Class Light Frigate
Length 120m
Cost 4,800,000 credits
Hyperdrive Rating Class 2, Backup class 16
Crew 45 with 46 Gunners
Consumables 8 months
Shielding Equipped Rated 416SBD
Hull Armor Rated 176RU
Armament 8 double turbolaser cannons (2 fore, 3 port, 3 starboard), 6 quad laser cannons (3 port, 3 starboard) 4 Concussion missile tubes (With 120 heavy concussion missiles)
Overview
Often referred to as Corellian Gunship, the DP20 was one of the few dedicated warship designs produced by Corellian Engineering. While technically about the size of a corvette class the sheer amount of firepower that it can bring to a fight is enough for it to be considered a frigate by military commanders.
As a dedicated war vessel it has virtually no room for cargo or passengers, with most of the aft space being used to house the massive engines, and rest being dedicated to deflector shield generators and weapons--though it does still have decent armor as well. This made the gunboats both fast and deadly.
Its complement of 8 dual turbolasers, 6 quad laser cannons, and 4 concussion missile tubes made it a versatile ship capable of performing both anti-starfighter and anti-capitol ship duties. It was much more in its element, however, doing the former rather than the latter given that the main and secondary batteries are dispersed evenly across the ship. This meant it can fire in any direction but cannot bring to bear all of its firepower on one target. Swarming starfighters would find no safe attack vector and could be taken out before delivering their payload by fast firing cannons and missiles. Larger capital ships would still take heavy damage from the few turbolasers and missiles, but live long enough to get off some return fire before going down.
As a result they were much more effective working in small groups, spreading out in a large formation of friendly ships to provide defense against starfighter attacks from anywhere they may attack the fleet. Working in this capacity they could even provide enough of a defense against starfighters that friendly starfighters wouldn’t be needed, however you would only use them in that capacity as a last resort.
It was also preferable to attack capital ships in small groups. While one does carry enough firepower to take on a Star Destroyer, it would use nearly all of its payload to do so which would take time. In small groups spreading out and using their superior speed to divide and evade enemy fire, they could easily overwhelm just about anything that they would run into.
The DP20 is actually fairly similar to a ship I covered in the past the MC30c as both are fast moving lightly armored frigates that can pack a big punch due to the ordinance they carry. But unlike the MC30c the DP20 was a lot faster and could fit 2 roles effectively working both in tandem to a larger fleet or on its own, while the MC30c really needed a supporting fleet to be effective.
As fast and small as a corvette but with firepower to rival a frigate the DP20 Frigate was, for lack of a better term, a pocket capital ship.