1-6 series, codename Paladin

These craft are designed with blending in, in mind, looking like small twin-jet commercial airliners, with tail-mounted engines. These are fast and nippy, and have a pair of recessed forward firing pulse laser rifles, later missile mounts for two enhanced Sparrows or Sidewinders was added. Fully re-entry capable their primary role is personnel transfer, initially production stopped with 5 of the anticipated 15 craft when the Ground Control, Thundersdawn, Coalmine Ring Transporter Network was set-up however use of those craft and therefore their numbers has exploded since.
Note that Paladins are powered by Naquadah generators and are FULLY hyper capable.

6 Crew, 20 passengers
7 days normal max mission time.

Updates:
All Paladins refitted or made after 2008 have been made to a batch two specification which apart from including minor improvements and bug-fixes across the ship, also added a single pulse laser on a turret which drops out from the nose of the craft.
The two fixed pulse lasers previously mounted here were generally moved to a turrent mount on top of the craft, though on certain variations this was not possible, the Flying Dutchman being a prime example. That class mounts only the single mount pulse laser turret.

This was changed again in 2010 to a twin Pulse Laser turret underneath the nose with an identical twin turret at the stern with wing reinforcements leading to the carriage of up to three missiles under each wing on a single missile rail.

The Paladin IV protype flew in January of 2013 with the main sub-light engines replaced with Impulse drives dervived from those obtained during the Edonia Nebula mission (aka Discontinuity). As well as a greatly enhanced sublight speed, this version includes a slightly longer hull (stated as "an extra ten feet of usable hull" by Commander Joan Williams) as well as improved resistance to weapons fire and increased weapons loadout with the addition of wing-tip missile rails for one missile and recessed hull mounts for a maximum of four missiles, bring the total number of missiles carried to twelve. Again, this is for most variants, some such as the Flying Dutchman version carry less, the gunboat variants certainly carry more. This class also uses Type 22 pulse lasers which have performance comparable to the Type 17's previously used but use fewer 'rare' elements resulting in reduced maintenace and production costs. This type also has reduved power requirements.
Fuel storage has increased, with the addition of deuterium tanks for the Impulse drives and an increase in reaction thruster mass.
This type does represent a significant increase in mass which has resulted in some complaints that it is less manourable then previous versions, particularly in atmosphere.

As of the the winter of 2012/2013 the Paladin is being considered as a possible replacement for the obsolete Colonial Raptors.
The Paladin is already a proven and veteran utility craft but would need to be redesigned to allow increased use of modular components for Battlestar or Carrier usage, hopefully enabling the Paladin, like the old Raptors to operate as fighter support one mission then as troop transport the next followed perhaps by cargo transport.
This project is facing political opposition from those who wish to use a dedicated design but the TSS / EF is pushing the process through regardless.
It is also worth noting that a Courier IV Paladin only has a 79% parts commonality with a Courier III Paladin.
Currently, a Paladin built for one task will only be able to carry out that task or similar unless refitted IE a cargo Paladin will be a cargo craft until refitted.

Known Variants

Fade-outs
Jet-powered Paladin variant released for Military and civilian use, Fade-outs use the Paladin fuselage, but contain purely terrestrial technology; they are designed to draw attention away from the RSS version. These craft have become wildly popular amongst the world armed forces due to their high speed, manoeuvrability and low maintenance cost, earning the RSS a nice boast to the budget.
Production of this version halved after Disclosure.

Medi-evac
(Variant of Types I, II, III, IV)
Specifically designed for use as a Space Ambulance of sorts, the Medi-evac's have room for six patients at a time and reinforced armour to help survivability whilst rescuing injured personnel from a hot landing zone.

Flying Dutchman
(Variant of Types I, III)
Favoured amongst all the small craft pilots, even if they don't have the guts to fly it, the Dutchman is designed to rescue stranded pilots from space and even if necessary, from the middle of a battle. As such, the craft has an oversized airlock to allow rescue personnel to more quickly rescue a dutchman and cycle back into the craft, oversized manoeuvring thrusters and hand rails all over the surface of the craft as well as retrieval lines on reels all over the hull.
Considering that most of its missions would be carried out to rescue pilots whose fighters had been destroyed in combat, an extra Pulse Laser was added, turret mounted on the top of the craft.
Unfortunately, the extra space all the special equipment requires means that carrying capacity is reduced
Crew: 10 Passengers/ Rescued 'Dutchmen': 10

Courier
(Variant of types I, II, III, IV)
Used for priority or specialised cargos only, the courier is a cargo variant redesigned to make the passenger compartment a sealed environment, allowing cargos of delicate nature, such as Bio hazardous material to be transported within without risk to the crew.
That said however, most common use is transfer of standard medical supplies or priority parts and equipment.
Crew: 6 Passengers: 0

Transport: Personnel
Transport: Cargo
Transport: Refrigerated Cargo
Paladins in these class have been made in the Type I, II, III & IV classes.

Hot-Drop
(Variant of types I, II, III, IV)
Modified to drop troops into a combat theatre, in particular, an area that might be hot
In particular, increased armour, particulary on the underside of the hull and improved weapons mounts allowing the pulse batteries to more easily track ground targets

Salvage
Tanker

Decoy Launcher
(Variant of Types III)
First appearance was Gatewar Interlude 14.

Gunboat
(Prototype was based on Type III, production models will be Type IV)
Closest the TSS / EF currently comes to a classic bomber, the central hull contains a bomb-bay with a rotary-selectable launcher with seven 'slots' (Six in the prototype) as well as the standard Paladin armament.

Awacs
(Type IV)
Prototype Underconstruction

Blackeye
(Type IV)
(Design Under Consideration)
Passive and stealthed sensor platform.

Paladins first appeared in 2: Thunder Rising