Once again, thanks Wolfcannon for pointing this one out. Pinto Type: Corvette Producer: Various In class: 293 at its height In service: 2337 Mass: 100,000 Sail Integrity: 3 Thrust: 3/5 Fuel: 6000 tons Structural Integrity: 40 Armor: 80 tons of standard armor (8+4 per facing) Docking Collars: 0 Fighters: 2 Small Craft: 1 Crew: 100 Lifeboats: 0 Escape Pods: 10 Grav Decks: 1 65 meter Cargo: 4,513 Bay 1: Small Craft (1) 1 door Bay 2: Fighters (2) 1 door Bay 3: Cargo 1 door Other equipment none Weapons: Heatsinks: 372 Forward 1 Naval Autocannon 10 Fore Left/Fore Right 2 Large Lasers Aft Left/Aft Right 2 Large Lasers 4 Autocannon 20 Ammo 100 tons of Naval Autocannon 10 ammo 40 tons of Autocannon 20 ammo Pinto II changes: Replace the eight autocannon 20s with four Naval Laser 35s, two each aft left and aft right. Pinto (Taurian) changes: Same naval lasers as the Pinto II. In addition replace the nose gun with a Naval Autocannon 30. Structural integrity and armor are both doubled (armor is 16+8 per facing). Cargo capacity is 8,500 Designer's notes: KF drive is calculated as 50%. Propulsion system is 50% heavier than it would normally be (except with the Taurian version, which uses a proper fusion engine). There is also a fair amount of waste tonnage in the Pinto, less so in the Pinto II. Overview: The Pinto was developed as a way to give some security to many of the Terran Hegemony's worlds. During the Hegemony's early days, the vast majority of the nation's industrial might was concentrated in the Sol system, as was much of its military forces. Many member worlds of the Hegemony as a result felt naked when faced with the increasingly powerful nations surrounding them, and began clamoring for some means to protect themselve. Though the Hegemony's high command knew that there was little to be worried about, they also knew that they would have to adress this concern. One of their solutions was the Pinto. Capabilities: The Pinto is less a combat warship than it is a security blanket. This means it was built to be widely produced throughout the Hegemony and at the same time be as cost effective as possible. As a consequence, the Pinto is one of the smallest warships in existance, massing only one hundred thousand tons. Of course, the low mass at first proved to be something of a technical hurdle, as it took time for engineers to produce a KF-drive small enough for the Pinto to use. In fact, the Pinto wasn't all that cost effective in pure building costs. The much larger Lola, for example, wasn't all that more expensive than the Pinto and offered vastly superior combat capability. The Pinto's advantage was that it used up far less resources, and was far easier for the still young industrial centers of the Hegemony's member worlds to build. However, one of the consequences of the ship's small size was a corespondingly weak armament. Even in the era dominated by the Dart class cruiser the Pinto was undergunned, mounting a single naval cannon supported by a mix of autocannons and lasers. Correspondingly weak armor also guaranteed that the Pinto was little more than a flying target for most opponents. Its only saving grace was a rather powerful propulsion system that allowed it to evade practically any other warship of its time. However this advantage would quickly vanish as naval technology advanced. Deployment: The Terran Hegemony deployed nearly three hundred Pintos (roughly a third of these were the slightly more heavily armed Pinto II variant) by the time the Age of War began. They were employed almost exclusively in system defense during the war, and in the few battles where they participated they were usually brushed aside by the enemy with little trouble. By the mid 25th century the Pinto had become superfluous, with new Vincent class corvettes comming into service. One third of the class was scrapped from 2418 to 2450, and many others were stripped of most of their weaponry and converted to auxiliaries such as minehunters, search and rescue ships, and customs vessels. The rest were sold. Many of these ended up with the Taurian Concordat, who took great pains to refit the craft with heavier weapons, reinforced structure and armor, and a more modern propulsion system. Several ended up in the hands of the various provinces of the Free Worlds League as part of their private fleets. Major corporations snatched up the rest for use as part of their personal security fleets (though when the Star League was established strict restrictions on privately owned warships were put into place and many of these privately owned Pintos were scrapped). The Taurian navy would make extensive use of its refitted Pintos during the Reunification war, catching many an enemy by surprise with its improved firepower and armor. Pinto class ships would also play a role in the early days of the Free Worlds League Civil War, though by this time these ships were little more than cranky old antiques that could count on a major breakdown at least once a month and had little chance of standing up to a modern warship, even en-mass. During one notable engagement, half a dozen Pintos loyal to the Captain General attacked a lone Oriente class frigate that had declared itself neutral in the conflict. All six Pintos were left dead in space by the frigate in less than ten minutes of battle. The frigate endured only minor damage. The last Pinto class corvette was destroyed at the start of the second succesion war.