Valourous-Class Frigate
 A design overview of the NX-Phoenix
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Kalaron Foundries |
| Operators: | Starfleet |
| Planned: | 90 |
| Building: | 12 |
| Completed: | 22 |
| Cancelled: | 9 |
| Active: | 18 |
| Lost: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Fast Combat Exploration Frigate |
| Displacement: | 125,000 metric tons |
| Length: | 250 m (820 ft) |
| Beam: | 136 m (446 ft) |
| Draft: | 101.955 m (334.50 ft) |
| Speed: | Warp 9.98 (Maximum), Warp 8 (Sustained), Warp 7 (Cruise) |
| Range: | Practically Unlimited |
| Complement: | 125 Crew |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
3x Joint/Independent Phased Sensor Array 12x Combined Stellar Cartography / Awareness Electro-Optical Sensors 4x Gravimetric Distortion Measurement Systems 2x Combined Sensor/Deflector Arrays 4x Quantum Refracting Imaging Scanners |
| Armament: |
6x Heavy Charge-Coupled Phaser Canons 8x Torpedo Launch Assemblies 6x Phaser Beam Strips |
| Armour: | 5cm Dissipative Armour |
History
After the tremendous losses incurred by Starfleet during the Dominion War, the Federation was forced to begin a massive construction and reactivation program to refill the ranks of it's numerous Fleets, chiefly the decimated Second, Fifth and Seventh. This led to the establishment of the Triskelion Plan, a three pronged approach aimed at utilizing older mothballed hulls alongside indigenous and freshly produced ships as a stop-gap measure. This was due to the damage to both Earth and Sol's infrastructure during the attack by the Breen on Earth, which targeted both civilian housing on the planet and struck decisive blows at the ship cradles near Starbase 1 and the Utopia Plantia Ship Yards of Mars, which severely hampered efforts to replenish Starfleet.
While the damage at the Shipyards hindered attempts to build new vessels, they were of negligible importance for recommissioning vessels, as the primary components to replace could simply be brought to the ship with minimal modification to the external hull or support bulkheads. Furthermore, this enabled Starfleet to correct a lingering worry from before the war; that external forces might coopt their older vessels for use in deniable assaults. However, this plan had multiple detractors who argued against the utility and survivability of these vessels, as deficiencies in older class-patterns were considered likely to leave certain ship classes more vulnerable than a modern contemporary. The loss of the Joan D'Arc and Rich Heritage with all hands in separate attacks by Privateers seemed to bolster these arguments, as the more exposed EPS conduits of their original classes had caused disastrous feedbacks to surge into their Warp Cores.
In October of 2375 components of the Endeavor, Atlantis, Enterprise and the unfinished secondary hull of the prototype Reading Rainbow were gathered together in orbit of Starbase 1 to be assembled into a single vessel, using the partially reconstructed cradle "Charon" for the most complicated assembly operations. However, this cradle was only available for a few short weeks, negating plans to replace the EPS Conduits or Warp Core of the hull of the Reading Rainbow. The subsequent vessel was named the Porthos, as a means of honoring Jonathan Archer's beagle, the eponymous Porthos, by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. The planned name for the vessel was struck from the record and replaced with it's then-unofficial designation in December, with the ship launching on the cusp of 2376, seven months prior to the averted invasion of Earth by a small fleet of the Borg Collective.
This served to be the last confrontation of the Porthos. Though it conducted itself with distinction during it's maiden voyage, establishing first contact with four different species despite their homeworlds being located inside notoriously difficult to navigate Nebulas, alongside an extensive Anti-Piracy campaign alongside the Tchaikovsky and Excelsior, it was lost with all hands during the Battle of Earth. It's distinctive service record, alongside the enthusiastic wellspring of public support from the publishing of the After-Action Report, led Starfleet to declare that the construction of the class would continue beyond the projected end of the Triskelion plan. It was deemed, then, the Valourous-Class, as suited "the tireless courage of the crew of the Porthos, who did not waver from their commitment to the protection of other's lives".
Development
Several times during the Dominion War, forces aligned with -or at least sympathetic to- the Dominion took the opportunity to probe the defenses of dozens of key systems, as well as the fleets that protected them. These attacks came to be known as