Kestrel class Jumpship
By 2123, the collapsing cost of building jumpships and the "open source" nature of their core technologies fueled a massive boom in private colonization efforts across what would eventually become the Inner Sphere. Though the Terran Alliance as a whole greatly profited from this booming enterprise, many in the government feared that the frenzied, unregulated pace of interstellar colonization would erode the Alliance's control over its expanding empire, while others were concerned that without tighter regulation, jump accidents that could end the lives of potentially hundreds or thousands in an instant would become an inevitability.
In 2128, the colony ship Liberator and its hundreds of passengers disappeared, victims of an apparent misjump. This simultaneously vindicated those who feared such a catastrophe, and gave those who wanted to clamp down on unregulated travel the ammunition they needed. In the same year, new laws were passed by the Alliance parliament requiring that every colony ship be accompanied by a military escort, and that all colonization efforts were to be placed under the authority of the Foreign Ministry.
[editor's note: Unsurprisingly, ever since the Liberator's loss there were theories that the ship was sabotaged by the Alliance government, or possibly destroyed by the Alliance fleet, in order to justify reining in private colonization efforts. The discovery of the wreck of the Liberator over nine hundred years later finally ended much of this speculation. The vessel had clearly suffered a catastrophic misjump that carried it hundreds of light years off course to a then completely uninhabited region of space and left it too damaged to continue. Some, however, point out that this doesn't completely rule out sabotage]
Of course, shortly after the law was passed, it was quickly realized that the Alliance navy didn't have enough ships to adequately escort the colony fleets. Dragooning civilian transports into military service was a short term solution, though it failed to meet the demand. Increased production of Charger class hulls was one answer, but would be expensive, time consuming, and the relatively heavily armed ships were considered serious overkill. What was needed was a small, low cost hull that could be built in large numbers quickly, and for this demand, McDonnell/Lockheed produced the Kestrel.
As the second dedicated class of military vessels (after the Charger), comparisons between the two are inevitable. As can be expected, the Kestrel is half the size of the Charger, both to lower costs per hull and accelerate build time, and features an extended range jump drive. This improved drive was unprecedented at the time, and was intended to allow the Kestrel to more quickly make the trip to a friendly port, should it need to report an emergency. Designers also believed it would serve as a bit of "future-proofing" as the jump range of civilian transports was expected to gradually climb as new developments were made, and this extended range would allow the Kestrel to remain viable in the long term. The extended jump drive had consequences, however, as its great size meant space was at a premium on the small ship. This meant that the Kestrel had handling only comparable to the transports it would escort, and further carried none of the Charger's integrated weapon systems and only a small compliment of marines. The ship was designed to carry a squadron of Exoraiders for spaceborn anti-ship combat, however very few would carry a full complement, as spaceborn threats were rare in the extreme in the years before the Outer Reaches Rebellion. In practice, the Kestrel's primary role in the colonization effort was simply to be present in the event of some catastrophic incident, where it would remain on station to aid with repairs, return to a friendly port to fetch assistance, or in extreme cases take on passengers from a stricken ship (the vessel's robust life support system and configurable cargo bay could handle several hundred passengers in cramped conditions in an emergency).
By the time of the Outer Reaches Rebellion, the Kestrel had already been deemed obsolete in its escort role, and many had been sold to civilian buyers (the Ryan Ice Cartel was particularly fond of the ship). Those that remained in service functioned primarily as courier ships carrying messages to and from the Alliance's far flung colonies, a job they excelled at. The Alliance's defeat in the rebellion, followed by the Demarcation Declaration, left many of these ships on the wrong side of the Alliance's borders. A few would make the long trip back to Alliance space, though the majority would remain in the newly independent territories, continuing to operate as courier vessels and tramp freighters among the new states springing up in the absence of the Alliance. Despite its small size and limited carrying capacity, the Kestrel even saw renewed production in the mid 23rd century, and was a popular ship among merchant cartels like the Ozawa Mercantile Association as well as independents who might not be able to obtain a larger ship. By the 24th century, these ships were on their way out in the Inner Sphere, but could still be found in fair numbers among the independent worlds and proto-states of the early periphery. The Taurian Concordat even created a variant from their existing fleet of Kestrels in 2490, adding a docking collar and KF Boom interface to increase their utility. Though a somewhat complicated refit, it proved cheaper than building all new ships and extended the useful service life of the Kestrel well beyond that of many other early jumpship designs, allowing the ship to persist in service among the periphery states until the end of the 27th century.
The last surviving Kestrel was the UHCS Pushpaka Vimana, commissioned into service with the United Hindu Collective in 2255 as the Maharaja's personal transport. Though retired from active service in 2555, the vessel was meticulously maintained as a museum ship loaded with artifacts covering the Collective's long history, and remained on the roles as a commissioned vessel (the only one, in fact, that was retained exclusively by the Collective following its incorporation into the Federated Suns). This ancient ship tragically met its end in the last year of the First Succession War, when Capellan raiders, hoping to strike a morale weakening blow and also believing the Federated Suns intended to refit the ship as a makeshift combat vessel, raided Basantapur and destroyed it. Though salvage efforts were made, the ship was considered a complete loss, as were most of the priceless historical relics it contained.
Type: Primitive Jumpship (2130)
Mass: 50,000 tons
Transit Drive: 6000 tons
Thrust Capacity: 1/2
Fuel: 3000 tons (15,000 points, 19.54 tons per burn day)
Pumps: 60 tons
Structure: 1500 tons
Structural Integrity: 30
Jump Drive (primitive, 20 light years): 32,500 tons
Drive Integrity: 4
Jump Sail: none
Sail Integrity: n/a
Control System: 312.5 tons
Crew: 11 officers, 54 men, 389 tons
Heatsinks: 122
Armor: 30 tons
*Primitive Armor: 5 fwd/fl/fr, 4 aft/al/ar
*Standard Armor: 7 per facing
Equipment:
8 Small Craft Bays, 1600 tons, 2 doors
40 Marines, 200 tons
20 Escape Pods, 140 tons
4268.5 tons of cargo space
Upgrades:
*After 2151 fuel points increase to 17,647, tons per burn day decreased to 16.609, heat sinks decrease to 116, and cargo capacity increased to 5231 tons.
*After 2200 the Kestrel was out of production. Existing hulls would receive a jump sail (325 tons, integrity 18) and have their fuel tanks reduced to one thousand tons (5882 points) The vast majority of ships, especially those in civilian hands, would get no further upgrades over the 2151 model, though the cargo capacity is still increased to 6946 tons by these changes.
*After 2251 the Kestrel returns to production with additional upgrades. Fuel points increase to 9090 (10.747 tons per burn day, still using the thousand ton tank of the 2200 model). The jump sail shrinks to 163 tons (integrity 10), heat sinks decrease to 102. One autocannon 5 with two tons of ammunition is added to the fore left and fore right arcs, an additional crewman is added, and cargo capacity is increased to 8993.5 tons.
*After 2260 the jump sail is upgraded (82 tons, integrity 6), and cargo increases 9074.5 tons.
*After 2300 fuel points increase to 10,000 (9.77 tons per burn day), the jump sail decreases to 33 tons (integrity 3), heat sinks decrease to 99, and cargo capacity increases to 9436 tons.
*In 2490 the Taurian Concordat produced a variant that added a modern docking collar. This reduces cargo capacity to 8436 tons.