Individual ships are maintained during this phase. New ships can be built and existing ships can be repaired or renamed. Transponder settings are also established during this phase.
During this phase you can build new ships for your fleet. You can build ships only in sectors containing a world owned by you (or one of your allies), and the requisite number of RU must be present at that world. If you (or your ally) lose ownership of a world before this phase, or if you fail to stockpile the necessary RUs, the build instruction will be cancelled. You cannot build ships on a world during the same turn that you take control of it, nor can you build on a world that is interdicted.
Unique serial numbers are assigned automatically to each ship built. You may give a name to each ship you build, although those names must be unique for each ship in your empire. Ship names can be any combination of alphanumeric characters, but they must contain at least one non-numeric character.
Allies: Allied empires may build new ships at worlds owned by their allies, assuming they have created a sufficient RU stockpile of their own at the foreign world. See the Transfer Resource Units phase. If you build a ship on an allied world, that ally automatically acquires that ship's design (i.e., it's impossible to hide the details of a ship's construction at a world owned by someone else).
Abandoned Empires: Abandoned empires always build on any world where there are stockpiled RUs. New ships to be built will alternate between the class which has the most DP that can be afforded and the most guns that can be afforded (choosing the cheapest design in the case of ties), until no RUs are left with which to build.
You can use the this phase to repair a damaged ship beyond what it can auto-repair on its own. You can repair two DP for each RU spent, but you can never repair a ship beyond its original DP rating. A repaired ship's operational rating is correspondingly increased by these repairs. You cannot repair ships that belong to another empire unless you are formally allied with that empire.
Damaged ships can be repaired in any sector, but you must specify which world will supply the RU for the repairs. You may schedule contingency repair orders for ships which you expect will be damaged during the upcoming turn, but if that ship is not damaged (or if it is destroyed) then no repairs will be performed, and the RU earmarked for those repairs will sit idle. A world cannot fund a repair operation on the same turn that you take possession of it. Note that repairs are always visible to any empire which has an unloaded ship in the same sector.
If a world is blockaded (but not interdicted), then ships belonging to that world's owner can still be repaired in that world's sector, but the RU on that world can be used to fund repairs only on that world. That is, since the blockade prevents RU from being shipped off-world, they cannot be used to fund repairs elsewhere; however, the lack of interdiction does not prohibit repairs at that world itself.
If a world is interdicted (and therefore also blockaded), then no ship belonging to that world's owner (or an ally) can be repaired in that world's sector (regardless of where the RU funds come from), and RU at that world cannot be used to fund repairs anywhere at all. That is, the interdiction prohibits that world's owner from conducting repairs at that world, and the implied blockade prohibits that world's RU from being shipped off-world for repairs.
You can repair a friendly or allied orbital at a ratio of three DP (instead of the normal two) for each RU spent. In additional orbitals automatically repair fully any friendly or allied ship loaded within it (regardless of any interdiction present in the same sector).
Note that the empires enforcing a blockade or interdiction can repair their ships at the site of the blockade or interdiction so long as the requisite RU are available from some other (unblockaded) world. Repairs can always be performed in empty space sectors that do not contain worlds, regardless of the empires present.
Allies: Allied empires can repair each other's ships for normal RU cost.
Abandoned Empire: Any RUs which cannot be spent on building new ships will be used to repair damaged ships, starting with the ship that has the smallest operational rating (or fewest remaining DP if there's a tie).
During this phase, you can rename any of your ships as you wish, so long as the new names follow the rules for naming ships when they are built.
During this phase you can toggle ship transponders from private mode to public mode, or vice versa. A ship with a private transponder is visible on LRS only to the empires that you choose. (See the Identify Ships phase.) A ship with a public transponder is always visible on LRS to all other empires, known or not. By default all ship transponders are set to private mode.
Allies: Allied empires always identify their ships to one another, regardless of their ships' transponder modes.
Abandoned Empires: Abandoned ships will always enable private transponder mode.
During this phase you can reset the private transponders for your ships so that they conceal themselves from any empires you choose. If you conceal a ship from an empire, that empire will see that ship on LRS only as unidentified tonnage (and will only be able to see its owner and class if it on SRS). A ship with a public transponder cannot be concealed from any other empire; you must first toggle that ship's transponder to private mode.
Allies: Allied empires can never conceal ships from one another.
Abandoned Empires: Abandoned ships will always be concealed from non-allied empires.
During this phase you can set the private transponders of your ships to identify themselves on LRS to any empires you choose. The selected empires will be able to see those ships' classes and your identity as their owner on their LRS. All other empires will see your ships only as unidentified tonnage on their LRS. Note that you cannot identify ships to individual empires if those ships transponders are in public mode; you must first switch their transponders to private mode.
A ship's transponder settings remain in effect until you alter those settings, either subsequent identifications or by concealing those ships from other empires. Note that loaded ships are never visible to foreign empires, regardless of their transponder settings.
Allies: Allied empires always identify all of their ships to one another.