FRN Assault Frigate

Assault/Escort

The Reaver-class assault frigate was the first part of the Aggregate's expanded rolling modernization program, built out of a heavy hull on the Ripper-class ship's power plants, structure, and control systems. The first prototype was designed in less than a year as a response to advanced Taiidani assault frigates, but full implementation of the Reaver-class remains far in the future. The Aggregate always preferred large numbers of generalist ships, and so fielded a truly staggering number of assault frigates that require upgrade to the Reaver standard. The most experienced Aggregate battlegroups have all been issued top-of-the-line equipment - Reaver A3s included. Many more primitive ships serve in the backwaters as training vessels or have been mothballed in the case of emergency.

The Reaver has as its primary armament two large quad-barreled rapid-fire railgun turrets, one dorsal and one ventral providing an excellent field of heavy fire. It has two guided conventional bomb launchers mounted along the keel for engaging more hardened targets. These projectiles are large, slow, and have limited maneuverability making them all but useless against strike craft, but they provide good damage on larger targets. From its parent, the Reaver inherits a dorsal dual coilgun turret for discouraging fighter attacks. In general it has a smaller blind zone than most frigates, so it must be be engaged with caution.

Following the Frerrn shipbuilding traditions, the ship has heavier than average armor and lower than average speed. The UNH has not yet captured any ships of the Reaver spaceframe, but given the Aggregate's propensity to numerous incremental refits constantly ongoing it can likely be quickly updated with small-scale improvements.