Klingon starships

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The Star Trek fictional universe has presented a number of designs for Klingon starships. Starships of the Klingon Empire, in contrast to Federation starships (especially Starfleet ships of the 24th century), are spartan and utilitarian in nature. Klingon ships are equipped with disruptors and photon torpedoes as their primary offensive weapons, and most later examples are equipped with cloaking technology.

Contents 1 D5 class 1.1 Design 1.2 Technological specifications 2 D7 class 3 K't'inga class 4 Bird of Prey classes 4.1 Bird of Prey (22nd century) 4.2 Bird of Prey (23rd/24th century) 5 Vor'cha class 6 Negh'Var class 7 Raptor class 8 References

[edit] D5 class

D5 class
The IKS Bortas fires disruptors.
First appearance	Marauders
General Characteristics
Armaments	Disruptor cannons Photon torpedos
Defences	Deflector shields

The D5 class battlecruiser is a 22nd century Klingon starship. It was easily superior in speed and firepower to the NX ships in use by Earth during the same era, although an NX class starship could take sustained fire from a D5 battlecruisers disruptors.

[edit] Design

The D5 was built according to the basic Klingon battlecruiser shape: a small primary hull at the forefront attached to the larger engineering hull by a long, horizontal boom, an impulse drive module supported above the secondary hull at the aft end, and two back-set warp engines held by two downward-angled pylons. The D5 is distinguishable from its descendant, the D7, by its (proportionally) larger, longer, less spherical primary hull, non-forward-angled engine pylons, and larger, tapered nacelles.

[edit] Technological specifications

The D5 class is equipped with disruptor cannons and Photon torpedos, the D5 was far superior in speed to the Earth starfleet ship Enterprise with a maximum speed of Warp 6.

[edit] D7 class

D7 class
First appearance	Elaan of Troyius
Reference(s)	Prophecy
General Characteristics
Maximum speed	Warp 7
Armaments	Disruptor cannons Photon torpedos
Defences	Deflector shields Cloaking device

The D7 class is the first Klingon ship design seen on Star Trek and appeared during the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series. Designed by Matt Jefferies, the designer of the original USS Enterprise, it set the standard for the bulbous primary hull, long central boom, and wing-like secondary hull with wingtip-mounted warp nacelles. Jefferies wanted to emulate the shape of a predator, something akin to a manta, and so he made even the color scheme of the ship dark on top, lighter on bottom.

Although this starship was designed and intended to be a Klingon vessel, its first broadcast appearance was as a Romulan flagged vessel in the original series episode "The Enterprise Incident". In its next appearance in the original series episode "Elaan of Troyius" (which was actually filmed before "The Enterprise Incident") it was identified as a Klingon vessel, as it was in "Day of the Dove". It should be noted that the original airdates in 1968 for the above episodes were out of step with the actual order of episode production, but if we are to go by episode production number, its first appearance is in "Elaan of Troyius" in which it is identified as a Klingon vessel, and not in "The Enterprise Incident".

The "D7" designation was never used on screen in the original series, but was referred to as such by the producers of the show. It was later made official by its use during the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", where the crew of the Defiant travels back in time and takes part in the events of the original series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". For this episode, Star Trek model-maker Greg Jein built entirely new motion-control models of a D7 class vessel and the original Enterprise.

The primary weapon of attack it used in "Elaan of Troyius" were engine-mounted disruptors, which were later identified specifically as disruptors in dialogue in "The Enterprise Incident". In Star Trek: The Animated Series (which Gene Roddenberry created and was executive producer for, but later asked Paramount to consider non-canon), Spock calls the engines of the Klingon ship "S-2 Graf Units, roughly comparable to our warp drive". It also seems to have separate and distinct phaser weaponry firing from the command pod somewhere ("More Tribbles, More Troubles"). The opening in the forward hull was always presumed to be a weapon port, but it never saw use on screen in the original series. However, it was a photon torpedo tube in many of the episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series, especially in "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "The Survivor".

[edit] K't'inga class

An upgrade of the D7 design, this class of ship had the same basic design, but the model which was originally built for Star Trek: The Motion Picture was given a more detailed surface for its appearance on the larger motion picture screen. The color of the model was a deep metallic green, but on screen it always appeared as a shade of metallic blue-grey. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the color was changed to light grey and maroon and it received detailed gold ornamentation, at first to signify its role as the vessel which was transporting the Klingon Chancellor, but was later used in episodes of DS9 and Voyager apparently as a regular ship of the line ("Sacrifice of Angels").

This class appeared in a number of episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Like the D7, this class was not initially identified on screen, although the novelisation of The Motion Picture, written by Gene Roddenberry, identified it as K't'inga class. This designation became official in an episode of Deep Space Nine. In the Next Generation episode "The Emissary", we learn that some of these ships were converted into special "sleeper ships" which could travel for decades with its crew in suspended animation.

Assuming a date of at least 2270 for when this ship appeared in the first movie, that means this basic design has been in service for at least 100 years by the time of the last episode of Deep Space Nine.

The large port on the front of the bulbous forward hull is seen to launch photon torpedoes from its first appearance and throughout most of its later appearances, however in the Deep Space Nine episode "The Way of the Warrior" ships of this class fire an orange disruptor beam from the same location. Throughout DS9 it also had a cloaking device, like all of the other Klingon warships seemed to have. On at least one occasion it used a pair of disruptor bolts which fired from the sides somewhere in the ST:TNG episode "The Emissary". Visual inspection of the studio model reveals 6 cannon-like emplacements that are meant to be the disruptor mounts. Early blueprints from Lincoln Enterprises (a Gene Roddenberry-approved source) showed this ship with at least 8 of these cannon emplacements, the extra two being under the main wing hull, but which on the studio model were replaced by large unidentifiable greeblies. The Lincoln blueprints also (erroneously) label these eight emplacements as "sonic disruptors", probably based on the fact that the ST:TOS Klingon handweapon was a sonic one, but which of course ignore the fact that sound cannot travel through space, making it an unrealistic starship weapon. The Lincoln blueprints also call the ship a "D-4 Heavy Battlecruiser", but this appellation never became used or popular, probably because it seems retro when compared to the D-7 of ST:TOS, despite the fact that Gene Roddenberry himself had approved this. Fans have substituted other appellations for this ship, like D-8 or some higher variant of the D-7, but none of these are canon.

[edit] Bird of Prey classes

The Bird of Prey was first seen in the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock this has become perhaps the most common Klingon ship design in modern Star Trek. Much smaller than the D7 and K't'inga class cruisers.

[edit] Bird of Prey (22nd century)

This type of Bird of Prey was first seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Expanse". The Bird of Prey was heavily armed with several wing, neck and head mounted disruptor cannons,^[1] and fore and aft photon torpedos launchers.^[2]

The Bird of Prey was equipped with deflector shielding and two tractor beam emitters and was capable of at least warp 3.8.^[1][2]

[edit] Bird of Prey (23rd/24th century)

There are at least two known variants to exist in the 23rd century and into the 24th century, the D-12 scout and the K'vort/B'rel variants. These types of Bird of Prey, like their predecesors, followed a standard design — a large wing span with a neck and a head.

These Birds of Prey where equipped with wing mounted disruptor cannons and at least one photon torpedo launcher, they where also equipped with deflector shields and a cloaking device.^[3]

[edit] Vor'cha class

Vor'cha class
A Klingon Vor'cha class attack cruiser
First appearance	Sins of the Father
General Characteristics
Armaments	Disruptor cannons Photon torpedos
Defences	Deflector shields Cloaking device

The Vor'cha class could match a Federation Galaxy class ship during combat, although it is considerably smaller. It was first seen as the command ship of Chancellor Kmpec in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sins of the Father". Although a massive ship for most missions, it is the battlecruiser mainstay of the Klingon fleet and has mostly phased out the aging D7 and K't'inga class cruisers, the latter of which are still used as support vessels in a fleet.

The design of the Vor'cha class is similar to the classic D7 class battlecruiser with a forward "head" supported by a thick horizontal neck running aft and attaching to a larger secondary hull with an impulse engine module on the dorsal side. The Vor'cha class has two warp nacelles that are canted at the end of pylons. The warp nacelles of Vor'cha class vessels appear to have been influenced by Federation starship design as the nacelles are cigar-shaped with red Bussard collectors instead of traditional Klingon cruiser nacelles which were rectangular and emits a green or cyan color.

The Vor'cha class was probably first put into service during the mid-24th century in response to the growing tensions with the Romulans and the Federation. This starship class served in many of the major crises of the late 24th century such as the Klingon Civil War, the Klingon-Cardassian War, the Klingon-Federation War and the Dominion War; several cruisers were lost to Dominion and Cardassian forces.

The model for the Vor'cha class cruiser was designed by Rick Sternbach for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[edit] Negh'Var class

Negh'Var class starships served as flagships and saw successful action during the Dominion War. They are the largest Klingon starships to date. A variant of these ships appeared in the alternate future depicted in the Next Generation episode, All Good Things.

In 2372, the brand new Negh'Var was the Klingon flagship. This heavily armed starship class is the largest and most sophisticated starship in use by the Klingon Defense Force during the Dominion War, although they are susceptible to smaller, faster warships as one was disabled by a single Defiant Class in the alternate universe.

[edit] Raptor class

The Raptor class of Klingon scoutship was in use during the 22nd century and is classified as a scout vessel.

The Raptors hull is at least twice as thick as that of the Enterprise (NX-01) and reinforced with a coherant molecular alloy.

[edit] References