles
Antimatter torpedoes (200) |
Coherent energy projectors
Plasma cannons
Fusion missiles
Antimatter torpedoes (200) |
Coherent energy projectors
Fusion missiles |
|
Armour |
Heavy |
Heavy |
Heavy |
Light |
|
Crew |
800 |
400 |
120 |
30 |
|
Troop barracking |
Yes - up to 300 |
Yes - up to 400 |
No |
No |
|
Commanding officer rank |
Captain or above |
Typically captain, rarely commander |
Commander or above |
Lieutentant or above |
|
Other |
Fifteen shuttles
Four dropships |
Ten shuttles
Ten dropships |
Six shuttles |
|
Fightercarrier
Fightercarriers are the largest of Cosfor's warships. The flagship of the fleet,
the Maelstrom is the most well known example.
Each fightercarrier bears forty Nemesis class fighters which can harry enemy vessels as well as providing additional defences against enemy fighter craft. However, even in the absence of its fighter wings a fightercarrier is a heavily armed vessel.
In battle fightercarriers tend to operate from the rear, allowing their fighters to engage at the front and providing artillery-type support from the carrier's assorted weapons batteries.
Cruiser
Cruisers are heavy warships that are designed to provide intense bombardment of enemy vessels as well as barracking large numbers of troops for boarding enemy vessels or assisting ground assaults. Like fightercarriers their manoeuvrability is significantly less than that of a destroyer and they tend to operate behind the frontline in a battle.
Cruisers frequently patrol in the company of one or two destroyers.
Destroyer
Destroyers are constructed to deliver heavy ship-to-ship assault capabilities in a space battle. They are the main class of vessel deployed by Cosfor on routine interstellar patrol and are much more likely to be encountered as a solitary craft than is a cruiser or fightercarrier, which are typically found in convoys and fleets.
Lacking a capacity to barrack troops, destroyers use the saved space to support powerful main drive engines and manoeuvring engines, as well as housing additional fusion reactors to power their densely packed weapon emplacements.
The front of a destroyer is designed in a hammer-head configuration to accommodate an enhanced concentration of weapons batteries but remains heavily armed along its length.
Corvette
The corvette is a much smaller craft than any of the other three primary Cosfor starships. There is a distinct reduction in armour and weaponry relative to the other three classes. The magnitude of this gap has led calls for a new class of vessel to be created to bridge the deficit between the corvette and destroyer.
Despite their limitations, corvettes retain the level of manoeuvrability of a destroyer and are the only one of the four main Cosfor categories of vessel for which planetary landing is routine. They are ideal for intermediate range patrol between neighbouring star systems and have a clear advantage over any hostile craft they are likely to engage on patrol within the borders of the Commonwealth.
In a pitched battles Corvettes operate in direct engagement of enemy ships at the front where their role overlaps that of a small destroyer and a large fighter.
Many Cosfor officers of the rank of Captain or above gained their first experience of commanding a starship aboard a corvette.