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Hercules Class

The Hercules class was one of the faster and more spacious developments to replace the Daedalus class. Hercules-class ships were designed to achieve a maximum speed of Warp 4, thereby reducing the average travel time between the star systems of the Federation from several months to a few weeks. In order to boost the short-term performance as well as provide redundancy for long-time runs, the Hercules class originally had two separate M/AM chambers that fed two parallel PTCs leading to both nacelles. Warp 5.5 was achieved on test runs, but the stress on the warp coils was found to be so high that 28 of the 34 coils had to be replaced after the test.

In contrast to most previous starships that were designed with combat situations in mind, the Hercules class was only moderately armed. It included a number of science labs of different branches, including stellar cartography, astrophysics, exobiology and anthropology. The shuttlebay astern usually held two shuttles on permanent stand-by and two more that could be prepared for launch in case of an emergency. The Hercules class was originally armed with high-yield plasma cannons only. The ships were refitted with phasers until 2210.

After the introduction of the larger and more versatile Asia class, the Hercules class gradually became dispensable. Owing to the incompatibility of the projectile launchers with the newly developed photon torpedoes, the ships were no match for more recent Klingon cruisers, like the D4. They had to be withdrawn from their role as front-line ships when tensions with the Klingon Empire rose after 2218. The simple structure with one large deck and the easy maintenance of the systems subsequently made the Hercules an ideal support vessel. After the labs and most of the crew quarters had been removed and a grapple arm and additional loading ports had been installed, twelve ships of the class served as tenders. The second warp core was removed as well. The last ships of the so modified Hercules class were in service as late as 2275.

Gallery

Preliminary three-view schematics
(ca. 1996)

Revised and more detailed version

Close-up side view

Hercules-class tender (since 2220)

USS Ulysses approaching a moon
(created by Brian Minosh)

USS Ulysses inside a nebula
(created by Brian Minosh)

USS Ulysses emerging from a wormhole
(created by Brian Minosh)

Pre-TOS ship group
(created by Brian Minosh)

Datasheet

Credits

Thanks to Brian Minosh for his 3D model.

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