I downloaded this and its sister ships to spice up the pirates' spawns on my server; this is one tough ship! I haven't seen one come as part of a station distress call yet, but I have tested my first full-fledged frigate (~10k mass) against an admin-spawned one. Getting in range of the main cannon is a seriously bad idea, and the two autocannon turrets with overdrive shred armor fast. If the AI wasn't so weak to kiting, I wouldn't have beaten the Echidna.
The reason that I didn't give it full stars is twofold; first, I think the ion beam could use a bit less than full effect. It shreds shields no problem, but if something dances a bit out of range of the cannon, this ship can't do any block damage. I know it's meant to be a brawler, but taking the ion effect down to around 95% would mean it could also start whittling away at the target under its shield. Second, I feel that it would be weak to a ship of its own type. There is some advanced armor on the front, but I think it needs a bit more of a buffer zone or a second layer of advanced armor before the cannon. It doesn't take much concentrated fire on the front of the ship to start chewing into the cannon systems.
Other than those two complaints, I found the weapons and defenses quite nice. Fairly good shielding, and the computers are buried deep enough that there was little chance of sniping them out. Next time I test my ship against one of these, I'll take my own advice and defend my weapons computers better, I found myself without a main gun the first time I got in range of the Echidna's cannon!
