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Guardian Class Corvette
In Service: 2365
Number in Service: 42
Mass: 130,000
KF Integrity: 4
Sail Integrity: 3
Thrust: 3/5
Fuel: 4000 tons
SI: 25
Armor: 65 tons standard armor Fore: 12, Fore Sides: 12, Aft Sides: 11 Aft: 12
Heatsinks: 800
Docking Collars: 0
Fighters: 0
Small Craft: 2
Crew: 90 (15 officers, 75 crew)
Lifeboats: 5
Escape Pods: 10
Grav Deck: 1 (45 meters)
Cargo: 19,976 tons
Bays:
   Bay 1: Cargo (19,976 tons)   2 doors
   Bay 2: Small Craft (2)  2 doors
Weapons:
Nose:
1 NAC/25
5 Large Lasers
4 Medium Lasers

FL/FR:
1 NAC/25
1 White Shark
4 AC/5

LBS/RBS
5 Large Lasers
4 Medium Lasers

AL/AR
1 NL45
4 AC/5

Aft:
2 NL45
1 White Shark
8 Medium Lasers
4 AC/5

Ammo
300 Rounds NAC/25 Ammo
120 White Shark Missiles
50 Tons AC/5 Ammo

Overview:
In the early 2360s, the Taurian Concordat received a shock when it learned of the atrocities being committed by the Federated Suns against the Capellan Confederation.  While the Federation did not know of the Concordat's existence, Protector Richard Calderon could not count on the situation remaining that way.  He soon formed the Taurian Defense Forces, and ordered the construction of new weapons for his army.  One of the major programs called for the development of several warships to equip the newly formed Concordat Navy.  One of the ships to emerge from this program was the Guardian Corvette.  Designed to patrol the boarders of the Concordat, the ship proved to be very successful and was produced in large numbers by the Taurus Shipyards.

Capabilities:
The Guardian was designed to conduct independent patrols along the Taurian boarder, watching for incursions by the Federated Suns or the Capellan Confederation.  While the Guardian was a reasonably swift and well armored for its era, the design also shows signs of the inexperience of Taurian ship designers.  The most notable oversight is the lack of any dedicated bays for fighter craft.  The other major complaint is about the crew facilities, which can be described as spartan at best.  It was for this reason that the Concordat Navy limited deployments of a Guardian crew to 3 months, except in extreme emergencies. 

What the ship's designers did get right is the weapons layout.  The main punch of the Guardian is 3 Vandenberg Arm's Class 25 Vengeance Naval Autocanons.  While some have criticized the layout of the guns as it does not allow the ship to concentrate the guns on single target, many captains appreciate    being able to attack multiple targets in a convoy in a single pass.  Backing up the main guns are several Naval Lasers mounted to cover the rear of the ship. These are mainly used to discourage pursuit or to deal with any enemy dropships or warships that attempt to flank the Guardian. Lastly the ship carries 3 White Shark Missile launchers.  While the ships usually carried standard White Shark missiles for the launchers, it was not uncommon to have a few Jericho nuclear missiles on  board for emergencies. 

In addition to it's powerful array of capital class weapons, the Guardian mounted a strong fighter defense weapons grid composed of lasers and autocannons. 

Deployment:
Soon after the first Guardian was launched, they were deployed along the boarder with the Federated Suns.  The first action involving the Guardian came in 2369, when several were captured by  Tormassov's Galactic Rangers and taken into the Federated Suns, where they fought a battle against the local defenders.  Ultimately, thinking the Capellans were operating from the Periphery, the Federated Suns launched an attack against the Robsart system, where the Guardian class corvettes in the system managed to destroy 2 of the Davion warships and capture a third.  As a result of these actions, the Protector order and increase in the production of the Guardian class. 

The ships would see further action over the next few years, fighting against both the Federated Suns and the Capellan Confederation.  While the ships generally acquitted themselves well, by the start of the 26th Century they were beginning to show their age.  Rather then build and develop their own design as a replacement, the Concordat chose to purchase Pinto Corvettes from the Rim Worlds Republic.  While ostensibly this was done on the basis of it being cheaper to purchase an existing design rather then develop a completely new one, the truth was that the Taurian shipyards were working at capacity building commercial ships and Concordat class Frigates and simply lacked the production capacity to build a new corvette.  With hostilities between the Concordat and it's neighbors at a very low level, the replacement of the Guardian with the Pinto was conducted at a very slow rate, by the 2570, when the RWR halted sales of the Pinto to the Concordat, only 12 Pintos had been acquired.  As a result 15 Guardians were to remain in service at the start of the Reunification War.  These ships were generally held in reserve and used as convoy escorts or system defense craft, rather then being deployed with the main fleets of the Concordat Navy.  A few of the Guardians did see combat during the war, where the ships generally performed well against the Star League corvettes, despite their age.