Claymore-class Corvette

Claymore-class Corvettes are specialist escort craft utilised by the Imperial Navy. The Claymore is a typical corvette. Rugged, easily-repaired and utilitarian.

History
Corvettes are specialist escort craft, usually slightly smaller and less powerful than true frigates, but slower and more heavily armoured than raiders. Typically constructed rapidly in times of war, Corvettes utilise simple components and rugged designs. Their normal mission profile is to escort vulnerable transports, protecting them against light raiders, thus freeing more valuable true frigates to accompany battleships and cruisers. Corvettes are unpopular with Imperial Navy officers. Most Battlefleets tend to have many parochial and conservative tendencies, and receiving orders to nursemaid civilian vessels in a newly-constructed and untested ship is seen as demeaning, or even as a calculated insult. Despite this, the corvettes have upheld the traditions of the Navy for thousands of years, hurling themselves in the path of more powerful and dangerous vessels, their actions often saving millions of lives.

More than fifty of these stopgap vessels were constructed during the Angevin Crusade to cover losses in the Sword-class frigate squadrons, churned out by Adeptus Mechanicus mobile shipyards and small civilian concerns orbiting stronghold worlds like Sinophia. Few of these ships currently serve in Battlefleet Calixis; they were rewarded for their bravery by almost immediately being relegated to reserve fleets or sold to opportunistic Rogue Traders. The latter appreciate them for what they are; cheap compared to most warships, easily maintained and relatively common.

Dimensions

 * Hull - Escort
 * Class - Claymore-class Corvette
 * Dimensions - Approximately 1.4 kilometres, 0.3 kilometres abeam at the fin.
 * Mass - Approximately 5.9 megatonnes.
 * Crew - Approximately 21,000 crew.
 * Acceleration - 4.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration.