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The Picket Class Strike Corvette
In the simplest terms, the Picket class is a large, FLT capable pinnace* built around a heavy ship-to-ship cannon. With high maneuverability and acceleration, it is designed to function as a light, flanking strike craft.
Since the Picket possesses an FLT drive, it is technically classified as a light corvette. However, it does not have the sensor suite required for making the highly sensitive FLT jumps and is accepted as a heavy pinnace. Because of this, it can either make pre-calculated jumps from one pre-determined location to another, or it requires a larger tender to calculate the jumps for it and occasionally replenish its tiny fuel stores.
There are only three roles that the Picket class can fill:
1. It can act as an in-system patrol craft defending the immediate area of a planet or station. This is a role which already filled (with better performance) by pinnaces.
2. It can act as a short-ranged patrol craft. Hopping from one remote station to another following a pre-calculated route and refilling at the stations when necessary.
3. It can act as a mobile pinnace, traveling in-step with a larger vessel or fleet.
Development
*Pinnace - A pinnace is a non-FTL capable spacecraft. Larger than a fighter, they are generally 20-50 meters long. Like fighters, they require a carrier for travel and maintenance. Quicker and more maneuverable than anything except fighters, pinnaces are mostly used as strike craft and remote missile craft.
**The Lusian First Contact - The Lusian First Contact refers to the disastrous discovery of the Lusian Commonwealth, where a single, overly-ambitious company attacked an unknown fleet and caused the loss of dozens of Terran Trade Company ships and thousands of personnel.
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To best view this build, use this texture pack:
CyberOpticsLBmod1.29
it is a modified version of Cyber Optics uploaded with the permision of Scamper3396
In the simplest terms, the Picket class is a large, FLT capable pinnace* built around a heavy ship-to-ship cannon. With high maneuverability and acceleration, it is designed to function as a light, flanking strike craft.
Since the Picket possesses an FLT drive, it is technically classified as a light corvette. However, it does not have the sensor suite required for making the highly sensitive FLT jumps and is accepted as a heavy pinnace. Because of this, it can either make pre-calculated jumps from one pre-determined location to another, or it requires a larger tender to calculate the jumps for it and occasionally replenish its tiny fuel stores.
There are only three roles that the Picket class can fill:
1. It can act as an in-system patrol craft defending the immediate area of a planet or station. This is a role which already filled (with better performance) by pinnaces.
2. It can act as a short-ranged patrol craft. Hopping from one remote station to another following a pre-calculated route and refilling at the stations when necessary.
3. It can act as a mobile pinnace, traveling in-step with a larger vessel or fleet.
Development
Spoiler - click to reveal
The design and production were a direct result of the Lusian First Contact**.
In the mandatory Board Meeting to Review both the first contact and its subsequent battle, the CEO and leading Board Members realized a flaw in the standard fleet composition.
The Review determined that the Terran Trade fleet had suffered unacceptable losses as a result of not having enough small [expendable] strike craft available for flanking maneuvers. Because of this, the ranking officer was forced to use his far more expensive frigates and cruisers to attempt to flank the opposing fleet. This was both ineffective (because the larger ships had much slower acceleration) and expensive (since it exposed the flanking ships to unacceptable damage and losses).
Analysis of Corporate By-Laws found that the expense ratio of fighters to strike craft was set at 5-to-1, However, this had not been enforced for at least the past 50 years and a quick scan of the latest census showed the average ratio to be close 47-to-1! This was because there had been no major conflict in the past 65 years and ship captains had long ago realized that for the space and cost needed to transport and field a single pinnace, that same ship could carry a dozen fighters which are much better suited to defense.
The result of the Review was to order all new Audits to prioritize the fighter-to-pinnace ratio and heavily penalize any company that didn't bring its ratio up to Corporate standards in the time given.
This new order breathed new life into the pinnace market and lead to many new designs, from which the Picket distinguished itself. While it did have a larger than average up-front cost, the Picket design was preferred because of its low space requirements (a single automated refueling crate could keep twenty Pickets fueled for months of constant travel) allowed for much more cargo space (and profit).
In the mandatory Board Meeting to Review both the first contact and its subsequent battle, the CEO and leading Board Members realized a flaw in the standard fleet composition.
The Review determined that the Terran Trade fleet had suffered unacceptable losses as a result of not having enough small [expendable] strike craft available for flanking maneuvers. Because of this, the ranking officer was forced to use his far more expensive frigates and cruisers to attempt to flank the opposing fleet. This was both ineffective (because the larger ships had much slower acceleration) and expensive (since it exposed the flanking ships to unacceptable damage and losses).
Analysis of Corporate By-Laws found that the expense ratio of fighters to strike craft was set at 5-to-1, However, this had not been enforced for at least the past 50 years and a quick scan of the latest census showed the average ratio to be close 47-to-1! This was because there had been no major conflict in the past 65 years and ship captains had long ago realized that for the space and cost needed to transport and field a single pinnace, that same ship could carry a dozen fighters which are much better suited to defense.
The result of the Review was to order all new Audits to prioritize the fighter-to-pinnace ratio and heavily penalize any company that didn't bring its ratio up to Corporate standards in the time given.
This new order breathed new life into the pinnace market and lead to many new designs, from which the Picket distinguished itself. While it did have a larger than average up-front cost, the Picket design was preferred because of its low space requirements (a single automated refueling crate could keep twenty Pickets fueled for months of constant travel) allowed for much more cargo space (and profit).
*Pinnace - A pinnace is a non-FTL capable spacecraft. Larger than a fighter, they are generally 20-50 meters long. Like fighters, they require a carrier for travel and maintenance. Quicker and more maneuverable than anything except fighters, pinnaces are mostly used as strike craft and remote missile craft.
**The Lusian First Contact - The Lusian First Contact refers to the disastrous discovery of the Lusian Commonwealth, where a single, overly-ambitious company attacked an unknown fleet and caused the loss of dozens of Terran Trade Company ships and thousands of personnel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To best view this build, use this texture pack:
CyberOpticsLBmod1.29
it is a modified version of Cyber Optics uploaded with the permision of Scamper3396
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Update #1 : by Laserbilly 12/31/2014 11:35:46 amDec 31st, 2014
Added schematic!
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