The development of Asteroid Mining technology was a big shift in world's space economy, since huge amounts of construction material were suddenly made available to any Space Colony. This brought on the possibility to build bigger and sturdier space craft than ever before for a price that would not be prohibitive. Not surprisingly, one of the first applications of these new vessels was military: well-armoured space units with considerable firepower were desperately needed both in deep space and in orbit. The new Ion Frigate prove to be vastly superior to the older designs of military spacecraft, able to vaporize entire squadrons of ASF units while remaining relatively unscathed.