Together with the Bonaventure corvette and a system of remote surveillance satellites, the light but heavily armed Vigilant-class corvette served as the Terran Hegemony's first line of defense against invasions from neighboring realms. Though all three naval assets would be phased out in the early 2400s as the newer, faster Vincent-class came into production, the Vigilant's mix of firepower kept it in the field for another two centuries among the navies of the various Houses.
         Built small, the Vigilant was outmassed by many conventional JumpShips. It features little more armor protection than a light military DropShip. Its small engines attained only a maximum 2.5 G acceleration, barely enough to keep up with WarShips and DropShips during combat. Its greatest deficiency, however, was its relative lack of advanced computer capabilities, limiting its detection range and accuracy. Combined with a lack of speed and armor, the vigilant would have been largely regarded as a poor system defense ship were it not for its abundance of raw firepower, easily outgunning that of the Bonaventures. In addition to heavy weaponry, the Vigilant also featured bays for a squadron of fighters and a quartet of small craft, allowing this ship to field its own close support to tie up invading naval forces. Nevertheless, the Vigilant-class was most commonly deployed in pairs along side two Bonaventures for the advanced detection capabilities and fire support.
         Though hardly cost-effective, this four ship "buddy system" sufficed until a Capellan invasion of Terra Firma in 2409 prompted the Hegemony navy to produce the more efficient Vincent-class. The Vigilant was eventually mothballed or sold off to the various Houses as Vincents replaced them. None accompanied Kerensky's exodus fleet. The few that survived the Star League's fall were believed destroyed in the early Succession Wars.