Type: St George Class Frigate In Service: 2457 Number in Service: 170 Mass: 700,000 tons KF Integrity: 15 Sail Integrity: 4 Thrust: 3/5 Fuel: 4000 tons SI: 85 Armor: 1000 tons standard armor ( Fore/aft: 66+9 sides: 67+9) Heatsinks: 1200 Docking Collars: 4 Fighters: 24 Small Craft: 12 Crew: 455 Lifeboats: 30 Escape Pods: 40 Grav Deck: 1 (45 meters) Cargo: 113,589 tons Other Equipment: Long Range Sensor Package Bays: Bay 1: Fighters (24) 6 doors Bay 2: Shuttles (12) 2 doors Bay 3: Infantry 2 Battlions of Jump Infantry Marines (24 platoons) Bay 4: Cargo 8 doors Weapons: Forward: 2 NAC 20 2 White Shark Launchers 4 AC/10 Fore Left/Right: 2 NAC 20 1 White Shark 4 AC/10 LBS/RBS 3 NAC 10 3 Medium Naval PPCs Aft Left/Right: 1 NAC 20 1 White Shark 4 AC/10 Aft: 2 White Shark 4 AC/10 Ammo: 400 White Shark Missiles 400 Rounds NAC 20 Ammo 350 Rounds NAC 10 Ammo 300 Tons AC/10 Ammo Refit: add an additional 500 heatsinks. Reduce cargo capacity to 113,089 tons. Overview: In 2450 the AFFS Navy purchased 6 Wagon Wheel class Frigates from the Terran Hegemony. These were deployed as patrol ships along the border with the Draconis Combine to provide early warning of any attacks by the Combine. The FSS Flint proved it's worth almost immediately when it detected a Combine attack fleet approaching Cassias. The Flint was able to get a warning off to the AFFS, which allowed them to rush reinforcements to the system and drive of the Combine attackers. As a result of this incident, the AFFS Navy decided to build up the number of Frigates in it's fleet. [Editor's Note: It is believed that the senior admirals of the AFFS Navy wanted to shed the Navy's traditional role as an escort and transport for the ground troops and develop into a more autonomous branch capable of independent operations. The Admirals hoped that by building a large fleet of frigates, the Navy would be able to intercept and destroy the enemy forces before they could land, thus making them the first line of defense for the Federated Suns.] The AFFS approached the Terran Hegemony about purchasing more Wagon Wheel frigates but all of the ships had already been disposed of by the Hegemony. Some thought was given to simply a direct copy of the Wagon Wheel. However, the AFFS Naval command opposed this decision, stating that a new Frigate design would allow them to incorporate new technology and improve the ship?s performance. The new Frigate design was developed by the design team of Universal Air and built at the both the Universal Air facility at Delevan and the New Syrtis Shipyards. [Editor's Note: The New Syrtis Shipyards is believed to be unique in that while they built a number of warships for the AFFS, they had no warship design team. The New Syrtis Shipyards was used to license build smaller designs (Corvettes, Destroyers, frigates and cruisers) from other companies such as Universal Air and Challenge Systems, allowing those companies to focus their production capability primarily on their larger warship designs. Other designs that were license produced by New Syrtis Shipyards included the Audacious Class Corvette, Triad Class Cruisers and Davion Class Destroyers ] A total of 170 Frigates would be produced before production ended in 2512. Capabilities: While the AFFS Navy sought a design capable of acting independently against the enemy, the AFFS high command was dominated by the Army and so saw the Navy as primarily a transport unit for the Army. As a result, the Navy was forced to add a requirement that the ship be able to carry enough dropships to transport a reinforced combined arms regiment and sufficient supplies to support them for a extended periods of time. This requirement would have a major impact on the design. The St George Class mounts 4 dropship docking collars and has over 100,000 tons of cargo capacity to support the supply needs of the ground forces. With all the space dedicated to cargo, the designers were forced to reduce the amount of sensory equipment on the ships. So, even though the St George class mounts more modern and advanced equipment then the Wagon Wheel, it's capabilities are actually slightly reduced from that of the Wagon Wheels. The large amount of cargo space on the ships limited the weapons array. The primary guns are the proven Federated Class 10 and Class 20 Naval Autocannons. These had been used on many earlier designs and had a good reputation for reliability. While there was some discussion of using the newly developed Class 35 Naval Autocannons used on the Musketeer class Battlecruiser, the designers wanted the ship to be able to engage the enemy at longer ranges then the the Class 35 cannons could reach. Backing up these guns were the newly developed Blazestar Naval PPC developed by Dynamico. These guns were expected to provide the ship with firepower at extreme ranges beyond those of the Naval Autocannons. The St George was the first Federation ship to mount these guns and they proved to be a major problem initially. The early models were very unreliable and tended to breakdown fairly easily if they were not properly maintained. In addition, the weapons ran far hotter then the designers expected and this over taxed the coolant system of the ships, limiting the firepower of the ship. Eventually these problems would be fixed in 2483, when the early models of the Blazestar Naval PPCs were replaced with the newer Mk2 model. The MK2 was far more reliable and had greatly reduced maintenance requirements. At the same time the Blazestars were upgraded,improvements were made to the coolant system so that it could handle the extra heat generated by the Naval PPCs. All new ships would be built to this configuration and all early ships would be upgraded to this configuration when they came in for refits. Fighter defense was provided by mix of the proven White Shark Missiles and standard autocannons. Combined with the 24 fighters carried in the ship, this proved adequate against all but the heaviest enemy fighter attacks. The armor on the ship was also adequate for the era, the 1000 tons of armor allowed the ship to stand up to destroyers, frigates and corvettes. Even so captains needed to be careful, as the St George class could not stand up to enemy battlecruisers or battleships. The St George class also carried 2 battalions of Marines and 12 shuttles which could be used for boarding operations against enemy ships. Because of the difficulties and expense of training marines, many times the ships carried only 1 battalion of troops. Deployment: The St George class was deployed along the Federated Suns borders with the Capellan Confederation, Draconis Combine and Terran Hegemony as independent patrol ships. For almost 100 years these ships, and the troops they carried were the first line of defense against any invading force. In order to provide the best protection for the Federation's long borders, the ships typically embarked a rapid deployment defense force. In the early days this force consisted of 2 armor battalions, 2 infantry battalions, a combat engineer unit specializing in defensive positions and an artillery unit which could be deployed to a planet in order to bolster it's defense against an invading force, while the frigate engaged the enemy warships and aerospace fighters. Later, one of the armor battalions would be replaced with a Battlemech battalion, as soon as the new weapons became available in sufficient quantities. This deployment proved very effective for the defense of the Federated Suns, but required a large number of troops and as a result limited the AFFS's ability to launch offensive operations in the late 25th century. The St George's ability to rapidly react to enemy incursions helped the AFFS secure it?s borders during the Age of War. The ships were heavily used and they saw a significant amounts of combat, with over 45 destroyed by the end of the Davion Civil War. Interestingly, during the Civil War, the majority of the St George class remained neutral. They and their troops continued to patrol the Federation?s borders and played a key role in preventing the Draconis Combine and Capellan Confederation from taking advantage of the situation in the Federated Suns. Even so the design was beginning to show it's age and a new design was proposed by Challenge Systems of Galax in 2535. Eventually the new Congress class frigate would enter service with the Federated Suns in 2542, after a long legal battle with the Terran Hegemony and Dekirk Aerospace. With the availability of the Congress Class frigates, the St George class became excess to the AFFS needs. Rather then retire the ships, the AFFS decided to use them as armored troop transports. [Editor's Note: Some would argue that the St George Class was used already being used in that role and the AFFS was just getting around to recognizing that fact.] Only a few changes were made to the ships to support their new role. The main change was the addition of a command and control center that would allow ground commanders to control troop movements from orbit. However, this feature was rarely used as most commanders preferred to be on the ground with their troops. The St George class had a longer life as troop transports then as Frigates. They served the AFFS and SLDF in the Reunification War against the Taurian Concordat, where a number were lost to attacks by the Taurian Navy. The Taurian Navy targeted these ships in an effort to destroy as many SLDF and Federated Suns troops as possible. The St George class also played a key role in General Kessem's advance into the Draconis Combine during the War of Davion Succession. The well armored transports were able to break through the few Combine warships defending the border against the AFFS and land their troops in support of General Kessem's advance to Ludwig. Later the ships would escort the Federation troops out of Combine space, defending the transports against the Cloud and Wave class destroyers sent after them. At the start of the 1st Succession War all of the available St George class ships were assigned to support Prince John's offensive against the Capellan Confederation. The ships suffered heavy losses, as the Confederation dispatched a number of Hunter Killer Squadrons to attack the AFFS transport capability, in an effort to delay their advance into Confederation space. In 2788 the surviving St George class ships were withdrawn from the Capellan border and reassigned to the Combine border in response to the Combine offensive against the Federated Suns. These ships would later be assigned to the AFFS counter offensive of 2790. As part of the fleet led by Admiral Jones, the St George class played a key role in resupplying resistance forces and attacking ground targets in the occupied systems, while the rest of the fleet dealt with the ships of the DCMS navy. At Cholame, most of the St George class ships were lost during the 6 week battle, only 4 ships were able to escape. Of these, 3 would be destroyed before the end of the 1st Succession War. The last ship, the FSS Hannibal was lost during the 2nd Succession War. The Hannibal served as a transport in the battles of Tikonov before being reassigned to the Combine front for the offensive of 2841. The Hannibal was assigned to escort troops for the assault on New Rhodes III. The Hannibal and it?s dropships, along with those from the other transport dropships, headed for the planet. The Combine deployed several Achilles class dropships and a large number of aerospace fighters to intercept the AFFS transports and the two sides met in a ferocious battle. The Achilles were quickly destroyed by the Hannibal, but not before inflicting moderate damage on the ship. Meanwhile the Federation fighters were overwhelmed by the Combine fighters and several transport dropships had been destroyed. In an effort to rescue the transports, the Hannibal moved into the middle of the dropship fleet and began engaging the Combine fighters. The Hannibal managed to scatter the fighters, allowing the transports to land safely. However the ship?s maneuvering thrusters were badly damaged by the fighter attacks and the Hannibal was unable to escape the planets gravity. The crew abandoned ship shortly before the Hannibal entered the atmosphere and crashed.