Type:Assault Frigate
Unit Run: USS Intrasigeant NX-86891 Proposals call for a run of up to 200.
Comissioned: 2377-Present
Dimensions:
Length: 100 m
Beam: 80 m
Height: 19.6 m
Decks: 2
Mass: 87,000 metric tons
Crew: 30 (90 person evacuation limit)
Armament:
8 x Class II rapid fire phaser pulse cannon.
2 x Type X phaser banks total output 55,000 Terawatts
3 x Standard Torpedo Tubes firing Quantum Torpedoes
Defence Systems:
Auto modulated shield system, total capacity 1,620,000 Terajoules
Heavy Duranium/Tritanium double hull
30 cm Ablative armor
High level structural integrity field
Warp Speeds:
Normal Cruise: 6
Maximum Cruise: 8.6
Maximum Rated: 9.4 for 12 hours
Strength Indices:
Beam Firepower: 1100
Torpedo Firepower: 1012.5
Weapon Range and Accuracy: 700
Shield Strength: 600
Hull Strength: 4900
Speed: 917.4
Combat Manoeverability: 11,000
Overall Strength Index: 1180.6
Expected Hull Life: 25
Refit Cycle: Major: 5 years
Notes: The Intrasigeant class is a direct descendant of the Defiant program. The Defiant class, as effective as it was, was not numerous enough for extensive use in anything aside from the most central defensive positions and large fleet actions. While a Defiant-class ship can make herself felt in any one battle, their rarity and slow warp speeds mean they cannot make themselves effectively felt in very many places at a time. The Intrasigeant, then, is an effort to build an even smaller Defiant-style ship suitable for mass production and very wide deployment.
The Intrasigeant is truely stripped-down. With only two decks, her designers decided to dispense with turbolifts altogether in favor of ladders, several sets of stairs, and a zero-g shaft for moving large objects between decks. The Captain (usually a Lieutenant Commander if the ship is attached to a larger command) and First Officer (who does double duty as Chief Engineer) are the only crewmembers with their own quarters. The other four comissioned officers sleep two to a room, and the enlisted crew sleep four.
Several lessons learned from the Defiant program were applied to the Intrasigeant. She has an additional phaser array on her aft ventral quarter, eliminating the blind spot in the Defiant's defensive fire. The armor layer has been increased by 50% in an attempt to make sure damage stays localized, and the warp nacelles fold in and lock close to the hull during sublight flight in order to protect the vulnerable bussard collectors.
The Intrasigeant made two major sacrifices in order to pack this sort of combat ability into such a small hull. First, speed. Dispite ten years of advancements in the warp sciences, the Intrasigeant is fractionally slower than the Defiant. In fact, she is only able to achieve that thanks to her variable-geometry nacelles, which deploy to a reasonably efficient configuration.
Secondly, the Intrasigeant has sacrificed endurance. She has appallingly short range before her antimatter stores run out, and she is far too small to mount an antimatter generator. For a combat mission, the Intrasigeant's maximum strike range is a paltry 200 light years. For ferry missions, her safe range is 400 light years, extending to 500 in emergency circumstances. For this reason, Intrasigeants are planned to be mostly deployed to starbases where their logistical needs can be met. Since the ships are so small, some preliminary plans have been made to create a purpose-built fast freighter capable of shuttling pairs or quartets of them in the mid-to-high Warp-9 range.
Weaponry notes: The Class II pule phaser is a smaller version of the Defiant's pulse phasers. It has an off-bore aiming capability of 11 degrees in any direction from the center, so the greater numbers of cannons allow the ship to split its fire during attack runs. As for the torpedo launchers, there was simply no room for a more advanced launching system, so a standard launcher was armed with quantum torpedoes to maximize power. All the weapons save the phaser arrays are located in armored blisters on the hull, allowing easy refitting of more advanced systems as they become available.
Notes on the creative process: This ship actually started coming about because I was poking around the Star Trek Online forums. They have a starship design section that's aimed towards people proposing classes for the game. The mechanics of the game look like they're very heavily group-oriented. A big ship is going to require a bunch of your guild-mates to effectively fight. I figured that for soloists, the best they could hope for would be the Defiant. But what would they use prior to achieving that? Something Defiant-shaped, but smaller yet. So I designed a small armored pill to ram down the enemy's throat.
I am currently working on a model of the bridge which is already producing some very nice renders. I'll post when it's done, probably a week or two. Eventually, I'll figure out a version of the mechanics for the folding nacelles that looks good, and I'll post pictures of it with nacelles extended as well. That'll be after the bridge.
