Ship Classes of the Star Fleet Universe
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As the Star Fleet Universe variant of the fictional Star Trek setting has the ship-to-ship wargame Star Fleet Battles as its starting point, a large number of ship classes have been detailed for the Star Fleet Universe.
Borrowing from naval tradition, each class generally has a two or three letter abbreviation that it is commonly referred to as. At the beginning, these commonly used existing naval terminology (such as CA for heavy cruiser). However, for players to easily understand what is being discussed, each separate class (within a race) in the SFU is given its own unique identifier. While navies will normally have a succession of classes that have the same identifier ("BB" for a range of battleships with evolving capabilities over time), in the SFU (or, specifically SFB) any change great enough to get a separate listing needs its own identifier.
On the other hand, while each race in the SFU has its own preferred weapons and architecture, they all have the same combat needs, and therefore most races produce ships that fill the same general "niche". This article explores the common classes that are used by most races.
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[edit] Pre-General War Hull Classes
[edit] Dreadnoughts
The largest of the warships deployed before the General War, these originated as Command Cruisers built on hulls half again as large with increases in warp power, command facilities, and damage resistance but nearly no increase in weaponry towards the end of the Early Years. After the advent of more powerful "middle years" ships, the expensive dreadnought designs were allowed to languish while shipbuilding programs concentrated on less expensive cruisers, destroyers and frigates until about Y150 when "early modern" dreadnoughts were first built along the lines of their predecessors (or upgraded directly from them). By the beginning of the General War, most races had upgraded their dreadnoughts to carry firepower 50% greater than their cruisers.
Dreadnoughts were the flagships of the major fleet elements of a given fleet, and as such, were heavily guarded in any formation, rarely operating alone. In an effort to further increase the firepower available to a fleet led by dreadnoughts, most races converted some to carry fighters (Armed Combat Shuttles) and were deemed Heavy Carriers. The advent of Fast Patrol Ships (PFs) led to some dropping half their fighter complement in order to carry a flotilla of PFs as Space Control Ships.
Just prior to the General War, some had thought that fast raiders would be the way to strike behind the enemy lines. One of the results of this was the Light Dreadnought, which massed approximately 15% less than the base design, but maintained the same engines. The fact that the stripping down of the ships meant that a significant reduction in firepower was dismissed by those promoting the potential speed of the ships. Unfortunately, the fast raider concept was mostly negated by the speeds the front lines changed during the war, and most Light Dreadnoughts found themselves where the reduced armament hindered them badly. Most were lost early in the war, and none were built after it began.
It should be noted that while in Earth's wet naval period, a dreadnought was the pinnacle of battleship design; in the Star Fleet Universe, Dreadnoughts were smaller than battleships. Of course, only two battleships were ever successfully built in the known Star Fleet history.
Notable Dreadnought designs are the lackluster Federation DN, the exceptional Klingon C8, Romulan Condor, and Lyran Lion. Every major power in the sector deployed at least one.
[edit] Heavy Cruisers
The Heavy Cruisers were the backbones of the fleets. Most were built to accomplish a wide variety of missions and were expected to be able to operate independently for years at a time with minimal logistics support. As the General War approached, and unexplored space became sparse, the cruisers spent more time in battle lines than exploring new frontiers.
The most common variant on the heavy cruiser hull were the command cruisers. While most examples increased the combat capability of the ships to a small degree, the biggest change was the upgrade in command and control facilities on the ship, allowing it to lead larger groups.
Other common variants on the cruiser hull were carriers, exploration ships, and other types that could make use of the heavier hull.
Notable Heavy Cruisers were the Federation Constitution-class and the Klingon D7 battlecruiser.
[edit] Light Cruisers
Light cruisers could do anything that a heavy cruiser could do, almost. Light cruisers were meant to be less expensive versions of the heavy cruiser that could fill in for one, but most of the time the reduction in overall size prevented the ships from matching their larger brothers.
Light cruisers came into their own as variants such as carriers, fast patrol ship tenders, heavy scouts, and other needed designs that could have taken a heavy cruiser off the battle line.
[edit] Destroyers
Destroyers were sent everywhere there wasn't a cruiser available to be sent. Another workhorse design, destroyers often approached the heavy cruisers in versatility, but normally could only do about half as much.
[edit] Frigates
Cheap and reliable, frigates were used to flesh out every fleet. While too small to make good explorers, they made excellent pickets and could work well with any of their larger cousins. Unfortunately, by the middle years of the General War, frigates were best known for the fact that they were just big enough to be destroyed in a single volley in fleet actions.
[edit] Police Cutters
Smaller than even the frigates, these ships operated more in role analogous to 20th century Coast Guard vessels rather than naval warships or police cars. They were expected to handle most commerce monitoring, tariff enforcement, and light piracy patrols. Any major threat meant calling in the Navy.
[edit] The "War" Ships
[edit] Battleships
Nearly every race had a battleship design at least in the early concept stages, but only one nation actually even attempted to build one. Battleships were envisioned as vastly-expanded Dreadnoughts with firepower able to overwhelm any opponent. The simple fact was that Battleships were the top edge of warship construction, with price tags to match. They were designed for war. The Klingon Empire started construction of four of the massive B10 hulls in the first years of the General War, but cost overruns and nearly constant redesigns resulted in the fact that the first one to leave dock fully assembled, ironically the second hull started, did so nearly 20 years after the first keel was laid. Only two were finished, the other two were deployed in a less than finished state and were destroyed before they could be completed.
[edit] War Cruisers
As war looked inevitable, most races looked to building a warship with the firepower of a heavy cruiser as cheaply as possible. The result was a ship massing the weight of a light cruiser, with virtually the same firepower of the Heavy but without most of the secondary mission and redundant systems. The hulls were not built to have the lifetime of early designs, but as it was proved out in the war, this was not a problem considering how many never made it to that point.
Not all races called these ships 'War Cruisers.' The Federation had its Kersarge-class New Light Cruiser, and the Gorn snuck a War Cruiser design past their credit counting legislature by calling them 'Heavy Destroyers.'
[edit] New Heavy Cruisers
In the latter years, the costs of keeping a strong force of heavy cruisers on the lines replacing losses was more than any nation could afford. The result was a second look at the War cruisers. Designers came up with various ways to mount new hull sections, complete with more warp power and more weapons, to the War Cruisers.
In some cases, such as with the Federation, Klingon and Gorn designs, it was a simple task to either build these from the hull up or to mount the modules to existing war cruisers. Others found that the conversion would cost too much to be effective, and built nearly all of their new heavy cruisers from the keel up.
[edit] War Destroyers
In a manner similar to the War Cruisers, the war destroyers were designed as destroyers built in the facilities that had manufactured frigates. The hulls became the most common in the galaxy and many variants were built on them.
[edit] Heavy Battlecruisers
Called Battlecruisers by some, Heavy Battlecruisers by others who had called their Heavy Cruiser a battle cruiser, the BCH was the best that could be built on a cruiser hull. Nearing the firepower and protection of the early dreadnoughts, Battlecruisers became the de-facto flagships as the costs of building the larger hulls became too much for the war damaged economies.
[edit] Fast Patrol Ships (PFs)
Barely bigger than the largest attack shuttles, the Fast Patrol ships were a late war development. First deployed by the Lyrans, PFs were tiny warships with limited range, but nearly the firepower of the early frigates. What made them dangerous were their numbers, operating in flotillas of six, and their speed. PFs became the favored attrition unit in the last years of the war.
The Federation never designed or deployed PFs. Their reason was that assigning crews to them would be tantamount to a death sentence to these crewmen. While fighters actually had a lower survival rate among their pilots, these were all volunteers (complete with the requisite mystique).
[edit] Advanced Technology Warships
As the 12th year of the war began, a new generation of ships were born. The Advanced Technology ships, a.k.a. X-Ships, were built with advanced weapons and systems technology. They were faster, better armed and better protected than the previous ships on the same hulls.
Unfortunately, they were also extremely expensive. Also, it was found that it was not possible to apply the technology to ships larger than command cruisers.
In the end, the X-ships were too late to change the path of the General War. Fortunately for the Galaxy though, the designs would come into their own, repulsing the Andromedan Invasion.
[edit] Common Hull Variants
Even within a single fleet, not every cruiser or destroyer was the same. Every race deployed a number of "variant" designs based on the same hulls for different missions. Commonly used variants include the following:
[edit] Weapon Variations
It was not uncommon for a few ships in a fleet to have an alternate weapons suite. The most common were the Drone (guided warp driven missiles) ships. Unlike the Drone Bombardment ships listed below, these were designed to act in a direct combat role supporting ships using direct fire weapons.
[edit] Scouts
Originally built to 'scout' new territories, these ships replaced a large part of their weapon suites with high powered sensors. It was soon discovered, though, that these sensors were quite capable of generating and defeating Electronic Warfare, and as such, became a standard part of fleet doctrine.
The early scouts were typically built on frigate or destroyer hulls. While this was sufficient for exploration and observation missions, these small ships were quickly found to be too fragile and underpowered in a fleet engagement. By the end of the General War, most frontline scouts were War Cruiser hulls, with a significant number of Heavy Cruiser hulls used too. The ubiquitous War Destroyer provided scouts for most secondary missions, including many times filling in for a larger hull.
The value of heavy scouts was demonstrated clearly in the early days of the General War, with the power of the Klingon D6S Scout Cruiser.
[edit] Exploration Ships
Typically built heavy cruiser hulls, though some exceptions existed, these were scouts with additional facilities allowing for more thorough exploration of a region. With expanded shuttle, laboratory, and cargo facilities, a survey cruiser could do the work of multiple ships in surveying a new system.
During war times, many races pulled back some of their survey cruisers and used them as combat scouts. While they were normally the most capable scouts available, the loss of exploration revenue could be costly.
The Federation Galactic Survey Cruiser is considered the epitome of the Survey cruiser.
[edit] Leader Variants
Often, an upgraded version of a given hull was produced in smaller numbers to act as 'leaders' for a given detachment of ships. These ships normally had a mild increase in capabilities across the board from their base hulls, but were more expensive. It should be noted that ships of the Battlecruiser and above were in themselves already built for the Flagship role, and as such, had no 'Leader' variant.
[edit] Drone Bombardment
The drone using races (Kzinti, Klingons, and Federation) all built a limited number of Drone Bombardment ships. Unlike the ships designed to use drones in close combat, Bombardment ships were designed to be able to launch a large number of long range drones at targets outside normal combat range. Targets typically included bases, convoys, repair depots, and other slow or immobile targets.
These ships normally had scout sensors for tracking distant targets, and as such, were often 'acquired' by fleet commanders for EW support.
[edit] Carriers and Escorts
Designed to carry and support the new fighter shuttles, carriers themselves ranged from fully capable warships to hulls gutted to the bare essentials to be able to carry more fighters. After some years of experiments with squadron sizes, a typical element of 12 was settled on, and a single 12 fighter squadron was the complement of most cruiser sized carriers. The variation would as wide as a six fighter demi-squadron on frigate based carriers to over 40 in three squadrons on the massive Hydran Iron Chancellor heavy carrier.
As fighters and carriers were vulnerable during launch and recovery operations, a specialized class of 'Escort' ships were designed to protect them, especially against incoming fighter and seeking weapon assaults. A typical cruiser carrier had a light cruiser escort and a destroyer escort.
[edit] Fast Patrol Ship Tenders
When Fast Patrol Ships came into service, a new direction was taken with the ships designed to carry them. Unlike carriers, which often had to get with firing range in order to successfully deploy their squadrons, PF Tenders could use the superior range and speed of their flotillas to stand off and launch their PFs. As such, they had few weapons, but carried special sensors for the same reason as the Drone Bombardment hulls. And for the same reasons, many found themselves directly support fleet elements.
[edit] 'Control' Ships
The deployment of Heavy Fighters and PFs also led to another class of ships. The first of the 'Control' Ships were the Area Control Ships (Carrying a squadron of Heavy fighters and a squadron of 'normal' fighters) followed quickly by Division Control Ships (which replaced the 6 Heavy Fighters with 6 PFs). These ships were equipped with special sensors, but did not have enough to make fleet support practical. As it was, the ships were so stripped down to make room for the attrition units, they were barely armed and very vulnerable.
This resulted in the deployment of the Space Control Ship, carrying 6 PFs, 12 Fighters, and nearly the entire firepower of the dreadnought class hulls they were built on. The SCS would be the heart of many a formation in the late years.
Less common were the Battle Control Ships, carrying 6 of each type of unit on a fully armed Battlecruiser hull, and the Stellar Control Ship on battleship hulls, of which only one, the massive Klingon B10S, was built.
It should be noted that the Federation never deployed PFs, and used heavy fighters on all the above designs.
[edit] Commando Ships
These ships sacrificed much of their offensive capability in order to carry ground forces to contested planets and bases. Many of these could land directly on planets (though some needed some 'assistance' in getting back up again). Most successful ones were built on Light and War Cruiser hulls, though a few Heavy Cruiser versions existed. The Gorn, with their penchant for hand-to-hand combat, actually deployed a single dreadnought commando ship.
[edit] Combat Shuttlecraft
For decades, the ubiquitous Administrative Shuttle served many a role, but was mostly a target in combat. It was the Hydran Kingdom that would first succeed in putting better engines and weapons on a shuttle, the resulting fighters would become a backbone of their fleet.
The biggest limiting factors for the fighters were their low capacity to take damage and the fact that beyond their basic phasers, they had to return to the carriers to rearm.
[edit] Early Fighters
The Hydrans were the first to deploy combat shuttles with their Stinger fighters. But during the Four Powers War, the Kzintis first learned of them and built their own. The earliest fighters were simply a way to be able to get more phasers and drones into space at one time. As various fleets evaluated them, they tried to different ways to deploy them, finally settling with the idea that 12 fighters to a squadron on a cruiser hull carrier was the most efficient.
The early fighters were slower than capital ships, and as such, required some effort to use effectively.
[edit] Mid-War Fighters
By the mid years of the General War, fighters had come into their own. With fighters such as the Klingon Z-V, Federation F-14, F-18, and F-15, and the Hydran Stinger-II, they had become a significant factor in fleet battles. They were able to match fleet speeds and could carry enough firepower that opposing forces had to deal with them. Unfortunately, they were still relatively fragile, especially when the unstable warp booster packs were used to match fleet speeds.
[edit] Heavy Fighters
One attempt to improve fighter survivability and firepower was the heavy designs. Twice the size of their siblings, they could carry a massive amount of firepower, normally including some of the lighter ship based heavy weapons. But, they were slow and still had to return to a carrier or base to rearm their main weapons. In the end, by the time they might have become a viable combat unit, they were surpassed by the Fast Patrol Ships which were heavier and could rearm their own weapons.
[edit] Super Heavy Fighters
Often called bombers, these units were massive shuttles so big that they could not be deployed from vessels and were exclusively ground based. They were the backbone of many planets defensive armament, but were too slow to be effective offensive units. While they carried more firepower than most frigates, they shared their smaller brother's limitation of having only one volley of firepower before heading home to rearm. As Fast Patrol Ships became more readily available, many front line or high value systems replaced their aging bomber designs with them. But the cheaper bombers remained on active duty for decades after.
