** Jane’s Fighting Starships - USC 457 **

| Shrike II |

|Class: Corvette|

|First Production Year: USC 456|

|Categorization: Military|

|Sub-Category: Special / Recon|

|Inner Hull Length: 132m|

|Inner Hull Beam: 32m|

|Outer Hull Length (Bow to Stern): 201m|

|Outer Hull Beam: 64m|

|EST Effective Operation Duration 72 months|

||Armament||

|8 Quad 8cm Point Defense Laser Turrets |

|Range: 299,792km / 1ls |

||Configuration: Dorsal: 4 | Ventral: 4 | Amidship: 4 | Bow: 2 | Aft: 2||

|2 Double HV 152mm Rail Turrets, 1kg|

||Range: 89,937km LRP | 899,377km / 3ls LRPSGSM (Long Rod Penetrator Self-Guided Smart Munition) ||

||Configuration: Dorsal: 2 | Amidship: 2||

|1 Bow AMLS – 4 Tubes, 1066.8mm Light Missiles|

||Bow Missile Magazine: 2 - 24 1066.8mm racks, including autoloader||

||Range: Variable, 299,792km - 1,500mkm||

|4 EWCLS|

||Configuration: Dorsal: 2 | Ventral: 2 | Amidship: All||

||Magazine (EST): 16 EW Drones, 128 Chaff Clusters, 256 Smart Flares||

||Other||

|Bow D-field: 128cm D-lense|

|Plasma Fusion Reactor, 3 Rod Configuration, Small|

|Military 4-Waveform Tunnel FTL Drive|

|Bi-phase Military Class Linear Drive|

|Magneto plasma Thrust Vectoring System, Class III, Ports: 128|

|Extended Capacity Pressurized Cargo Bay|

|Extended Capacity Storage Tank Array|

|Extended Manufacturing Workshop Capability|

|Advanced Stealth Coating|

|Emergency Heat Vent System - Molten Silicon Ejection|

|Amorphous Carbon Radiator Array - Retractable and Inlaid|

|Crew Berthing: 28|

||Captain’s Quarters: 1 - Single Bunk||

||Officer’s Quarters: 2 - Double Bunks||

||Quartermaster Cabin: 1 - Single Bunk, Galley-Attached||

||NCO Quarters: 4 - Double Bunks||

||Marine Quarters: 1 - 4 Berth Bunkroom||

||Ratings Quarters: 2 - 5 Berth Bunkrooms||

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It’s easy to look at the Federation Navy’s new Shrike II and feel a bit of awe at the roles it’s been handed. Most vessels are specialized for their function for a reason: wasting mass on non-mission-critical equipment is expensive and wasteful. Larger ships generally have a little more space overhead to spare for extra functions and finding a full industrial workshop on a battleship isn’t uncommon.

That rule has been completely thrown out the door with the Shrike II’s addition to the fleet. While the Shrike I was an unassuming escort corvette a little over 131m in length, the new Shrike II has been completely redesigned.

We have here a 200-meter corvette fulfilling the role of fleet tender, mobile industrial plant, stealth ship, point defense escort, along with the armaments of a light attack ship. Did we even mention it is completely atmospheric capable, with a completely new custom linear drive system that can take over for its space-born maneuvering thrusters in atmosphere?

The ship’s overengineered heatsinks and emergency heat vent system can allow the ship to shut off its radiators for a duration measured in days instead of hours. That, along with a durable, and expensive stealth coating over the entire outer hull might just make it the largest stealth ship to ever come out of a shipyard.

With a standard 8 turret configuration for its Laser Point Defense Array, the ship’s design seems to return to some sort of normalcy, however, they are presented in a quad configuration pushing the corvettes PD armament into the field of a heavy cruiser, not a corvette! This is likely only made possible by the ship’s robust heatsink capacity and venting capabilities.

So what’s not to like? The ship’s two main Rail turrets seem like a waste, they are underpowered with only 1kg projectiles and have a terribly myopic range without the advanced smart shell, which cost almost as much as an EW drone and are only able to be produced in advanced munition stations, which goes against the ship’s entire ‘extended range’ role. Their inclusion definitely tells us the Navy’s love for projectile weapons is still in force, with no new warship design lacking one for over 100 years.

There isn’t much to say about the ship's Electronic Warfare Suite, most of it is still classified and as always, tightly kept under wraps. We do know however it has the bog-standard for a corvette class vessel in terms of launchers, 4 EWCLS - Electronic Warfare Class Launch Systems located around the central belt of the ship.

More alarming is the Shrike II’s horribly anemic missile system. A double pair of bow launchers accompanied with a magazine of 48 1066.8mm missiles means the ship has the same missile loadout as a small intersystem FAC. This when it has been shown time and time again that most engagements are settled long before light-second range is reached.

It’s obvious that the lack of long-range armament and magazine space is due to the extreme utility additions of the ship. The big question is what does this stealthy, quasi-industrial, escort corvette cost the navy?

138 million Argos credits. That’s right, this 200m corvette manages to eclipse the Aegis Heavy Cruiser’s total cost and estimated 10-year maintenance budget!

That is likely why the Federation Navy has only four Shrikes in production, with one looking to be canceled this year due to cost overruns.

There is always a secret the Navy doesn’t tell us, but it is hard to imagine what could ever justify the Shrike II’s price tag.

From: Starship Hulls: A New Engineer’s Primer - Chapter 2

It should be noted that in general starship designs have a hard outer hull and a softer internal hull that are separated by a considerable area of vacuum. The inner hull of starships is generally an amalgam of separate compartments connected by internal and external bracings to the outer hull to maintain structural integrity.

The inner hull is protected by a high-energy I-field that protects it from penetration. The effectiveness of this field is directly proportional to the size of the I-field module and available energy. It is highly effective against smaller impacts, such as those from debris, spalling of the outer hull, and low caliber projectiles. Effectiveness drops to nearly useless levels against projected energy weaponry, and high-explosive ordinance. It still has some moderate uses in protecting against directed radiation or high-intensity plasmas.