Foundation Franklin Type: Salvage and Repair ship Producer: Mitchel Vehicles and subcontractors In class: 228 In service: 2713 Mass: 100,000 Sail Integrity: 3 Thrust: 2/3 Fuel: 1000 tons Structural Integrity: 20 Armor: 40 tons of standard armor (aft 7+2, each other 5+2) Docking Collars: 2 Fighters: 0 Small Craft: 2 Crew: 40 Passengers: 20 Lifeboats: 8 Escape Pods: 0 Grav Decks: 1 65 meter Cargo: 24,111 Bay 1: Small Craft (2) 1 door Bay 2: Cargo (24,111) 1 door Bay 3: Unpressurized yard (400,000 ton capacity) 1 door Other equipment none Weapons: Heatsinks: 200 (more than enough) Forward 4 Autocannon 5s Left Broadside / Right Broadside 4 Autocannon 5s Aft 2 Naval Laser 55s 4 Autocannon 5s Ammo 16 tons of Autocannon 5 ammo Overview: The Foundation Franklin (or just Franklin as it was normally known) class salvage and repair ship was built for, well, salvage and repair. The successes of the Newgrange yardship in operations to recover crippled jumpships, and the high cost of the Newgrange, had convinced several powers that a smaller, cheaper vessel designed to handle civilian jumpships rather than full sized warships would be a worthwhile investment. Hoping to capitalize on the idea, Mitchell Vehicles designed the Foundation Franklin, offering the first vessels for sale to each of the houses starting in 2713. [editor's note: though the origins of the name Foundation Franklin are lost to history, allegedly one member of the ship's design team frequently complained loudly that the name was inapropriate for a yardship, and was more suited to a tug. Though little more than a historical footnote, this clearly indicates that the designers weren't just picking words at random when they named their ship.] Capabilities: Though the Franklin utilizes a compact drive core, along with a pair of naval lasers, it is not in any stretch of the imagination a warship, not even a non-combat warship like the later Faslane, and has never been classified as such. The Franklin's entire purpose is salvage and repair, a job it excels at. Its repair bay is large enough to accomodate even the largest jumpships currently in service, and its two docking collars and good sized cargo bay allow it to transport most everything needed to conduct salvage opperations. This allows the Franklin by itself to conduct recovery and repair opperations that used to require a massive salvage opperation to carry out, reducing time for salvage from weeks or months to hours or days. Deployment: Though the Franklin was a noncombat vessel, the rather high cost of its compact KF-drive kept it out of the hands of most private companies. This high cost also meant that the conventional salvage fleet would never be phased out, though many private salvage companies took a severe hit when the Franklin first began entering service. The vast majority of Franklin class vessels were under the authority of the houses. Most of these ships were spread across the inner sphere to handle day to day salvage and recovery opperations, however many were assigned as support ships for military forces. Though this paramilitary role sometimes meant that they would be exposed to combat situations, Franklin class vessels were generally accorded the same status as noncombatant jumpships, and were not usually targeted. This changed during the succession wars, however. After the devastation of the early years of the First war wrecked most of the repair facilities available in the inner sphere, Franklins became vital to keeping the jumpship fleet fighting. As a consequence, each state ruthlessly hunted down every enemy yardship they could in order to deny their enemies the ability to recover and repair their jumpships. This was only one of the many factors that nearly resulted in the collapse of interstellar travel in the wake of the First and Second Succession war. The last surviving Franklins are a part of the clan fleets. Several Franklins accompanied the Exodus, where their repair bays were essential in keeping many of the fleet's jumpships in opperation. These ships were largely mothballed after the arrival at the Pentagon, and when the Exodus Civil War broke out were surprisingly untouched. [editor's note: the most common theory is that the warring factions decided to focus on recovering warships to fight their enemies rather than noncombatant vessels. Kind of short sighted of them, but then, the entire Exodus Civil War was caused by rather short sighted ideals, wasn't it?] Unfortunately, we cannot be certain how many Franklin class ships are currently in service with the clans. The clans classify these craft as noncombatant vessels, and as a consequence they only rarely appear in any military listing. So far, roughly half a dozen have been sighted in the inner sphere, and most of these are in Ghost Bear territory. Interestingly enough, one of these Ghost Bear craft sported the insignia of clan Smoke Jaguar on its jumpsail. Presumably the ship was acquired by the Bears shortly after the fall of the Jaguars and the Bears had yet to replace the sail. [editor's note: our freindly neighborhood conspiracy theorist, Mr John Garrett, author of such works as "Where have all the Valkyries gone? A Look at the Lost Mech Conspiracy" has come up with his own crack-brained theory, claiming that the surviving Smoke Jaguars are hiding out in Ghost Bear territory, being supported by a "crusader underground movement" for an eventual takeover of the clan and a resumption of the invasion of the inner sphere. It's a theory that only really makes sense to a dedicated conspiracy nut.]