After Starfleet saw their Olympus Class Dreadnought become a phenominal success, design groups fromm all over the federation begin coming up with battle-oriented designs based on the venerable Galaxy Class Explorer. The first of these was the America class submitted by a Human/Deltan group. After winning a contract, the group began construction at the Epsilon IX Shipyards in March of 2370. The ship was completed in July of 2371 and was launched on July 12.
The Design Team began with a basic Galaxy class spaceframe, gutting the stardrive section and installing a massive number of hangar bays that could accomidate 3 wings of fighters which came to 69 craft. Stretching the secondary hull also provided pilot & crew accomidations as well as repair facilities. The 3 Warp Reactors and other propulsion systems were moved to the forward half of the secondary hull. 4 Warp Nacelles were attached in pairs to the extended engineering hull. These gave the America extra power to reach trouble spots or battle fronts in record time. The Design Team also came up with the nifty idea of building a twin shuttlebay/bridge module, which would house all of the America's shuttlecraft and runnabouts. In order to provide some degree of protection for the America herself, 23 Type X Phaser Emitters were installed along with a massive Mk XV Phaser Cannon on the underside of the saucer. 6 Type III Burst Fire Photon Torpedo Launchers pack additional punch with fore and aft launchers featured throughout the ship or on the Weapons Pod at the aft edge of the saucer. America class ships played an important part in Admiral Michael Davenport's campaign during the Second Romulan War in 2378-79. They used their fighters to overwhelm Romulan Warbirds while commanders locked on weapons and picked them off one at a time.