Sirius Class

At the time of its completion, the Sirius class was among the largest classified starship types. With respect to armament and sensor equipment, the Sirius class shows comparable performance as the Excelsior class, which is of approximately equal size. The main difference is that the Excelsior was never intended to be a dedicated science vessel, with the exception of the transwarp experiment from 2284 to 2288. The Excelsior had already become the backbone of Starfleet's military and logistic operations and should remain in this duty for many decades. In contrast, the Sirius was developed for general exploration as well as specific scientific missions. This is why the shuttlebay of the Sirius class is relatively small and the passenger and cargo capacity is limited in favor of various science labs, and also more room and convenience for a much smaller permanent crew than on the Excelsior. The construction of the class was eased by using the same saucer section as the Lancelot class. Since the Lancelot was already equipped with several science labs, even the internal arrangement could remain largely the same.

The Sirius class employed many construction principles for the first time and can be regarded as a pathfinder design for the huge Ambassador class. It was even considered to cancel the development of the Ambassador - which was often regarded as oversized - in favor of the much more economic Sirius. The most obvious new feature is the design of the warp nacelles. Contrary to the long and thin warp nacelles of the Excelsior and other recent ships, the Sirius class utilizes as few as 12 sets of warp coils per nacelle, with a larger diameter. Also, the Bussard collector has been significantly enlarged so as to become a prominent part of the nacelle.

After only eight ships of the Sirius class had been commissioned, Starfleet finally decided to build the Ambassador in larger numbers, and the originally scheduled production of a second batch of the Sirius class was canceled. Although newer ships had superior weapons and propulsion systems already then, all eight ships of the Sirius class were successful in defending Federation outposts in the border conflict with the Cardassians in the 2350's. The last five of them were withdrawn from active service in 2370 and are currently stored in surplus depots. In 2376, three ships had been temporarily recommissioned to fight the Dominion, but they never engaged in a battle until the end of the war.

 

Gallery

 

Datasheet

 

Credits

Thanks to Jay Hagen for his 3D model.

 

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