Only the Liandra is a stated to be an "older" design, and is twenty years old.
IIRC the Ship is twenty years old, the design seems older still - since it's used as small patrol ship, incapable of mounting the good stuff in the minbari arsenal according to JMS.
The Emphifli (I think that's the spelling) we know nothing about, but its control technology looks more modern than the Liandra's.
Here we have a great candidate for a Anla-shok ship IMO. It does look a lot like "the little brother of the Victory-class", and may have been purpose-built for the IA-era rangers...
The Valen looks like take one on the EA/Minbari/IA collaboration with regards the Whitestar "Destroyer" project.
Actually it looks like an EA/Minbari collaboration made by designers that failed the test to be allowed to work on the Victory class. Perhaps even an collaboration by the whole IA (complete with Drazi committees)... :wink:
Still, it would be another perfect candidate for a IA ranger ship.
Of these, I'd say these would only be available in the ISA era.
If at all!
Remember the history of the Anla-shok:
Valen's time: elite fighting force, have access to the best of Minbari tech.
...then they start to decline, as their support is slowly dismatled by the warrior caste...
ItB time: severely lacking in support from clans and council, seen as useless buch of people living in the past. Will be hard pressed to get more then a few aging patrol crafts (the Liandra was built for them during that time - that's the kind of ship they had back then)
Post-EA/Minbari War time: finally the still minbari-only Anla-shok are starting to get support from the religious caste - covertly, but they do get it. Start of the WhiteStar project with Vorlon help.
B5-era time: Sinclair takes over the Anla-shok, and opens them to humans. They still get only covert support by the religious caste, but by now that support is building the WhiteStar fleet. Remember, the Minbari ships seen in the Shadow war were crewed by Worker and Religious caste, not Rangers!
IA-era time: Now the rangers are open to all IA races. They do have the WhiteStars, and at least a few Nial fighters for training... but since we saw NO Nials in their battles against the Centauri in S-5 we can suspect they do not have any combat carriers and enough fighters for battlefield use.
Furthermore, why in hell should they have free access to Minbari ships???
Would the Minbari sell their tech to the IA, where Narn and Drazi crewmembers might learn from it? Or would they rather give the IA outdated (like the Liandra) or purpose-built (with the best stuff kept back for their own use, like the Valen and maybe the Emphili) ships? I think the latter has it - after all, the IA can call upon Minbari Federation forces (minbari-crewed) if the need arises. (and look at real life - would the US sell it's best and top secret stealth fighter planes to the UN, to be crewed and maintained by people they don't know or control, or would they keep them, at most lend them to the UN for specific missions - under US control with US crew of course; and sell only old stuff like F-16's etc.?)
And also remember - the Rangers are not supposed to be an army - not officially at least; officially they're supposed to be a "police force". That's why Sheridan and Delenn had to build the two Victory-class ships in such secrecy, because if the IA races would have heard about them, they'd all have screamed bloody murder (re-watch the discussions about the "WhiteStar destroyer project" in S-5 and in "ACtA"). Only after the shock of the Drakh attack (and the rebuilding of the destroyed shipyards) can the Rangers get heavier metal without rioting among the IA members (because then it should be clear even to the most stobborn and paranoid aliens that the IA does need a bigger stick to defend them too)
So, I'd say, a "Ranger" force should have only "ranger-approved" designs (WhiteStars, Liandra-like patrol cutters, Emphili-like frigates, Valen-like diplomatic transports/carriers and after 2275 or so, Victory-like capital ships and Blue-Star class gunboats), however it should have the option to include up to 75% "allied forces" taken from any IA member...
The Torotha however is exactly the kind of ship they'd secure for certain operations (atmospheric and landing capable, plus designed for tropp insertions).
Not so - still too big. Remember, it's an troop ship, WhiteStar sized. And as you rightly wrote, back then they're a bunch of spies, not grunts. So they'd at most have small but very stealthy transports, something like a big shuttle (basically the Liandra with less guns but more stealth gear)
The Shaveen Patrol Cutter is pretty much a non Vorlon tech Whitestar precusor, used for police and customs' work.
Perhaps... I still can't see the Minbari give out much of their tech where other races can play with it, but an few old Shaveen, with some tech removed...