Javelin-Class Carrier
Template:CapInfobox The Javelin-Class Carrier (aka Squadron Carrier) is a capital ship designed as a base of operations for Squadrons. It has similar functionality as a Drake-Class Carrier, but more than double the cargo capacity, 32 landing pads and additional management options. It's the largest and most expensive vessel available to commanders. It was included with the free Vanguards update on 19 August 2025.
Overview
Only a Squadron leader can purchase a Javelin-Class Carrier. Once bought other squad members can interact with it to varying degrees. Anyone with Navigation permissions can plot a Hyperspace jump to another system.
The carrier is purchased by the squadron leader for 25 billion credits in the squadron bank account, at stations with a dealer of carrier ships. The carrier has a shipyard service enabled by default. Additional services are bought seperately, so it's recommended to have an additional 2 billion.
The carrier is planned to be used as the main asset for the squadron, and a convenient center for conducting various joint operations within one squadron. There are 32 on board landing platforms different sizes for placement squadrons, which makes it a mobile base with more functionality and resources, like standard ones orbital stations.
The Squadron Bank contains general loans, ships, goods and commodities. Players can either donate these to the bank, or withdraw what is stored. Direct transfer to a squadron member without going through the bank is also possible.
Comparison with a Drake-Class
The Javelin-Class operates similarly to a Drake-Class Carrier, though it's considerably larger with twice as many landing pads (32 in total: 16 large, 8 medium and 8 small). The squadron carrier's capacity is 60,000 units (tonnes), which is also used to store goods and maintain the infrastructure for various additional services. In addition, the capacity is spent on what is stored in the squadron bank. Despite the squadron bank, the carrier has its own balance of credits, from which funds are debited for weekly maintenance, hull maintenance after jumps, and for trade (like a Drake-Class). The main maintenance of the squadron carrier is twice as expensive - 10,000,000 credits. The max jump range is 500 ly. All other technical aspects are similar to the Drake-Class.
The interior features wider space and additional decorative elements. When entering the main deck of the ship, on one side you will have the squadron bank itself, closed by a powerful pressure door. On the other side — access to classic station services: Cosmoverf, Vista Genomics, Pioneer Supplies and waiting room bar. The captain's bridge is unchanged and no different from the private carrier ship except for the rest room on the command deck, where a briefing room has been added.
Bank
The Squadron Carrier has a bank for sharing resources between squadron members, including credits, ships, commodities, personal assets and goods. Ships stored in the bank can be leased to other members and they can be outfitted with any purchasable module (such as a fully A-rated vessel). Engineered and unlocked modules cannot be added. Access and control of bank assets have rank-based restrictions and weekly withdrawal limits that can be configured by the squadron leaders.[1]
- The Squadron Treasury is a communal pool of credits which can be donated to, withdrawn from and used to purchase a carrier.[2]
- The Squadron Inventory is a communal storage space for Squadron members, to donate and store ships, commodities and personal assets.[2]
Items stored in the bank do not affect the available capacity of the medium (unlike goods and ships), but additionally the Carrier Capacity is limited to 60,000 units of ships, goods and items stored. Permission groups can be created by squadron leaders, which allows them to set which player ranks are available for what's stored in this group. Accordingly, when transferring something to the bank, a squadron member can choose whether it will be available to all or only some members. The group may have restrictions on input and output per week (you can limit any resource - loans, ships, goods and items). The Transaction Log records the activities in the bank.
Any ship can be transferred to the bank if its acquisition does not require unlocking a rank of the Federal Navy or Imperial Navy, or if it doesn't have engineered modules. When another player retrieves a ship from the bank, he or she gains full utilization as if it were purchased.
Upkeep
Acquiring a Squadron Carrier costs 25 billion credits from a Carrier Management system. The base weekly upkeep is also higher at 10 million credits per week. Despite the higher base costs, additional upkeep costs with added services are similar to a standard Drake-Class Carrier's, plus an additional maintenance cost for hyperspace jumps. Hyperjump maintence is also double, adding 200 thousand per jump.
Services
Squadron Carrier has almost all the same services available to be installed as Fleet Carrier. Differences are:
- Shipyard is always installed (and adds mass)
- Redemption Office and Secure warehouse are not available for installation
Docking Access
Can be set to either Squadron only or All which allows docking for all players.
Cosmetics
Squadron Carriers include a livery option to customize their appearance. Any existing Fleet Carrier paintjobs, thrusters, landing pad holograms and flight controller cosmetics can be applied to a Squadron Carrier as well.
Development
Squadron Carriers were first announced as a feature of the Vanguards update (a refresh to the older Squadrons system) in May of 2025, however the concept of Squadron Carriers predates the release of personal Fleet Carriers. The original intention was that all Fleet Carriers would be squadron specific purchases, however this approach was changed sometime around or after the release of the original Squadrons system (Fleet Carriers were originally intended to be released with Squadrons, though were delays for more than a year)[3].
Videos
Gallery
-
Squadron Carrier
-
Javelin-Class Carrier
-
Javelin-Class Carrier white
-
Squadron carrier settings panel with Docking access
-
Javelin-Class Carrier top view
References
- ↑ Elite Dangerous | Frontier Unlocked | May Highlight - 30 May 2025 - YouTube
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bank Overview in-game description
- ↑ Drake-Class Carrier#Development