A new light cruiser is a central part of The Orchid's future plans for the fleet if she becomes the DDS Commander. At a media briefing to the press she gave some more details of the new type, now known as LCX 2.0 (the first LCX project was cancelled a few years ago). LCX 2.0 would fill a gap in the fleet between the heavy Quasar cruiser/bomber and Panther destroyer and would be a general purpose warship however it would have sufficient firepower and performance to deputise and supplement either role.
The Orchid said the total LCX 2.0 project, including 12 ships, was currently costed at 25 billion zarks though the Raegris have shown interest and are prepared to pay 3 billion into the initial development stage. Final costs would depend on the final specification and the unit price. LCX 2.0 would be designed from the off to work with UCVs and would be "worm drive ready".
