OBERTH CLASS NX-602
Starship Prototype
External Blueprints & Deck Plans

Design Team: David Schmidt, Tim Palgut
Copyright: 2007

DESIGN HISTORY:

In 2270 - faced with the escalation of the Klingon/Romulan-Federation cold war - the majority of Starfleet's 'Capital Ships-of-the-Line' (Class I Starships based upon the Constitution & Knox Primary Hulls) were called up for patrol/picket duty along the neutral zone and within major sectors of the Federation. This faced Starfleet with a quandary: although its stated 1st mandate was exploration (the 2nd being defense), the stated 2nd mandate was drawing essential starships from the 1st. Accordingly, the Class II Starship was created to supplement in less military missions.

The Class II Starship is based upon an Integral Hull Design - comprised of a hemispheric Main Hull-portion and a plate-like Support Hull-portion.

A major innovation in the Class II Starship is the Outrigger Hull-module. Since all Command/Navigation/Power & Propulsion/Personnel features are contained (some have said 'crammed') into the Integral Hull, the Outrigger Hull-module need not house any of these features and so can be entirely mission-specific in design. Thus each Class II version (there are four to date: Research Cruiser, Tug, Corvette, Clipper) is a specialist; designed and dedicated to one defined role and correspondingly inflexible/ill-suited for others.

The Outrigger Hull-module of the Oberth-class Research Cruiser has a greater volume than the Integral Hull, and is divided into 4 distinct sections. The forward section is an enormous 3-level bay enclosing the largest sensor array yet mounted on a self-propelled platform - the BX8997v. The mid section contains the transceiver/processing modules for the array. A single forward-firing photon torpedo launcher and magazine are located below this. The aft section encloses a Communications Relay Buoy Magazine, Photon Torpedo Magazine (for tactical retreat defense), and an oversized launcher for both. The fourth section is located above these three, and is comprised of two large deuterium tanks to supplement the Integral Hull's tanks - and thus extend the range of the Research Cruiser.

The first spaceframe components of the class' lead ship were gamma-welded at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in 2273. On 21 February 2275, U.S.S. Oberth (NX-602) was launched from the San Francisco Orbital Yards. She immediately began shakedown trials in the home sectors, being formally commissioned on 11 October 2275.

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