This frigate was built by the Earth Federation Forces as an escort ship for the Salamis-class and Magellan-class. The bridge and propulsion system are similar to the Salamis-class, but the size of the ship is smaller. As classified as a "missile frigate", it is a ship with missiles as its main armament, and is equipped with only one mega particle gun. It was a ship with high offensive power, but its compatibility with Minovsky particles was terrible, and it was defeated in the One Year War, unable to compete with mobile suits. Also, perhaps because there was no room for improvement in concept, no frigate was developed after this ship.
Armaments[]
Mega Particle Gun
The primary armament of the Lepanto-class was her single barreled mega particle gun, mounted on a turret atop the ship's bow.
6-Tube Missile Launcher
A 6-tube anti-aircraft missile pod is mounted on each side of the ship in front of the 16-tube bombardment missile launchers, with a third being mounted underneath the ship on its ventral hull. These are similar to the 6-tube missile launchers on a Salamis-class.
16-Tube Bombardment Missile Launcher
The Lepanto-class was armed with eight large missile launchers, each one armed with 16 launch tubes in a 4x4 fashion. These fired much smaller but much quicker and more numerous missiles, ideal for dealing large amounts of firepower for use in offensive bombarding. A full salvo of these missiles were enough to destroy a Magellan-class Battleship.
VLS Missiles
The Lepanto-class is armed with 20 VLS missile launch tubes, 10 between the bridge and the bow mega particle gun in a 2x5 formation, with 10 more behind the bridge and in front of the rear 2-barrel machine gun, also in a 2x5 formation. These missiles are large and slower compared to the 6-tube or 16-tube missile launchers, but can deal much more damage to an enemy ship.
2-Barrel Machine Gun
These weapons formed the Lepanto-class's anti-aircraft weaponry. Two turrets protected each side of the vessel while another turret was mounted on the ventral hull towards the front of the cruiser. The last turret protected the engine on the dorsal aft of the ship. The turrets could rotate 180 degrees from pointing directly ahead to directly aft and could elevate their firing angle up to 90 degrees. These turrets were usually too few in number to provide an adequate defense against mobile suits.
Missile Launcher
Six large missile launchers were mounted in the bow of the Lepanto-class, with four on each side. These missile launchers could be loaded with nuclear warheads and served as anti-ship and anti-fortress weapons.
Special Equipment & Features[]
Re-Entry Capsule
A small shuttle capable of making atmospheric re-entry is located underneath the bow of the Lepanto-class, between its ventral 2-barrel machine gun and the ventral 6-tube missile launcher. The shuttle could also double as an escape craft in the case of an emergency.
Supplemental Rocket Booster
A supplemental rocket booster system can be attached to the main engine thrusters of the Lepanto-class to enable it to leaver Earth's atmosphere.