[CT27]

In Freespace terminology, a frigate is a warship that's between a corvette and destroyer in terms of firepower.

After the GTVA has recovered from Capella a little more (though 'recovering' from an apocalyptic level event is a relative term I suppose), should the GTVA develop a new frigate class of warship to add to its fleets?  It could be a Terran one, Vasudan one, or a hybrid design.

Would this be a good idea militarily?

[Thisisaverylongusername]

Between the loss of the Colossus, the anemic firepower of the Hecate, and the aging design of the Orion, the GTVA would need something to fill in the firepower gap in the Terran fleet. Something corvette sized with multiple heavy beams seems like as good a choice as any.

[Mobius]

To be fair, they'd need to work on new cruisers. Let's not forget that only two dozen Aeoli were produced (most of which were destroyed during the NTF rebellion and the second Shivan incursion), and the Fenris/Leviathan duo would be all but obsolete in a Post Capella scenario. I'm not saying a frigate wouldn't help, but cruisers should be a priority.

[0rph3u5]

This is a question of the development of the combined arms strategy of the GTVA going forward.

Having smaller carriers makes sense in the T-V War era when fighters are far more reliant on carrier because they had no shields and no intersystem drives to scale. If the GTVA were able to layer a better logistics, e.g. modular armor, internals and exchangable mission specific externals, fighter formations might become far more veratile than smaller warships.

Additionally, the development of strategies following the admission that the GTVA cannot match ship capital ships, both in numbers and individual fighting strength, and doing so is a fools errant, it might shift capital ships further into a carrier role/logistics role for fighter units.

The only problem of course with rising profile fighters over warships is the issue of the pilot -- can the GTVA "supply" enough pilots to make that viable?