The Longsword Class Frigate is the successor class to the Sword Class frigate. Though the two are dissimilar in architecture and hull, their roles are the same, leading to the Longsword Class having similar capabilities to its predecessor, as well as a name that pays homage to it.

The Longsword is a frigate that began development in YE 40, to replace the aging Sword class frigate. Its development was accelerated in response to the Kuvexian Invasion of YE 41. It is a well rounded light platform that can serve as either an escort or a ship capable of completing missions on its own.

The Longsword offers improvements over its predecessor in carrying capacity for a frigate, a well rounded armament, and good speed. This, ultimately, creates a well-rounded platform capable of most tasks the navy can throw at it, making it capable of becoming the workhorse and backbone of any smaller fleet, as well as performing admirably as a fleet escort for larger ships.

• Escort
• Force Projection

The Longsword is primarily wedge-shaped, with a raised bridge and two sensor booms. Below the bridge section, the hangar is placed between the main body of the ship and the engines.

The Longsword began development in YE 40, as part of a navy initiative to develop new ships to replace aging portions of the fleet with newer and more modern ships. Its development was accelerated in response to the Kuvexian Invasion of YE 41, and soon prototypes began to be laid down. After armament trials, a weaponry layout was decided upon that would make it a well-rounded force projection platform capable of many basic duties at a lower cost than a cruiser or a battleship, though with less endurance in terms of supplies.

The Longsword class is a fast and maneuverable escort, able to reposition itself with ease to protect its charges.

• Class: NA-F2-1a
• Type: Frigate
• Designers: Nepleslian Arms and Munitions
• Manufacturer: Nepleslian Arms and Munitions
• Fielded by: Nepleslian Star Navy

Crew: 100 operators are recommended, 90 are required.

Maximum Capacity: There are accommodations for 120 people. About 200 people can fit aboard in an emergency, but the ship would be extremely cramped.

• Length: 170 meters
• Width: 87.5 meters (At tips of sensor booms)
• Height: 63 meters
• Decks: 12 (4.5 meters each)

• Continuum Distortion Drive: Continuum Distortion Drive: 21,915c (2.5 ly/h)
• Hyperspace Fold Drive: Hyperspace Fold Drive: 525,960c (1 ly/m)
• Sublight Engines: .375c
• Range: 2 months
• Lifespan: 20 Years
• Refit Cycle: 5 Years

DRv3 Tier: Tier 11, Medium Starship, Medium armor

The compartments of the Longsword are small, but not uncomfortable. Below is a list of descriptions of the different compartments found in the ship.

The Armory, along with the ship's Marine Barracks, are located at the bow of the ship. There are, however, several secondary armories for small arms located in various locations throughout the ship, so that no Nepleslian is caught unarmed in the event of a boarding action.

The Bridge of the ship is raised above the main body of the ship, serving triple duty as a traffic control center and observation center. The bridge is organized into three sections: the command section, which is at the center of the compartment, the traffic control section, which sits around the perimeter of the compartment to the right, and the observation section which sits around the perimeter of the compartment to the left.

There is also a CIC (Combat Information Center) located below the bridge which can take over in emergencies, but primarily serves to relay information from the bridge to the relevant sections of the ship during combat to ensure smooth operations.

Due to the smaller size of the ship, the Captain's Suite has few appreciable differences from the officer's cabins aside from a slightly larger size, though the Captain does retain significantly more leeway in their choice of decoration for the space.

The Longsword-class has one main cargo hold, located in the lower section of the front of the ship. Due to the ship's small size, and the desired cruising duration of the ship, it is not uncommon to repurpose spare space elsewhere in the ship to store provisions.

The Longsword uses standard Crew cabins for both crew and officers, with some changes made for officers. Officer's quarters are similar, but have less drawers because only two officers are assigned per cabin, their space instead taken up by a desk and terminal for doing paperwork.

In contrast to their crewmen counterparts, the marine complement of the ship stays in more cramped barracks style housing.

While maintenance conduits and spare supply closets can be found all throughout the ship, the bulk of the Longsword class' engineering space can be found at the rear of the ship. This space includes two sections for multipurpose work, an engine room that houses the internal components of the main engines, and a machine shop that is used to repair and fabricate parts for use on the ship.

Maintenance conduits, large enough for handcarts full of tools and components to be pushed through with ease, run throughout the ship, with nexuses at the rear of the ship in two engineering sections and at the front in the main gun maintenance section.

The ship has one Nepleslian Standard Starship Medical Bay which is located amidships, in between the crew accommodations and the CIC, for easy access. This medical center also houses the ship's Twinmaker.

The Longsword-class uses Nepleslian Standard Starship Hallways.

The Longsword-class has two power armor bays, both located in the fore of the ship and situated to each service half of the ship's marine complement. Half of each bay is devoted to Hostile Upgrade Package equipped Hostiles and the other half to Raiders.

The Shuttle Bay/Hangar of the Longsword is located beneath the bridge and in front of the engines. The lower half of the bay is dedicated to the ship's two Sabre fighters, and the top is dedicated to the ship's two Zachitniks.

The eating and recreation space on the Longsword class is the ship's wardroom, which is a multipurpose entertainment/meeting/dining center. This space contains several rows of dining tables, a large screen, several couches, and a games table.

The Longsword is a more lightly armored ship than is traditional in the NSN, and takes after its larger cousin, the Bastard Class Light Cruiser. Its primary hull is composed of cheap, light, and easy to repair Durandium Alloy, while important compartments such as the bridge, CIC, engineering as well as the main gun are armored with Duremium Alloy.

The Longsword, like many other NSN vessels, features an ACE AI at the heart of its electronics systems. The AI also assists with the operation of the ship's Black Veil electronics warfare suite, and controls the ship's Junkers. The ship also has an array of various types of sensors.

In addition to the Black Veil Suite, the Longsword is also outfitted with a powerful frigate grade Aegis active defense system, which provides Hyperspace Tap Flares and sensor chaff to help protect the ship from guided munitions.

To help control damage in the ship, the Longsword-class comes equipped standard with fire suppression systems in every compartment, hallway, and maintenance conduit. In addition to this, bulkheads are placed throughout the ship to control fires and decompression events. To conduct repairs, the ship is fitted with a NAM Nano-Constructor System and Junkers, both controlled by the ship's AI.

The Longsword's life support systems allow it to recycle biomatter, air and water long enough for its 2-month cruise duration. However, the biomatter recycling function is rarely used if fresh food supplies still remain in the ship's holds.

The Longsword is powered by a single Checkmate Aether Reactor, a system inherited from the Bastard line of cruisers. It maintains the old Nepleslian power sources as backup power sources, two appropriately sized Hyperspace Tap Generators, and several Heavy Fusion Reactors, which would allow it to run all critical ship systems but not its main turrets.

The Longsword's high speed comes from its array of four over-sized Plasma Impulse Drives, though it maintains an array of maneuvering and backup Gravitic Propulsion Systems.

The Longsword is protected by a Combined Barrier System distributed throughout the ship in several locations. There are emitters at the fore of the ship, on each sensor boom, and at the rear of the ship. These emitters work together to project robust defensive shield layers of the three types used in the system.

The Longsword carries a fairly light conventional armament, with no turrets rated against other ships of its own size. Instead it focuses on fleet defense and support, with an array of missile batteries and a large number of point defense turrets.

• NAM Plasma Lance Cannon: x1 Spinal Mounted, Tier 12
• Curbstomper/Narwhale Missile Batteries: x3 Missile Batteries, Tier 12
• Nepleslian Antimatter Blaster: x2 Turrets, Tier 10
• OI-V9-W3600 Heavy Pulse Laser Vulcan: x10 Dual Turrets, Tier 7

While the Longsword carries a light vehicle complement, they are sufficient to accomplish its objectives.

The Longsword carries two Zachitnik shuttles, used for transporting the ship's crew, cargo, and marine complement.

The Longsword carries two Sabre fighters for escort the vessel, provide fighter cover, and perform scouting duties for the vessel.

Alex Hart created this article on 2019/09/16 17:47.

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