The Hunt class was possibly the most radical product of the design studies dedicated to developing a replacement for the Vincent class Corvette. This was not because of any sort of sophisticated gadget or unique capability, of course, but because while so many other proposals advocated vessels ranging from half megaton destroyers to simply continuing the Essex production run, the Hunt class was actually scaled down from its predecessor, quite drastically in fact, and was designed to get as much "bang for the buck" as possible out of this tiny package. The plans for the Hunt class called for a two hundred and twenty thousand ton design, only slightly more than half the mass of the Vincent class it was to replace. Offensive armament would consist of twelve whirlwind naval cannons, of the same make as those mounted on the Essex, in four turrets, with three covering the forward quarters of the ship and the fourth mounted aft to provide stern protection. The secondary battery consisted of no less than twenty four class 45 naval lasers in four sextuple mounts, and was intended to not only protect the ship's broadside, but to provide its principle anti-aerospace protection with the aid of the ship's sophisticated Mark 97 fire control system. The obligatory small battery of three missile tubes completed the ship's capital scale armament, however the ship also featured a virtually unique battery of eighteen light weight anti-missile guns, distributed evenly along the hull in triple mounts. Standard Star League naval doctrine of the time dictated that protection against enemy missile attack was to be provided by supporting assets rather than relying on internal weapons. Among the main battle fleet, this was entirely reasonable. A Star League battle line was likely to have the support of several smaller screening vessels and dozens if not hundreds of fighters between it and any attacker. For a patrol ship operating as a sensor picket to a larger fleet, escorting a convoy, or assigned to distant duty stations, this level of support could not be assumed. Terrorist and pirate attacks in the Periphery had already seen several isolated patrol vessels badly damaged or even destroyed by attackers simply lofting capital missiles beyond the reach of their own guns and overwhelming what few supporting elements the unfortunate ship had to call upon, and even the monumental and monolithic bureacracy that was the Star League Admiralty had taken notice and begun to grind into action, demanding solutions.
Should these offensive and defensive weapons fail to eliminate the enemy before they can retaliate, the Hunt class could still fall back on its generous armor protection. In a move that raised some eyebrows in the admiralty, designers chose to go with ferro carbide compounds for the ship's protection system. At the time, standard practice was to armor mid and low tier Star League WarShips with Ferro Aluminium as an economy measure. While in practice this resulted in ships with noticiably weaker or even compromised protection schemes for a negligiable cost savings, it was still such an entrenched philosophy that it is unlikely that the Hunt class would have made it into full production with its armor scheme intact.
It was not lost on many at the time that the final result of this design process was ridiculously well armed and protected relative to its size. In fact, it seemed to be a deliberate shot at existing Star League design philosophies. Despite being only a little more than a third the size of the Essex class destroyer, the Hunt class was expected to match or exceed the larger vessel in maneuverability, protection, and firepower. Indeed, the layout of the Hunt's weapon systems were so similar to the larger Essex that it quickly earned the name "baby Essex" in most circles, and it was quickly classified as a Light Destroyer, despite being barely more than half the full loaded mass of the Vincent class Corvette, purely because of the firepower and protection it promised to bring to the fleet. As another incentive, Delhi WarShips, which sponsored the design, expressed confidence that they could produce the Hunt class at a per unit cost of over two billion Star League Dollars lower than the production cost for the current run of Essex class destroyers, and go from keel laying to completion on each hull faster than Mitchell Vehicles could manage with their design. So drastic were the promises from Delhi that some critics in the Admiralty declared them as simply fraudulent, more akin to the promises once made about the infamous Cameron class battlecruisers than any sort of objective reality.
The real secret behind the design was what the Essex and even the Vincent had that the Hunt class didn't. Standard design doctrine for many of the Star League's ships called for significant additional storage capacity, which could be used for upgrades, installation of incidental equipment, or to provide additional transport capacity if needed. Only a few specialized classes had been built without this additional capacity baked into the design, and for the rest this additional transport capacity was simply part of Star League Doctrine. The Hunt class completely disregarded this. Equipping the ship with cargo capacity sufficient only for its duty as a light, low cost patrol vessel allowed engineers to drastically shrink the entire hull, and its expensive KF drive, down. The result was a powerful and economical small combatant able to engage full sized destroyers on an equal footing, but to do so it flew in the face of what the SLDF expected the ships of its type to do.
The times, however, were changing. While the greater portion of the Admiralty resisted adopting the Hunt and other alternative designs in favor of extending the production run of the Essex class, the Hunt class had enough fans in the admiralty and the royal court to see an experimental run of six ships laid down in 2766. Fate would have one last card to play, however, and all six half completed hulls would be scuttled by SLDF personnel during the Amaris coup to keep them from falling into the Usurper's hands. What remained would be broken up for scrap after the war ended.
Hunt Light Destroyer
Mass: 220,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2766
Mass: 220,000
Battle Value: 66,974
Tech Rating/Availability: E/E-X-E-F
Cost: 4,689,806,800 C-bills
Fuel: 600 tons (3,000)
Safe Thrust: 3
Maximum Thrust: 5
Sail Integrity: 4
KF Drive Integrity: 6
Heat Sinks: 750 (1500)
Structural Integrity: 60
Armor
Nose: 54
Fore Sides: 54/54
Aft Sides: 53/53
Aft: 32
Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (6) 2 Doors
Bay 2: Small Craft (4) 2 Doors
Bay 3: Cargo (9789.0 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
576 rounds of Anti-Missile System [IS] ammunition (8 tons),
240 rounds of NAC/20 ammunition (96 tons),
30 rounds of Barracuda ammunition (900 tons)
Dropship Capacity: 0
Grav Decks: 1 (55 m)
Escape Pods: 6
Life Boats: 6
Crew: 24 officers, 71 enlisted/non-rated, 39 gunners, 32 bay personnel, 20 marines
Notes: Equipped with
1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Small)
264 tons of ferro-carbide armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (183 Heat)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (60 shots)
3 Anti-Missile System 3 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (72 shots)
FRS/FLS (193 Heat)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (60 shots)
1 Capital Missile Launcher (Barracuda) 10 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) Capital Missile
Barracuda Ammo (10 shots)
3 Anti-Missile System 3 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (72 shots)
RBS/LBS (423 Heat)
6 Naval Laser 45 420 27(270) 27(270) 27(270) 27(270) Capital Laser
3 Anti-Missile System 3 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (72 shots)
ARS/ALS (423 Heat)
6 Naval Laser 45 420 27(270) 27(270) 27(270) 27(270) Capital Laser
3 Anti-Missile System 3 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (72 shots)
Aft (193 Heat)
3 Naval Autocannon (NAC/20) 180 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 0(0) Capital AC
NAC/20 Ammo (60 shots)
1 Capital Missile Launcher (Barracuda) 10 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) Capital Missile
Barracuda Ammo (10 shots)
3 Anti-Missile System 3 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
Anti-Missile System Ammo [IS] (72 shots)
