Cutter - multi-role corvette
A pre-war corvette, the Cutter was a classical “design by comitte”: It was initially conceived as a “cutter”, meaning, a fast reckon-in-force vessel; but cargo capacity requirements grew continuously during early development, so much so as to its role almost being changed officially to “fast supply tender”, at one point. As it happens with every cargo vessel, it soon was expected to be able to double as troop carrier, fuel tanker, etceteras. And while shuttle designs may sometimes escape being required to have assault capabilities, a corvette-sized troop carrier enjoys no such chance: Thus, a cylindrical, telescopic device under its belly features 108 laser cutters, to penetrate armor and hull of enemy vessels; and inside of it, an air-lock allows marines to penetrate the enemy ship, after the laser cutters have done their job. Pundits say this is the real reason why many people refer to the Cutter as a “cutter”, in spite of its official classification as corvette. Notice the projecting “legs” with superconducting “shoes” (grapples); they lock onto the target ship so as to keep the Cutter from moving about while the cutting and assault operation are underway (and before you ask, tractor beams are somewhat good at tractoring, but not at preventing lateral displacements).
No ship could be “good for everything” without being able to launch interceptors. The Cutter was given 4 small and 1 medium size launch and recovery bays, each with storage space for two escorts; making the Cutter able to launch 5 fighters at once, and an additional 5 a few minutes later.
Finally, the Cutter's speed was brought down considerably with a requirement for extra armor and armament: 4 dual laser medium turrets, and two heavy neutron guns, plus 4 multiple rocket launchers. The Navy was in dire need for corvette sized fleet escorts (to neutralize enemy destroyers, in fleet to fleet engagements), after the Venture class design was hijacked by picket role pushers… Which brings us to the ultimate irony of this military appropriations saga: While the Venture class had been initially conceived as a fleet escort corvette; but was gradually turned into a cutter; as if in retaliation, the Cutter, which had been conceived as a cutter for picket roles, was gradually turned into a fleet escort corvette. But the retaliation was short-lived, as the Cutter proved rather pricey to manufacture, and was discontinued before even the second revision was released, due to budget cuts (no pun intended).
In the end, those Cutter's which had been produced were turned over to the Ministry of Interior, and spared on loan to the Militia forces in various sectors, (where they again were permanently “parked” due to lack of spare parts and maintenance equipment). Many years later, Border Worlds accepted a deal that was really sweetened in favor of them taking them all –or none. That's where they reside today, except for one, which remains unaccounted for.
| Class | Corvette | |
|---|---|---|
| Roles | Escort corvette, Freighter, Tanker, Assault Troop Carrier, Tender | |
| Length | 115 meters | |
| Mass | 2900 tonnes | |
| Cruise velocity | 150 kps | |
| Max. velocity | 185 kps | |
| Max. velocity w/afterburner | 310 kps | |
| Acceleration | Moderate | |
| Max. YPR | 4 dps | |
| Weaps | Heavy Neutron Guns | 2 |
| Turreted Dual Laser | 4 | |
| Missile | (4×6) | 24 total * |
| Torpedoes | 2 | |
| Fore and Aft Shields | 10 cm equiv. each | |
| Armor: | Front and Rear | 9/8 cm |
| Right and Left | 8 cm each | |
- 4 MRLS type launchers, 6 tubes each, configurable missile types
Exterior Reference Images
PU's Cutter (by chuck_starchaser (Monk)):
Note: The last 5 images are PU in-game images; the rest are un-textured, ray-traced renders.
