Transport

Line Combatants (Primary - Capital)				Escort Combatants (Secondary - Subcapital)				Military Auxiliary (Tertiary)
B- Battleship	C- Cruiser	O- Ortillery	V- Carrier	D- Destroyer	E- Escort	F- Fighter	H- Defense/Security	I- Combat Transport	Q- Combat Support	S- Scout	U- Utility	X- Commo	Z- Special

Mercantile Commercial Ships (Trade & Profit)				Non-Mercantile Commercial Ships (Industry & Profit)					Non-Commercial Ships (Nonprofit)			System Craft (Intrastellar)
A- Tramp	M- Freighter	R- Liner	T- Transport	G- Industrial	J- Prospector	K- Expedition	P- Corsair	U- Utility	L- Science	N- Medical	Y- Private	WB- Barge	WA- Satellite	WO- Space Station

T-class Transport: Bulk transport vessels are civilian commercial ships with hulls designed for transport of bulk materials.

• Bulk Cargo Carriers, Grain Haulers, Ore Haulers, Tankers, Ship Transporters, and a variety of other subclasses with varied missions comprise this grouping although the bulk cargo carrier is the best known.
• The same hulls under dedicated military service are known as Q-class Combat Support Ships and I-class Combat Transports. I-class vessels are hardened and often armored for hostile conditions.
• The Supraclass designation is also known as Ship Mission, Ship Mission Code, Mission, or Ship Hull Designation.
• It is a starship supraclass.

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Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information:
Starship:

• Starship User Types
  • Civilian Ship
  • Military Ship
  • Non-Commercial Vessel
  • Paramilitary Ship

• Advanced Ship Classifications
  • Ship Mission Code / Supraclass
  • Ship Type Code / Superclass
  • Ship Class Code / Class
  • Model (TL)
  • Bloc (Lot)

• Basic Ship Classifications
  • Adventure Class Ship (Auxiliary Class Ship)
  • Battle Class Ship (Bulk / Subcapital Class Ship)
  • Capital Ship (Capital Class Ship)
  • Fleet Class Ship (Capital Class Ship)
  • Size-Role Classification
  • Subcapital Ship (Small & Large Battle Class Ships)
  • QSP
  • USP
  • World Class Ship

• Ships by Function
  • Bigcraft
  • Boat
  • Capital Ship
  • Largecraft
  • Non-starship
  • Smallcraft
  • Spaceplane
  • Spaceship
  • Starship
  • Subcapital Ship
  • Subcraft
  • System Craft
  • Warship

Speed of Travel

• NAFAL (STL) - (Not As Fast As Light) / (Slower Than Light)
• Light Speed (c)
• FTL - (Faster Than Light) - "Superluminal"

• Astronomical Unit (AU)

» Imperial Standard Astronomical Unit

• Light-second (ls)
• Light-minute (lm)
• Light-hour (lh)
• Light-day (ld)
• Light-week (lw)
• Light-year (ly)
• Parsec (pc)

» Solomani Parsec

» Vilani Parsec ("Deshi")

» Imperial Standard Parsec

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Description (Specifications)

Transports and tankers are the really large cargo ships built to conduct corporate bulk trade. They are expensive ships and often come equipped with light armament and significant defensive suites. Convoys and escorts are common. Almost all bulk trade is scheduled, profitable, and integral to an established interstellar, economic network. Some larger ships weigh hundreds of thousands of tons in displacement. Few are streamlined or designed to enter an atmosphere. Most make use of highports and employ extensive interface craft. High population, rich nexus worlds, and capitals are their most common destinations.

Image Repository

No information yet available.

Spectrum of Civil Shipping in Charted Space

Spectrum of Civil Shipping in Charted Space: 1105
Cateogries	A-class	R-class	M-class	T-class
Synopsis	Tramp	Liner	Freighter	Transport & Tanker
Hull Tonnage	100 to 2,499 dTons	100 to 2,499 dTons	2,500 to 999,999 dTons	2,500 to 999,999 dTons or more... (...rarely more than 1,000,000) dTons
Size-Cat	ACS	ACS	BCS & FCS	BCS & FCS (rarely WCS)
Ideal Freight Volume	Zero to Low (Hundreds of tons)	Medium (Hundreds to Thousands of tons)	High (Thousands to Tens of Thousands of tons)	Very High (Tens to Hundreds of Thousands of tons)
Market	Unscheduled low volume, high speculation trade routes	Mostly scheduled, medium speculation, subsidized trade routes	Scheduled medium and high-volume, low speculation trade routes	Scheduled high volume trade routes with massive economies of scale, or massive (...usually government) projects
Rough Market Share	10%	25%	45%	20%
Area of Influence	Cluster or Trace+	Subsector+	Sector	Multi-Sector
Business	Fledgling Line	Subsector-wide Line & Interface Line	Sector-wide Line	Multi-sector Line
Remarks	Merchant Princes & Adventurers	Scheduled & Subsidized Trade	Backbone of Merchant Trade	Corporate Bulk Trade
NOTES: While standards exist, ship naming standards evolve with time and over tech epochs. Class naming comments are only generalizations and many exceptions exist. Trade is heavily affected by local regulations, the rule of law, and local security conditions. WCS-class vessels are not ordinarily used for merchant missions as they are too large and expensive.

Strategy & Tactics (Doctrine)

Transports form the economic backbone that enables any sizable polity to exist. If there is one supraclass that can be said to be the single most vital to any such polity, this is it. The Third Imperium could, in theory under hypothetical optimal conditions, continue to exist without warships, scout vessels, x-boats (...communications being handled by transports instead), and all other types - but it can not exist without transports hauling freight (...and sometimes people) from world to world.

One reason is that many colonies can not survive without continued import of vital goods. During the Long Night and Collapse, when conditions (...whether destruction of or damage to transports, loss of availability of maintenance, disruption of cargo availability, destabilization of currency, or any of a number of other factors) meant that transports stopped coming, many colonies were unable to support themselves. Nonagricultural worlds ran out of food, many agricultural worlds ran out of spare parts to run their farms (...or the machines that kept their land arable), and many worlds with tainted or exotic atmospheres ran out of spare parts for the machines that kept their air breathable. Lucky survivors found their way to other worlds that could sustain themselves; the rest died. Only with the return of regular freight service could these colonies be successfully re-established.

Supraclass Roles

Transports typically serve the following roles:

1. Bulk Carrier (TC)
2. Bulk Cargo Carrier (TC)
3. Bulk Cargo Hauler (TC)
4. Bulk Hauler (TC)
5. Bulk Liquid Carrier (TA)
6. Bulk Transport (TC)
7. Bulk Transporter (TC)
8. Cargo Carrier (TC)
9. Cargo Ship (TC)
10. Cargo Transport (TC)
11. Frame Carrier (TV)
12. Freighter (TC)
    1. Heavy Freighter (TC)
    2. Light Freighter (TC)
    3. Medium Freighter (TC)
13. Fleet Transport (TC)
14. Frontier Tanker (TC)
15. Frontier Transport (TC)
16. Grain Hauler (TCG)
17. Heavy Jump Transport (TV)
18. Heavy Tanker (TA)
19. Heavy Transport (TC)
20. Highliner (TC)
21. Jump Ship (TV)
22. Jump Tanker (TV)
23. Ore Hauler (TCO)
24. Provincial Carrier (TC)
25. Range Carrier (TV)
26. Ship Transporter (TV)
27. Station Tanker (TA)
28. Super-Heavy Transport (TC)
29. Tanker (TA)
30. Transport (T) (Namesake)
31. Transporter (TC)
32. Ultra-Heavy Cargo Transport (TC)

Supraclass Archetypes

T-class Transport Supraclass Archetypes
Archetype	Type Code	Exemplar	Remarks
Transport	T (Namesake)	Oukhaha class Bulk Hauler	Transporters are a generic class of large tonnage cargo transport vessels. There are numerous subclasses, but all carry large amounts of cargo freight, often in bulk forms.
Bulk Cargo Carrier	TC	Empress class Bulk Carrier	Bulk cargo haulers focus on transporting containerized freight. They often operate over well known, long establish routes. They are often contracted directly to companies with most or all their capacity used for moving that company's products. The primary way they differ from other transports is that they deal with large cargo containers. These containers are connected to an external framework, which provides atmosphere and power, and allows access by crew members. There are usually discounts for modules without power and/or atmosphere requirements.
Grain Hauler	TCG	Average Cargo Ship class Cargo Ship	Another bulk cargo hauler for agricultural products. These cargoes can not exposed to vacuum or temperature extremes, so the hold is sealed, and subject to strict environmental standards. The holds are normally not suitable for passengers or crew due to the temperature, atmospheric mix, or pressure conditions needed to keep the agricultural products as fresh as possible. Grain is merely one of the most common cargoes these ships carry; anything that requires a pressurized, environmentally-controlled container may be carried by this type.
Ore Hauler	TCO	TBD class Vessel	A specialized bulk cargo hauler for raw or processed ore. To qualify as this type, at least half of the cargo may be exposed to vacuum and/or suffer temperature extremes (and is not necessarily liquid or gas, nor in detachable cargo containers), though some ore haulers have a small pressurized hold for more valuable cargoes.
Tanker	TF	Provision class Medium Tanker	Tankers are specially designed to haul cargoes of either liquid or gas. Many are specially designed and can not take alternate types of cargo. For example, a hydrogen carrier can not normally be used to transport ammonia. There are some specialized tankers where entire storage modules are swapped out, not unlike bulk cargo carriers, but these are more the exception than the rule.
Ship Transporter	TV	Mariner class Frame Carrier	Ship Transporters are similar to carriers and tenders, but instead of military subcraft, they carry civilian subcraft. The concept is similar to the battle rider concept, except in a civilian application. The class also includes various kinds of jump ships or jump trains, specialized to carry variable cargos, or as jump shuttles.

History & Background (Dossier)

Transporters and tankers have carried a stable fifth of the interstellar shipping economy for several thousand years, only broken by periods of unrest, war, and anarchy such as the Long Night. Naval architecture has grown quite sophisticated over the many years of civilization within Charted Space. All sorts of technologies have been used and developed with these craft where significant economies of scale can be exploited and experimented with.

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Civilian Ship - Merchant Ship:

1. Type T class Transport
2. Type TC class Bulk Cargo Carrier
3. Type TCO class Ore Hauler
4. Type TCG class Grain Hauler
5. Type TF class Tanker
6. Type TV class Ship Transporter

Ship Summary List

Some of the most commonly used vessels in this role or these roles include:

1 Representative Transport (T) Classes
Class Mission Code TL Tons Jump G Origin Canon Quick ship profile Class Mission Code TL Tons Jump G Origin Canon Quick ship profile Cadence Gaul class Troop Transport TT 10 4,000 1 6 Maujen Defense Bureau TBD

0 Representative Bulk Cargo Carrier (TC) Classes
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0 Representative Ore Hauler (TCO) Classes
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0 Representative Grain Hauler (TCG) Classes
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0 Representative Tanker (TF) Classes
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0 Representative Ship Transporter (TV) Classes
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References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• This article is an amalgamation of many different materials published since 1977.
• Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science