Steamrunner-Wolverine class
Excelling as an escort vessel, though designed as a true frigate, the Steamrunner-Wolverine class, or "SRM2", was comissioned in 2376, and continuing to serve the fleet today.
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- Class and Type: Steamrunner-Wolverine-class Frigate
- Commissioning Date: 2250
While the original Steamrunner class served well, it was beginning to take more of a back-seat to the Intrepid class, due to the lack of true diplomatic abilities or a strong mission objective. With many of the original units being moved from other territories to the core of the Federation, the new Steamrunner-Wolverine uprating will allow this class to again be useful among the fleet.
History
In early 2375, the ship which was to later yield the newest Phoenix fell into the laps of StarBase engineers. The USS Tiger, a Steamrunner class ship was assigned to StarBase 118 on stardate 9902.01, as a patrol ship for the base. After approximately six months on the base as a patrol, Admiral Wolf comissioned an experimental refit for the ship. Engineers drew up an entirely new package for the Tiger, which included a more powerful weaponry system, and shield defenses which surpassed it's previous systems. The hope was that the ship could be a protoype for a new line of Steamrunners, which would serve more primarily as escort ships, instead of multipurpose vessels.
Engineers also kept in mind that the new Tiger would hopefully be a more stable ship than the Defiant class, which is notoriously quirky, with strange problems occuring here and there during operation. Being that, the Steamrunner refit would hopefully be a companion ship to the Defiant class, utilizing the most updated technology available.
Another plus to using the Steamrunner class for this type of refit is that it is a larger ship than the Defiant class. While it does lose points in the manueverability area, more area on the ship means more room for weapons. The engineers of this refit used this to their advantage when redesigning. Much of the unneeded components (such as diplomatic luxuries, etc.) were scrapped in favor of a larger power source, and more torpedo tubes.
While this refit lived up the hopes for a stable, powerful escort ship to be a companion to the Defiant class, there were further changes to be made, and new problems that needed conquering. In one of the first runs of the Tiger out from StarBase 118 it was discovered that the system drops shields when coming out of warp.
The USS Tiger was only a prototype for the planned Steamrunner-Wolverine class. The first ship of this new sub class is the USS Phoenix-C. The extended capabilities of the Phoenix-C over the Tiger refit include: a larger sickbay, which uses the most up to date medical technology available in Starfleet, well-equipped science labs, and an entirely new double hull of heavy Duranium/Tritanium (over the Standard Duranium/Tritanium of the Tiger), with 15 cm of Ablative Armour, plus two more impulse engine outputs (for increased manueverability). A Type X phaser bank will complete the overhaul, bringing the total output for all phaser weapons to 75,000 TeraWatts. (This could not be added to the Tiger, as a new phaser bank would require too much rewiring, which could jeopardize the safety of the ship during battle. The Phoenix-C has the phaser bank planned into the blue-prints, making it's placement safer.) These revisions take the Phoenix-C's overall strength index number to approximately 1,050.
Tiger/Uprating Comparison
| Statistics | Pre Refit Tiger | Post Refit Tiger |
| Length | 366 m | 366 m |
| Width | 160 m | 160 m |
| Height | 40 m | 40 m |
| Decks | 9 | 9 |
| Mass | 375,000 tons | 425,000 tons |
| Crew | 125 | 90 |
| Speed | Normal: 6 | Normal: 7 |
| Normal Cruise: 8.8 | Normal Cruise: 9.1 | |
| Max Rated: 9.5 | Max Rated: 9.5 | |
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| Overall Strength Index (Galaxy Class = 1,000; Sovereign Class = 2,760) | 450 | Approximately 915 |
Noteworthy Vessels/service records/encounters
- USS Tiger, NCC-52199, prototype;
- USS Phoenix-C, NCC-65403-C, first ship of the line;
- USS Wallace, NCC-53716;
Gallery of Images
Front view
Rear view
Top view
Rear view of saucer
Escape pods
Schematics
