The R40 sensors sounded like a good idea if the enemy has smaller ships, although you're probably right and I'll scrap it or move it to a dedicated sensor ship once I make one.
The Escort Cruisers were initially designed with only one fire control as the max pdc fire is 5 (not 4, might have changed since you last played?) so each ship can fire at a salvo of 12 missiles. That might be a but overkill but I have pretty low tech, as I did a semi-conventional start (a TN start without any RP).
I haven't tested the escort cruisers though, as the NPR I just spawned didn't seem to have any anti-ship missiles.
And about the sensor ship, I was thinking of making one, but it seemed to be kinda risky to put all your sensors on one sensor ship. I think I'll remove the passive sensors (and the R40 ones) from the cruisers and make a sensor ship with stronger passives, and perhaps a very strong active search sensor. Put the new designs here once they are ready.
EDIT: Ok, here are some new designs. I've moved the passive and R40 sensors to a dedicated sensor ship. Space gained by this was used for more launchers/fuel/fire controls.
Amsterdam class Missile Cruiser 16,000 tons 1497 Crew 2026.2 BP TCS 320 TH 640 EM 0
2000 km/s Armour 4-56 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 16 PPV 70
Annual Failure Rate: 128% IFR: 1.8% Maint Capacity 1266 MSP Max Repair 84 MSP Est Time: 4.35 Years
Magazine 1600
Military P40 Nuclear Pulse Engine (16) Power 40 Fuel Use 100% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres Range 78.8 billion km (455 days at full power)
S5 Medium Missile Launcher (14) Missile Size 5 Rate of Fire 40
Missile Fire Control FC50-R100 (2) Range 50.4m km Resolution 100
Wrath S5-A (318) Speed: 20,000 km/s End: 45m Range: 54m km WH: 4 Size: 5 TH: 66 / 40 / 20
Active Search Sensor MR50-R100 (1) GPS 8400 Range 50.4m km Resolution 100
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Rotterdam class Escort Cruiser 16,000 tons 1432 Crew 2230.2 BP TCS 320 TH 640 EM 0
2000 km/s Armour 4-56 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 13 PPV 60
Annual Failure Rate: 157% IFR: 2.2% Maint Capacity 1133 MSP Max Repair 168 MSP Est Time: 2.43 Years
Magazine 1590
Military P40 Nuclear Pulse Engine (16) Power 40 Fuel Use 100% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres Range 78.8 billion km (455 days at full power)
S1 Small Missile Launcher (60) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Missile Fire Control FC10-R1 (6) Range 10.1m km Resolution 1
Prayer R1.1-A (1590) Speed: 29,800 km/s End: 0.6m Range: 1.1m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 99 / 59 / 29
Active Search Sensor MR10-R1 (1) GPS 168 Range 10.1m km Resolution 1
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Johan de Witt class Sensor Ship 5,600 tons 431 Crew 939.4 BP TCS 112 TH 280 EM 0
2500 km/s Armour 5-28 Shields 0-0 Sensors 60/60/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 50% IFR: 0.7% Maint Capacity 1524 MSP Max Repair 280 MSP Est Time: 4.17 Years
Military P40 Nuclear Pulse Engine (7) Power 40 Fuel Use 100% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres Range 112.5 billion km (520 days at full power)
Active Search Sensor MR31-R40 (1) GPS 3360 Range 31.9m km Resolution 40
Active Search Sensor MR168-R100 (1) GPS 28000 Range 168.0m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH10-60 (1) Sensitivity 60 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 60m km
EM Detection Sensor EM10-60 (1) Sensitivity 60 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 60m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes