Stalwart-class light frigate (EXverse)

The most balanced UNSC frigate, the Stalwart-class light frigate is a escort vessel in service with UNSC Navy. Conceived in the years of the Harvest Campaign, it was introduced as a general-purpose light warship capable of fulfilling a wide variety of support roles, mainly planetary defense and troop transportation.
Introduced in service on January, 2526, approximately one year after the start of the Great War, it took part to final battles around Harvest and, since then, it supplanted the in fleet escort duties, thanks to its extensive anti-air weapons and a light, but precise, MAC gun. Capable, in mass, to pose a threat to Covenant destroyers, it continued to serve in the Navy beyond the end of the war, especially after Sinoviet Heavy Machinery proposed a new batch with many improvements, increasing its already high effectiveness.
== History ==
=== Successor of the Charon-class ===
After the first year of fight against Covenant, Vice Admiral Cole and a small group of flag officers noted that only the had some effect as escort vessels, while Charons were systematically outgunned by even the lightest Covenant ship. However, Sinoviet and the newly-appointed leader Samantha Powell had already charging naval architects to developed a new frigate capable of fulfilling a wide variety of role, in order to achieve a new order after the : Powell knew the Charon lack of effectiveness as a escort ships, but she also knew the Paris high upkeep costs.
David Pulver and Eugene Taylor, so, developed a well-armed, yet light, frigate with a similar profile to that of Paris-class, so containing some costs. But, to avoid a Paris-class' clone, as well as to design a too weak frigate just like the Charon, engineers made a balanced frigate, half a Paris and half a Charon as someone asserted, with an incredible agility and speed capable of rivaling UNSC corvettes. Other than that, creators implemented an active phase sensor array and they separated the bridge from the rest of the hull, allowing it to have its own life support, which could be work even if the entire hull was crippled. However engineers didn't make space for nuclear weapons, because they considered them useless since the class wasn't conceived to fight Covenant opponent alone. They, instead, made the class suitable for escort of bigger ships, such as carriers and cruisers, which almost everyone had a nuclear missile in their arsenal, or orbital support, which rarely requested such powerful weapons.
First used by Cole in the Harvest Campaign, they performed very well in escort roles and orbital support, but much less in troop transportation due to the six, small hangar modules, which could be recover and launch only a Pelican dropship at a time. Anyway, the easy construction led the Navy to ordered seven hundred ship in over twenty years, giving them to practically all fleet commanders. As such, Charons were retired from the frontline, and it used them as both patrol cutter and atmospheric fire support, other than transport.
=== The second flight ===
During the over twenty years of service, Sinoviet proposed periodically upgrades with which increasing its already high effectiveness. However, resources shortages led the Navy to denied the Sinoviet's request, because Naval Command had other, more important projects to which give these scarce resources.
After the war, however, budgets and resources increased again, so unlocking what Sinoviet needed to further improve the Stalwart project. So, by the end of the 2553, the second flight entered service alongside 's third batch. Among the plenty of improvements made, Stalwarts took advantage of some Covenant technology such high-definition sensors similar to that implemented on Anlace-class electronic warfare frigates, a shield-reinforced armor originated from that designed for Autumn-class heavy cruisers and a cutting-edge astronavigation system; other than these, Titanium-A3 armor panels of the same thickness as previous A2 version were put on, a innovative light MAC gun and two new hangar modules, one each side of the ship, and four Sentry to give more firepower against smaller ships, starfighters and dropships.
These improvements allowed Stalwart-class to match newly threats coming from Covenant remnants units, resurgent Insurrection movements and various pirate groups. As the Covenant disintegration, many former Covenant ships fallen into the hands of these mentioned organizations, threatening the Navy once more; however, the Rise of the Created disabled nearly all Stalwarts, with only a handful able to fall back and regrouping with Infinity, waiting for the counterattack.
== Overview ==
=== Hull ===
=== Powerplant ===
=== Crew and complement ===
=== Other systems ===
=== Armament ===
== Role ==
== Ships of the line ==