NS have confirmed a recent skirmish with Tarbotian warships in UNP space (undisclosed though another source has said near the Rim Worlds). No details of the skirmish have been given. An NS spokeswoman said that the Tarbotians are now operating regularly in UNP space and there is the danger of further incidents.
Patrols will be stepped up and terms of engagement are being reviewed it has been reported.
One more Nectar 52A has joined the fleet, 52-114 Nasty. Contrary to earlier reports this is now the last Nectar to join the NS fleet, originally it was planned to have a fleet of twenty, now it will be fourteen. 35-318 Kingham is the latest Kinetic 35C cruiser to join the fleet.
The withdrawal of the Deterrence 53A continues. 53-103 St Michael, 53-127 Wallasey Grove Road and 53-138 Moorfields have been withdrawn.
The early production K85QA fleet have been withdrawn after combat service on Lornaca Melnig. Although the sonic stealth worked very well there were issues with sensor integration and tactical data linking. The main problem though was overheating of the electric motor after prolonged use including idling over combat zones.
The Clones are going to experiment with fitting the standard K85NT cowl to a QA to see if this alleviates the overheating problem. This will be less aerodynamically efficient though.
