This section discusses the goals and history of the Alpha class design project and the general
specifications and layout of the spaceframe held in common by all four classes.
Alpha class design project:
Goals and influences:
Mid-sized starship
It was decided to focus on a mid-sized design, able to support many functions without
attempting to support all functions in every hull. Variants of the primary design, ease
of modification, and a variety of available mission pods would allow the single design
to cover almost every type of starship mission conceivable. While the original concept
was to have single class of ship with four major variants the final program resulted in
four classes of ship with several minor variants. The four classes are the Astraeus class
advanced cruiser, the Melbourne class tactical cruiser, the Oleet class diplomatic cruiser,
and the Peisander class transport.
Integration of past successes.
One of the principle design goals it make a thorough review of past highly successful
starship designs and incorporate features and/or design philosophies of prior designs into
a unified modern spaceframe. As part of this goal five particularly successful designs
became major contributors:
Excelsior class - outstanding performance and solid reliability.
Istanbul class - very useful and adaptable due to extra space which could be allocated
as needed.
Mediterranean class - quick and easy to produce, upgrade, make field modifications,
and maintain. Very useful in a variety of roles. One of the favorite small starship
classes to serve on according to starfleet personnel.
Miranda class - quick and easy to produce, highly adaptable, designed for easy
swapping and upgrading of systems.
Nebula class - mission pod design allows for a greatly enhanced degree of adaptability
Oberth class - easy to build and easy to run, highly modular and highly automated.
Quick and easy to build
One of the common elements in the most productive of the starship designs was that the
ship could be quickly, inexpensively (for a starship) and easily built. Other successful
designs allowed for a modular construction which allowed for many major components
of the ship to be preproduced in planetside manufacturing facilities and then incorporated
into the spaceframe with minimal demand on dockyard resources.
Easy to upgrade and maintain
Based on a review of the Mediterranean class frigate which has been one of the favorite
classes of small starship to serve on due to its reliability and simplicity, and the Miranda
class light cruiser which was one of the longest lived production series, the project
determined to provide for ease of maintenance and upgrade for its ships. This was done
by providing for a modular design on many components, forecasting on what theoretical
developments might provide for in new systems the near future, and adding extra
working spaces around systems to provide easy maintenance access and room for future
upgrades.
Multiple Roles
It was decided to design a ship that would be quick and (relatively) inexpensive to
produce but could cover a variety of missions types. This was accomplished by
designing four principle sub-types of the ship (general purpose, tactical, diplomatic,
transport), providing a modular design to the ships systems to allow for quick
modifications in role within the sub-type, providing extra space for new systems to be
installed and to adopting and expanding upon the Nebula class mission pod concept to
provide for increased mission capability and flexibility
Rugged and reliable.
One of the main reasons of the life span of the Excelsior class was the degree of
punishment the ships could take and the vast amount of damage that could be repaired
before a ship of the class had be decommissioned and scrapped. Many of the design
elements for making a ship rugged and reliable are counter to those making it quick to
manufacture and easy to upgrade and maintain. The Alpha class attempts to find an
equilibrium point to maximize the reliability of the spaceframe with minimal decrease
in the other desirable aspects of the design. Spaceframe, hull, and internal reinforcing
frame members are designed to maximize durability. Major ships systems such as SIF,
environmental, computer cores, and engines are designed to be modular and replaceable
but still extremely rugged and able to survive damage and wear. The separation between
the primary and engineering hull is eliminated giving the spaceframe a stronger
'backbone'.
Hybrid trilateral/bilateral redundancy.
Based in large part by discussions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of Edosian
physiology (one of the principle design engineers is an Edosian) the alpha class design
project breaks from traditional starfleet redundancy designs. Traditionally, critical
Starfleet ships systems typically consisted of a single massively over strength primary
system with multiple under strength backup systems. The ship operated with a large
safety margin on a robust primary system and if the primary system failed could continue
operations for a short time on secondary systems until the primary system was repaired.
The new paradigm is to provide equal strength redundant systems with perhaps a small
single emergency backup for critical systems. Rather than being vastly over strength the
each system is designed to just slightly exceed requirements. If demand increase then the
other duplicate systems are brought online to meet and exceed the new demands.
Triple redundancy
For most critical systems and some non-critical systems the ship is provided with
three equal strength redundant systems. A single system is run as the primary system
with a second on hot standby in case the primary fails or there is a sudden increase in
demand. The third system is cold and in a maintenance cycle. Depending on the
system, during an alert the secondary system is brought fully online and the tertiary
system is brought to a hot standby. The three systems rotate on a regular basis so all
three are receiving equal use and regular maintenance.
Dual redundancy
Some systems, especially non-critical systems will have dual redundancy rather than
triple redundancy. Like the triple redundant system the dual redundant systems are
typically identically in strength and rotate in their use and maintenance. Dually
redundant systems typically operate with one system online and the other cold and in
a maintenance cycle. Depending on alert status and system demands the secondary
system may also be brought online.
Technological Integration
The alpha class project is designed with four types of technology in mind:
Proven past technologies.
Many new starship designs abandon prior 'outdated' technologies to incorporate the latest
and greatest in modern technology. The Alpha class ships mount many 'outdated' systems
were their proven reliability is considered a better option than more modern technological
performance, especially in the diplomatic and transport versions where 'high performance'
is less of an issue.
Modern technologies
That the designers were willing to integrate older technologies does not mean they
ignored what was currently available. Many of the ships systems are state of the art and
the modular design of the ship allows for most systems to be changed easily. The
exploration and tactical versions rely more heavily on modern technologies to give them
an edge in performance.
Future technologies
All alpha class ships are designed to be ready to support new technological innovations
as they become available. This allows ships to be uprated quickly and with less expense
than other designs which require more detailed rebuilding and modification to deal with
new advances in Federation technology.
Alien technologies
Provisions have been made on the science variant and to a lesser extent to the tactical
variant of the class to more easily implement of non-federation technology on board.
The tactical variant is generally limited to known non-federation technology of tactical
significance such as cloaking devices, energy dampening weapons, and other military
systems. The ships do not normally mount these systems but are prepared to incorporate
them in times of conflict should the situation allow. Based on the rare but not unknown
cases where a Federation ship has found itself far from the Federation or needing to
adapt quickly to an unusual situation, general variant cruisers, especially those designate
for exploration and most especially the Longprobe configuration have dedicated systems
to assist in more safely integrating alien technology into the ship as needed.
Pod carrier
One of the major design elements of the alpha class project is an expansion on the Nebula
class mission pod concept. A wide variety of pods are designed to increase the capabilities
of a ship they are attached to. The pods are also designed to be even more easily attached
and detached from a starship. One of the other design characteristics of the alpha project
ship designs was the elimination of the primary/engineering hull design and its associated
saucer separation systems. Since the alpha class ships do not have a saucer section that
can serve as a lifeboat in the event of an emergency or to leave unessential personnel
behind in safety when a ship is called into a dangerous environment, the pods are
designed to meet this need. Incorporating the technology developed for the galaxy class
separation system the alpha class pods are able to dock and undock repeatedly without
damaging the stardrive. All pods are designed to serve as lifeboats and are capable of
emergency planetfall. Some pod designs are designed for regular planetfall and can land
and return to orbit in controlled flight. A limited number of pods are designed for
operation as auxillary starships without their host stardrive.
Controversies and problems
Like all major design projects the alpha class project was not without its controversies
and opponents. However, the alpha class project has a surprisingly good history overall.
It has not been plagued with the politics, overruns, and system/role expansions of the
Galaxy class project, nor with technical problems like those of the Defiant class project.
Here is an outline of the major issues that have been encountered during the project
development:
Hobbyist origins
Originally the project was the brainchild of a small group of friends. It was not originally
conceived as a serious starship development project but as a fun way to spend the
weekend by some engineers experimenting with starship designs. With the losses of the
Borg incursion and the Dominion war Starfleet became much more active and open in
terms of starship development and projection and the friends parleyed their pet project
into a serious design program. However, several Federation officials are apprehensive
of a project that started as some brain trust's weekend hobby.
Alien Influences
Two of the principle designers of the alpha class project are aliens who are not
Federation citizens and have backgrounds that cause concerns to many people.
Arey Na Eth is a brilliant Edosian engineer. Edosia is not a member of the Federation
but has a long history of peaceful relationships with the Federation and several
Edosians have served with distinction within starfleet. However, early in Arey's
career he served an apprenticeship under the legendary Romulan starship designer
Dalgarius. It is wondered how such an unusual apprenticeship occurred with the
normally xenophobic Romulans and what connections Arey may still have with them.
Ktac'Mk'Otk is an alien of unknown origin (it is suspected that his species is from the
far distant part of the Delta or Gamma quadrant). He is the only survivor of a starship
that arrived in the alpha quadrant via an unstable wormhole. Upon arrival his ship
attacked several Federation ships without provocation, destroying one before it was
in turn destroyed. Ktac was the only surviving crewmember from that ship and
several Starfleet officers are suspicious of his possible true intentions or harbor
resentments for friends and comrades lost in the battle.
Abandoned traditions and introducing unfamiliar elements
One of the paradigms early in the design project was to examine the naval achitectural
traditions of the Federation with new eyes and remove elements that no longer serve a
valid purpose in modern starship designs. Additionally, the project in introducing new
elements replacing many of these outdated traditions. For example:
- Saucer and engineering hull replaced by a primary/secondary hybrid hull
- Three nacelles oriented around a central axis rather than two oriented horizontally.
- Equal strength redundant systems rather than strong primary system with a series of
weaker backups.
- Point defense systems designed for ship defense against multiple fast, lightly shielded
targets such as missiles, torpedoes, and fighter starcraft
- Hybrid navigational deflectors/bussard ramscoopes. - The alpha class project
determined that since navigational deflectors were designed to deflect small
interstellar objects that would cause a hazard to a ship moving at warp or high
impulse and that the ramscopes are designed to attract and collect other small
interstellar objects of use to the ship, the systems could be better served ingegrated
together. The hybrid system replaces the single massive deflector with large hybrid
deflector/ramscopes units forward tip of each warp nacelle.
- Angled torpedo tubes. Traditionally torpedo tubes were arranged horizontally within
the ship. The rear torpedo tube of the alpha class maintains this tradition but the
forward tubes are angled so they have less of a common overlapping field of fire
directly ahead of the ship but better lateral fields of fire.
- Microimpulse RCS system. Traditionally Federation starships use chemical reaction
control thrusters for station keeping, course corrections, and to propel the ship in
other directions than forward. The alpha class ships use a network of small multi-
vectoring impulse engines in place of a chemical RCS thrusters network.
Suspect mission roles
The majority of the variants of the alpha class projects fulfill traditional Starfleet roles
and so cause no issue with senior Starfleet and Federation officials. However the
Longprobe configuration of the general/exploration variant and the tactical variants
cause concerns in several groups.
- Astraeus class cruiser, Longprobe configuration
The Longprobe concept is quite controversial and was only allowed because of the
ease of reconfiguring the ships to other configurations if the admiralty quashed the
program. Longprobes are specialized for exploration of dangerous and uncharted
spacial anomalies. They are designed to be sent into regions where other starships
have disappeared to determine what has caused the disappearance. The history of
Starfleet is marked with a scattering of rare but dramatic instances where a starship
has been trapped within a dimensional pocket, an alternate universe, or on the other
side of the galaxy far from Federation resupply. Opponents of the Longprobes
program insist that these situations are to rare to justify a ship specifically to deal
with them and criticize it as the mission "to boldly go where nobody has gone
before, and never return."
- Melbourne class tactical cruiser
Most of the Melbourne class cruisers are another issue of concern to senior
Starfleet and Federation officials who do not like seeing the traditional
exploration, scientific, and diplomatic role of Starfleet being 'polluted' with
warships. While the Melbourne class cruisers can, if properly configured fulfill
a needed defensive role in patrolling Federation borders and even conduct some
exploration, scientific study, or diplomacy while on patrol, the fact that they can
be easily converted into carriers, torpedo boats, assault ships, and other war-
fighting platforms causes concerns. Still, the fact that they can serve peaceful
missions and are only converted to more offensive configurations when required
makes them less undesirable than dedicated warship designs such as the Akira,
Defiant, and Prometheus class ships.
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