The Spear class, manufactured by Tana-lo Shipwrights, is a large and incredibly powerful frigate. She is armed 6 light laser cannons for point defense purposes, but that is not the real strength. The key to this ship lies in its designation. She is a Lancer frigate. Lancer frigates and destroyers are a specialized type designed to combat much heavier warships. In simple terms, it is just a big gun in a small space frame. In this particular case, its a high energy Particle beam cannon. The entire ship is built and designed around that weapon. The power systems are directly channeled to it, while the other systems are fed via conduits. The inertial thrust units, used to maneuver the ship, are much more powerful than any other frigate because the entire ship must be moved to fire the gun. Lancer frigates are designed to take on enemy cruisers. on their own, they are weak and susceptible to bomber attacks (as their point defense armament is quite poor), but in groups they can be deadly. The main cannon is normally enough to eliminate half of a cruiser's shield firepower. 5 shots is enough to completely destroy most cruisers.
You may wonder what the purpose of this kind of ship is, but it's simple. There aren't enough cruiser sized shipyards to build them. Smaller worlds dont have the capacity to maintain them, so a smaller solution was needed. These ships can be maintained by most space yards, are capable of taking on enemy cruisers, and are much faster. This speed allows them to function as rapid response units to major hostile threats. The weakness of their design is their shields and hull armour are normally weaker. Shields don't get enough power from the reactor, and armour is kept thinner to allow the main gun to cool off quicker.
