In combat, the Longfellow is essentially a system defence craft. It would patrol the area around a star, either at sublight speeds out to 50 AU or so, or at FTL speeds out to around 10 - 20,000 AU. It's role would be to try and get in close to an attacking force and use the two external torpedo launchers to try and get hits in on frigates, destroyers, or support craft.
Although technically capable of interstellar flight, at 5 kc the Longfellow lacks speed. It is fitted with only the most rudimentary habitation facilities; most missions last less than a day, and it would be hard pressed to support a crew for more than a couple of days. At maximum speed the fuel gives the ship an endurance of no more than three days, though in theory this can be extended at low speeds.
The Longfellow was intended as part of Project Arvind, an effort to extend and reinforce system defence fleets by replacing the usual sublight ships with short range FTL models. Many observers considered Arvind to be a vital part of the modernisation of the Coalition's military, but it was subject to a good deal of political infighting. By convention the Coalition Navy was equipped with FTL ships, while the system defences were comprised of STL ships. The Longfellow was seen as a threat to this status quo, and the Navy fought it tooth and nail.
Although the Navy was not ultimately able to cancel the Longfellow, the numbers were slashed back again and again during development. In the event only 200 units were produced before the end of the run; ironically the final reason given for halting production was rapidly rising costs - largely caused by having to spread the development cost among fewer and fewer hulls!
In service the Longfellow has proved to be a highly valuable addition to system defences in those systems which received it. It has mostly served in the Turgran Imperium.
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