Carriers

Carriers, or fleet carriers, were designed around the idea that a weapons platform like a battlehulk suffered from an inability to bring all of its weapons to bear against a single target at any given time. They are larger than the battlehulks and can carry up to 500 individual craft (Source: Carrier wiki. 500 craft refers to 500 light tanks, 300 bombardment craft, or 10 cruisers). Their automation systems are similar to a battlehulk, and as such require only a crew of around 150 to maintain and repair all launching and flight systems, and less than 100 crew to pilot and launch the ships (150 total crew required when maintaining the ship launching mechanisms. Less than 100 are required to actually pilot and launch the ships). Individual pilot accommodations vary based on what types of ships the carrier is designed to carry, but space for around 15,000 passengers is common. There are several non-military vessels of similar mass to fleet carriers which technically fall under the carrier classification, though typically cargo ships of this size are unnecessary unless you're shipping other large ships.

Fleet carriers were responsible for the victory over PRIM during the Corporation War. They are heavily armored, though not heavily armed, relying instead on their fleets of ships to bring massive amounts of fire to bear. While originally designed to carry small tanks into battle, the fleet carriers required cruiser protection since they were themselves not heavily armed. With minor refitting they were able to launch farther reaching bombardment craft against enemy battlehulks, which were better suited to piercing the armor of a battlehulk and could operate over great distances due to a short range version of the Wormhole Drive. This meant that carriers didn’t need carrier groups anymore, and could function as a fleet by themselves, hence the title fleet carrier. Though they were often accompanied by several battlehulks, the carriers were often left alone while all other ships were fighting.

The real key to the fleet carriers defeating the Mark V battlehulks in the Corporation War was in their speed. The first Benders were just starting to reach maturity during the carriers planning stage, and they were selected to act as the star drive for the new fleet carriers. Even the longest (around 10 km) and heaviest (just shy of 2 billion metric tons) carriers developed, those designed to deploy up to ten cruisers, could be moved much faster via bending than by wormhole. Due to this a small number of carriers was able to disable a large number of battlehulks in just over a year.

After PRIM was disbanded and the Council was secure in their power, they grew distrustful of the Benders, classifying them as EELs and prohibiting them leaving their home world unless acting as a star drive for a human owned ship. They became unpopular, and the military was forced to stop using them in their carriers. The existing carriers were refitted to use Wormhole Drives, and all future carriers built used the Wormhole Drive. Some corporations, however, retained or acquired the schematics for the original fleet carriers, deemed more powerful due to their improved speed and lower power requirements versus their wormhole driven counterparts. These corporations may still be using Benders on their fleet carriers.