Dauntless-class Frigate

The Dauntless-class is a class of frigates built and operated by the United Earth Federation. Originally intended as point defense frigates in order to support and complement the lack of point-defense weaponry on the Constellation-class super battleships, their role would later be pushed up to replace the Fletcher-class frigates and complement the Bishop class frigates in fleet duties.
Much like other UEF Navy classes during the time, the Dauntless-class frigates were sleeker, smoother and smaller than their predecessor Fletcher-class frigates and resembled a bullet in its hull shape. Its smaller size came from the change in doctrine to be faster and more maneuverable. 
== History ==
=== Background ===
The Dauntless-class was concepted as a result of the Constellation-class super battleship's shortcomings, their point-defense capabilities. The Constellation-class had been envisioned as capital ship killers/hunters and as a result had less point defense weaponry than other Federation capital ships. It was believed by some in the Navy's top brass that these new battleships would thus be vulnerable to enemy carriers who could launch large number of fighters and bombers even with the battleship's tough shields and armor. Combined with the fact that the Constellation-class' advanced quadruple "plasma flak cannons" had began facing problems in development and reliability issues. The Dauntless-class frigates was thus created to address these suspected flaws, with the idea that the frigates would form a group with one or two Constellation-class battleships and act as their anti-fighter/bomber deterrant.
==== Being inducted into the FFP ====
In the ending years of the Sentinel Wars, there was a desire within the UEF Navy to replace their now obsolete Fletcher-class frigates which dated all the way back to the Interstellar Wars. Coincidentally, while the Dauntless-class frigates were being conceptualized, the FFP or Fleet Frigate Program, had also just began. The program was headed by Vice Admiral Ferris Flanders and he soon caught wind of Project Signum (The codename for the Constellation-class) and the Dauntless-class. With the Dauntless-class being far more well developed, he suggested to the Navy's top brass that the Dauntless-class be adopted for the FFP. 
This met some resistance however as the FFP also had the Bishop-class in development. However, seeing as the Bishop-class was originally intended as a corvette/special transport ship that simply grew too large and unwilling to begin another research project for another frigate due to cost concerns, the Navy's top brass agreed and both class of frigates were accepted with the Dauntless-class assigned both general fleet duties and escort for the Constellation-class while the Bishop-class would eventually find itself in the special fleet ops role. Both frigates would effectively complement each other.
=== Operational history ===
== Ships in class ==
Ship 	Hull Number	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Commanding Officer(s)	Homeport	Status
Dauntless 	FFS-333 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP
Relentless	FFS-335 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP
Selfless 	FFS-338 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP 	WIP
Fearless 	FFS-339 	 	 	 	 	 	
Reckless 	FFS-340 	 	 	 	 	 	
Careless 	FFS-343 	 	 	 	 	 	
Daring 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Dragon 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Decoy 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Category:Ship Classes
Category:United Earth Federation