For me, the two primary variables that need to be considered are integrity and weight.
Divide the integrity by the weight and we get a factor which we can call a ship's Specific Integrity.
It should be noted that integrity
doesn't consider the size of a ship.
Basically, you can keep shooting a ship in the same place and you will
eventually reduce the hull integrity to zero.
A ship's hull is simply considered a "pool of health" that diminishes as a ship is attacked.
Anyway, here's some numbers...
Ship | Weight | Integrity | Sp. Integ |
Beluga | 950 | 504 | 0.53 |
I Cutter | 1100 | 720 | 0.65 |
Python | 666 | 468 | 0.70 |
F Corvette | 900 | 666 | 0.74 |
T10 | 1200 | 1044 | 0.87 |
FDS | 580 | 540 | 0.93 |
T9 | 850 | 864 | 1.02 |
Cobra 4 | 210 | 216 | 1.03 |
DBX | 260 | 270 | 1.04 |
FGS | 580 | 630 | 1.09 |
FAS | 480 | 540 | 1.13 |
A Challenger | 450 | 540 | 1.20 |
Cobra 3 | 180 | 216 | 1.20 |
I Clipper | 400 | 488 | 1.22 |
Krait | 320 | 396 | 1.24 |
Vulture | 230 | 288 | 1.25 |
A Chieftain | 400 | 504 | 1.26 |
DBS | 170 | 216 | 1.27 |
Asp X | 280 | 378 | 1.35 |
Orca | 290 | 396 | 1.37 |
Dolphin | 140 | 198 | 1.41 |
Viper 4 | 190 | 270 | 1.42 |
Eagle | 50 | 72 | 1.44 |
FdL | 250 | 405 | 1.62 |
T7 | 350 | 612 | 1.75 |
T6 | 155 | 324 | 2.09 |
Asp S | 150 | 324 | 2.16 |
I Eagle | 50 | 108 | 2.16 |
Anaconda | 400 | 945 | 2.36 |
Viper 3 | 50 | 126 | 2.52 |
Keelback | 180 | 488 | 2.71 |
I Courier | 35 | 144 | 4.11 |
Sidewinder | 25 | 108 | 4.32 |
Adder | 35 | 162 | 4.63 |
Hauler | 14 | 180 | 12.86 |
As has already been said, for the most part it seems as though small ships are much stronger than big ones - which is kind of plausible seeing as how they're smaller and likely to be more rigid as a function of size.
It also raises any number of rather baffling anomalies though.
Why is the Empire's top-end ship barely more robust than a Saud Kruger cruise ship and the Federation and Alliance equivalents are little better?
Why would Lakon be building the AspX out of something that's 30% tougher than the DBX if it's intended to be an
exploration ship?
Why is the Clipper so much tougher than the Cutter?
And, of course, why is the Anaconda so much tougher than anything comparable, with only much smaller ships being tougher?
It might seem a bit OCD to worry about this stuff but the point is that if all the ships were modeled (mathematically) in a consistent manner, all the wackiness would either be avoided at the design stage OR they could deliberately make ships wacky but still be plausible and consistent with every other ship.