KSE Firespray

The Firespray-class patrol and attack ship has been recently re-introduced to the market by Kuat Systems Engineering. Although the original design was generated a number of years earlier, the prototype vessels built at that time were all lost in the hangar where they were being stored during an unfortunate prison escape incident. A sole ship survived the catastrophe and the design has since attained some notoriety owing to the escapades of its pilot. Rather than building to contract, KSE had generated the Firespray design as a project to shop around and had fronted all the cash for the prototypes, confident that once people had seen their performance purchase orders would come rolling in. Instead, the loss of the prototypes put the company in financial dire straights with nothing concrete to show for the Firespray project, and no way to generate interest in the product through demonstrations. Having already drained accounts originally stocked by a huge initial financial outlay, KSE mothballed the project and everything that had been built so far, including reams of technical data and all of the specialized tools used to build the prototype vessels. KSE then went on to enhance their existing offerings and go on to carve an even larger niche for themselves in the market for post-sale ship upgrade kits.

Years later, an increased company financial stability and a renewed interest in expanding their offerings has driven KSE to search for a relatively inexpensive way to re-enter the starship market. Toward this end, KSE has pulled the Firespray tooling out of mothballs and set up an assembly line. Production is underway but is relatively limited in scope as Kuat Systems Engineering tests the waters for their product. Sales are tepid for the moment and the company remains cautious about increasing production until sales begin to take off, being understandably gun-shy over how much the project has already cost over its entire lifetime.

The Firespray is designated as a patrol and attack ship by the manufacturer, and those words belie some of the traits of its design. It is relatively heavily armored and shielded for its size, quite well armed, and has on-board storage for flight essentials allowing for increased duration flights which enable it to patrol a larger area. In its originally designed fit-out, the ship is roughly as fast as the Koensayr Y-wing' fighter making it plenty fast for catching most smuggling cargo-haulers. Originally built and marketed as a planetary law enforcement and criminal interdiction vessel, Kuat Systems Engineering is now broadening their marketing to show how the well-constructed ship can be customized and upgraded to serve other types of roles. This is seen by most in the industry as a blatant attempt by KSE marketing to ride on the coat-tails of the reputation developed by the sole surviving original prototype Firespray and its pilot, a bounty hunter named - Boba Fett'.