Karelia-class Frigate

The *Karelia*-class Frigate is the dedicated anti-swarm craft ship of the Imperial Tekkelien Navy. It was purpose-built in 2850 to counter threats of short-range and lightly-armored warships under 500 tons. They are designed with speed and sensor power in mind, capable of tracking down and keeping up with very fast, maneuverable spacecraft. They are particularly effective in counterinsurgency and anti-piracy measures, since irregular forces are most likely to have such types of craft, and are capable of operating alone or in groups.

## General Characteristics

### Armament

4 x 3-inch coilguns, 4 x 40mm dual-purpose cannon, 2 x 30mm hummingbird CIWS, 2 x low-yield missile launchers

## Design

The *Karelia*-class frigates are based on a downsized and lightened hull of the *Broadsword*-class. Even with much thinner armor on the sides and deck, the reinforced internal structures of the *Broadsword*s' style allows it to survive much heavier shock damage than other frigates of its class, especially against high explosive yields common to swarm-launched torpedoes or suicide craft.

### Weapons

The four coilgun turrets fitted with rapidly-firing coilguns are the primary weapons. They are calibrated to much higher tolerances, allowing them to hit smaller targets from farther away, but also requiring more frequent maintenance. The guns are 3 inches in bore diameter and fire high-explosive/incendiary shells that are intended to cause maximum damage to soft targets. They easily blast open the thin armor of small craft and destroy sensitive machinery or cause crew casualties with high-intensity fires that are difficult to extinguish.

The *Karelia*s' 40mm autocannons have been upgraded from the normal anti-aircraft guns that are affixed to most ships. As dual-purpose guns for both point-defense as well as anti-ship, they have a higher projectile velocity and fire armor-piercing/incendiary shells designed to punch a small hole through the target's armor before deflagrating into sticky, napalm-like fire.

The frigates of this class are also equipped with low-yield missile launchers designed to maximize range and speed. Only usable in orbit, they use liquid chemical rockets that can de-activate and re-activate to match the speed of the target, only making small course corrections once they reach intercept velocity.

### Tracking Systems

Karelia-class frigates are equipped with a central tracking radar optimized to find small, fast objects that many capital-class radars are calibrated to ignore. Since these are often pieces of space junk or derelict during a battle, they must be confirmed by thermal or radiation signature from other sensors. Once the search radar detects its targets, each of the frigates' main guns have their own dedicated fire control radar that is more precise, and can predict how far the gun needs to lead its target.

The frigates are given a computer software suite designed to track hundreds of small, fast-moving objects that the radars find. They can then filter each contact by its movement profile in an attempt to distinguish legitimate targets from space debris or noise. They also have three-dimensional motion analysis based on the distance over time from many radar readouts. It allows the guns to predict how far ahead of a moving target they need to fire with greater precision, giving the 3-inch coilguns half the normal shot dispersion radius.

### Propulsion

All frigates are optimized for speed, but the *Karelia*-class are given an oversized reactor typically seen on destroyers over twice their tonnage. This allows for the ship's speed to be only limited by their engines' tolerances and amount of hydrogen propellant. This allows for it to track down enemy small craft and follow them as fast and far as they can normally go.