WhenTheGunsFallSilent/StarfleetClass

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Roles

Starfleet maintains a list of roles it tries to fit it's ships into. They are:

  • Heavy Cruiser - Meant to handle combat or other operations within any area they may be deployed to. Often seen on the more disputed borders or operating as S&R or heavy disaster relief. Not many of these ships are maintained at any time, with a fraction mothballed. Current ship classes: Akira
  • Light Cruiser - Ships unable to handle heavy cruiser duty are classed this way. Ships here are often assigned to wings, or safe patrol zones, or survey duty. Current ship classes: Miranda, Shimarin.
  • Carriers - These ships are often on S&R or out flying the flag. They form the core of fleet deployments. Current ship classes: Starlight. [1]
  • Explorers - The flagships of Starfleet, these perform the main role of Starfleet. To explore. They also double as capital ships and battleships in battle, but these are the ships people dream of being on - to leave settled space and explore. Current ship classes: None.
  • Hospital/Science Ships - These are often assigned to the Starfleet Medical Corp, but serve dedicated science and hospital duties. Current ship classes: Virtue II-class[2]

Current Classes

Over the years, Starfleet has fielded many ship classes. Here are a listing of those that have come up here. Of note: all subclasses of a ship, no matter the design lineage, are considered subtypes of the original class. Bolded flights are still in production.

Akira (Heavy Cruiser)

First produced in 2332 with the failure of the Ambassador class project[3], the ship was originally designed to perform as a gunboat cruiser.

This class has been refit many times, especially as the Cardassian Liberation War began to warm up, and during the war. With the end of the war in 2352, it is likely that the rapid refits and improvements of this class will slow down to a pre-war tempo.

  • Service Record: 2330-current
Subclasses

Using parlance from the old UESF, subclasses, or "flights", are when significant changes were made to the ship to make it distinct. While ships may have individual changes beyond that, this was the intended specification for the ship.

Each flight is named after the first ship to be built with those specifications and changes. This tree denotes design lineages.

  • Flight Andorian Resolve (Ia), built 2332-2341;
    • Flight Kh'shir (Ib), built 2338-2348 - This was designed for specialized recon and exploration roles, which came to an abrupt end in 2348 after all but three ships were destroyed in Second Setlik. The surviving ships were refit and rebuilt into the IIIb Suleiman-type.
  • Flight Myogi (II), built 2336-2340 - These were specialized patrol and SAR ships, with a majority of them further refit into two competing types. Flights IIa/IIb were basically rebuilt into IIIa to better fight the war.
    • Flight Kanashima (IIa), built 2340-2348
    • Flight Takashima (IIb), built 2342-2348
      • Flight Clausewitz (III), built 2344-2349 - first dedicated war design.
      • Flight Suleiman (IIIa), built 2348-2351 - Several improvements, including a counter to a specialized Cardassian weapon.
        • Flight Saladin (IIIb), built 2352-2353 - considered the best, despite the addition of flaky torpedo and phaser systems.
          • Flight Artania (IV), built 2353-current
        • Flight Efendi (IIIc) built 2351-current - unlike the Artania class, the Efendi class was built when stealthy operations were more required.
Notable Ships
  • NX/NCC-52097 USS Akira - Flight I, built 2330, destroyed in combat 2350.
  • NCC-1701-C USS Enterprise - Flight IIb, renamed from NCC-52195 USS Athion, built 2346, destroyed in 2352.
  • NCC-52451 USS Saladin - Flight IIIb, built 2352, in service.
  • NCC-52749 USS Artania - Flight IIIb/IV, built 2352, in service.

Shimarin-class (Light Cruiser)

This was primarily created as a successor to the Miranda class. This class did not see it's first launch until 2353, due to concerns with producing new classes during the war.[4]

Flight Shimarin (I) (2352-current)

Virtue II-class (Hospital/Science ship)

Successor to the Virtue-class, the Virtue II-class was actually the first ship designed during the Cardassian Liberation War. This is because the faults of the Virtue-class were well known, and some of the initial battles proved the lack of defenses, as well as the fact that the Akira-class was always meant to serve as a testbed for other ships to use its hull and general technology. However, the Ship Design Bureau decided to go for a very unusual Orb type shell. The Virtue-II class was produced starting 2351, replacing the old ship. The primary changes were better isolation mechanisms, more space, and better shields and engine speed. The hospital spaces can be swapped out for similar science components.

Flight Virtue (I) (2351-current)

Former Classes

Constitution Class

Produced from 2249 through 2290, this class was known for it's versatility.

Notable Ships

  • NCC-1701 USS Enterprise (last refit: Flight Ia, built 2249, scuttled 2285)
  • NCC-1701-A USS Enterprise-A (last refit: Flight IV, built 2286, decommissioned 2292 and placed in fleet museum.)

Excelsior Class

First built in the 2280s, refits have kept this venerable class alive through the 2340s, although the Ambassador class was originally meant to be a replacement. The Cardassian Liberation War proved that even with the latest refits, and new class designs, the basic spaceframe was aging beyond usability. This was the cause for the start of the Next Stage Design Project, in 2350. Production ceased in 2351, with resources poured into the Mirandas and Akiras.

Subclasses

  • Flight Excelsior (I) built 2280-2295
  • Flight Chrysaor (II) built 2295-2308
    • Flight Cura Si Manjakini (IIa) built 2306-2314
  • Flight Thuận Thiên (III) built 2314-2320
  • Flight Imhullu (IV) built 2320-2340
    • Flight Rhongomyniad (IVa) built 2340-2350
    • Flight Fragarach (IVb) built 2350-2351

Notable Ships

  • NCC-1701-B USS Enterprise (last refit: Flight Rhongomyniad); commissioned 2292, destroyed in 2348.
  • NCC-2000 USS Excelsior (last refit: Flight Thuận Thiên); built 2281, decommissioned 2319 and placed in fleet museum.
  • NCC-14193 USS Caledfwlch (last refit: Rhongomyniad); built 2320, destroyed 2351

Miranda Class

Designed as a cruiser in 2260s, this ship class has received many variants and upgrades, and is considered the workhorse of the fleet, and while no longer able to stand as a primary ship, as of 2350, is being considered for use in operations where Starfleet needs wings of ships to escort larger ones. In addition, they are retrofitting them for atmospheric operations.

However, the upgrades from the XIV flight, which was largely a wartime emergency[5], to the XV, which would implement everything, led to so many hull changes, that Starfleet decided to call the new ship a new class.[6]

Subclasses
  • Flight Ustio (XIII) (2345-2349)
    • Flight Belka (XIV) (2349-2351)


Experimental/Testbuild/Cancelled Classes

Project Next Stage Design Project

Started in 2350, by a small team, this project was meant to produce a new capital ship to replace the Excelsior, and the failed Ambassador design. While no prototyping or major work could be done during the war, the new plans would take advantage of many battle reports. In 2352, with some technology notes of some systems from captured wreckage, and battle reports and exchanges of minor technology from other Khitomer Treaty Organization powers, they produced three options.

  • The Steamrunner-class armed merchant escort.
  • The Galaxy-class explorer.
  • The Reliance-class monitor.[7]

The winning vote was the Galaxy-class explorer, as it represented to many at Starfleet the chance to return to their roots, to do what many enlisted to do - to explore.

The war ending meant the Galaxy-class was immediately put into prototyping, and the NX-65000 USS Galaxy is under construction as of late 2352.

Ambassador

Only three ships of this design were created. The three prototypes (NX-10521, NX-10529, NX-10530) were all destroyed due to failures during testing in 2330, and at that point, the Akira Design Project gained ascendancy due to internal factors in Starfleet.[8]

Notable Ships
  • NX-10521 - Destroyed by warp drive torsional failure
  • NX-10529 - Destroyed by SIF implosion
  • NX-10530 - Destroyed by torpedo misfire.

References

  1. ↑ As of 2352, none are in active service. Most were destroyed, or the performance so poor, that they didn't survive the war. Currently, the Caitian University of Talhazi and Starknife Science Institute are working to see if they can even maintain a role in the modern era.
  2. ↑ These are the most troubled classes in Starfleet, often mysteriously being destroyed...
  3. ↑ The Akira-class only exists largely because of the Design Bureau's practice of allowing teams to work on other designs, or failed designs, and see if they can resolve the problems. The Akira-class, at first, had problems with it's nacelle and warp field geometry, until one member, Cmdr. Okuda, solved the problem.
  4. ↑ The Shimarin-class is nearly 1.8 times as expensive as the Flight XIV Miranda-class ... which was half as expensive as the Flight XIII Miranda-class. This was explicitly called out in the order to the shipyards and Ship Design Bureau in the famous "2351 War Memorandum to Shipbuilders, Ship designers, and Logistics Train."
  5. ↑ The Belka was strictly inferior to the Ustio in many regards, except for it's firepower, and cost to produce.
  6. ↑ The fact that the Starfleet Ship Design Bureau absolutely hated the concept of Flight XV is completely irrelevant. Honest.
  7. ↑ This class would eventually be repurposed to become the Reliance-class carrier, in the 2360s with the advent of fighters for system patrol and S&R work
  8. ↑ At the time, many were decrying the building of larger ships. In addition, the Ambassador was an expensive and difficult project. The Akira was not.
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