Much like in its name, this is (probably forever) an Experimental Unit which all you need to know, means the VRF is a non-perfectly consistent unit. A VGPSF when sent in combat will always be able to achieve the same value, success, failure, and so on; in all scenarios. The EXP-VRF however involves too many additional variables with their own dependent parts to have a consistent combat report unless the combat it partakes in is consistent Like blasting helpless blue liquid. One major variable is the quality of anti-shield weaponry on the side of the enemy which even primitive space-faring civilizations can accidentally develop such as when trying to make a railgun have effective range of 500km while still dealing major hull damage rather than just making needle-sized holes which even when it can only make needle-sized holes will be a shield killer.
This has made the EXP-VRF a wild card and situational super weapon. “More shit counters less shit.” -Willow's Duality.
So if the enemy does not have anti-shield weaponry, the CI will have a very great time. If they do and in sufficient amounts with sufficient coverage, it will never be sent in as it would be pointless and very, very, expensive.

The EXP-VRF has the latest shield technology within the Vertu Empire: A Paragon Shield.
How complex is it? It works in more than 3 dimensions/vectors of space. I will end that there.
The Paragon Shield is a very “mad scientist” ideal where the shield is capable of phasing itself into other types of shields, including physical, the most complex type of shield other than the Paragon Shield that is a very inefficient and expensive shield capable of creating a perfect barrier in a projected field that can interact with atoms the same way atoms interact with each other at the most primitive circumstances (which is called “physical interaction” or “touching”/“colliding” although this is 100% untrue, see the Neutronium science lesson here for details.) This means the Paragon Shield can mimic a simple photon disruption field that ruins the focus of photon-based lasers, all the way to a complex 4 dimensional shield designed to “intercept” physical projectiles like missiles while also being capable of “intercepting” electromagnetic waves.
Oh and the Paragon Shield can be multiple shield types at once.
Now obviously this HAS to have some downside otherwise, why is the VRF so special for having this shield type? The answer is easy. This technology HAS NOT BEEN PERFECTED YET AND by the laws of all physics in creation, has capabilities so vast that enormous amounts of energy must be utilized to enable the shield to operate. So if the tech was perfect, it would have lets say for reference… 5% efficiency when the next most inefficient shield, the Physical Shield, has an efficiency of 30% give up to 20% or take up to 5% depending on its generator model. 5% is DISGUSTING… BUT IT WORKS! IT BLOODY WORKS! Even if it has only 1% efficiency at best with current technology.

So by using all optimization and efficiency tricks, mainly having low projection volume and high accessible-inaccessible energy ratio (an example of “inaccessible energy” being literally just matter/mass), the VRF is the only Vertu unit that is putting the experimental Paragon shield into live testing. 80% of its mass is the external reactor it possesses to power the shield. Even more so, Vertu did not give it heavy armor, a very non-Vertu move. It however has medium_heavy armor for its “mouth” in the event a physical collision is imminent but not wanted to be absorbed using the shield and the thing about to experience collision needs a lessen of the word called “consequences”. Do not underestimate light and strong material engineering of Vertu even though they use mostly nothing but ultra-heavy armor for everything. They have ultra-light and durable materials, they just prefer the very heavy materials that are too stubborn to hold a sustained debate about something called “deformation” and “structural damage”, typically being too busy being punched in the face by tiny debris in motion of a good 1,000km/s at snail-speeds, to 10,000km/s after the local fireworks show of an enemy fleet has commenced like an average Monday.
This again, gives an idea of how little “respect” Vertu gives to shields. So to sum up the Paragon Shield, if you are not ready for it, you will be offered a special vacation to your local star and unable to refuse or do something to not go on this said vacation. If you are ready for it, you will never know you where ready for it because you would never encounter it. Vertu is too vast to make it possible to “corner” a VRF into engaging you, it can just go somewhere else like an entirely different universe and make better use of its time.

The VRF you where fighting like with say, 10 Light SAMS, was ordered to operate the Paragon Shield at 50% as to gain data to how the shield operates under stress and low power. They even gave an electromagnetic wavelength emulator to the shield that causes it to display certain colors at certain shield integrities.

Or shot answer: You where being used as a way to gather data on how the shield behaves.

Originally, there was a great desire to make the model of the VRF but without the whole Reactor, Paragon Shield, and all of that spice. There was a strong desire to be able to add a central reactor to the VGPSF at its core to give it excess energy to do… a lot more things with less instinctual worry and because more energy means more fun.

However, time and time again, using denser forms of <REDACTED> as predicted every time was a really bad idea, causing the chances of the <REDACTED> to self-collapse or transmutate into <REDACTED> to be above 0% or some other transmutation process very undesired. There was also <REDACTED> flow density issues where <REDACTED> at dense levels clot easily in transit, behaving more like a solid than liquid as opposed to liquid>solid at the required higher densities. <REDACTED> is also the best form of portable power ever discovered in the multiverse within the steep competition of such a title so it's not like we can make better types of portable power unless a way to “safely” use <REDACTED> is found. Currently, studies of <REDACTED> have pointed in the opposite direction.

With this limit at play, the only option was to add a proper <REDACTED> reactor. Due to the size of the VGPSF however, no cooling system could be added without jeopardizing its mobility or prevent it from transforming from a fighter to a frigate in the designing process. The only ability to cool the VGPSF reactor was to expose it to the external environment and maximize self-radiation emission, which also means that thermal flaps, the best use of mass to maximize release of thermal radiation, could not be used.
The reactor itself where the process of using stored energy in VGPSF to power systems must be where the thermal radiation can be transmitted into the external environment as transferring thermal energy via conduction would quickly heat up the entire fighter too quickly, causing thermal sensitive systems to overheat as thermal energy from <REDACTED> easily bypasses insulation when it comes to conduction (due to complexities too in-depth to mention here without adding 20 pages) mean while the Reactor can deal with temperatures easily above 5000° Kelvin such as space combat in the outer atmosphere of a star (undesired by Fighter CIs), and has a low-power mode to increase heat dissipation. So if all of that heat is stuck at the Reactor due to insufficient heat transfer, everything will still be fine (normal operation temperatures: 150° Kelvin, In-Combat temperature (while in “empty” space): 210°K-800°K. The temperature of a <REDACTED> reactor does not transfer to the in-use, used, and or stored <REDACTED> thanks to the insulation engineering of the reactor and well refined engineering experience).