Intrepid Class

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Affiliation :	Humans
Class Name :	Intrepid Class
Type :	Warship
Unit Run :	Intrepid [1] - Retired plus 5 others built in total. 2 have been lost in all. 4 have been retired from service.
Commissioned :	2152 - 2158, remained in service until 2188
Dimensions :	Length : 187 m Beam : 169 m Height : 37 m Decks : 5
Mass :	100,000
Crew :	47
Armament :	2 x phase cannon , total output 8 TeraWatts 2 x Mod 2 spatial torpedo tube with 20 rounds
Defence Systems :	Light Monotanium Single hull plus 3 cm Polarised armour. Low level Structural Integrity Field
Warp Speeds (TOS scale) :	Maximum Cruise : 4.5 Maximum Rated : 5
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000)	Beam Firepower : 0.16 Torpedo Firepower : 0.2 Weapon Range and Accuracy : 10 Shield Strength : - Hull Armour : 75.31 Speed : 65 Combat Manoeuvrability : 2,000
Overall Strength Index :	23
Diplomatic Capability :	2
Expected Hull Life :	30
Refit Cycle :	Minor : 1 year Standard : 1 years Major : 10 years

Notes

The Intrepid class were Human-built warp capable vessels which operated during the 2150s. [2] Until the NX class was launched all Human vessels of this time were limited to low warp factors, usually achieving speeds little above Warp 1. [3] The Intrepid was fitted with the same Warp 5 engine design as the NX, though like the NX the Intrepid was more usually limited to Warp 4.5 – 4.9. Unlike the NX, the Intrepids were pure combat vessels, designed to protect Earth's rapidly expanding interstellar trade routes and protect the new colonies being planned at the time.

The Intrepids were armed with standard weapons of the time - spatial torpedo tubes and phase cannon, with polarised hull armour for defence.

Colour key

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1	ENT	3	Twilight
2	ENT	2	The Expanse
3	ENT	1	Broken Bow

Comments

The Intrepid was first seen in the episode "The Expanse", where it helped to drive Duras's Bird of Prey away from the Enterprise. It was seen in more detail in "Twilight", where the ship was destroyed by the Xindi.

The big question regarding thse ships is how old the design is. The size and style of the warp engines points to a high-warp vessel, capable of the same sorts of speeds as the NX. But if so, then the Intrepids cannot be any older than the NX itself - satements in "Broken Bow" indicate that all ships prior to the NX were limited to low warp factors, and if Starfleet had even one ship with significant interstellar capability then surely they would have investigated mysteries like Terra Nova long before Enterprise got there.

So if the Intrepid is indeed as new or newer than the NX, then the obvious conclusion is that it is a smaller version of the NX class, a destroyer to the NX's cruiser if you will. You could argue that if the Intrepids were Warp 5 capable then Starfleet would have sent one or more of them along with Enterprise into the Expanse, but this doesn't really follow. Given how dubious the brass seemed about sending anybody at all, it's not really surprising that they didn't want to strip Earth of all it's best ships and send then into the most dangerous area around.

That the Intrepids have phase cannon is indicated by the colour of the beam the ship fires in "The Expanse", and I have assumed spatial torpedoes rather than the photons that Enterprise received.

One interesting thing - the policy of this site is that if we don't know a class name, we use the name of the first ship seen as the class name. Hence this being called the Intrepid class. However, we already have the Federation Intrepid class, making this the first time when a class name has been used twice. I was tempted to use a different class name for this ship, because it seems unlikely that an organisation would call two different ships by one class name. In the end I decided that there was room for two Intrepid classes since this was Earth Starfleet and not the Federation Starfleet.

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Last updated : 2 Jan 2008

Series :	ENT Season 3
Episode :	Twilight

Series :	ENT Season 2
Episode :	The Expanse

Series :	ENT Season 1
Episode :	Broken Bow