Achernar-class light cruiser

The Achernar-class was the CMA's last class of cruisers.

History
The Achernar-class heavy destroyers owed its very existence to the CMA's growing dissatisfaction with their capital ship fleet in light of counter-insurgency operations. The Colonial Navy had amassed a fleet of the finest and most powerful cruisers and battleships the Human Sphere had yet seen during the Cold War, but outside of a handful of successful operations against entrenched Secessionist Union armadas proved exceptionally useless. There weren't enough of them to patrol the colonies, they were too slow to chase down fast attack craft insurgents began to prefer, and far too costly to operate, especially as the UEG's cuts to the CMA's budget and resources grew in light of the VERITAS Scandal. In an ironic twist of fate, CMA was reliant on the screening forces they had neglected for so many years.

The clear answer to this was a heavy destroyer class, one that continued the traits first expressed in the Hillsborough-class at the turn of the century, and the Scylla-class that succeeded them. However, simply maintaining their rough tonnage was not going to work; the widespread adoption of MAC-armed frigates like SinoViet's standard frigates meant that older destroyers could be hurt, even destroyed by this new breed of warship. Indeed, it was because of this that these ships, once intended as flotilla leaders, were being increasingly used as regular destroyers. Some CMA admirals attempted to push for the adoption of a new light cruiser, others like Commodore-Admiral Rosario Ortega still felt larger numbers of destroyers could carry any battle. Knowing that the CMA lacked the funds to man and operate full light cruisers, but unwilling to lose the potential firepower such a ship had, Commander-in-Chief, Colonial Navy Torsten Hermansson ordered the development of a true intermediate ship design. A ship that on paper carried the weapons of a cruiser, but built as small and as cheaply as possible.

The contract for development was awarded to Great White Spaceworks, who during the design of these ships would be bought up and incorporated into the Reyes-McLees Corporation. The ship that became the Achernar-class was designed by a team led by Kulai Mustafin, with close consultation with the CMA. Although Ortega paid close attention to the project, rival officers who wanted to use the project to further increase their prestige attempted to intervene. For instance, officers on the Naval Procurement Board who had financial stakes in certain manufacturers attempted to replace critical systems with obsolete alternatives, while others pushed for overgunning the ships as much as possible. Indeed, the first designs were far more heavily armed and weakly protected than the final ship would be. In the end, Ortega herself pushed to reduce the weaponry, as doing so would result in a ship that was cheaper, easier to man, and more importantly had space and generous reactor capacity. In short, it was built as a platform for the future, not for the short-term.