Universe : | Prime Timeline |
Affiliation : | Federation |
Class Name : | Yeager Class |
Type : | Scout |
Unit Run : |
USS Yeager - Active plus 12 others built in total. 10 have been lost in all. |
Commissioned : | 2374, class remains in service |
Dimensions : | Length : 328.9 m [1] Beam : 150 m Height : 85.52 m Decks : 11 [2] |
Mass : | 580,000 metric tons |
Crew : | 135 |
Armament : |
8 x Type VIII phaser arrays 2 x Type VIII phaser bank, total output 9,500 TeraWatts 4 x Standard photon torpedo tube with 20 rounds |
Defence Systems : | Standard shield system, total capacity 513,000 TeraJoules Standard Duranium / Tritanium Single hull. Standard level Structural Integrity Field |
Warp Speeds (TNG scale) : |
Normal Cruise : 6 Maximum Cruise : 7.8 Maximum Rated : 8.2 for 12 hours. |
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000) |
Beam Firepower : 190 Torpedo Firepower : 500 Weapon Range and Accuracy : 400 Shield Strength : 190 Hull Armour : 50 Speed : 581 Combat Manoeuvrability : 5,500 |
Overall Strength Index : | 329 |
Diplomatic Capability : | 3 |
Expected Hull Life : | 80 |
Refit Cycle : | Minor : 1 year Standard : 1 years Major : 20 years |
Like all of the Frankenstein Fleet, the Yeager is significantly below it's properly designed counterparts in terms of performance. The area in which the Yeager suffers most is speed; while the Intrepid is amongst the fastest classes in the fleet, the Yeager can only break Warp 8 for relatively short periods. This is largely due to the rush in which the ships were completed - there was insufficient time to properly match the hull configuration to the warp field, resulting in a serious loss of efficiency.
The Yeagers also suffer somewhat in firepower. The forward facing torpedo tubes of the Intrepid are located in the Engineering hull, and so are not present on the Yeager. [4] The ship is thus left with only the aft firing tubes. The number of phaser banks is also reduced; although the presence of two large phaser cannon on the engineering hull largely compensates for this in terms of absolute firepower, there is a significant lack of phaser coverage to the ship's aft.
The Yeagers participated in the operation to recover Deep Space Nine, [5] but this is their only offensive action so far. They are largely used in a defensive role due to their inherent deficiencies - Yeagers are often to be seen as part of Deep Space Nine's defensive screen, [6] and have operated in several other locations in this area. Despite their relative "backstage" role, many of the ships have been lost during Dominion attacks.
Canon source | Backstage source | Novel source | DITL speculation |
# | Series | Season | Source | Comment |
1 | Speculative | Scaled so that the primary hull is equal to that of the Intrepid Class in size. | ||
2 | Generic official information | |||
3 | Visible on the shooting model | |||
4 | Various Voyager episodes | |||
5 | DS9 | 6 | Sacrifice of Angels | |
6 | Various Deep Space Nine episodes |
Source : | Speculative |
Comment : | Scaled so that the primary hull is equal to that of the Intrepid Class in size. |
Series : | Season |
Episode : | Generic official information |
Source : | Visible on the shooting model |
Series : | VOY Season |
Episode : | Various Voyager episodes |
Series : | DS9 Season 6 |
Episode : | Sacrifice of Angels |
Series : | DS9 Season |
Episode : | Various Deep Space Nine episodes |
If I may editorialize for a moment... I really don't see why TPTB kept churning new Starfleet classes out over the last few years. The Federation is up to over forty classes in service at the moment, with another 10 that are no longer in use. In comparison, the Klingons have six vessel designs in their entire history, and still use all but one of them. The Romulans only have five ship designs, and only one of them is a serious warship - and that's a hulking great battlewagon. The Ferengi and Cardassians have three classes each, the Dominion three or four depending on whether you believe that there really is a Dreadnought type or not.
We have more than enough Federation designs to have nice varied fleets, but the poor old Romulans look like they built the D'Deridex and then just ran out of ideas for new ships. Really, I'm sure that the fans would far rather have seen a few new Klingon and Romulan ships around than yet another combination of Federation classes. I can't believe the expense was a limiting factor - not when Voyager has been throwing up new ship designs at a rate of over one a week during the same period. Hell, they even have two or even three new ships in a single episode on occasion!
Well, DS9 and Voyager are now behind us and the new series is a prequel, so our only chance for interesting new ships anytime soon lies in the tenth TNG movie. Drafts of the scripts have appeared on the net, indicating that the Romulans will have considerable involvement in Trek X. We are apparently going to see a big and powerful new class of Romulan ship, so that looks like it might be interesting. Unfortunately, Trek X is likely to be the last of the TNG movies so it looks like any future new ship classes are going to be of the Enterprise generation. Now there's a gloomy thought...
© Graham & Ian Kennedy | Page views : 82,224 | Last updated : 31 Jul 2004 |