Lamprey

A common stalwart of the Alliance Navy task forces the Lamprey is designed to provide escort duties to larger ships, including operating barrier combat patrols (known as BAR-CAP) as well as standard combat patrols and missile protection using a host of anti-missile, EMP, and point defence weaponary.

Commissioned in the early days of the war when losses of civilian and logistical shipping at the hands of Independent commerce raiders began to mount, the Lamprey class escort carrier was designed to provide a suitably robust Tender and Control vessel for a flight of Barracuda fighters while still retaining limited combat capabilities itself.

Capabilities: While the Lamprey has played a role in the alliance fleet for several years now it is easily identifiable from the rest of the fleet by its blocky exterior. As it was never designed to enter a planet’s atmosphere, this lack of aerodynamics is not seen as a disadvantage by the Alliance Admiralty although few if any take part in state sponsored events and "show" manoeuvres.

Having said that, the boxy interior allows significant amounts of supplies and provisions to be carried, allowing it to operate independently for 2 weeks away from supply lines before it is forced to return to refuel. While this may seem a small amount of time in military terms, the high fuel usage of its accompanying fighters make this a significant feat.

The weapons systems of the Lamprey are based around its SSCC (Strategic Small Craft Control) system, whose superior sensors allow the craft to track, identify and engage targets at extreme range. With all this in mind, the true offensive power of the vessel comes from its quad fighters and thus the ship mounted weapons really only come into play in desperate situations or when the ship intends to board a suspected pirate.

Decommissioning: Lamprey escort carriers are usually dismantled on decommissioning since they are exclusively a warship and are not sold off to private individuals, as such captains of Naval ships would expect any Lamprey to be in direct military service.