Dr Forbidden took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk to the press about the Terran Sea Type C frigate. The Type C is the third batch of the Terran Sea frigate, the first example has just entered service (3218 Arafura Sea). Dr Forbidden said that the Type C is pointing to a lot of future technologies for the DDS and is the most technologically advanced warship in the DDS to date. The DDS are moving bigtime to passive sensors he said and the Type C includes a new passive sensor suite that was as good as the active sensors in the original Isometric. "Passive sensors of this quality will give the DDS a real tactical advantage as it will allow full combat operations while remaining in cloak." he said.
The Type C is also the first ship to have full FIDO 1.0, now crewmen can take a full part of shipborne operations even if they are really lightyears away using VR technology at their end and a holographic projector on the Terran Sea. "Of course they can't physically touch something but we are looking into localised forcefields to mimic physical presence for future versions of FIDO." The third shift of the Type C is largely FIDO which means the crew complement of the Type C has dropped to 22.
Finally the Type C includes much greater integration of tactical and sensor information from both the ship's own and external sources. A new databus architecture (jointly designed for the Panther DX) allows far greater data throughput and processing power. The Type C can also "sub-contract" it's offensive capabilities to other ships to a greater extent than existing ships which means the Type C can use it's greater targetting and tactical systems to help provide targets for other ships' weapons in a seamless manner. This will be especially highly useful when used in conjunction with the Missileer.
There will be at least 10 Type Cs built.
