Janes' Fighting Starships: The Federation of Planets.
The
Philosopher Class starship is the earliest of Starfleet's capital ships. The
USS Socrates is shown here.
The
Miranda Class frigate replaces the Philosopher, in that she's faster and more heavily armed. This class will continue to see service throughout the Drengin and Klingon wars of the 23rd century.
This is the rear view of the
USS Reliant.
The most recognizable of Starfleets vessels is the Constitution Class heavy cruiser (USS Enterprise shown here). She boasts heavy beam weaponry, and later upgrades will include torpedo armament as well. This is the most successful ship design in the Starfleet order of battle.
The
Aurora Class interceptor cruiser was built with speed in mind. About equal in size to the
Constitution Class cruisers, the Auroras were twice as fast. This speed came at a price, as they were grossly underpowered for their size, and did not fare well in the early stages of the Drengin onslaught. They were mothballed, only to be returned to service to fight pirates.
The
Agamemnon Class Battleships were the first ships dedicated to warfighting. Eschewing scientific, explorative and diplomatic equipment and personnel, this heavy warship was packed with beam weaponry and heavy armor. She could go toe to toe with the heaviest vessels of either the Drengin or Klingon fleets.
The
Monarch Class Dreadnought is the most powerful vessel constructed at Utopia Planitia. The expense of construction of such a ship limited the quantities that Starfleet could field in times of war; The Monarchs dominate the battlespace in any engagement, and to date, none have been lost.
The
Impervious Class dreadnought is a larger, but less powerful vessel the the Monarch. An experimental design with heavy armor and defensive capabilities, she lacked the equivalent in offensive capacity. This was thought to counter the Klingon's "super Warrior" first strike ability. These Dreadnoughts did not perform as well as the Monarchs, and were scrapped early in the production run.
The
Spectre class special ops cruiser bears little resemblance to other Starfleet designs. Created to travel deeps into enemy space to interrupt communications, mining, and trade, the Spectres had high speed, experimental hyperwarp 3 engines with a low-intensity warp signature (note the green plasma color). Although Starfleet did not employ cloaking technology, the ships angular nature and special coating over the engine nacelles provided stealth. This vessel was only built at the Hyperion shipyards, affording her even greater speed than any other Starhip.
