Ship Frigate AISN Vladimir

Support Frigate

The Vladimir (otherwise known as 'Impaler' class) support frigate is a slightly obsolete Eretean design acquired in great numbers by the Antarean Federation during their military build-up prior to the Reformation. Like its sister classes (Vostoc, Petrograd, and Bochkov), the Vladimir retains the the sloped, hunchback design that is so common to Eretian vessels.

The Vladimir was originally an escort frigate, but time and necessity has seen its role in the Imperial navy diminish from a front-line vessel, to small mobile service ship and strong-point. The Imperial refit of 983 re-introduced the Vladimir with many changes, critically, removing nearly all of its ventral weaponry in favor of docking clamps and fabrication/repair nodes.

Though re-classified as a Support frigate, Vladimirs have never-the-less seen extensive combat. This has led to a slight re-arming of the ship, in particular the addition of capital class plasma-cannons as well as an extensive retooling of its fire-support systems. Despite the extensive retrofit, and like many other Eretian vessels, it still suffers from fair to poor armor coverage for a ship of its size.

It is a very compact vessel, capable of impressive sub-light speeds, but due to the age and the relative quirkiness of its navigational systems, it is fairly short-ranged.

Despite having a limited hyperspace capacity and questionable durability, this slightly updated version of the Vladimir still retains many of the features that made it attractive to military powers decades ago.

The Vlad's firepower hinges on a single medium-bore rail-cannon turret slung conspicuously along its ventral hull as well light-plasma-beam cannon on an axial mount. The Vladimir's rail-cannon, an updated version of Gherboch & Smith's BOA model, has impressive range over more standard bore-types, but combat trials have shown it to be a fairly unstable system which often suffers from severe overheating and constant coil-overload failures. As a result, it is strictly limited to armor-piercing (solid) shells, and has a very long refire cycle.

Backing these weapons are a pair of double-barreled light plascannon turrets located on the port and starboard broadside (on the engine bloc), 3 ion-array (2x) clusters located on the around the central axis (port, starboard, dorsal), as well as 4 HPV Guided-Rocket batteries (top-deck). A single light torpedo tube capable of firing Mk2 through Mk5 class munitions is located on the top-deck, a few dozen meters from the nose of the ship.

The Vlad is capable of supporting 4 drone flights locally, but has C&C; capacity to coordinate twice that number without conflict. Its inability to coordinate effectively with newer Imperial vessels TNN technology is a major hindrance. As a result, it is often relegated to second-line duty, and even then fairs poorly in direct combat. However, due to its cost savings, there are many still in active service. It is unclear when or if it will be retired, as the Empire's territory expands and the need for more cost-effective vessels continues to increase.

Furthermore it still functions fine as a frontline repair and maintenance frigate for the time being, and so does not need replacing.

Stats: Lenght: 270m