Earth Alliance Exeter Class Attack Boats Exeter Class History Immediately after the Earth-Minbari War, the EA found itself in a situation lacking ships of every size and capabilities. Afraid of other races expanding into EA territory, and an increased raider threat, the EA Senate commissioned a report into a new class of ship. Larger than a fighter, but smaller than a medium combat vessel, the Exeter class Light combat vessel was born. Over the next few years though, it was bandied around the Senate, in endless political infighting. The final result was that it was given an extremely low budget in the hopes it would never make it off the design board. As more variants were required, the design was modified. To get more money out of the Senate, it was decided to build the variants in different locations to curry support from different locations. The final design was made to be modular, allowing outposts to modify the ships to local requirements with the minimum of fuss. The ‘Ajax’ (Alpha) Variant was the first model of the Exeter class. Designed in 2261 to a very restrictive budget by the EA Senate, it was decided to use a lot of the original design work on the Thunderbolt Assault fighter to cut costs and time. The first prototype was tested extensively, where it was found to be woefully under protected against fighter attack. It was decided that a range of variants would be designed to be used together as a squadron. This version was built by Vickers/Thorneycraft on Earth. The ‘Kennedy’ (Beta) Variant was a long-range sniping variant. It was not very popular with crew due to the lack of secondary armament and was eventually only used as a ‘punishment’ vessel for wayward crews. Built by Newport News, Earth. The 'Hipper’ (Gamma) Variant was the first attempt at an anti fighter variant. It was reasonable successful. It was built by KM shipping/Junkers, New Berlin. The ‘Dido’ (Delta) Variant was deigned for anti-fighter defense and was named after the British CA of WWII that performed the same task. It was built by Supermarine of New London. (Note: This ship was first submit to the Variants-4 contest as a document file and a bitmap picture. I forgot who proposed this little ship, but I figured it was about time it got an SCS for it. The original picture is here) Exeter Class SCS