SOF Ardennes was built by Titan in the late stages of the Revolt of the Outer Planets, designed for electronic support missions, infiltration missions, high-priority strikes behind enemy lines, and for signals intelligence. Its armament is relatively light for a frigate her size - 4 Laser PDCs, and two rotary missile launchers. What makes her special, are her extensive electronic warfare suite, and the directional thermal masking system.
The latter allows the ships to completely disappear on IR from one direction at a time, by cooling that side down to 2.7 Kelvin, the temperature of the cosmic microwave background.
She rose to fame shortly after hostilities officially ended in the Revolt, discovering and neutralizing a group of Ceresian extremists looking to throw asteroids at Earth and Mars. Her stealth and SIGINT systems proved crucial in that operation.