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Another ship from the same setting as the Star Runner.


Mustang Corvette/Raider
In Service: 2581   
Number in Service: 10
Mass: 160,000 tons
KF Integrity:5
Sail Integrity: 3
Thrust: 5/8
Fuel: 5000 tons
SI: 29
Armor: 93 tons standard armor (Fore: 15 Sides: 12 Aft: 11)
Heatsinks: 1554
Docking Collars: 1
Fighters: 8
Small Craft: 2
Crew: 93
Lifeboats: 10
Escape Pods: 10
Grav Deck: 1 (45 meters)
Cargo: 3,739 tons
Bays:
   Bay 1: Fighters ( 2 doors
   Bay 2: Small Craft (2) 1 door
   Bay 3: Cargo (3,739 tons) 1 door
Weapons:
Nose:
4 Heavy NPPCs
5 PPCs

FL/FR:
1 NL55
1 White Shark

LBS/RBS:
5 PPCs

AL/AR:
1 NL55

Aft
2 White Sharks
5 PPCs

Overview:
As the Reunification War dragged on, the Concordat Navy found itself conducting more and more deep raids into the Federated Suns as part of its efforts to tie down the SLDF Navy.  The bulk of these efforts fell to the many captured SLDF and AFFS warships, which would not raise suspicion if they were spotted in Federation territory.  While these efforts were succeeding, the captured ships were starting to prove problematic.  Maintenance was problematic as the ships used foreign components that were not easily replaced by the Concordat. [Editor's Note: In an effort to acquire a stockpile of replacement parts for their captured warships the Concordat Navy would strip every destroyed SLDF/FS vessel of any usable parts.]  The other issue was that the Concordat felt many of the captured vessels were poorly designed and ill-suited for the type of mission they were conducting.  In an effort to improve the situation, Marshal David Santos, commander of the Concordat Navy and senior adviser to the Protector, called for the development of a new warship that would form the core of the Concordat's raider squadrons.  In an effort to save development time and cost it was decided to base the new design on the Pinto class corvette that was already in service with the Concordat Navy.  While the Pinto was designed and built by the RWR, the Concordat had acquired complete engineering plans to the design and were producing a number of the components to provide for the maintenance of their own ships.  Retaining the same drives and basic structure of the Pinto, the major changes to the ship revolved around replacing the ships weapon load, making it better suited to the raiding role.  As the changes were fairly limited, the design work was completed in only a few months, with production of the first prototype beginning in January of 2581.   The first of the new Mustang class corvette/Raiders entered service with the Concordat Navy in June of 2581 and production has been continuing ever since at the Illiushin Shipyards.

Capabilities:
The Mustangs capabilities are by and large the same as the Pinto.  The ships share the same drives and armor configuration.  The high thrust capacity of the Pinto's engines were the main reason why the ship was chosen as the basis for the new raider.  Originally plans called for the Mustang to replace the Pinto's standard plate armor with more advanced composites, increasing the ships protection while not increasing the weight but these efforts were put on hold until Taurian industry  could begin producing the composites in sufficient supplies.  Current plans call for introducing the new armor plating on the Block II models, which is expected enter production with the 20th hull. 

The major differences between the Pinto and the Mustang are the weapons array. While the Pinto was designed as a picket ship and expected to act as part of a fleet, the Mustang was designed for independent operation. The forward twin Light Naval PPCs on the Pinto are replaced with a powerful quad Heavy Naval PPC array.  These guns provide the Mustang with it's main punch and combined with the ship's high thrust allow it to conduct powerful strafing runs against enemy fleets.  For defense against light craft, the Mustange carries 4 NL55s.  As a last resort weapon, the Mustang carries 4 White Shark missile launchers.  Each of these carries 20 Jericho Nuclear Missiles.  Should the Mustang find itself facing overwhelming odds, these missiles can be used to inflict heavy damage on the enemy, hopefully providing the Mustang a chance to escape.  Two of the tubes are aft mounted and are intended to discourage pursuit by the enemy.   For anti-fighter protection the Mustang replaces the Pinto's lasers and Autocannon with PPCs, providing roughly equivalent protection while removing the ammunition dependance of the Autocannons.

The only other major change is to remove 4 of the fighter launch bays.  While on paper this appears to reduce the Mustang's capabilities, the truth is that these bays were rarely used, as the Concordat relies on an 8 fighter squadron most Pintos only carried 8 fighters, rather then split a squadron up among several ships. 

The addition of so many heavy weapons to the Mustang greatly reduced the cargo capacity of the ship.  While on paper this is a concern for a ship intended as a deep raider, this situation is mitigated by assigning a Transhauler class dropship to the Mustang.  One of the so called “Jumbo” class dropships, the Transhauler provides the Mustang with over 10,000 tons of additional cargo space.  The use of the Transhauler as the Mustang's cargo bay is part of Marshal Santos' smart logistics program.  By carrying most of the Mustang's consumables on the dropship, the ship can be replenished simply by trading its dropship with another on that is fully loaded with fresh supplies.  This greatly speeds up underway replenishment operations, typically a Mustang can be fully resupplied in 3 hours (if no refueling is required, resupply operations can be completed in less then half and hour), as opposed to the typical 10-12 hours it takes to resupply a Pinto. 

Deployment:
All of the Mustangs completed to date have been assigned to raider squadrons operating in the Federated Suns.  Operating from a secret staging area known only as Shangri-La, the Mustangs have hit systems across the Capellan and Crucis Marches.  During these raids the ships have stayed only long enough to hit any shipping and orbital facilities located in the system before leaving.  These raids have forced the SLDF to deploy large numbers of warships to patrol Federation territory.  So far the SLDF efforts have been less then successful, only 1 Mustang has been destroyed.  The TCW Void Raider was destroyed in the Torrence system when it encountered an SLDF squadron escorting a troop convoy.  The Void Runner managed to destroy 2 of the escorts and several of the transports before it was badly damaged by fire from the SLS Galahad.  Crippled and unable to jump out of the system, the Void Runner rammed the Galahad, destroying both vessels.