Starships

Starships are space craft capable of traveling between star systems, using mass relays and the FTL mass effect drive.

Large military vessels
Larger warships are classified in one of four weights:

Frigates
Frigates are small, fast ships used for patrolling and for screening larger vessels. On their own, frigates do not pack much of a punch, but when operating in "wolf-pack flotillas", they can often overwhelm larger vessels. Geth dropships are classed as frigates. Systems Alliance frigates are named after great battles of human history (Iwo Jima, Hastings, Agincourt, Normandy). Frigates are capable of entering a planet's atmosphere and landing on the surface, but must first deactivate their kinetic barriers for reentry.

Cruisers
Cruisers are middle-weight combatants, faster than dreadnoughts, and more heavily-armed than frigates. Cruisers are the standard patrol unit, and often lead frigate flotillas. In the Alliance Navy, cruisers are named after Earth cities (New Delhi, Tokyo). Cruisers cannot land on medium or high-gravity worlds, but do possess the ability to land on low-gravity planets.

Carriers
Carriers are dreadnought-sized vessels which carry a large number of fighters. They are usually kept at a distance from any engagement because they are not maneuverable enough to survive heavy bombardment. Alliance carriers are named after great leaders, artists, and intellectuals from human history.

Commander Shepard describes fighter carriers as an example of humanity demonstrating its ability to "think outside the box", which is evidenced by the fact that the Systems Alliance was the first to field these vessels.

Dreadnoughts
Dreadnoughts are kilometer-long capital ships mounting heavy, long-range firepower. They are only deployed for the most vital missions. A dreadnought's power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts range from 800 meters to one kilometer long, with a main gun of commensurate length. An 800-meter mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one twenty-kilogram slug to a velocity of 4025 km/s (1.3% the speed of light) every two seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of about 38 kilotons of TNT, about two and a half times the energy released by the fission weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.

The Treaty of Farixen stipulates the amount of dreadnoughts a navy may own, with the turian peacekeeping fleet being allowed the most. As of 2183, the turians had 37 dreadnoughts, the asari had 21, the salarians had 16, and the Alliance had 6 with another under construction. During the year 2185, the dreadnought count is 39 turians, 20 asari, 16 salarians, and 8 humans. Alliance dreadnoughts are named after mountains of Earth (Everest, Kilimanjaro).

Dreadnoughts are so large that it is impossible to safely land them on a planet, and must discharge their drive cores into the magnetic field of a planet while in orbit. The decks of large vessels are arranged perpendicular to the ship's axis of thrust, so that the "top" decks are towards the front of the ship and the "bottom" decks are towards the rear of the ship.

Combat support craft
Smaller vessels are exclusively used in a support role to the warships during combat:


 * FIGHTERS are one-man craft used to perform close-range attacks on enemy ships.
 * INTERCEPTORS are one-man craft optimized for destroying opposing fighters.

Shuttles
Shuttles facilitate transfer between large ships without the need to dock, or between a starship and the ground. Some models like the UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle are capable of independent FTL travel.

Corvettes
Corvettes are small, ten-men craft used to perform combat and survey missions.

Starship attributes

 * Disruptor torpedoes
 * GARDIAN
 * Javelin mounts
 * Heat dispersal systems
 * Ablative armour
 * Kinetic barriers
 * Sensors
 * Mass accelerator weapons
 * Thrusters

Systems Alliance Navy

 * For a list of Alliance military vessels, see Alliance Navy.

Blue Suns

 * Purgatory

Alliance Survey Vessels

 * Kupe
 * Ibn Battuta

Merchant

 * MSV Cornucopia
 * MSV Fedele
 * MSV Majesty
 * MSV Ontario
 * MSV Worthington
 * MSV Hugo Gernsback
 * Ter Alan

Asari

 * Destiny Ascension
 * Verallas
 * Azedes

Salarian

 * Kalanhai

Turian

 * Verrikan

Quarian

 * The Liveships
 * Rayya
 * Idenna
 * Tesleya
 * Usela
 * Qwib-Qwib
 * Defrahnz
 * Iktomi

Reaper

 * Sovereign
 * Harbinger

Geth

 * Geth Dropship

Collector

 * Collector Cruiser
 * Oculus