Type:

Destroyer

Unit Run:

U.S.S. Concorde, NCC-68711
U.S.S. Freedom
U.S.S. Firebrand, NCC-68723
plus 58 others plus six building, nine planned. 27 are currently in service,
the remainder lost at Wolf 359 and in the Dominion war.

Commissioned

2335 - 2350

Dimensions

Length 453 m
Width 231.6 m
Height 119 m
Decks 31
Mass 3,200,000 tons

Crew

370

Warp Speeds

Normal Cruise Warp 5
Maximum Cruise Warp 7.6
Maximum Rated Warp 9 for twelve hours

Armament

6 x Type VIII Phaser arrays, total phaser output 22,500 TeraWatts
2 x Standard photon torpedo tubes + 120 torpedoes
Antimatter spread emitter

Defense Systems

Shield system, total capacity 1,000,000 TeraJoules
Standard Duranium/Tritanium double hull plus 0.4 cm High Density armour
Standard level Structural Integrity Field
Strength Indices (Galaxy Class=1,000)
Beam Firepower 450
Torpedo Firepower 250
Weapon Range & Accuracy 755
Shield Strength 370
Hull Armour 140
Speed 760
Combat Manoeuvrability 4,600
Overall Strength Index 425

Diplomatic Capability

Grade 7

Expected Lifetime

100 years

Refit Cycle

Minor 1 year
Standard 5 years
Major 20 years

General Information

The Freedom was designed at the same time as the Niagara class as a smaller, shorter ranged counterpart to that vessel. Unusually for a Federation vessel the Freedom has a single nacelle; this reduces the efficiency of the warp field and leads to a significantly reduced average cruise speed. The Freedom is therefore generally deployed only within Federation borders.
The elimination of the Engineering hull required many changes in order to move the warp core and fuel supply into the saucer section, but Starfleet has accomplished this transition successfully with several other classes and few problems were encountered with the Freedom.
There is a reduction in the volume available to other applications within the Freedom, and several accomodations sections and science and diplomatic facilities have been removed. This has led to a reduction in the crew compared to the Niagara. The Freedom initially proved reasonably successful in service, but their low speed was more of a limiting factor than had been predicted.
The planned run of over 200 was cut down to 100, then to 70, before production was finally terminated at 61 ships completed. The Freedom fell a little behind the state of the art in the late 2350's and early 2360's, and by 2365 it was decided to refit the class with Galaxy-class nacelles. This project went remarkably smoothly, and all ships were so modified by was completed by 2370.
The change increased the ships speed, and they have played a more prominent role since this time.