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 ignoble 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.
Contents
History
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, such as a different bridge structure and a different shuttlebay structure. Several variations of the original design have continued in service up to the Dominion War.
Design and construction history
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.
The Constitution was showing its age in engagements and endurance as the threats to Federation safety from the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire increased. Star Fleet was in need of a starship that could supplant the highly successful Constitution-class. Further, this new vessel would have to exceed the standards of duration, speed and firepower of its venerable predecessor.
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.
Failure of the Great Experiment
By 2285, the Excelsior was assigned to the command of Captain Styles, and 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.
But 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.
Early history
Despite the fact that the transwarp experiment had failed to deliver a revolution in space travel, the Excelsior was the most advanced ship in the fleet, and the spaceframe was still considered a success. After the final shakedown of the USS Excelsior – now equipped with a standard warp drive – Star Fleet ordered the construction of additional vessels.
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 have seen a high attrition rate in combat missions; however, refitted and rearmed Excelsiors such as the USS Lakota have been successful in matching the firepower of a Defiant Class escort.
Knowledge of this class would be retained well into the 31st century, when Captain Jonathan Archer and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed viewed schematics on the class while accessing the database belonging to temporal agent Daniels.
Technical data
Design
Despite the problems with the original design, Star Fleet was still content with the existing spaceframe, ordering the construction of a large number of additional Excelsior vessels over the coming decades.
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.
Propulsion systems
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.
As the ships were built over a very long period of time, the power and capabilities of the weapon emplacements increased. This included the installation of faster firing torpedo tubes and more powerful and accurate phaser banks. Some of the ships were refit with newer weapons during their scheduled major refit and overhaul period, keeping them in front line service.
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.
Main bridge
Located on top of the primary hull, the Excelsior Main Bridge directly supervises all primary mission operations and coordinates all departmental activities. Due to the age and variety of configurations of the Excelsior-class, bridge configurations can vary from ship to ship.
Against the aft wall of many Excelsior bridges is the large engineering master systems display monitor, showing a cutaway of the ship and status information. This was not originally part of the USS Excelsior configuration but added later, a feature shared with sister ship USS Enterprise-B.
- Excelsior bridge 2285.jpg
The main bridge, 2285.
- Excelsior Bridge 1.jpg
The main bridge, 2293.
- Enterprise B bridge.jpg
The main bridge (variant), 2293.
Accommodations
Senior officers, such as the captain, had private quarters below decks. Many of the enlisted crew and junior officers shared quarters and bunk areas.
Shuttlebay
The Excelsior-class' shuttlebay was located on the dorsal stern of the secondary hull, and housed several shuttles of different types, including type-7 shuttlecraft. There was also a large cargo hangar in the lower decks of the secondary hull.
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
