Stalwart-class light frigate (Earth-5875)

The Stalwart-class light frigate is a frigate class within the UNSC Navy. Manufactured by SinoViet Heavy Machinery, Stalwarts serve as one of the main capital ships escorts within fleets, filling their role as planetary defenders conceived in the years that led to the Secession, and later the First Contact War.

Hull and propulsion
The Stalwart-class light frigate is one of the smaller classes of frigate in service with the UNSC Navy, at 478 meters in length with a mass of 0.93 million metric tons. Stalwarts are protected by a sixty centimeter-thick hull of titanium-A armor. They are equipped with an active phased sensor array built into the ship's hull. The bridge of the Stalwart frigate has its own life support that will function even if the rest of the ship is crippled. Extremely mobile, the Stalwart class is outfitted with two OKB Karman 56K fusion drives for sublight travel. The Stalwart is equipped with a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine.

Crew and complement
A Stalwart-class light frigate is crewed by 250 sailors. In addition, these frigates also carry a complement of two hundred UNSC Marines and sixty-four Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. However, the frigate only carries twenty-four SOEIVs. The ODSTs that are deployed from the frigate via an SOEIV drop pod are launched from the ship by a magazine-fed coilgun accelerator.

While Stalwart frigates lack the larger hangar bays seen on the Charon-class light frigate, the class is outfitted with six hangar modules, each capable of launching or recovering only a single dropship at a time. These frigates typically carry six D77-TC Pelicans as well as their associated support equipment, with some Stalwarts also carrying D96-TCE Albatrosses. The class also carries twelve M12 Warthogs and six M808 Scorpions.

Armaments
Well-armed for a frigate, the Stalwart-class light frigate is equipped with a single Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, serving as the primary armament of the class. The upper boom of the frigate contains the fire control systems and pulsed power storage for the MAC, which is fitted in the lower boom. A rapid-fire variant of the frigate's MAC system is installed on Epoch-class heavy carriers. For secondary armaments, Stalwart frigates are fitted with sixteen anti-ship Archer missiles, as well as seventy-six long-range anti-fighter Streak missiles. These frigates are armed with a point-defense gun network mounted along the hull for tertiary armaments, consisting of six M870 Rampart point defense guns.

Trivia

 * Source for specifications.