The River class merchant conforms to the basic Imperial Type R standards with no enhancements. Designed to be produced and maintained by worlds of average technology, it is not really suited to the difficult conditions imposed by our current political difficulties. The base model, as shown below, is produced with no fuel purification plant and no weapons package. Either can be installed (and often both are), but at a cost in cargo space. The control system is sufficient to allow up to MCr9 of weapons to be installed. The minimal thruster installation does not permit takeoffs or landings on most inhabitable planets while the ship is fully loaded. As a result, a launch is carried to provide some limited integral shuttle capability. When sufficient cargo has been offloaded by the launch, the ship may land. Frugal captains usually run the ship with the launch's cargo bay loaded if possible, which adds an additional 200kl of cargo capacity.

CraftID:	River class Merchant (Type R), TL11, MCr100.07
Hull:	360/900, Disp=400t, Config=4SL, Armor=40E, Loaded=6125t, Unloaded=2820t
Power:	11/22, Fusion=960MW, Duration=30days
Loco:	8/16, Maneuver=1 (Thrusters=5200t), 8/16, Jump=1, TrueAcc=0.85G, Agility=0
Comm:	Radio=System*2
Sensors:	EMS Active(Planetary), ActObjScan=Diff, ActObjPin=Diff
Off:	Hardpoints=4
Def:	DefDM+2
Control:	Computer Mod1*3, 4*HeadsUpDisplay, 860*DynLink
Accom:	Crew=6 (2 bridge, 2 engineer, 1 steward, 1 medical), Staterooms=12, Passengers=6, LowBerths=9, LowPassengers=9, Env=basic env, basic ls, extended ls, grav plates, inertial comp
Other:	Fuel=886kl (1 jump-1+30 days), Cargo=2810kl, Fuel Scoops, ObjSize=Avg, EmLevel=Moderate

Author: R.S.Dean