AN Liberator was Andromeda union’s own cruiser developed in house. The ship was, for the most part, an answer to VN Cecilia. After learning that Venus launched their own cruiser model in VN Cecilia on year 9670, they rushed the development of their own cruiser model.
The internal codename for the project was “Acshell” who was a heroic figure that liberated Andromeda colonies from United Sol.
Acshell’s story is covered in [Legends arc] [Andromeda rebellion] [9071].

The development was rushed and numerous catastrophic setbacks occurred. Having no prior first-hand experience in designing a cruiser, Andromeda royal navy struggled. They had an option of using USF Courage’s hull as an inspiration but Andromeda council insisted that the new cruiser design must be fresh and new.
Red Plate shipyard learned that the navy was attempting to designing a new cruiser and approached them with a blueprint.

During Acshell’s era, Red Plate shipyard produced cruisers for him and, in doing so, they secretly worked on a cruiser design which never saw light until year 9673, meaning the mysterious cruiser design was collecting dust for about 700 years.
Red Plate shipyard donated the blueprint to the navy and it didn’t take long for prototype AN Liberator appeared.

AN “Acshell” Liberator was slightly smaller than USF Courage, measuring 170 meters in length compared to 180 meters of USF Courage. Crew capacity was nearly identical with 140 crew maximum but had far more windowed quarters (180 optional crew capacity).

Fire power wise, AN Liberator was on par with USF Courage despite of having two less turrets by utilizing higher powered laser guns.
The ship had the most firepower in fore arc and rear arc. It had the least fire power in broadside arc.
The first production model, AN “Acshell” Liberator, made its debut on year 9677.
And Andromeda council aggressively replaced USF Courage with AN Liberator. By year 9700, majority of USF Courage models were scrapped.

Rumors said that a single man who was a big admirer of Acshell designed the cruiser in his spare time over decades. He was going to present the design to Acshell but he stepped down too soon and vanished. Thus, the design was locked up and never saw the light until year 9673. The man’s name was never revealed as Red Plate shipyard kept their mouth shut regarding the designer.