USS Hood
The Sovereign-II subclass is the brainchild of Admiral Alex Sutton, and his team at
Starfleet R & D. 91% of the design is identical to the earlier Sovereign class, to reduce
lead time in development and to rely on proven systems.
The USS Hood is the first ship of this class, and has just entered fleet service.
Already, her crew has distinguished themselves and their ship by scoring an
unpreceedented victory over the USS Enterprise in mock combat, marking the
first time since before James T. Kirk's era that an Enterprise has been defeated.
The earlier Sovereigns were the next step in Starfleet's first hesitant steps towards
a pure combat starship, immediately after the Defiant-class Escort vessels.
The Sovereign II is the next logical step in that evolution: a starship without the burdens
imposed by diplomatic faculities, and other creature comforts. A pure warship, moreso
than the Defiants.
The Defiants, while being heavily gunned and armored, were not true starships, as they
were incapable of long-range (longer than a few weeks) missions, due to their limited
Matter/Antimatter supplies and limited crew quarters.
This design corrects those deficiencies, while bringing incredible firepower to bear in the
form of triple Mk 2 Quantum Turrets, and Type 14 phasers. Computer simulations have
shown that Quantum Torpedoes are far more effective than starship-mounted phaser
banks in that they deliver more power to the target, and with minimal energy requirements
compared to a volley of phaser fire.
Due to her advanced weapon mounts, the Hood is capable of enaging three targets simultaneously,
even if they are not all directly in front of the vessel. If there is only one target, all three turrets can deliver
a punishing salvo of 30 Quantum Torpedoes, which has been estimated to be enough to destroy even a
Galor-class warship.
Image showing location of Hood's Quantum Turrets
on the underside of the Saucer Section.
To complement the incredible firepower, other modifications have been added that greatly
increase starship survivability. They are listed below.
1). Improved Engines: The impulse units are 30% more powerful than the ones on the earlier
Sovereign class. This allows for a greatly improved acceleration/decceleration rate and a slightly
higher sublight speed.
2). Improved RCS thrusters: The Reaction Control System Thrusters are 50% more powerful than
previous models, allowing greatly improved manuverability.
3). 'All or Nothing' Armoring system: This is based on an old Earth practice used in protecting
the heavily armored ships of the early 20th century against enemy shellfire. Rather than spreading the
armor around the ship evenly, it is concentrated in vital areas, such as the engines, magazines, and
bridge, allowing a thicker armor belt, without the weight penalty. The Sovereign, for example, has
2 meters of abalative armor all over the ship. The Sovereign II's armor is only 10cm at it's weakest,
but 12 meters at it's thickest, on the warp nacelles, engine room, Antimatter pod room, deuterium
tanks, torpedo magazines, and bridge. Even with the thicker armor, the mass of the armor is only
a few hundred tons greater.
Comments:
The Sovereign-II class has had a long and difficult gestation. Many of the peace factions in the
Federation Council and activists all over the Federation regarded her construction as an outright
act of war against non-aligned systems - despite the fact that the Cardassian Union, Romulan Star
Empire, Klingon Empire, and the Dominion all have dedicated combat starships, and have done so
for their entire histories as spacefaring races.
The reason why the Hood raised such ire while the Defiant only raised the hackles of a few, was
that the Sovereign-II class was capable of travelling at high warp for extended periods of time, and
conducting long patrol missions on the order of years without external resupply, while the Defiant was,
at best, capable of only a few weeks before resupply.
The idea of being able to conduct extended combat missions was anathema to many in the Federation
Council. However, Admiral Sutton was able to get one prototype built. Even with his distinguished
Dominion War record, he still had to make a few compromises.
To give one example, Quantum Turrets #1 and #3 were designated "probe launchers" and for normal
peacetime operations, they can only carry probes. However, in times of war, it is a relatively simple
operation to replace the probes with a full load of Quantums.