STARFLEET BATTLESHIP CLASSES OF THE 23 RD CENTURY. By Richard Evan Mandel DRAFT COPY

Transcription

1 STARFLEET BATTLESHIP CLASSES OF THE 23 RD CENTURY By Richard Evan Mandel DRAFT COPY

2 Index Introduction The Early Prototypes Mars Komsomolsk Yamamoto Joining the Fleet Missouri Yamato

3 Introduction The modern reader may find it odd that the concept of a space battleship - or its smaller and older cousin, the dreadnought - is a fairly recent thing, yet such is the case. With the odd exception or two, such as the Romulan War over a century ago, the Federation Starfleet has always relied on its cruiser-class starships. More often than not they were superior to similar class vessels wielded by their opponents. More often than not, they were either superior to or commanded by better captains than vessels that were larger and supposedly more powerful. The most recent such example prior to the linear warp era was the B-1 Jul'kar class battleship fielded by the Klingon Empire during the mid-23rd century. On paper, it should have been superior to Constitution, Starfleet's best class of starships at the time. In practice, a critical design flaw coupled with captains who could not make the best of the B-1's potential meant that it performed no better in the field than a Constitution. Starfleet shrugged this off and went its way, retaining confidence that the status quo always had been, and would be, maintained as it had always been. What it did not count on was wounded Klingon pride. Starfleet's first indication that such would not be the case again came in the 2260s, after the end of the Demon War, when the Klingons were finally able to return in strength to their side of the border. Chancellor Kassa began a massive shipbuilding effort whose ultimate goal was an all-out war with the Federation within the decade. Among the new classes authorized for this effort were dreadnoughts, pocket battleships, and true battleships. Starfleet as a whole tended to play down the intelligence it was receiving - and was apparently justified in doing so after the L-13 "Glorius Fat Man" pocket battleship entered Klingon service. For a modern starship that was supposedly designed to outfight and outfly anything else in the field, its actual combat performance proved to be abysmal. The debacle that was fast shaping around continued construction delays with its even larger stablemate, the B-10 Kar'hamer, had already become the closest thing to a public joke within Klingon political circles. This lulled Starfleet into a false sense of security, believing that the status quo would continue. Thus, when the Bet'leh and SuvwI'Qeh class command cruisers entered Klingon service in 2270, most Starfleet intelligence analysts did not so much as even bat an eye. The new Enterprise class all-purpose cruisers, with their linear warp drives and improved weapons batteries, would restore the status quo, it was believed. Concerns began to be raised only after it was learned that the Klingons had rebooted work on the Kar'hamer and were planning a successor class - not to mention the launching of a vastly improved class of pocket battleships (Keth Ke Se), and in a truly disturbing turn of events, their first-ever fleet shuttlecarrier (K'pliahk) was the year that changed everything insofar as Starfleet was concerned. This saw the debut of the C-8 K'herr class dreadnought - the largest and most powerful combat starship ever launched by the Klingons up to that time. It easily outclassed the much-vaunted Enterprise and its combat capabilities were frightening, to say the least. That was not all. Reliable intelligence pointed to a heavily revamed Kar'hamer finally being launched within the next two years, as well as a second genenration of pocket battleships (Komo Val). Rumor also had it that plans for a successor to the mighty K'herr (which turned out to be Vod'leh) were already underway. Starfleet had no choice but accellerate work on Project Excelsior - its own large combat starship program - but even it would have a tough time fighting K'herr. Starfleet would finally have to begin building true space batteships, whether it wanted to or not.

4 The Early Prototypes: Mars, Komsomolsk, and Yamamoto The most logical place to start in designing a space battleship was the same way the Klingons had done it - with an improved dreadnought. Since the Federation had not attempted to build anything even remotely resembling a space battleship in over a hundred years (the ill-fated Goliath of the Romulan War), it was decided to experiment first with existing technology. There were still at least a decade left before the sheer numbers of the Klingon's newest generation of starships would seriously degrade Starfleet's technological edge. There was time to experiment - and that is what Starfleet did. There were three main proposals for a Starfleet space battleship design, and these would become known as Mars, Komsomolsk, and Yamamoto respectively. The results on Mars were mixed. Obviously, she would be the easiest to build, since she was entirely based on existing technology. She also had dreadnought-like maneuverability, and her new engine fit was more than adequate for both shields and weapons at full power. Performance against K'herr was questionable, though - in most simulations, it was an even match. Against the simulation that Starfleet had at that time of Kar'hamer, Mars performed absymally - and, as it eventually turned out, the Starfleet sim was both undergunned and underpowered. The Mars design path was officially abandoned, and the prototye returned to spacedock for reconfiguration back into its original dreadnought form. There was one thing that came out of Mars that would prove important in future Starfleet space battleship design. Just as a three-engine configuration seemed to be de riguer for dreadnought design, so would a four-engine arrangement prove to be preferred for battleships. There would still be three-engine designs, including one that actually made it to production (Missouri), but it was the four-engine layout that Mars would ultimately bequeath to its design descendants. Mars Mars was the simplest of the three early space battleship proposals. It was to the Federation class what the Klingon Jul'kar was to the Raxor - a fairly simple upgrade of an existing design that offered heavier firepower and improved performance. Extra phaser mounts were added to the top and bottom of the primary hull - in similar fashion to those being installed in all of Starfleet's linear warp vessels - and an enlarged secondary hull - adapted from that developed for the Napoleon super shuttlecarrier program - had even more weaponry and small craft capacity than before. The most noticeable difference, though, was in the number of engines. Mars had two attached to the primary dorsal, instead of Federation's single primary hull nacelle, for a total of four warp engines. The extra power was needed for the extra systems and beefed-up shielding generators. A single non-upgraded dreadnought was brought into spacedock for conversion to Mars prototype specs. After the conversion was completed, the Mars prototype was turned over to the Cathedral Group for testing and evaluation.

5 Komsomolsk The concept behind Komsomolsk was quite different than that of Mars. Whereas the latter was an attempt to see how much could be squeezed out of existing technology, Komsomolsk was an attempt to look ahead. Given the then-current reports on Kar'hamer size and armaments, it was fairly obvious that a Federation opponent would have to be comparable in size, too. One can draw an easy comparison with the sport of boxing. A lighter, more nimble, and more skilled opponent can in theory defeat an opponent that is larger and more powerful - albeit slower - but in practice the bigger and more powerful fighter tends to win the majority of such bouts. All the more powerful fighter needs is one good punch, as opposed to the need to throw several by the smaller fighter. The same rule of thumb also works in militarycombat, and it was one of the biggest deficiencies with Mars - it simply didn't have the "staying power," if you will, to duke it out with Kar'hamer in a one-on-one slugfest. A bigger and more battleworthy hull was needed, one that could take the beating that Kar'hamer would most certainly dish out while at the same time returning the favor in kind - if not more. It was Project Ariel that provided the inspiration for Komsomolsk's design - more specifically, its primary hull saucer. Ariel was the first of Starfleet's "super-large hulls" of the late 23rd century (and more would follow in its wake - Excelsior, et al.) and it was a massive starship indeed. That got some at the Starship Design Bureau thinking - what if one were to base a battleship design on Ariel technology? The hull volume would most certainly be there using Ariel's primary hull as a design basis. All that would be needed would be to come up with a secondary hull and power train to match. Alas, this is where Komsomolsk ran aground. The only secondary hull suitable for the Komsomolsk program at the time was the one being developed for Project Excelsoir - and proponents of that program were not about to let their effort get shanghaied for someone elses's. The only spare superlarge secondary hull - one left over from the cancelled Napoleon class carrier Frederick the Great - had already been claimed by the Mars prototype program. In the end, Komsomolsk designers had to simulate the secondary hull they wanted by taking three exising Class I hulls and then welding them together, as well as partially rebuilding them in the process. The same applied to Excelsior's experimental FTWA-1 warp engines - which at that time were the most powerful in Starfleet use. It was made perfectly clear by the Project Excelsior team that none of the engines being built for its program would be made availabe for use by any other competing program, and Komsomolsk was specifically named as such a program. Appeals to the Federation Council went nowhere - Project Excelsior had many friends in high places. The sheer size of the ship required Ariel-type energy screens to protect - which meant that Starfleet's new linear warp engines were an absolute mininum. In the end, three standard Leeding LN-65 linear war engines had to be fitted to the prototype instead of two FTWA-1s as had been hoped. This resulted in an engineering nightmare inside the custom-built secondary hull, and in the end each of the secondary hulls had its own single engine mount and plasma feed conduits running to the central single coil. Despite these and many other such roadblocks, a single Komsomolsk prototype was completed in early 2279 and turned over to the Cathedral Group for testing. Adapting a Constitution-style layout for the overall hull designed proved to be a mistake, with the oversize primary hull causing exceptional stress at high warp on the secondary hull interconnecting dorsal. Similar stress problems also existed with the linear warp engine support mounts. These prevented Komsomolsk from ever performing at its top theoretical warp speed, and would be a critical flaw in a combat situation. In every other respect, however, the design proved successful. While its maneuverability was not as good as Mars due to its mass, it could take more punishment and was more heavily armed. It won about 65% of its simulated combat encounters with K'herr and almost broke even on Starfleet's original K'arhamer simulation. Clearly, there was potential here - once the support pylon stress isses were dealt with. More work would have to be done on this particular design path before it would be ready for production. Komsomolsk was sent to the breakers almost immediately after completion of her single tour of duty with the Cathedral Group. It had done the job for which it had been designed, and its most valuable components were needed elsewere. Its linear warp engines went back into the upgrade pool, where they were eventually fitted to three olders starships that were upgrade to linear warp technology. The custom secondary hull was completely broken down, with most of what could be salvaged farmed out to other starship construction efforts. And the massive primary hull borrowed from the Ariel program? It was sent back, where it was eventually used in the construction of Malverne - the last of the Ariel class super shuttlecarriers.

6 Yamamoto Meanwhile, even as Mars and Komsomolsk came and went, there was a third space battleship prototype program in the works. This one was intended to take the best of what had come out of the first two, and combine them with some new ideas and technologies that Starfleet had always wanted to try on such a massive vessel. The technology in question was the assault phaser - the most powerful phased energy beam weapon ever deployed by Starfleet. Long a staple on starbases, it had been impossible until now to put them on a starship due to the massive power requirements involved. However, with reports coming in that Kar'hamer would be fitted with at least one and possibly two banks of assault disruptors - the Klingon analogue of the assault phaser - it soon become a required part of future battleship design. Two obstacles stood in the way of this: the power required to charge and fire an assault phaser, and the extra room - not to mention the required structural integrity - need to mount such a weapon on a starship. Both issues had already been addressed in part with Mars and Komsomolsk respectively. Now was the time to combine the two designs and add what was needed to make the Federation's first space battleship capable of wielding assault phasers on its hull. The configuration that eventually emerged from the Starship Design Bureau reflected not only the test data from Mars and Komsomolsk, but also lessons that were being learned from Projects Ariel and Excelsior as well. From Mars came the idea of the standard-type fourengine configuration, which could in theory provide the power needed for arming and firing assault phasers. From Komsomolsk came the idea of the battle-durable super-large hull that would be needed to mount them. From Ariel and Excelsior came valuable experience in building and working with such large hulls - which would be needed should this new experimental configuration prove workable. In the meantime, a single prototype - Yamamoto - would be built out of or modified mostly from older Class I components left over from the linear warp upgrade program. The older technology was deemed sufficient to support the real purpose of the Yamamoto prototype - the testing of the new engine configuration with a sutiably modified pseudo-superlarge hull. Yamamoto was one of the last Starfleet vessels ever built with Class I technology - and as it turned out, she was in all respect the most unusual-looking of them all. A new horseshoe-shaped engine truss mounted all four warp engines (surplus PB-47 circumferential models, in Yamamoto's case) in sidewise pairs both above and below its custom secondary hull. This was a catamaranstyle affair, converted from two older dreadnought-style frames (which were still in production due to the strike carrier program) mounted side-by-side and secured to each other with a long center truss. It was on this truss that the Yamamoto's single assault phaser was mounted. A standard older-model Class I primary hull completed the ensemble; however, it was suitably enlarged (via the addition of several more ring segments of pseudo-decks). The modifications made to the primary and secondary hull arrangement reflect the intents for the production model, which would be based on the Ariel primary hull and a similar catarmaran arrangement of modified Excelsior secondary hulls. As with Mars and Komsomolsk, Yamamoto was turned over to the Cathedral Group as soon as she was completed in early 2280 for testing and evaluation. The results were most encouraging. The design performed even better in actuality than it had in simulation. There would have to be some significant modifications made, of course, since the actual new battleship class would be based on linear warp technology instead of circumferential. Still, the Cathedral Group's final rating of the Yamamoto prototype was as an unqualified success. It boded well for the future of the Starfleet space battleship program. Unfortunatly for backers of the Yamamoto proposal, events in the field were forcing Starfleet's hand. Even as Komsomolsk testing was underway, and as Yamamoto neared completion, the Klingons completed and launched the B-10 class space battleship Kar'hamer. Later that year they launched the Virkon, second in the class of the highly respected Keth Ke Se pocket battleships. Intelligence reports indicated that a second battleship class, the PumwI', would enter service the following year - and work on an all-new class of dreadnoughts (VodleH). Excelsior, the "great experiment," would be outclassed almost before it was even launched. Starfleet had to at least make a show of matching the Klingons... and that meant it had to advance its own space battleship plans as rapidly as possible.

7 Joining the Fleet - Missouri and Yamato abuse in equally large doses. And while it did not have (nor never would have, as it turned out) the assault phaser that Starfleet had hoped to mount, its massive array of standard weaponry almost made up the difference. Missouri and its subsequent sister ships soon won the hearts of their crews - who nicknamed their ships "the BUFFs" (big ugly fat fuckers) as a sidewise term of endearment - and duty billets or tours aboard them soon among the most sought-after of all Starfleet personnel. Missouri It was fortunate for Starfleet planners that so much of the groundwork for a space battleship program had already been laid. They could literally pick and chose what they wanted to do in order to meet the immediate Klingon threat. Privately most of them were in favor of a modified and upscaled Yamamoto, since it had shown the most promise in testing; however, current events were dictating otherwise. Of the other two proposals they had on hand, Komsomolsk stood the best chance of standing up against Kar'hamer, provided its support pylon stress issues were addressed. This was the path that Starfleet chose to take - begin work on a modified and somewhat upsized Komsomolsk as a stopgap measure, and thus gain a breathing spell to work on the space battleship that they really wanted. Even with all the construction experience gained with the Ariel and Excelsior programs, work on this new class took time - about two years longer than first estimated. Nevertheless, in 2287, the Federation Starfleet launched its first space battleship since the Romulan War. Its name was Missouri, named after the legendary Terran aquatic battleship of historical fame, and a name that would soon become familiar to both friend and foe alike. Missouri was not and never would be an attractive starship, unlike its Terran namesake. Its Komsomolsk design heritage dictated that. Rather than redesign the primary hull and warp engine support pylons that had caused so many issues with its ancestor, they were eliminated entirely for Missouri. Both its oversize primary hull and its three FTWA-2 warp engines also mounted directly to its secondary hull. Also, the primary hull had to be moved well back of what was considered the normal postion in order balance the stress load on the secondary hull. This resulted in an unsually "tuckedin" appearance for a Federation starship. Missouri was big, it was squat, and it was slow due to its mass - which even its FTWA-2s sometimes had trouble pushing. A series of auxiliary fusion power reactors mounted deep within its secondary hull - a concept borrowed from the Ariel upgrade program - helped deal with the resulting power isssues. It did the one thing that Starfleet wanted it to do, however, and it did it in spades: it could both give and take combat

8 wound up having to sacrifice all remaining unbuilt space battleships in the process. It is believed that they will continue to serve at least for the first decade or two of the 24th century, or until the current situation stabilizes between the Klingons and Romulans - whichever comes first. Yamato The definitive Federation space battleship design followed in 2291, some four years after Missouri was launched and some eleven years after its direct design ancestork, the Yamamoto prototype. It too received a Japanese name - and, like Missouri, was also named for an ancient Terran aquatic battleship. Those who knew their Terran military history immediately recognized the signficance - for just as its ancient ancestor had been, Yamato was the largest and most powerful starship yet built by the Federation Starfleet - even outsizing its newest super shuttlecarriers. The basic Yamamoto design was not just simply upsized, however. It was refined even more, coupled with still more improvements in engine and weapons technology. It had the horseshoe-frame, quad-engine arrangement of its predecessor; however, its engines were brand-new and custom-built for her - the Leeding LN-95. Instead of Yamato's catamaran hull with the center truss, Yamato now featured a single-piece secondary hull. The extra bracing afforded by this design change was needed for Yamato's dual assault phasers - mounted center front and linked directly to the ship's dual warp cores. That was another major reason for the change in secondary hull design - to meet the power requirements of Yamato's assault phaser system. It had been learned with the Yamamoto prototype that the ship tended to "go dark" while powering up its sole assault phaser, with only just enough power left for the shields and bare essential life support. Yamato's dual warp cores not only neatly solved this problem, but also provided the extra power required both to fire assault phasers and maintain full shielding. There was even a provising to power the assault phasers with both warp cores for a single high-yield blast, although this was never done in actual service. Simulation testing and experience with Yamamoto showed that Yamato ran a very real risk of burning out all her warp engines in attempting such a feat; nevertheless, provision was made for it in case the combat situation left no other choice. There were many critics of Yamato and all of them were quite vocal. Almost all of them were silenced, however, during the turbulent days of the 2290s - when first the War of Pacification among the major interstellar powers and then the aborted Klingon coup of 2292 took place. These allowed Yamato and her sisters - as well as their Missouri cousins - to prove that the enormous expense and investment in space battleships had been justified. Understandably, Starfleet insisted on retaining the Yamatos even during the Camp Khitomer peace negotiations, and was allowed to do so - although it

9 Sources A Hobbyist's Guide to the U.F.P. Starfleet (Timo Salonemeni) Guide to the Klingon Fleet (Richard Mandel) Star Fleet Battles (Amarillo Design Bureau) Starfleet Command III videogame and add-ons (Activision Games) Starfleet Command III mods (various web sites) Starship Design magazine (Todd Guenther and Aridas Sofia) NOTE: Todd and Aridas never provided a picture of Komsomolsk, athough they gave its stats in Starship Design. My p-shopped side profile is based on the description given by Timo in his Hobbyist's Guide. Any resuting errors in the visual are my own, and I apologize to all parties concerned.