Frigate

Capital Ship Combatants			Escort Combatants			Military Smallcraft				Support Ships
Battleship	Cruiser	Carrier	Destroyer	Escort	Frigate	System Defense Boat	Fighter	Assault Transport	Smallcraft	Auxiliaries

Commercial Mercantile Ships			Non-Mercantile Commercial Ships		Non-Commercial Ships			Civilian Smallcraft	Highports & Satellites
Merchant	Liner	Transport	Commercial Industrial	Commercial Ships	General	Research	Private	Auxiliary	Orbital Complexes	Satellites

A Frigate is a class of ships smaller than a Cruiser and with even lighter armament.

Please see the following AAB articles for more information:

Description

Frigates are smaller than 10,000 tons, with most in the 1,000 to 2,000 ton range. Frigates mount only turret weapons, no spinal or bay mounted weapons. Frigates also lack the drive (acceleration and jump) capabilities of true warships.

Strategy and doctrine

A Frigate's primary mission is a defensive role. Providing extra security for merchant ships against pirates and light raiders. The frigate generally mounts enough firepower to defeat most armed merchants, but not enough to threaten a Cruiser or similar warship. Unlike an Escort, which is expected to be able to at least assist in combat with larger warships, most frigates are not.

The lack of firepower, drive capability, and generally armor, makes the frigates less expensive to build and maintain than warships, so they can be built and maintained in large numbers. Their ubiquity lends them to being applied to other missions, including piracy suppression, raiding, and ground support missions.

Light Starcraft Hierarchy

History and Background

Many interstellar polities outside of the Imperium use Frigates for internal security missions, feeling that full warships are not needed for policing duties. The Imperial Navy uses Escorts for many of these duties.

Major Frigate Classes

A Frigate in the Royal Caledonian Navy is the equivalent of a "Cruiser" in Imperial parlance, and fills the Cruiser role. They are listed under Cruisers.

Representative Types

3 Representative Frigate (F) 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
Cudin class Attack Boat	FA	11	40	0	6	Unity of Sed	No. Unpublished, non-canon fan design.	TBD
Ronkli class Combat Transport	F	11	300	2	6	Distant Fringe		F-CP62
Sath class Medium Fighter	FM	8	30	0	5	Sath Alliance	No. Unpublished, non-canon fan design.	TBD

References and contributors

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 Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science