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Sovereign class/History: Difference between revisions
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#3B7883; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #F0E68C; text-align:center; color:#ffffff; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">GENERAL OVERVIEW</h2> | |||
The Sovereign Project was one of three main forays into the field of new defensive technologies initially intended for use against the Borg. The prototype, U.S.S. Sovereign (NX-75000) was still in the design phase during the Battle of Wolf 359, and began its actual space-trials in 2369. | |||
The ''Sovereign Project'' was one of three main forays into the field of new defensive technologies initially intended for use against the Borg. The prototype, U.S.S. Sovereign (NX-75000) was still in the design phase during the '''Battle of Wolf 359''', and began its actual space-trials in 2369. | |||
Initial production of the Sovereign class began at the ASDB Integration Facility, Utopia Planitia, Mars, with final compartmentalization at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, Earth, where it continues to this day. Long term production plans are estimated to include both the Antares Fleet Yards, Antares IV and the New Aberdeen Fleet Yard, Aldebaran, but as of yet, are not included in the Sovereign production plans. | Initial production of the Sovereign class began at the ASDB Integration Facility, Utopia Planitia, Mars, with final compartmentalization at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, Earth, where it continues to this day. Long term production plans are estimated to include both the Antares Fleet Yards, Antares IV and the New Aberdeen Fleet Yard, Aldebaran, but as of yet, are not included in the Sovereign production plans. | ||
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#3B7883; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #F0E68C; text-align:center; color:#ffffff; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">CONSTRUCTION HISTORY</h2> | |||
Project Sovereign was born out of sheer necessity and the stark reality of impending Borg invasion. As the reports and intelligence gathered by the Enterprise-D were studied and applied, Starfleet came to the humbling conclusion that its grand fleet may be no match for the massive Borg cubes. While the threat was full of dark portent, Starfleet decided to tackle the problem behind closed doors. Several projects were born or modified due to the threat of an impending Borg attack: Project's Norway and Steamrunner were revamped in large part due to the Borg threat, along with the birth of the now infamous Defiant and Prometheus Projects. | Project Sovereign was born out of sheer necessity and the stark reality of impending Borg invasion. As the reports and intelligence gathered by the '''Enterprise-D''' were studied and applied, Starfleet came to the humbling conclusion that its grand fleet may be no match for the massive Borg cubes. While the threat was full of dark portent, Starfleet decided to tackle the problem behind closed doors. Several projects were born or modified due to the threat of an impending Borg attack: Project's Norway and Steamrunner were revamped in large part due to the Borg threat, along with the birth of the now infamous Defiant and Prometheus Projects. | ||
Analysis of the Borg weapons system, particularly the tractor and cutting beams, illustrated the limitations of Starfleet shielding. The fixed-frequency, symmetrical oscillating subspace graviton field common to starships of the Starfleet proved to be a severe limitation in combat against the ever-adapting Borg. Starships had to constantly randomize their shield frequency in order to affect a reliable defense, which in the heat of combat proved to be difficult at best - at least in readings gathered in the Enterprise-D's initial encounter with the Borg. Krups Defense Systems, a manufacturer of photon torpedo casings, proposed a new type of shield system. This shield system would automatically and constantly shift its nutation and frequency based on the frequency of the attacking vessel's weaponry. Each time the enemy attacked the shield, it would shift and match the opposing weapons frequency and nutation, regenerating its power load to the maximum available for defense. This system, known as Project: Valkyrie, was still in the initial design stages when Project Sovereign was launched. So impressed was Starfleet Command that they signed a specialized product development agreement with Krups for a modern shield system based on the prototypes in the Valkyrie project. So successful was the Valkyrie Project that all starships constructed or refit since 2370 have had this technology integrated into their shield systems. | Analysis of the Borg weapons system, particularly the tractor and cutting beams, illustrated the limitations of Starfleet shielding. The fixed-frequency, symmetrical oscillating subspace graviton field common to starships of the Starfleet proved to be a severe limitation in combat against the ever-adapting Borg. Starships had to constantly randomize their shield frequency in order to affect a reliable defense, which in the heat of combat proved to be difficult at best - at least in readings gathered in the Enterprise-D's initial encounter with the Borg. Krups Defense Systems, a manufacturer of photon torpedo casings, proposed a new type of shield system. This shield system would automatically and constantly shift its nutation and frequency based on the frequency of the attacking vessel's weaponry. Each time the enemy attacked the shield, it would shift and match the opposing weapons frequency and nutation, regenerating its power load to the maximum available for defense. This system, known as Project: Valkyrie, was still in the initial design stages when Project Sovereign was launched. So impressed was Starfleet Command that they signed a specialized product development agreement with Krups for a modern shield system based on the prototypes in the Valkyrie project. So successful was the Valkyrie Project that all starships constructed or refit since 2370 have had this technology integrated into their shield systems. | ||
Another advancement in shielding, developed by Seinar Fleet Systems, was the concept of Regenerative Shielding. Designed with the Borg in mind, the newly developed Regenerative Shielding was seen as a major step forward in the development of defensive technologies, given the Borg Threat and the newly recognized Dominion threat. The concept behind Regenerative Shielding was to not only constantly shift the nutation and frequency of the shield while engaged, but also to constantly and completely re-initialize the shield grid, maintaining maximum coverage with maximum protective power during combat situations. This would be accomplished with a redundant system of shield generators - when one particular portion of the grid fell below acceptable levels, back-up generators would immediately activate and strengthen the damaged portion of the grid. When the primary generators rebuilt the shields to standard operating levels, the back-up generators would immediately switch to hot-standby until the shield grid was attacked again. This straightforward concept was never deployed due to the tremendous power requirements to maintain such protection. Seeing the inherent benefit of a starship designed to utilize Regenerative Shielding, Starfleet requested a full grid of generators, 30 shield generators in total, to be constructed for testing by the ASDB. SFS delivered the first thirty shield generators in 2364, where they were stored at Utopia Planitia until completion of the Sovereign hull. Due to space and, of course, power restrictions, only 26 of the original 30 generators were deployed in the original Sovereign hull. | Another advancement in shielding, developed by Seinar Fleet Systems, was the concept of ''Regenerative Shielding''. Designed with the Borg in mind, the newly developed Regenerative Shielding was seen as a major step forward in the development of defensive technologies, given the Borg Threat and the newly recognized Dominion threat. The concept behind Regenerative Shielding was to not only constantly shift the nutation and frequency of the shield while engaged, but also to constantly and completely re-initialize the shield grid, maintaining maximum coverage with maximum protective power during combat situations. This would be accomplished with a redundant system of shield generators - when one particular portion of the grid fell below acceptable levels, back-up generators would immediately activate and strengthen the damaged portion of the grid. When the primary generators rebuilt the shields to standard operating levels, the back-up generators would immediately switch to hot-standby until the shield grid was attacked again. This straightforward concept was never deployed due to the tremendous power requirements to maintain such protection. Seeing the inherent benefit of a starship designed to utilize Regenerative Shielding, Starfleet requested a full grid of generators, 30 shield generators in total, to be constructed for testing by the ASDB. SFS delivered the first thirty shield generators in 2364, where they were stored at Utopia Planitia until completion of the Sovereign hull. Due to space and, of course, power restrictions, only 26 of the original 30 generators were deployed in the original Sovereign hull. | ||
Due to the speed at which the shields and phasers would have to retask themselves, a new generation of computing technology was introduced with the Intrepid Class - the Bio-Neural Gel Pack Computer technology. Based on the synaptic firing of neurons within the brain, the Bio-Neural Gel-based system was by far the fastest computer ever devised by Starfleet, giving the ship-board computers unprecedented computing speeds. The heart of the BNG is a packet of neural clusters, grown copies of strands similar to those found in the brains of sentient beings. These clusters give the ship’s computer ‘instinctive’ data processing and routing ability as well as allowing the ship’s computer to utilize ‘fuzzy logic’ to speed up probability calculations much as a living, breathing entity would. Given the tremendous processing needs that the Regenerative and Rotating Shield system required, Project Sovereign decided to utilize the BNGP system for the Sovereign class, a quick upgrade over the standard Isolinear Computer Cores. | Due to the speed at which the shields and phasers would have to retask themselves, a new generation of computing technology was introduced with the Intrepid Class - the Bio-Neural Gel Pack Computer technology. Based on the synaptic firing of neurons within the brain, the Bio-Neural Gel-based system was by far the fastest computer ever devised by Starfleet, giving the ship-board computers unprecedented computing speeds. The heart of the BNG is a packet of neural clusters, grown copies of strands similar to those found in the brains of sentient beings. These clusters give the ship’s computer ‘instinctive’ data processing and routing ability as well as allowing the ship’s computer to utilize ‘fuzzy logic’ to speed up probability calculations much as a living, breathing entity would. Given the tremendous processing needs that the Regenerative and Rotating Shield system required, Project Sovereign decided to utilize the BNGP system for the Sovereign class, a quick upgrade over the standard Isolinear Computer Cores. | ||