Grafton-class light frigate

The Grafton-class light frigate was the first mass-produced class of dedicated colonial frigates commissioned by the UNSC Navy, and for a time, temporarily loaned to the CMA Navy.

Built during a time when the Inner Colony Wars had reached its zenith, the Grafton-class was devised as an easy to man patrol ship that could be built in the few primordial shipyards that dotted the colonial frontier, even if they lacked access to local factories and specialised military industry. To this end, significant design constraints had been placed on the frigates by the UNSC admiralty; the frigates had to be small, and so the larger Sol-based warships could not be adapted for this project. It also had to be built around no more than two 20,000 ton core components, as this allowed for the smallest slipspace ferries to carry complete shipbuilding material for a single ship, thus easing the already-strained interstellar logistics. Finally, it had to be propelled by conventional civilian fusion reactors, as these were by far the longest-lead items needed and so having these built by extrasolar companies would allow for more frigates to be built.

In many ways, the Grafton-class was a mirror of the UNSC's inexperience for colonial operations, and self-absorbed arrogance. Certainly, other shipbuilding companies had offered options that featured better protection, increased armaments, and incorporated feedback from CMA officers. However, the UNSC Navy simply wanted the minimum viable military spacecraft, both because of a lack of trust in colonial servicemen and also because the UNSC calculated that they would only hold a few key systems and leave the rest under CMA ownership. This meant that the Grafton-class lacked many crew amenities afforded to even their own ships, had no real future-proofing, and were of dubious value when forced into any sort of fight. They were also not slipspace-capable at all, and so could not be moved from the star system they were commissioned in.

Mass-produced in their hundreds, Graftons were crewed by local reservists in the contested systems, often charged with protecting rearguard assets that didn't require a full warship to escort them or providing early reconnaissance on planetary activities. Whatever action they saw was largely confined to subduing the nervous colonist merchantmen in boarding actions or putting down riots on isolated habitats. After the Inner Colony Wars, the UNSC was slowly forced to acknowledge that these ships were poor law enforcement craft due to their many deficiencies. Although those at Reach and other major worlds were quickly replaced with the UNSC's stocks of older but heavier frigates, destroyers, and cruisers, a small number of Graftons continued to serve for several decades in undeveloped systems until the introduction of the. None would be preserved: the UNSC Exzellenz, the last of the class, survived in private hands until the Soyuz War Museum sold it for scrap in 2468.