Century class

From FEInfobase

Century-Class
Class Information
Expected Hull Life	100 years
Resupply Time	10 years
Refit	20 years
Category	Heavy Enhanced Deterrence Explorer
Affiliation	Starfleet
Dimensions
Length	668 meters
Width	265 meters
Height:	100 meters
Decks	29
Engines
Warp reactor	M/ARA Dilithium-mediated
Warp nacelles	2
Cruising speed	Warp 7.80
Maximum speed	Warp 9.980
Emergency speed	Warp 9.985 [36 hours] Warp 9.99 [12 hours]
Impulse generators	3
Defensive Systems
Phasers	9 Type-XII phaser arrays
Torpedo launchers	8 fixed tubes 4 forward 4 aft
Photons	500
Quantum	400
Shields	Multi Layered Shielding System (MLSS)
Hull	Ablative Armor Type I
Tractor beams	Type-XII ( Range 3.25 km )
Personnel
Officers	110
Enlisted	465
FMI/Sabre	50
Passengers	150
Auxiliary Craft
Shuttle Bays	3
Shuttles	8 Type 19 personnel shuttles 4 Type 11 personnel shuttles 4 Type 18 shuttle pods
Runabouts	3 Arrow Class Runabouts
Additional Information
Systems	Hybrid bioneural/isolinear circuitry Primary fusion reactors: output 10.2 EJ/hr Secondary fusion reactors: output 7.6 EJ/hr Advanced Lateral and Long Range Output/Retrieval sensor systems
Built	0
[Source]

From its inception the Century-class starship has been little more than a pipe dream for the Federation, lacking the man power and resources to implement such a design it was little more than make work project to keep Star Fleet's engineers busy.

The Century Development Project was to be capable of virtually any mission and to become notable vessels of exploration, representing the Federation in matters of diplomacy, as well as defending it in situations of combat. With the ever present fear of the Borg returning new defensive technologies were designed to along with the ships hull. One of the key components of its design was the high level of automation employed throughout the ship, were it ever built it would require half the crew complement of the Sovereign Class Starship.

The Century-class design pushed the envelope as far as possible when it came to computer power, shields, armament, and systems capabilities.

History Development

The Century-class was originally due to enter service as the first of a new generation of multi-capable mission starships designed to help the Federation in its rebuilding and defense phase during the Borg War. The initial design was drawn up after Starfleet saw the success of the Sovereign-class ship. Sovereign-class ships had become noted for their impressive abilities since its prototype launch in the early 2370s. The production of Sovereign-class starships was in high gear come 2380 and this class of ship was becoming replacement for many older classes of ships in the Federation space lanes.

Starfleet saw the class as the newest design which could help prepare the Federation for any more possible future conflicts or wars. In some respects they were right as when the Borg War started many Sovereign-class vessels participated heavily in the large fleet assaults.

Starfleet realized the success of their engagements against the Borg was no longer down to the fact their fleet had been bred for years to fight the Collective but also how varied the Federation fleet had become since it received strength from the fleets of the Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Dominion and other empires fighting the Borg. As these powers soon joined the Federation, Starfleet wanted to take advantage of this and incorporate all available technologies in to one ship.

The Century-class was designated as a heavy enhanced deterrence explorer starship. The ship was planned by the Starfleet Advanced Starship Design Bureau and received support most notable from the Romulan Star Empire and the Dominion during its development.

The ASDB wanted to make the Century the most reliable, and durable starship it had conceived to date. It looked at three of its most popular and successful creations in starship design from the 24th century; the Intrepid, Sovereign and Luna-class projects. These classes had received their popularity due to ships from each class making a huge impact on Federation history: the Federation's flagship the USS Enterprise-E, the USS Voyager and USS Titan.

Voyager had made Starfleet re-examine the potential the Intrepid-class had after it successfully travelled on a solo seven year journey on a bid to return home from the Delta Quadrant. The crew had learned to adapt the ship to survive the harshness of not being near a Federation facility to receive repairs, supplies or refits. On the other hand the USS Enterprise-E had proven to Starfleet that larger, more combat oriented starships still had the ability to successfully accomplish non-tactical missions as well. The USS Titan was from the Luna-class which had received the nickname of being the "24th Century Constitution Class". The Titan had proven how successful the original aims of the Luna-class Project had been in designing a vessel for long-term multipurpose missions into uncharted space as it survived numerous missions outside of Federation claimed territory.

Another new technology that the class would be outfitted with was the first ever Federation Cloaking Device. It was created by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers working closely with Romulan scientists. This collaboration helped both sides in creating another defense against the Borg. The combination of the latest cloaking research from the Star Empire as well as Starfleet's attempt to improve Multi-Adaptive Shielding brought the existence of a cloaking device able to avoid all types of sensors the cloak's resonance frequency was constantly adjusting itself. This design later found its way on to the Venture Star Class of starship. Vorta facilitators were ordered by their Dominion leaders to assist the Corps of Engineers to help in improving their Federation allies' technology. One of the technologies that were enhanced on was transporter technology. Federation transporters had a maximum range of about 40,000 kilometers, with Dominion upgrades they were improved to over 80,000 kilometers. The use of the more powerful transporter technology is to be used only during an emergency situation.

With the return of the USS Voyager in late 2377, Starfleet had the chance to review extensive amount of data the ship retrieved on new races they encountered. The main race the ship made contact with was the Borg. With liberating several drones, the Voyager crew were able to learn extensively on Borg technology. They used this knowledge to their advantage and created a new Astrometrics Mapping Suite using Borg sensors. These enhancements were soon received throughout the entire fleet by 2380.

Through most of 2380 to 2390 Starfleet Tactical improved all offensive and defensive technologies with help from the new Federation members. Only by late 2395 did most of the fleet receive these systems, Century-class however was designed to be the test bed for all of these systems working in unison on one ship. Improvements were made to the Multi Layered Shielding System (normally referred to as MLSS). The Breen provided data in making type fifteen phaser banks better at cutting through enemy shielding based on their energy dampening technology. Starfleet engineers were able to make improvements were made to torpedo launcher systems, allowing for better response time, accuracy and firing rate.