Excelsior Class

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The Excelsior class was a type of Federation starship first built in the 2280s. The prototype of this class, the USS Excelsior, was initially fitted with a transwarp drive and proclaimed as "the Great Experiment."

The ship had an unfortunate start when its engines were sabotaged, after being called into action to prevent the theft of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 from Earth Spacedock in 2285.

Excelsior class.jpg

History

Excelsior class LCARS.jpg

Although the "great experiment" of the transwarp drive failed to create a revolution in the nature of warp speeds and space travel, the Excelsior spaceframe was still the most advanced design in Star Fleet.
After prototype runs, some modifications were made. Several variations of the original design have continued in service up to the Dominion War.


Design and Construction

In the 23rd century, the most advanced ship in Star Fleet was the Constitution Class heavy cruiser. By the latter decades of that century, the Constitution was an aging design.
While revitalized by a refit configuration in the 2270s, there was simply no way around the fact that, by the 2280s, ships of that class had reached the limits of their design.


When Star Fleet approved the idea of constructing a vessel equipped with a transwarp propulsion system, one prototype starship was built, to test the theory that transwarp was indeed possible.


The original Excelsior was slightly modified after its prototype run, in accordance with its new propulsion scheme. Several years later, a new variant added modifications to the basic hull design.
One ship of this modified sub-class was the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-B. Later ships continued to incorporate the latest technology while mostly returning to the original hull form.


In the 2370s, some Excelsiors like the USS Lakota were outfitted with improved phaser emplacements, quantum torpedoes, and other improvements to make the ship competitive with later designs.
All of these modifications were made using existing ports; from the external appearance of the vessel there are few physical modifications visible.


Propulsion: A series of this vessel were equipped with dilithium recompositing and "recrystalization" technology.
However, the theta-matrix compositor used in later Galaxy Class ships makes the recrystallization process ten times more efficient than the Excelsior-class.

Armaments: The original Excelsior design was outfitted with 12 dual phaser emplacements and four photon torpedo launchers.



Failure

By 2285, the Excelsior was ordered out of San Francisco Fleet Yards Spacedock where she would begin her trial runs.
Given the complexity and experimental nature of the transwarp drive, the engineering department was headed up by newly-promoted Captain Montgomery Scott, recently transferred over from the soon-to-be decommissioned Enterprise.


Before the Excelsior could put out for her final shakedown cruise, Rear Admiral James T. Kirk and his crew stole the Enterprise from Spacedock. As the Enterprise sped away, it seemed a natural chance for Star Fleet Command to see exactly what the Excelsior could do and to prove once and for all that the Excelsior was indeed the next evolution in spaceframe and propulsion technology. When a total and catastrophic ship-wide systems failure occurred, as a result of Montgomery Scott's sabotage, the ship was unable to pursue the stolen Enterprise.


The Future

The class had an extremely long production run, highlighting the adaptability and soundness of the basic design.


By the late 24th century, large numbers of the Excelsior-class remained in service, almost a century after the original design was conceived.

Prior to the Dominion War, however, they were often relegated to secondary roles.


With Excelsior-class ships serving in the bulk of the fleet in engagements against both the Borg and the Dominion, the vessels had seen a high attrition rate in combat missions.

However, refitted and rearmed Excelsiors such as the USS Lakota had been successful in matching the firepower of a Defiant Class escort.



Ships Commissioned

Named
  • USS Berlin, NCC-14232
  • USS Cairo
  • USS Charleston, NCC-42285
  • USS Crazy Horse
  • USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-B
  • USS Excelsior (prototype), NX-2000/NCC-2000
  • USS Farragut
  • USS Fearless, NCC-14598
  • USS Fredrickson, NCC-42111
  • USS Gorkon
  • USS Hood, NCC-42296
  • USS Intrepid, NCC-38907
  • USS Lakota (modified), NCC-42768
  • USS Malinche
  • USS Potemkin, NCC-18253
  • USS Repulse, NCC-2544
  • USS Valley Forge, NCC-43305