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Romulan War

Romulan War ships –set of three from early and late in the conflict.

Vastari Sanalam-class or U7-e

The U7-e was a modification of the old prewar U7 design, adding shields and a wider wingspan for its two nacelles. The prmary hull is mostly cylindrical. This is one of the smaller Romulan ships, used in squadrons to make up for lack of power.

Design Note: Romulan ships up through the TOS-era technology exchange with the Klingons had faster than light travel but powered by fusion/impulse reactors, so were limited in capability compared to their enemies. (This is based on the explanation from Masao Okazaki's Starfleet Museum as well as that from StarFleet Battles, who described it as “non tactical warp”). Ships can generate a warp field without antimatter and dilithium moderation, but non-tactical warp is point-to-point with no maneuvering or attacking at warp speed, or else the warp field would collapse and atomize the ship.

Stelai'deletham-class or U15-d

The U15-d is a four-nacelle, medium sized cruiser with heavy weaponry. These were the last and strongest prewar design; ships of this type destroyed the USS Patton (Cavalry class DD) among other targets. However they were still outclassed by Andorian and Vulcan cruisers and were phased out after the end of the war.

Design notes: Of the FASA Romulan War era designs, this is the one specifically identified in one drawing although only in bow view.

Morlasam cl'vangas-class or U21-c

The U21-c was the Romulans’ attempt at a larger cruiser design, in this case modified to have a 4- nacelle configuration for more power. This type was extremely resource-expensive to build and only 3 were completed by the end of the War. The first U21-c, reportedly named the “Fifth moon strike” (likely named after an unknown battle in Romulan history) destroyed three Earth ships in one battle in a coreward system, the NX class “Warspite” and two Marshall class destroyers, leaving only one human survivor. Another U21-c leading a squadron of smaller ships attacked the USS Undaunted and its escorts. Although the Undaunted suffered heavy damage, it in turn crippled the U21 before it could come around for another pass. The Romulan ship self-destructed.

Earth Ypres class frigate 2101-pre Romulan War

The Ypres class frigate was the first Earth interstellar defense vessel. Several attempts to build larger warships had fallen apart over budget, tech transfer, and allocation of work disputes between the nations and confederations of Earth. Ypres class ships were built by a consortium of several space agencies headed by UESPA. These were warp 2 capable ships which were sent to several new colonies including Alpha and Proxima Centauri, Barnard's star, and Vega, and participated in rescue missions, interdiction of smuggling, and suppression of anti-unity nationalist and radical groups. Officially these ships were also built to defend Earth and its colonies against alien threats although the captains knew they had no chance against a Vulcan cruiser.

During the Romulan War there were Ypres class frigates defending Earth colonies and bases although not capable of long range offensive missions. Despite their age, a Ypres class could hold its own against Romulan U-4 and earlier U-7 type ships but were easily destroyed by U-15 cruisers. The surviving Ypres class were scrapped after the War.

Earth Ypres class frigate

Length 117 m (384 ft)

Mass 9800 tons

Armed with lasers and nuclear missiles

Non tactical warp (point to point jumps only, and could not target ships at warp), max warp 2

Starships for export

If a minor power wants to keep competitive with more advanced neighbors, they can buy or steal technology and weapons. But sometimes they want to purchase entire ships to bolster their fleet. Usually this would only be possible if they are friendly enough to a great power, although occasionally the Orions or Ferengi would help with an illicit acquisition.

Used ships are sometimes made available when they become surplus or obselete. Ex-Starfleet Anton or Perseus cruisers or Uhlan destroyers have been sold to non-Federation species such as the Briamosites and Ammdon. A few worn out Klingon D4 cruisers have ended up in alien hands such as Gehan IV. Most famously, the Klingon council traded some D7 cruisers to the Romulans in exchange for a cloaking device. Ferengi companies have several times purchased old Klingon ships from powerful houses. Freighters have also been armed to give nonaligned races a cut-rate auxiliary warship.

What about warships designed explicitly for export? There are examples of this in Earth's naval history. In the 1890s Elswick protected cruisers were at peak popularity. In the cold war MEKO and Vosper frigates were available to developing countries. So the same will be true for neighbors of the Federation.

The Morena fleetyards offered a product, the NECOA-100 design cruiser (such as the Porrima; sold to such worlds as the Enolians, Arkonians, and Ammdon). This was a bare-bones saucer wrapped around a single nacelle and forward deflector module. However it could maintain higher warp and recharge phasers much more efficiently than a converted freighter or lower-tech warp ship. Later the NECOA-180 design (Denebola class; sold to Ossarians and others) frigate had a delta shaped secondary hull behind the saucer and a single nacelle extended much further to the aft.

Alpha Centauri colony shipbuilders produced an export ship, the RESC-200 design cruiser (sold to Briamosites and others). This ship had two aft nacelles on a short T-mounting. The even faster RESC-250 extended the thin secondary hull under the twin nacelles. The Mazarite reform council purchased one for its high speed. These were also not built to strict starfleet redundancy specs but were still more advanced than the homebuilt ships of their customers, and as new construction avoided the maintenance issues of used, worn-out surplus ships.

Not to get left behind, the Klingon Iosia and H'renn shipyards have sold stripped down D18 destroyers direct to customers. The Xencthar bought one old D7A, 3 newly built D18, a T3 and two armed G3 transports for their successful offensive to reconquer Fhejah II.

"Spacedock queens": failed designs

Romulan battleship designation V-0X. Post-war, pre-TOS.

The Romulans after their disastrous war against the Vulcan/Andorian/Earth/Tellarite alliance were desperate to improve the performance of their ships. Their postwar generation of ships (Starfleet would retroactively designate these the first of the “V classes”) were still technically behind the allied and Klingon warships. The largest was a class of battleship (codenamed Vulture when Starfleet intelligence learned of it decades later) that served behind the neutral zone and the Klingon borders. Still dissatisfied with the ships, one of these battleships was taken into the shipyard in the Romii system and rebuilt with 4 nacelles. During the war there had been several earlier attempts to eke out marginal warp maneuver capability or even slight increases in speed with the 4-nacelle arrangement, with mixed results; in some cases the new ships had compromised warp field stability.

This singular ship, the V-0X (so designated once revealed to the Federation by a captured Klingon historical archive), was insanely inefficient. No more of this type were made. The V-0X was stationed on the Klingon border and in its one known action assisted a T2 destroyer ambushed by a Klingon D4 “predator” cruiser. The D4 was much more maneuverable and pummeled both Romulan ships with disruptor fire in multiple high speed passes. The damaged T2 fled while the V-0X was crippled and self-destructed.

Design notes: I based this on a modification of a Star Fleet Battles design. Same intent as explained below for the L13d.

Klingon battleship, L-13d

Fat man L13 version d was a single ship built to try and improve the performance of the L13 battleship. It was insanely expensive for little gain. The Duras family placed one of their supporters as captain. Because each deployment drained the high council's resources, the ship was often positioned for intimidation purposes, boosting the morale of the crews of the smaller ships actually sent into battle. Here it is with the T3 assault ship it escorted to invade the Hydran mining colony on Zhrese II. Eventually the L13d was badly damaged by a Tholian 4-module warship during the Upsilon Arehis Incursion and was put in an orbital repair facility at Taamar, languishing there for years until the Praxis crisis justified its scrapping.

Design notes: this is based on the FASA L-13, a ship which (to their credit) was designed to be an ugly and underwhelming game piece, in the vein of numerous real-world military projects here on Earth that were expensive failures. Not everything is a super duper wonder weapon!

The other Borg Collectives

The Federation has encountered several groups of Borg disconnected to the main Collective. Through the history of the Borg it is logical that this has occured before. Two of the most significant alternate Collectives are shown here.

The Psrava-Borg had their origin as a voluntarily assimilated species, that then formed a breakaway Borg collective and carved out their own realm across what Starfleet calls the gamma/delta quadrant border. They build not cubes but thousands of wedge-shaped roughly 400m ships, all systems directly linked to their crews. The Psrava collective separated from the primary Collective in 1891. The primary Borg occasionally send a ship to attack the Psrava-Borg to assess their capabilities; the intent of both sides seems to be that one form of Borg would eventually prove the superior path and absorb the other without the need for an all-out war.

The I’seosa are small flat, flagella-bearing or jellyfish like collective organisms (chemical communication binding them into linked groups) that over time developed a technological capability that allowed them to recognize and commandeer Borg nanoprobes. A Borg long range scout sphere passing by their planet, a giant-Venus-like (9 earth-mass) world in a Delta quadrant coreward system, briefly paused to deposit nanoprobes to see if the life forms could be easily assimilated. The attempt failed and the Borg ship moved on, but the I’seosa incorporated reprogrammed nanoprobes to improve their interconnections and links. Later the I’seosa became spacefaring, and when they started to encounter other life forms they built a defensive fleet of single-nacelle, metallic-blue frigates that only needed small living spaces and were highly automated.

Also just for completeness: The Jurati-Borg are a rival Borg collective started by a human after 2024, voluntarily assimilated individuals only. In 2401 they contacted Starfleet to cooperate in containing the energy of a newly forming transwarp conduit.

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