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: |
77 meters |
| Decks |
22 |
| Engines | |
| Warp reactor |
M/ARA Dilithium-mediated |
| Warp nacelles |
2 |
| Cruising speed | Warp 7.80 |
| Maximum speed |
Warp 9.980 |
| Emergency speed |
|
| Impulse generators |
3 |
| Defensive Systems | |
| Phasers |
|
| Torpedo launchers |
|
| Photons |
500 |
| Quantum |
400 |
| Shields |
Multi Layered Shielding System (MLSS) |
| Hull |
|
| Tractor beams |
Type-XII ( Range 3.25 km ) |
| Personnel | |
| Officers |
110 |
| Enlisted |
465 |
| FMI/Sabre |
50 |
| Passengers |
150 |
| Auxiliary Craft | |
| Shuttle Bays |
3 |
| Shuttles | |
| Runabouts |
|
| Additional Information | |
| Systems |
|
| Built |
2 |
| [Source] | |
The Century-class is the first class of starship built with the most recent technological advances by the United Federation of Planets during the late 24th and early 25th centuries. 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. It was one of the newest defensive technologies intended for use against the Borg threat since the developments of other anti-Borg starship projects. The Century-class is well reknown for its highly automated systems; the first full sized starship with automated abilities to such a high degree. In theory, the Century-class would be able to be commanded by a single person from it's bridge, with a half dozen people keeping the systems in operational condition.
The Century-class pushed the envelope as far as possible when it came to computer power, shields, armament, and systems capabilities. The first of the Century-class was the USS Century commissioned in 2400. With much support from then-Fleet Admiral Jean Luc Picard, and Federation President Spock, the Century was renamed to the USS Enterprise and given it's proper status as every other ship named Enterprise: flagship of the Federation. The second ship’s development started in 2403 to be called the USS Columbia, launched in early 2406.
History Development
The Century-class was 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 defence 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 learnt 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.
The Century-class was outfitted with the latest warp propulsion technology. It was the test bed for the "Warp Nine Plus Engine" created by a team at the Starfleet Research & Development Centre in Tokyo, Japan, Earth. This new engine was created to sustain warp nine (and higher speeds) for longer duration of time. The new engine created a narrowly-focused directed warp field that when initiated manipulates the fabric of subspace by creating an efficient asymmetrically field around the craft which causes the space within it to accelerate faster then any other warp drive. The warp drive had a high matter/antimatter flow through its reaction chamber. The reaction had to be at a higher rate to sustain maximum warp speeds for longer, the reaction used the synthetic substance of Trelinium crystals to be the catalyst for the more powerful matter/antimatter reaction. The warp coils of this new engine had to be designed to stay connected with the rest of the ship to prevent separation at high speeds. The ship for an unusual reason (which only a few theorists could understand why) had the ability to sustain the speed adjustments. The ship could now sustain warp 9.99 for up to twenty hours.
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. The power was consumption was great and so the cloak had its own independent power source of a rechargeable fusion generator. The Century-class prototype was also the first ship fitted with such a device.
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 kilometres. 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. However by 2390 further research was carried on the sensors capability and the sensors were once again upgraded. These new sensors were created and placed on reserve for the Century-class. Federation sub light propulsion technologies were also improved most notable impulse engines. The Century-class was designed to out fly and manoeuvre any ship of a simialr size. So with improved structural integrity fields, the Century-class was outfitted with impulse thruster modules taken off from the project undertaken by the Voyager crew in 2375 when they built the Delta Flyer runabout which incorporated impulse thruster modules.
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.
The Century-class is a testbed for most of Starfleet's latest technologies in a world ridden with resource scarcity. Even though the Century-class is impressive, it's resource costly and built in highly limited numbers. The two Century-class starships built by 2408 were only two of half a dozen of starships to actually leave the core Federation worlds on exploratory missions.
Given it's high automation the Century-class doesn't require high resources in crew, however. With highly trained officers being harder to find, and more spread around a large fleet as it is, the Century-class proves to be a good place for both experienced, and in-experienced officers without the need for multiple, redundant crew members. The Century-class is only a little smaller than the Sovereign, and boasts only about half the crew.
Additional Information:
Currently there are 2 in service
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 - F
- Assigned to Starfleet Re-Exploration Initiative
- USS Columbia NCC 2011 - E
- Assigned to the Second Fleet