Funny thing that it's called a cutter, the size of it seems inappropriate for it compared to the usage of the term for sailing boats. Perhaps Imperial Barque instead?
Cutter is the term the Empire uses in place of Corvette, and the Cutter, Corvette, and 'Conda are all corvette class ships. The Cutter is the biggest of the three by a fairly significant margin, but the jump to the next class of warship is fairly significant. I think it is destroyers, which have been all but discontinued at this point, followed by frigates, which we have yet to see in game. When something like the Cutter is described as light and fast, it is in comparison to the yet to be seen frigates, and cruisers like the Majestic Class and Farragut.
The ships classifications for military ships have fighters at the smallest end. Transporters or couriers for small asset protection vehicles. Corvettes or cutters for the light warship class. Carriers are mostly obsolete because of cruisers, but maybe the Alliance will get some once we see the ships between cruisers and warships put in game. Destroyers have likewise been discontinued, but some are still in service, so maybe there will be some black market retrofits made available to players or something. Frigates are large ships generally loaded with point defense turrets to shred missiles and fighters. Cruisers, battleships, and interdictors make up the capital class. Basically a mix of carrier, heavy firepower and command vessel. Eventually we should see cruisers escorted by some frigates and a smattering of corvettes as scout vessels, with dozens of fighters to deploy during a fight. That will actually make military incursions have a lot more presence, as the cruisers are supposed to be vulnerable to small craft, relying on their fighters and frigate escorts to deal with such ships, while they engage larger warships. Ships like the Eagle used to stand at the forefront of both militaries, but fighters have proven more cost effective with the rise of cruisers. What few Eagles remain in service are mostly scouts. And the Clipper, according to its description is just a bigger Courier. Actually, all of the rank locked ships prior to the Corvette and Clipper to this point have been the transporter/courier class
fighter classed ships) are garbage vs "real" combat ships. And there are always tales of felling the goliath.
