During the Solar War, the outer colonies deployed an auxiliary carrier class, the Amano, to help counter the strength of the carrier forces fielded by the better-funded national navies. This class was built from the converted superstructure “shell” of an old Cardiff ore freighter, a large, vaguely cylindrical craft designed as little more than a cargo container with engines and life support added on. The Amano class converted the Cardiff’s cavernous cargo section into a flight deck capable of basing two full flights of fighters. In addition to its fighters, each carrier is armed with two pairs of plasma cannons that make it a threat to enemy capital ships.
The primary failing of the Amano class, and the reason that terrestrial navies never adopted a similar design, is that ships of this type lack armoring of any kind. Even a single well-placed volley will gut one of these carriers.