Hermes Class High-Thrust Utility Corvette

The Hermes Class was developed as a transport vessel capable of rapid and sustained acceleration for long distance or extremely fast travel. Due to similar mission requirements, the Hermes Class was developed alongside the Amazon Class Long Range Patrol Corvette. The key difference is that the Hermes Class was designed without any offensive capabilities and with reduced armor plating, resulting in significantly less payload mass. Even when sharing the same basic engine module, the Hermes class is capable of accelerating approximately 10% faster.
The Hermes Class is also designed with higher acceleration stress tolerances so that it can equip more powerful engines. An engine module unique to the Hermes Class features the same fusion drive as the much larger Atlas Class and Ares Class Cruisers. This configuration allows the Hermes Class to accelerate more than **__** times faster than any other interplanetary ship in the TASA arsenal. The larger drive system also features significantly more propellant mass to allow the ship to accelerate/decellerate for longer.
The primary uses for the Hermes Class are VIP transport and priority courier services, especially to distant interplanetary destinations. A Hermes Class is the only viable way to travel between Earth and Mars during Conjunction. The ship can comfortably accommodate 24 passengers in crew-style berthing or 6-8 passengers in VIP style suites. The ship can also be modified as an emergency medical transport with 12 life support beds in addition to the standard 4 bed medical ward.
The Hermes Class is only lightly armed with three CQDS Point Defense systems for self protection. Though the Hermes Class Corvette cannot contend with any purpose-built warships, the CQDS are more than adequate against the more lightly armed and armored improvised warships and civil spacecraft used by pirates and terrorist groups. Lately some Hermes Class Corvettes have been pressed into combat service in a long range patrol and interdiction role alongside the more heavily armed Amazon Class. Usually in these situations the Hermes is used to facilitate Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) operations with a larger compliment of TASA Marines than the Amazon Class is capable of supporting.
In the late 2280’s, TASA Joint Special Operations Command requested the development of a specialized variant of the Hermes Class Corvette. The result was the Heracles Class Special Operations Corvette which entered service in the early 2290’s. The Heracles outwardly differs from the parent design with additional sensors, weapons, and external launch bays for drones and Landing Capsule (LCAPs) or Warhorse Class Special Operations Launch type Skiffs. The Heracles Spec Ops Corvette is intended to rapidly deploy TASA’s elite Special Operations units such as Special Aerospace Service Teams anywhere in the inhabited Solar System and effectively support them upon arrival.

Amazon Class (left) and Hermes Class (right) size comparison

Weapons & Armament

3x CQDS Point Defense Turrets

Communication Tools & Systems

UHF/EHF Radio Antennae
High Gain Radio Receiver Dish
2 Tier Communications Laser
Wide Laser Receiver Mast
AstroNav Positioning System Transponder
Emergency Radio Transponder
UHLED Emergency Semaphore

Sensors

SkyScan Multispectral Wide Area Scanning Suite
Multispectral Telescope System
Broadband RADAR
LiDAR Scanner
Particle Emissions Sniffer Array

Class

Corvette

Owning Organization

Transnational Aerospace Security Alliance (TASA)

Complement / Crew

22 (2 Officers, 7 NCOs, 13 Enlisted)

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

6-24 passengers (depending on configuration)