Trade Federation escort cruisers were light cruisers, used around 27 BBY, to patrol the space that surrounded a typical Neimoidian starship defense structure. This defense structure consisted of two huge Trade Federation split-ring battleships surrounded by six armed Techno Union Hardcell-class interstellar transports in a pyramid-point defensive shell. Several escort cruisers would have been arrayed into a patrol cloud, but were not designed to take on any powerful enemy, like the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force, without capital ship support.