The Xexon Esar-class was an advanced multi-role combat strike craft designed for the GACIAF administration in the late 48,000s, and would be the primary strike craft of the organization until the middle of the 48,500s, when the Xexon Teha-class had exceeded the Esar-class in quantity. As part of the Xexon line of strike craft, the ship was designed by Zenlian Drives, the Zelosian Collective's best known shipbuilders and a long-time partner of GACIAF. The Esar-class was intended to take the place of the Xexon Naelos, which had been in production for almost a full millennium by the time it was phased out for the Esar. As part of GACIAF seeking increased autonomy and control in the design phase of new strike craft and capital ships, the Xexon line contract was updated to enable additional involvement of Syvatii Unlimited, a GACIAF company which handled integration and testing of systems for GACIAF ships. Development under Zenlian Drives would thus consist primarily of structure, with the reactor, drive system, sensors and ECM equipment, weapons, shields, and other technologies either installed by Syvatii engineers in GACIAF testing sites or, if given to Zenlian Drives, integrated while being managed by those engineers. While this was slightly unusual for Zenlian Drives, Syvatii Unlimited had always had some control of projects built for GACIAF contracts, and the additional involvement would not significantly impact development.

The Xexon Esar was smaller than its predecessor, approximately two meters less in width and one meter less in length. Zenlian Drives put a lot of focus on optimizing the Naelos-class design, shifting internal components and using an updated reactor and drive system which took up less volume. The ship was intended to fulfill many functions, including reconnaissance, ECM and EWAR support for capital ships, strike missions in space and atmospheric, and direct combat against strike craft and light support craft. The Esar-class was equipped with the highest performance systems that GACIAF had available, and would serve as the organization's primary strike craft for almost 500 years. Production of the Esar-class was concluded earlier than planned due to the Shadow Fleet Crisis, which significantly depleted GACIAF's forces and would necessitate new iterations of the Xexon design as technology from Shadow Fleet warships was analyzed and incorporated into new systems.