First developed at the Scorpia Fleet Shipyards a short few years before the outbreak of the
First Cylon War, the Manticore Class Corvette was considered to be a fairly unremarkable
design for the earliest years of its career, with many of the colonies feeling that the
small vessels were not sufficiently intimidating to serve as an effective military deterrent.
Opinions on the vessel changed however in the early years of the Cylon Rebellion, when
Colonial Admiral McKennelly requisitioned a small number of Manticores that had previously
served as law enforcement vessels, to bolster his existing force.
In their service to the admiral, the true tactical value of the Manticore Class became
very much apparent, and before long the corvettes had become a staple of the colonial fleet.
600 Meters in length and 216 meters across, the spaceframe of the Manticore Class is compact
and functional, with a far more favourable thrust-to-weight ratio than most colonial
warships.
The corvette carries a standard crew complement of 700, as well as a contingent of 100 colonial
marines for shipboard security and boarding actions.
The small vessels carry advanced long-range FTL drives, allowing them to traverse far
greater distances in a single jump, and when used in conjunction with the corvette’s
sophisticated DRADIS systems, these drives allow a Manticore class vessel to serve as
extremely effective reconnaissance craft, in addition to its primary combat role.
A popular claim made about the Manticore Corvette, is that it’s design is only concerned with
two directions, forward and aft, a statement that is fully vindicated by the ship’s selection
of weapons systems.
At its prow, the Manticore carries an adjustable high-impact cannon, posing a serious threat
to lighter hostile vessels, and running along both sides of the its curved hull, the ship
sports a number of horizontal launch tubes, compatible with a variety of missiles.
Last and perhaps most unique of the Manticore’s weapons, are a pair of aft-dorsal light gun
emplacements, designed to continue firing at the corvette’s current target, even after
the ship has completed its attack run and begun to move away.
As one of the smallest warships in the colonial fleet, the Manticore is designed for extreme
speed and agility, and is primarily used in flanking attacks, as well as occasionally
being deployed in large numbers for wolfpack hit-and-fade operations.
The ship’s four sublight engines provide impressive forward acceleration, and the wider
arrangement of its nacelle-mounted drive units allow the corvette to lever its mass to port
or starboard with frightening speed.
In a standard Colonial Battlestar Group, Manticore Corvettes are often deployed in the vanguard,
in the hope of using their speed and agility to outflank slower hostile warships, or to
draw their fire away from carriers and mission critical vessels.
A popular application of the Manticore’s speed was to use to the use the corvettes
in attacks against retreating enemy craft, or those previously damaged by colonial warships,
in the hopes of either destroying them, or disabling their FTL drives, so as to prevent
the enemy from repairing and redeploying the vessels.
Widley employed by the Colonial Fleet across almost the entire length of the First Cylon
War, the Manticore Class Corvette has built substantial renown among the admiralty, an
accomplishment made all the more impressive by the design’s humble origins, and across
the years of its service, the corvette has turned the tide of numerous crucial battles
with its unique blend of mobility
and firepower.