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Benjamin Franklin Class

Although the peak of the series production had not yet been reached, the Excelsior class had become the common design for high-performance cruiser-type vessels at the beginning of the 24th century. These heavy cruisers, however, turned out oversized for many purposes. As the smaller Constitution-class vessels were slowly being retired, Starfleet called for a replacement of about the same size. The ships of the new class should be 50% less expensive in building and maintenance than the Excelsior, but still provide more than 50% of their internal volume.

These very tight specs led to a design using many standard components. The warp power generation of the new class was based on the established one of the Excelsior, but simplified or downscaled in many regards. Overall, the warp drive was designed to reach no more than Warp 7.5 for 48 hours, which was considered sufficient for short runs mostly at the Federation's "western" borders to the Alpha Quadrant. The warp nacelles, on the other hand, had to be newly developed. Recent research in warp field dynamics had suggested that a "flat ellipsoid" shape of the warp field would have advantages over of the rather cylindrical shapes on previous ships, including the Excelsior. The new YWC-6002 warp coils were especially designed to create such a wider but flatter warp bubble, which was accounted for by giving the saucer hull a then unusual transversal ellipsoid shape. The lead ship, USS Benjamin Franklin, was commissioned in 2302. 23 more ships followed until 2310 when Starfleet decided to switch to the all-new Renaissance class.

As the "western" border regions of the Federation became more and more unsafe in the following decades due to attacks by warlike Talarians, Tzenkethi and Cardassians, more and more military tasks were gradually taken over by the Benjamin Franklin class. Although the ship was easy to handle and to repair, owing to its simplicity, it eventually turned out inferior to the ever improved technology of the threat forces. Starfleet, now having many new combat-capable designs of this size like the New Orleans or Renaissance, did not consider to upgrade the few ships of the Benjamin Franklin class. In 2358 the last ship was decommissioned, heavily damaged after a Cardassian attack in the Tracken system. The ships were subsequently replaced by newly built New Orleans-class vessels.

Gallery

Preliminary three-view schematics
(ca. 1997)

Revised and more detailed version

Datasheet

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