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| STAR TREK - ROMULAN SHIPS |
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D'Deridex Class
Commissioned Unknown, but approx. 2345 to date
Dimensions
Length 1,280 m
Width 1,000 m
Height 400 m
Decks 115 approx.
Mass 20,000,000 tons
Crew 1,650 plus maximum 30,000 ground troops
Warp Speeds
Normal Cruise Warp 5
Maximum Cruise Warp 9
Maximum Rated Warp 9.5 for twelve hours
Armament
1 x Class 21 Disrupter cannon
18 x Class 18 Disrupter cannon, total output 60,000 TeraWatts
- 18 x Photon torpedo tubes + 800 torpedoes
- 1 x Plasma torpedo tube
- Antimatter spread emitter
- Defence Systems Shield system, total capacity 2,295,000 TeraJoules
- Duranium/Tritanium double hull plus 20 cm high density armour
- Standard level structural integrity field
Expected Lifetime 60 years
Refit Cycle
Minor 2 years
Standard 4 years
Major 10 years
For much of the operational life of the Romulan Warbird, Starfleet knew absolutely nothing about it. Indeed, it was not until 2364 that any Starfleet personnel even saw a Warbird firsthand. Prior to this only the haziest of intelligence reports existed concerning any class of Romulan vessel. An encounter between a Romulan Warbird and the USS Enterprise at the Romulan neutral zone in that year provided Starfleet with its first good information on the Warbird. The first impressions were not comforting ones; the Romulan vessel was almost double the length of the Enterprise, itself then the largest and most powerful vessel in Starfleet. The Warbirds cloaking device was highly effective against the latest Federation sensors, and the great size of the vessel indicated that it outgunned Starfleets finest by a considerable margin.
The appearances of overwhelming size and strength was to prove somewhat deceptive. Much of the vessels internal volume is given over to ground forces and their supporting equipment. Although the disrupter armament is impressive, the technology behind it is significantly behind that of the Federations phaser banks; the disrupters have a high power but relatively low rate of fire and somewhat limited range. The eighteen torpedo tubes are capable of firing only one torpedo each at a time, and have a combined rate of fire some 80% that of the two tubes of a Galaxy class battle section. The Warbird is also somewhat slower and a great deal less manoeuvrable than a Galaxy class starship. The Federation has also made considerable progress in defeating the Romulan cloaking technology in the past few years; the deployment of wide area tachyon nets along the border together with advanced sensor posts has made penetrating Federation space a rather chancy proposition for the Warbird.
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Bird of Prey
Commissioned 2266 - 2275
Dimensions
Length 192 m
Width 180 m
Height 51 m
Decks 7
Mass 200,000 tons
Crew 150
Warp Speeds
Normal Cruise Warp 4
Maximum Cruise Warp 5
Maximum Rated Warp 5.5
Armament
- 1 x Heavy plasma launcher, total output 1,000,000 TeraJoules per discharge (maximum of three discharges per minute)
- Defence Systems Shield system, total capacity 27,000 TeraJoules
- Single hulled construction
Expected Lifetime 30 years
Refit Cycle
Minor 1 year
Standard 2 years
Major 5 years
One of the most interesting designs of the 2260's, this vessel was designed to combine a very high level of firepower with stealth, small size and manoeuvrability. Unfortunately for the Romulans, this came at the cost of very low speed and limited range.
The Bird of Prey was the first vessel in standard military service to incorporate cloaking technology. A force field selectively bends light - and sensor signals - around the ship, while a series of measures were taken to reduce the emissions from internal systems to an absolute minimum. The power required to maintain the cloaking device was enormous, and the Romulan vessel was unable to raise shields or fire whilst using this system. This difficulty was not helped by the fact that the ship had only simple impulse style fusion generators to power her. While these were of a very high output, they were no match for the matter/antimatter system of contemporary Federation designs.
To provide sufficient firepower to destroy heavily shielded vessels and installations, the bird of prey was equipped with a plasma torpedo system. This vented the entire output of the ships EPS system into an enclosing force field, creating a large and highly destructive energy bolt.
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D-7 Class
Commissioned 2245 - 2307
Dimensions
Length 228 m
Width 160 m
Height 60 m
Decks 18 excluding nacelles
Mass 470,000 tons
Crew 480 crew plus up to 500 ground troops
Warp Speeds
Normal Cruise Warp 5
Maximum Cruise Warp 6
Maximum Rated Warp 8 for ten hours
Armament
- 10 x Mark 7 disrupter cannon, total output 6,750 TeraWatts
- 2 x 2nd class Photon torpedo tubes + 260 torpedoes
- Defence Systems Shield system, total capacity 756,000 TeraJoules
- Heavy Monotanium double hull plus 5.0 cm High Density armour
- Standard level Structural Integrity field
Expected Lifetime 100 years
Refit Cycle
Minor 5 years
Standard 10 years
Major 20 years
First entering service in 2245, the D-7 was a far more powerful and advanced vessel than its predecessor. Although the Federation Miranda class was at least the equal of the D-7, and the Constitution class somewhat superior, the D-7 was built in larger numbers than both of these classes combined.
The Federation tended to place most or all of the weapons on the primary hull, concentrating firepower forwards, then rely on speed and manoeuvrability to bring them to bear on the target. The D-7s engines were seriously under powered compared to Federation vessels; to compensate, the Klingons put the bulk of the ships systems in a large engineering hull attached to the nacelles, and attached a small secondary hull on the end of a long 'neck' section that projected forwards. This concentrated the vessels mass towards the rear, making it easier for the engines to change the vessels attitude in space. The weapons were also more evenly distributed - one torpedo tube is located in the forward hull, the other in the engineering section facing aft. Six of the ten disrupter cannon are also in the engineering hull. This gives the D-7 a greater distribution of fire than the Constitution or Miranda class.
Facilities were also included to support up to five hundred ground troops; barracks accommodation was located adjacent to the ships six transporter rooms and the shuttle craft bay was considerably larger than previous Klingon vessels in order to support landing craft operations. Each D-7 was expected to be able to sustain ground operations for about twenty days without outside resupply.
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Scout ship
Dimensions
Length 98 m
Width 94 m
Height 15 m
Decks 2
Mass 350 tons
Crew up to 73, depending on subtype
Warp Speeds
Normal Cruise Warp 6
Maximum Cruise Warp 7.8
Maximum Rated Warp 8.6 for twelve hours
Armament
- 2 x Light disrupter cannon, total output 250 TeraWatts
- 2 x Probe/photon torpedo tube + 12 probes/torpedoes
- Defence Systems Shield system, total capacity 67,500 TeraJoules
- Standard Duranium/Tritanium single hull plus 2.0 cm
- High Density armour
- Standard level structural integrity field
Expected Lifetime 30 years
Refit Cycle
Minor 1 year
Standard 2 years
Major 5 years
Very little is known about these ships; they appear to be light scout vessels, but have also been used as test beds for technology research projects. Admiral Jarok used a scoutship to cross the Neutral Zone during his defection in 2366; the Admiral set the ship to self-destruct before Federation personnel could board and inspect it, in order to prevent the Federation from learning about Romulan technology. Another scoutship was used by the Romulans to develop their phased cloaking device. This vessel suffered a catastrophic accident in 2368, killing many of the crew and initiating a warp core overload. The Enterprise-D rendered assistance to the ship, managing to eject its warp core in time to save the remaining crew and ship.
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Romulan shuttle
Commissioned 2358 - present
Dimensions
Length 24.23 m
Width 15.98 m
Height 3.67 m
Decks 1
Mass 142.31 tons
Crew 15+, includes facilities for carrying troops
Warp Speeds
Normal Cruise Unknown
Maximum Cruise Unknown
Maximum Rated Warp 9.6 (observed)
Armament
- 6 x Disruptors, total output 900 TeraWatts
- 2 x Photon torpedo launchers + 6 torpedoes
- Defence Systems Shield system, total capacity 40,500 TeraJoules
- Light Duranium Double hull.
- Low level Structural Integrity Field
Expected Lifetime 15 years
Refit Cycle
Minor 1 year
Standard 3 years
Major None
This vessel has only recently been seen up close by the Federation, more because no serious effort has been put into learning about such a low priority craft than due to any great effort at secrecy on the part of the Romulans. The craft is approximately equal to a Federation Runabout in size and capability, although it is more biased toward long range transportation and so is considerably faster. The armament is on a par with the Danube class, with six Disruptors and a pair of photon torpedo tubes. One unusual feature of a vessel this size is the installation of a cloaking device.
These vessels are not produced in anything like the same numbers as the Federation Runabouts, even accounting for the smaller Romulan fleet. This has lead to some speculation that the vessels suffer from an undisclosed design fault, perhaps in the warp drive system. A more likely answer is that relatively high warp capability of this model makes it too expensive to be worth producing in very large quantities, and it is likely that the Romulans operate slower classes of shuttles - perhaps variants on this one - to make up the difference.
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