To mark the year 1100, the Imperial Navy challenged naval architects across the Imperium to come up with innovative new design concepts. RINA (Rhylanor Interstellar Navy Architects), a small design house specialising in unusual requirements, came up with a concept ship they named the Panther. The idea was for the smallest, and thus cheapest, ship capable of carrying a 100 dton meson gun while keeping up with standard fleet units (ie. Jump-4 and 6G).
RINA’s design used two tricks to achieve this. First, rather than carry a power plant capable of meeting all energy requirements for the duration of a cruise (28 days), two power plants were installed: one for 28 days of normal use, and another for 30 hours of combat activities. Second, the main weapon could only fire at half the normal rate: energy had to be built up in the ship’s jump drive capacitors. This later trick effectively halved the EPs/turn required by such a weapon. For defence, the Panther relied solely on moderately high agility.
In the end, only an initial run of 4 Panthers were built (unimaginatively named Panther-1, Panther-2, Panther-3, and Panther-4). Panther-2 was destroyed in early trials, but the remaining three still function together as a squadron.
| Tonnage: | 1,000 dtons standard, 14,000 cubic meters, close structure configuration. |
| Crew: | Command=1, Bridge=6, Engineering=10, Gunnery=1, Medical=1 |
| Engineering: | Jump-4, 6G Maneuver, Power plant (main)-6, 60 EP, Power plant (combat)-9, 90 EP, Agility 4 |
| Avionics: | 1 bridge, with Model 4/Fib computer |
| Hardpoints: | 100-ton bay x1 |
| Armament: | 100-ton meson gun bay |
| Defences: | None |
| Craft: | None |
| Fuel: | 464 dtons fuel (jump-4 and 28 days endurance, and 30 hours combat endurance) |
| Other: | Crew in double occupancy staterooms |
HG
Ship: Panther Type: Frigate (experimental) Architect: RINA Construction: General Shipyards Owner: Imperial Navy Tech Level: F USP: FZ-A446XD2-000000-00090-0 MCr916 1000tons Batt Bear 1 Crew 19 Batt 1 TL 15 Cargo=0 Fuel=464 Agility=4 No fuel treatment (X=6or9)
| Component List | |
|---|---|
| Jump drive (J4) | 50 dtons |
| Jump drive fuel (1 jump) | 400 dtons |
| Manoeuvre drive (6G) | 170 dtons |
| Main power plant (PP6) | 60 dtons |
| Main power plant fuel (4 weeks) | 60 dtons |
| Weapon bay | 100 dtons |
| Weapon power plant | 90 dtons |
| Weapon power plant fuel (1 day) | 4 dtons |
| Bridge | 20 dtons |
| Computer (4/fib) | 8 dtons |
| Staterooms (double occupancy) | 38 dtons |
| 1000 dtons | |
The jump drive has 20 dtons of capacitors, which can hold up to 720 EPs.
| Ship Registry | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tail no | name | owner | captain | status | notes |
| 9536 | Panther-1 | IN | In Service | ||
| 9537 | Panther-2 | IN | Destroyed | ||
| 9538 | Panther-3 | IN | In Service | ||
| 9539 | Panther-4 | IN | In Service | ||