The Tessin-class was a light starfighter developed by Datopala Industrial and sold to numerous TAUFOG national militaries, law enforcement organizations, and other commercial and civilian sources as an inexpensive patrol craft. The Tessin-class would be the first of a large collection of strike craft Datopala Industrial released from the late 48,700s to the mid 48,800s, and had both the longest production run and most success in domestic and international markets. The Tessin-class began development during a series of Shadow Fleet attacks which caused widespread devastation across Ivesceel, and was targeted towards nations, organizations, companies, and individuals who sought greater security and order even as massive TAUFOG member nations collapsed or came into conflict with each other, further increasing conflict. While some shipbuilding companies like Kualin Stardrives put increased focus on the civilian market, and defense contractors competed over government contracts, Datopala Industrial had a long history of developing successful products which they sold to almost any consumers available. Perhaps the most notable example of this was the Balkon-class freighter, which almost singlehandedly turned the company into the sixth largest spaceship manufacturer in Ivesceel, and which Datopala would turn into a very successful line of different ship models. The Tessin-class was, similar to the Balkon line, advertised towards anyone from TAUFOG national militaries for defending outposts and bases, to corporations as a vehicle for security teams, to private militias as an affordable supplement to smaller numbers of more performant strike craft. The broad appeal of a starfighter like the Tessin-class, which packed an excellent combination of armor, shields, weapons, and mobility given its size and unit cost, led to the Tessin being one of Datopala Industrial's most successful products in centuries, and they would not match the Tessin-class's success for a similarly long time.

The Tessin-class was an extremely small strike craft, measuring only 13.5 meters in length and having both a smaller width and height. Despite this, the Tessin-class was a capable combatant against other light strike craft and, because of its size and cost, could often defeat larger, more powerful starfighters and support craft through numbers. The fighter was armed with two DI Xehi-022-m3 light laser cannons, produced by a Datopala Industrial subsidiary, OVA Hequall, which Datopala acquired five decades prior to development of the Tessin. These laser cannons, through an innovative thermal management system which channeled some waste heat through coolant lines into the ship's shield projectors to exchange an insignificant amount of shield dissipation capacity for significantly better thermal performance, allowed the Tessin's weapons to outperform the best offered by competing shipbuilders. The Jorac-class interceptor from Themix Industries, for example, had a lower energy yield per shot and only marginally faster cooldown times compared to the Tessin despite being produced over two decades later, and being more than twice the mass and volume of the Tessin. Paired with a massive ion thruster for a strike craft of its size, a DI/SCC 90T-311 model designed in-house by Datopala, the Tessin-class completely outperformed almost any other light strike fighter being sold in TAUFOG, and even some standard-model strike craft. The Tessin's only notable disadvantage, other than having lighter armor and shields, which was a given for such a small strike craft, was the ship's lack of an FTL drive. Datopala's engineers were unable to find space or the necessary power to operate a darkspace drive on the Tessin-class, with an early prototype that did incorporate FTL capabilities, the T17-0012, being lost during a test lightspeed jump where the vessel, being piloted autonomously out of safety concerns, lost cohesion with its network of IPPCF nodes and the prototype instantaneously dissociated. Although flight data could not be recovered due to the nature of realspace-darkspace communications while in motion, information from sublight flight tests and simulations during the resulting investigation indicated that strain on the prototype's reactor led to the incident, and attempts to include an FTL system were abandoned shortly after. Despite the limited range resulting from having no FTL drive, the Tessin was still popular as Datopala specifically marketed the fighter for use cases where range was not critical, such as defending stationary facilities. The problem was also mitigated by the simultaneous development of the Velnian-class light carrier, which was heavily optimized towards carrying Tessin-class fighters in its standard configuration. Indeed, because the Tessin was delayed for several years towards the end of development due to software issues, the team working on the Velnian was forced to accelerate the development of a variant more capable of carrying larger strike craft, as the Tessin-class would not be available by the Velnian's initial release.

The Tessin-class had a production run that lasted from 48,782 ACT to 48,945 ACT, over 150 years. While not nearly as long as the Balkon-class freighter's production, or other popular products from Datopala Industrial, the Tessin achieved sales figures in excess of almost any product the company had produced to that date. Over 21 million Tessin-class fighters were manufactured, with approximately 60% going to various medium and small TAUFOG nations for law enforcement organizations and smaller militaries, as well as to government organizations. The remaining 40% of sales were to different companies and other sources. Corporate shipyards and transport companies in particular loved the Tessin-class, which was small enough to be loaded onto freighters or light carriers such as the Velnian-class and could be quickly launched against pirate and criminal forces during ambushes. The low cost also led to moderate sales for small regional companies facing similar challenges, such as mining companies, whose operations were frequently remote and unprotected by GACIAF patrols due to the galactic navy being occupied with the Shadow Fleets and large armed conflicts. The Tessin-class would ultimately be discontinued in the mid 48,900s as Datopala refocused on capital ships and larger spacecraft, in large part due to the almost complete failure of the strike craft that followed the Tessin-class to achieve financial success. Additionally, saturation and competition from other shipbuilders who sought similar success in with a light fighter class led to decreasing sales figures. Even despite this, production of the Tessin lasted a few decades after Datopala's stopped manufacturing their other less successful strike craft; and the Tessin-class would later be credited by company leaders at the time as being second only to the Balkon-class freighter in Datopala Industrial's history.