Type:

Cruiser

Unit Run:

U.S.S. Archon, NCC-189
U.S.S. Daedalus, NCC-1700
U.S.S. Essex, NCC-173
U.S.S. Horizon, NCC-176 plus a total of 186 built between 2158 and 2168.
None remain in service.

Commissioned

2158 - 2166

Dimensions

Length 104 m
Width 48 m
Height 40 m
Decks 10
Mass 30,000 tons

Crew

229

Warp Speeds

Normal Cruise Warp 4
Maximum Cruise Warp 4.5
Maximum Rated Warp 4.9

Armament

4 x Laser cannon, total output 1,000 TeraWatts
2 x Missile launch tubes + 24 fusion missiles

Defense Systems

Shield system, total capacity 40,500 TeraJoules
Standard Monotanium single hull
Low level Structural Integrity Field
Strength Indices (Galaxy Class=1,000)
Beam Firepower 20
Torpedo Firepower 5
Weapon Range & Accuracy 100
Shield Strength 15
Hull Armour 1 Speed 60
Combat Manoeuvrability 3,800
Overall Strength Index 40

Diplomatic Capability

Approximately equal to Grade 2/3

Expected Lifetime

30 years

Refit Cycle

Minor 1 year
Standard 2 years
Major 10 years

General Information

The Human / Romulan war was Humanities first interstellar conflict after more than forty years of total peace. Thus, while the Romulans began the war with a well tested fleet of purpose designed combat vessels, the Humans where trying to hold them back with converted merchant vessels augmented by the occasional ship bought from an alien government. From the first day of the war it was obvious that a new class of warships was needed, ships that where larger, faster and more powerful than any which had preceded them.
Work began at a feverish pace early in 2156, and by mid 2158 the first of the new Daedalus class was launched. The designers where urged to be daring, and they certainly took this advice to heart. Instead of the integrated hull form which most previous ships had possessed, the Daedalus class was the first design which featured a multi-hulled configuration. The engineering section was a cylinder six decks tall which housed the ships heavy engineering equipment - the warp core, structural integrity and inertial damper field generator systems, shield generators, hangar bays, impulse drive, etc.
This hull was connected by a two deck neck to a spherical primary hull which housed the ships main weapons, control areas and provision for the crew. The Daedalus class was intended to remain in space for up to a full year with minimum outside support, far longer than any pervious design. The accommodation standards where thus much improved compared to the ships which began the Romulan war; the senior officers had individual rooms, while all enlisted personnel had barracks style accommodations.
Considering that contemporary vessels slept everybody below the rank of Lieutenant Commander in hammocks hung wherever there was room, the Daedalus represented a quantum leap in luxury. Primarily a combat vessel, the class was fitted with four laser cannon of the heaviest type in service and a magazine of twenty four fusion missiles. Combined with her high speed and enhanced shield capacity, the Daedalus was considered equal to any four Romulan warships. In service they proved exemplary, rapidly acquiring a fearsome reputation on the front lines.
By 2159 the rapidly growing Daedalus fleet had turned the tide in the war, and by the end of that year they where routinely striking deep into Romulan home territory. The Romulans, faced with a war now fought almost wholly on their own territory, sued for peace in 2160. When the United Federation of Planets was formed in 2161, the constitution called on members to supply the newly formed Starfleet with ships until purpose-built vessels could be constructed.
The pacifist Vulcan's where reluctant to devote resources to what they considered a military force, but the Humans had no such qualms; of the fleet of seventy Daedalus class vessels in service in 2161, they turned over no less than sixty of these to Starfleet. With Starfleet assigned a major scientific and exploratory role in addition to its secondary military mission, this bold move bought the Humans a huge stake in the future of the Federation. Virtually every exploratory mission, every first contact, every new scientific discovery made in the first eighty years of the UFP was made by Daedalus class starships under Human command and carrying wholly Human crews.