Plans to develop a new Cruiser class to replace the thousand-year old Vengeance with a robust, but faster cruiser platform were drawn up even before the official founding of the UAS. RV-AX traces its roots to the Revolution Cruiser Project initiated in 4059 A.D by the Terran Loyalist Alliance. The project was suspended only 2 cycles later as it was deemed too expensive to manufacture, especially as existing hulls were readily available for retrofit.
In 4312 A.D, research and assets from the Project were re-activated as the UAS Navy put forward a request for a medium-weight cruiser capable of bringing the firepower of a dual-A type turret battery to a hull capable of keeping up with light frigates and fast cruisers, as part of the Navy's 'Lighting Strike' doctrine.
Commissioned in 4314 A.D, RV-AX was thus the first post-Fall warship design to built by terrans in Aquarius. The design combines new technological advances in nano-polymers already deployed in existing retrofit hulls like the VE-AX, with new low-metalic and lightweight construction. Removal of an Axial armament and docking facility allowed a larger enhanced powerplant and propulsion whilst keeping the mass significantly lower than the VE-AX.
The result is one of the fastest cruisers in the UAS Fleet. With a sustained safe cruise of ~2200 M/s, it is actually slightly faster than the FL-AX and HB-AX Fast cruisers in full impulse and signficantly faster than the heavier VE-AX Heavy Cruiser.
Despite being commissioned to bridge the gap between existing hulls, RV-AX was so successful in field trials, the Navy began evaluating retiring the heavier VE-AX in favour of a fleet of faster, more mobile RV type cruisers. Despite the advanced nature of the RV, its construction was more cost effective due to vastly reduced mass. RV-AX saw its first action during the UAS invasion of the Tempest Ridge, in the Battle of Pallas in 4317 A.D.
By the turn of the middle of the 4th millenium, Revolution type Cruisers would become the backbone of the UAS Federal Navy.