The Sulanko frigate is newly designed combat vessel, manufactured and designed by Vaufthau Shipyards, co-designers of the Invincible Dreadnoughts.

Designed mainly to support combat fleets during an extended tour of duty by carrying enough supplies to ensure that a planetary layover at a supply depot would not be required, in addition to carrying supplies, the Sulankos are equipped with a pair of massive double turbolaser batteries capable of performing in both vessel-to-vessel combat as well as pinpoint orbital bombardment.

To give the vessel more of a purpose in a military fleet, Vaufthau made sure to incorporate a hangar large enough to store a pair of Apone-class assault shuttles as well as a pair of Ripper-class APCs and a platoon of soldiers - typically twenty army and twenty navy troopers. The shuttles provide the Sulankos with added fire support in combat as well as the ability to deploy squads of troops for both ship boardings and ground operations.

The Sulanko is also an experiment in widespread automation on board of a dedicated deep space combat vessel. The computer systems are anything but a marvel of technology. Highly complicated and somewhat confusing programming and system routings constitute the heart of the Sulanko's automation.

As the years pass, many of the automated systems on board of the typical Sulanko frigate are malfunctioning or completely failing in one way or another. The ships are becoming easy targets during combat since one or two well placed hits can cripple the entire vessel. To counter this, the Republic has simply shut down most of the automation and has replaced some of the smaller cargo holds with crew quarters for additional crew members to take over the once automated tasks.

Those Sulankos which are properly maintained and upgraded regularly have an expected average life span of nearly two hundred standard years in the Republic Navy.

Craft: Vaufthau Shipyards' Sulanko Frigate
Type: Support frigate
Scale: Capital
Length: 352 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Sulanko frigate
Crew: 12; gunners: 4; Skeleton: 1/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D, capital ship piloting 5D, capital ship gunnery 4D+1, sensors 4D+2
Passengers: 40 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 67,500 metric tons
Consumables: 4 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Hyperdrive Backup: x28
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 0D+1
Space: 3
Hull: 3D+2
Shields: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 10/0D
Scan: 30/1D
Search: 40/2D
Focus: 2/2D+1
Weapons:
2 Double Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 1 dorsal turret, 1 ventral turret
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 3-20/40/80
Atmosphere Range: 6-40/80/160 km
Damage: 5D

Starship Complement:
2 Assault Shuttles

Ground/Air Complement:
2 Armored Personell Repulsorlifts