Polaris Class

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Affiliation :	Federation
Class Name :	Polaris Class
Type :	Frigate
Unit Run :	USS Polaris - Active plus 65 others built in total. 52 have been lost in all.
Commissioned :	2273 - 2283, remained in service until 2373
Dimensions :	Length : 232.5 m [1] Beam : 139.5 m [2] Height : 60 m [2] Decks : 11
Mass :	390,000 metric tons
Crew :	115 [3]
Armament :	12 x Type VII phaser bank, total output 8,500 TeraWatts 2 x 2nd class photon torpedo tube with 30 rounds
Defence Systems :	Standard shield system, total capacity 297,000 TeraJoules Standard Duranium Single hull. Standard level Structural Integrity Field
Warp Speeds (TNG scale) :	Normal Cruise : 5 Maximum Cruise : 5.8 Maximum Rated : 7.2 for 12 hours.
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000)	Beam Firepower : 170 Torpedo Firepower : 125 Weapon Range and Accuracy : 100 Shield Strength : 110 Hull Armour : 10 Speed : 376 Combat Manoeuvrability : 6,000
Overall Strength Index :	158
Diplomatic Capability :	3
Expected Hull Life :	90
Refit Cycle :	Minor : 1 year Standard : 1 years Major : 30 years

Notes

The Polaris class was built as a Frigate counterpart to the Constitution class Heavy Cruisers and Miranda class Destroyers. It was designed to act as a general purpose short duration starship whose multiple roles included limited diplomatic and scientific missions, colony patrol and support and escort duties for merchant vessels operating in medium threat areas.

When the design was requested, Starfleet made it clear that project was not to impact on the production of larger ships in any way. In order to minimize the design and build time, the designers decided to stick with a simple reconfiguration of the existing Constitution class design. The Constitutions had just completed their refits, leaving the shipyard facilities which had done the work available for new projects. By using the existing design elements there was virtually no requirement to rework the production plants or retrain personnel, which saved considerable resources.

The Polaris emerged with a standard Constitution saucer section, neck and torpedo module but without the engineering hull. A pair of Constitution nacelles attached to the torpedo bays via a simple bar attached to the base. The major design work involved moving systems such as the warp core into the saucer section; this required considerable re-working of the internal structure of the saucer, but the original constitutions had their own warp cores within the saucers so in fact the designers already had a ready-made model to follow.

The total design process took only nine months; construction of the required nacelles and hull sections actually began only a few weeks into the design process, and much of the work proceeded in tandem. The first ship of the class rolled out of the shipyards in 2273, only fourteen months after initial approval of the concept. Construction of the class over the next seventeen years proved to be remarkable smooth and trouble free.

Warp speed was identical to the Constitution, while the lower mass made the Polaris class somewhat more manoeuvrable. The armament was reduced from the Constitution standard by the elimination of the engineering hull and it's six phasers and two torpedo tubes. Much of the storage capacity of the Constitutions was lost in order to give space to the fuel tanks, which where re-located to the neck section. In addition, the Polaris class had approximately 40% of the sensor capacity of the Constitution.

The Polaris class proved remarkable successful in service, and as new builds rather than conversions they have far outlasted their Constitution cousins. Of the original one hundred and fifty nine built, six have been lost in various incidents over the last century. The class began to be phased out in 2363 as they reached the end of their service lives, with most of them scrapped or used as targets in live fire exercises. The final thirty five were retained in service when the Dominion situation arose, and they have served in several combat areas during the war. Four Polaris class ships have been lost in action thus far.

Colour key

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1			Star Trek Deep Space Nine Technical Manual	Scaled so that the primary hull is equal to that of the Constitution Class in size.
2			Star Trek Deep Space Nine Technical Manual
3			Generic official information

Comments

Another of the ships from the DS9 technical manual, this ship is a kit bash of the standard movie era Constitution. I named it "Polaris" after the pole star, because of that stars (apparent) proximity to the big dipper - the ship looks something like an upside-down ladle, you see. At least, it does to me!

As with all the kit bashed ships, the text is designed to explain why such an abomination of a ship came to exist. For the sake of variety, I've put this ship as having been a "normal" class which has been in service for a long time, rather than an improvisation prompted by the Dominion war.

The reduction in phaser armament is inherent in losing the saucer section and the six phaser ball turrets located on it. The loss of two torpedo tubes is my own invention - I'm not sure just where the Constitutions other two tubes are, but I'd bet it's in the engineering hull somewhere and as it seemed silly to have a ship like this with armament equal to a heavy cruiser I vanished those two tubes. The crew and mass figures come from the DS9 Technical Manual, and are the only parts other than the size comparison image that do - that book gives the Polaris a top speed of Warp 9.6 and Type 10 phasers, which is just ridiculous in my opinion. Given the huge number of glitches which riddle the DS9 TM, most especially in this section, this is just one of those times I'm - reluctantly - going my own way rather than towing the official line.

To my knowledge, we've never seen a Polaris class on screen. The images I have used come from Stephen L., who built his own model of the ship out of an Enterprise-A model. Many thanks to Stephen for the use of those images.

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Last updated : 31 Jul 2004

Book :	Star Trek Deep Space Nine Technical Manual
Comment :	Scaled so that the primary hull is equal to that of the Constitution Class in size.