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The long history of antagonism between the two Centauri systems had led the Alpha worlds to develop a highly effective and integrated military system. Each warship produced fulfilled a specific function in relation to the others and, although individually somewhat less advanced than many of our craft, corporately they represented an extremely efficient fighting force. Provided that its component parts were up to strength, the weaknesses of one ship were generally compensated for by the strengths of another.

In accordance with this system, Alpha's Strike Force was equipped with three main types of ship. The heavily armoured Fatboy was conceived as the central unit capable of maintaining a steady advance against strategic objectives or a central defensive core. Individual tactical and surface targets were the responsibility of the heavily armed ACM 118 weapon carriers, which would leapfrog the Fatboy squadrons, strike fast and retreat behind the armoured line.

The third type of ship envisaged was a small, fast craft with prolonged cruising ability whose functions included scouting, tactical support, rapid interception and raiding. This role was the responsibility of the ACM 115 Minnow.

As was true of most ships operated by Alpha Centauri during the first half of the war, the design dated from much earlier. The armament with which the Minnow was equipped proved inadequate once the use of defence shields became widespread, and it proved difficult to uprate them significantly. Additionally, the trend towards multirole ships gradually reduced the effectiveness of Alpha's military structure and the Minnow suffered badly in the transition, as it was neither armed nor protected sufficiently to be competitive.

Minnows saw little action during the latter part of the War until the fighting reached the Proxima homeworld. The surface war here made the agility, speed and range of this craft indispensable to the ground forces and Minnows were widely used in support in much the same way as they had been earlier.
They differed from earlier versions in that they were now fitted with defence shield generators mounted on the upper hull, and carried more powerful laser armaments.
After the war many of these ships were broken up, although a large number were adapted as guided targets for gunnery exercises. It is understood that a few still exist but their whereabouts is uncertain.