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Notes:

in7.jpgThe origins of the Sovereign class date back as far as 2338. At this time relationships between the Federation and the Klingon empire had degraded significantly, to the point where war was considered by many to be imminent. The President ordered Starfleet to place a design proposal for a new class of starship with very much greater military capability than current designs. This project was in the advanced planning stage when the loss of the Enterprise-C during the Narendra III incident eased tensions considerably. The warship project was initially to be scrapped, but Starfleet was instead asked to continue the project on a research basis only. Dubbed the Sovereign project it became a theoretical starfleet battlecruiser designed only as a computer model, with specimen hardware occasionally produced to test the design principles. The intention was to create a design that could be put into production with no delay, should a future crisis present itself.

The basic design was to be updated every five years so as to incorporate technology advances as they occurred. Initially the Sovereign design was a simple re-working of the Ambassador class, emphasizing weapons rather than exploratory and diplomatic capabilities. In the design updates of 2350, 55 and 60 much of the technology being developed for the Galaxy class project was incorporated, especially in the nacelle and warp core design. The re-establishing of relations with the Romulans in 2364 led to a major revision in the 2365 update, and many elements of the Sovereign went into low rate production in order to establish a stockpile ready for rapid assembly.

In mid 2365 first contact was also made with the Borg. The Sovereign project was activated and construction began on the first four ships of the class. However, it was apparent that much of the Sovereign's weaponry was based on that of the Galaxy class - a vessel which had proven ineffective against the Borg during that first encounter. New weapons were in preparation for the next design update due in 2370, but these were not going to be available in the immediate future. It was clear that despite the engineer's best intentions, the Sovereign project was not going to meet it's primary goal - to get a warship into service fast enough to meet the crisis now looming.

fc1.jpgThe answer Starfleet settled on was to continue construction of the hull, propulsion, computer, and sensor systems of the ships already under construction but to suspend work on the shield, phaser and photon torpedo systems for three years. Instead, a crash development project was begun to field a small, very easily produced warship incorporating the new weapons - essentially a replay of the Sovereign project in miniature. To cut size - and therefore design and build time - to a minimum the new vessel would only be capable of short duration missions. The vessel would be very maintenance intensive, but would carry only limited stocks of non-replicatable spares. Combined with limited accommodation standards and small fuel reserves the new class would be capable of maintaining full readiness for only six to eight weeks during independent operations, far less than had been envisaged for the Sovereign. An important secondary role of this Defiant class was as a development test bed for the technology which would be worked into the Sovereign project as soon as it was ready.

Starfleet designers at this time were also considering a Sovereign-class variant intended to carry, deploy, and utilize purpose-built single-seat fighter-shuttles. The equipment needed to allow this mission was tested on one of the Sovereign-class vessels (USS Independence, launched in 2373 ). The Independence carried three squadrons of twelve Peregrine space-superiority fighters and one squadron of twelve Thunderbolt-class antiship fighters, organized as the 776th Marine Aerospace Wing (the Minutemen). No significant modifications were made to the Independence beyond the provision of means to rearm and refuel the squadrons.

Construction continued on the Sovereigns throughout the late 2360s. With the destruction of the Borg cube in 2366, Starfleet deemed that the threat had reduced to a level which would allow the Sovereigns to enter service before any renewed offensive. The Defiant class was therefore suspended, although the prototype was put into storage rather than scrapped. The lessons learned with the Defiant were incorporated into the Sovereign when work resumed on her weapons, a process which continued after the USS Defiant was reactivated for use at DS9. The switch from photon to quantum torpedoes and the inclusion of ablative armour are prime examples of this process. In addition, the bio-neural computer system pioneered by the Intrepid class was also included. The first of the class was was launched in 2371 as the USS Sovereign, with the USS Honorious due to follow six months later. The loss of the USS Independence in that year led to a last minute re-christening of another ship as the USS Independence, NCC-02276-A.

The Sovereign-CV class has emerged from the dockyards as Starfleet's most sophisticated and comprehensively armed vessel. The vessel is equipped with a new variant of the Type XIII phaser array - formerly known as the 'Type X+' for security reasons - which equips the Federations most powerful Starbases and deep space facilities. The type thirteen has a raw beam power output some 62% more powerful than the Type ten arrays installed on the Galaxy class. In addition the type thirteen has a shorter recharge time and can fire a longer sustained burst, giving each bank a combat effectiveness 96.4% greater than a type ten array. Since the Sovereign carries eleven arrays compared to Galaxies twelve, this gives the ship an overall 70% increase in phaser capability. The Sovereign-CV additionally carries four Type IXG 'Gatling phaser' arrays, intended to defend against fighter attacks. Two of these arrays are mounted on the ends of the rollbar that encloses the Flight Operations Control Center, while one more ventral array is mounted on the saucer and on the secondary hull. The ventral saucer Gatling arrays have 360-degree arcs of fire (except that the saucer ventral mount cannot fire directly aft at zero elevation unless the saucer is detached), while the rollbar arrays have 300-degree arcs each centered on the port or starboard sides.

The torpedo armament is similarly impressive. The large quantum torpedo turret forward of the deflector dish is capable of firing four rounds per second, a greater overall rate of fire than the two main ten round burst photon torpedo tubes of the Galaxy class combined. Backup to the quantum torpedoes is provided by photon tubes; four of these are located at the base of the engineering section in pairs which face forward and aft. Each is capable of firing twelve round bursts. This gives the Sovereign-CV class the most powerful torpedo armament of any vessel in Starfleet service.

The shield system of the Sovereign-CV class is similarly the most powerful of any Starfleet ship; the design was modified just prior to installation in order to increase effectiveness against both high energy tractor beams and phased polaron particles, measures clearly aimed at the Borg and Dominion respectively. Under normal operation the shield modulation frequencies are under the control of the ships computer system, which continually evaluates incoming weapons fire and automatically re-modulates the shields to give the most effective possible defence. It is thought (hoped) that this system will also enable the Sovereign-CV class shield system to prevent beam-through by Borg transporter technology.

The warp engines of the Sovereign-CV are of a new design which eliminates subspace distortion effects inherent to standard warp drives, a feature now becoming common on most Starfleet ships. The Sovereign-CV class is currently the fastest vessel in Starfleet, with a maximum cruise speed of Warp 9.9 and a top speed of Warp 9.99 for up to twenty four hours. The very high cruise speed is intended to allow the ship to deploy as rapidly as possible to potential trouble spots. Her Impulse drive system is the most sophisticated model in production, giving the Sovereign-CV class a manoeuvrability equal to that of a vessel one quarter its size. Secondary-hull sublight propulsion is provided by a pair of impulse drive units mounted in the trailing edges of the main warp nacelle pylons (a design pioneered on the Intrepid-class).

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