Bravo Fleet
Difference between pages "Jalian" and "User:Teylasramar/Sandbox/Constitution class"

Difference between pages "Jalian" and "User:Teylasramar/Sandbox/Constitution class"

From Bravo Fleet
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{{Character
{{icons|bfc}}
| image = [[File:Saurian Female.png]]
{{Specification
| name = Jalian
| image = [[Image:Constitution.png]]
| fullname =  
| displayName = '''''Constitution'' Class'''
| placeoforigin = Sauria
| name = Constitution
| species = Saurian
| affiliation = [[United Federation of Planets]]
| gender = Female
| operator = [[Starfleet]]
| dateofbirth = 1 April, 2340
| status = Retired
| dateofdeath =  
| role = Heavy Cruiser
| age = 59
| type =
| precedingClass =
| succeedingClass = Constitution II
| dateEntered = 2244
| productionEnd = 2268
| retired = *2271 (for refit)
*2288 (last original configuration retired)
| expectedDuration = 100 Years
| expectedRefit = 10 Years
| timeResupply = 5 Years
| crewComplement = *450 (standard)
*200 (5-year missions)
| emergencyCap = 2,000
| civilians =
| populationCap =
| flightCrew =
| passengers =
| length =
| width =  
| diameter =  
| height =  
| height =  
| weight =  
| decks = 22
| hair =  
| propulsionSystem = M/AM Warp Drive
| eyes =  
| cruiseSpeed = Warp 6
| affiliation = [[Starfleet]]
| maxSpeed = Warp 8
| rank = [[File:A1-1.png|alt=Commodore|Commodore]]
| emergencySpeed = Warp 9
| posting = [[Starbase 72]]
| energyWeapons = 6x Type-VI Phaser Emitters
| position = Commanding Officer
| torpLaunchers = *2 forward
}}'''Commodore Jalian''' is the current commanding officer of [[Starbase 72]], with authority over the base itself and ships operating in the surrounding sector that aren't attached directly to Task Force 72. She has had a long career spent both as an officer in the Judge-Advocate General's Corps, as well as on Starbase 72 itself. Friendly and gregarious, she's known for allowing meetings to go far too long when she finds something interesting or appealing about the conversation. She's partial to spending a large part of her day strolling through the station's public areas, getting to know the crew and residents when she's not attending to paperwork in her office.
*1 aft
| torpPayload = 150 Photon Torpedoes
| shields = Graviton Shielding System
| dockingfacilities =
| shuttleBays = 1 aft landing bay
| shuttles = 4 Class F shuttles
| runabouts =  
| fighters =
| aux =  
| msd =  
}}The '''''Constitution''-class''' heavy cruiser is a legendary starship design often considered to be the exemplar of both [[Starfleet|Starfleet’s]] mission and its design ethos. First built in the 2240s, they remained Starfleet’s premiere heavy cruiser until the 2270s, having been refit and overhauled numerous times over those three decades until the changes became so substantial that the class was succeeded by its Enterprise sub-class, known officially as the [[Constitution II|''Constitution II''-class]].


== History ==
==History==
===Genesis===
By the 2220s, the [[United Federation of Planets]] Starfleet had established its mission and its philosophy as being distinct both from the [[ma:Earth Starfleet|United Earth Starfleet]] and the stellar services of the Tellarites, Vulcans, and Andorians, but its shipbuilding practices continued to be largely fragmented. Vulcans built science ships, Andorians built warships, Tellarites built trade vessels, and Humans built a little bit of everything. In some ways this was advantageous—national shipyards could excel in what they were good at—but the Federation had yet to truly synergize the strengths of its member worlds into a cohesive technological platform. Named for the idea of the governing documents of a union serving to strengthen its people, Project Constitution was ordered in 2230 as a way of unifying the technological abilities of the Federation’s members into a single vessel that would embody Starfleet’s core missions of exploration, diplomacy, defense, and mercy for missions far beyond explored space.


=== Early Life (2340-2358) ===
Starfleet Engineering created the Advanced Starship Design Bureau to design the Constitution, with its headquarters and production facility located in the heart of the Federation at [[ma:San Francisco Fleet Yards|San Francisco Fleet Yards]]. The design process was slow and methodical, taking nearly fifteen years before the first two vessels left the yards. The brief was not just to create a starship that incorporated aspects of various member worlds’ achievements but to go beyond them to create a vessel that innovated in every area. This would be the largest, most elaborate, and most capable starship yet fielded by Starfleet, taking on a crew of 500 humanoids for voyages of five years with minimal outside support.
Jalian was born on Sauria in 2340, one of many daughters in a large family. She was friendly and curious as a child, enjoying learning about the many cultures of the Federation in school. She knew she wanted to leave Sauria as soon as she was able to see the wider galaxy, if only just to talk to new and interesting species.


=== Starfleet Academy (2358-2366) ===
''Constitution'' herself, NX-1700, and the yet-unnamed NCC-1701 were laid down at San Francisco Fleet Yards in 2234, the former under the supervision of Admiral Matt Jefferies and the latter under then-Captain [[ma:Robert April|Robert April]]. The construction project was a truly multi-species affair, with each systems team purposefully composed of officers from across Starfleet’s own yards and the shipyards of member races. This initially led to conflict, but the management styles of Jefferies and April allowed every member of each team to find their own way of contributing to the project as a whole—this also served as a blueprint for operational procedures and command techniques for managing large multi-species crews, as this was something that Starfleet still lacked significant experience in.
At Starfleet Academy, Jailan decided to concentrate in interstellar relations, for a career as either a diplomatic specialist or a commander, but while there she found herself fascinated by the Federation’s legal system, given that it was the synthesis of many, many cultures’ beliefs about the law and justice. She saw how important it was to have strong voices within the legal system to continue to advocate for equity and equality, as well as to give the accused a proper defense. As such, she decided to enter the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, spending an extra four years at Starfleet Academy to earn her law degree.


=== Early JAG Career (2366-2373) ===
Thanks to the success of the construction process, the order was increased to six vessels in 2238, and ''Constellation'', ''Republic'', and ''Intrepid'' were laid down that same year.
As a junior Judge-Advocate, Jailan was posted to the JAG office on Starbase 21 as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. A large and well-established base, Jailan was excited to be able to get to interact with even more races than she was able to at Starfleet Academy. She was seen as an effective litigator, with her skill really becoming evident in cross-examinations, when she was able to elicit honest and accurate testimony both through her own powers of observation but also because of the way she was able to put other people at ease through her friendly nature. After four years, she was promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to the still-under-construction Starbase 72 as one of its first crew members, where she helped to set up the brand-new JAG office for the area of space near to the Demilitarized Zone.


Even with the base still under construction, Jailan found herself involved in dozens of cases where former Starfleet Officers who joined the Maquis were prosecuted for various offenses, ranging from theft of Federation property to murder. She served on both sides of these cases as they went on, serving equally well as a defense attorney and as a prosecutor. These cases would shape her psyche, though, as she developed a strong distaste for anything that could be seen as betraying the Federation, an institution that she believed so strongly in, but she also recognized that the Federation had betrayed the colonists of the DMZ in many ways as well.
As the design evolved, many areas of the ''Constitution''-class spaceframe were built to be modular and easily reconfigurable to allow the design to be upgradeable, something that proved to be prescient as the class would have many minor upgrades and two major redesigns over its service life. The saucer section in particular was designed to be able to handle anywhere from two-hundred to five-hundred crew, with space for labs, recreational facilities, and sickbays alterable to suit different mission parameters and crew sizes. This was made possible by locating the majority of the ship’s larger equipment—the deflector dish, warp core, cargo holds, hanger, etc.—in the secondary hull, so that the primary hull was reserved for crew support and mission-specific equipment. The initial two vessels were configured to support a crew of 450, with a generalist lab arrangement and volume reserved for diagnostic computers to evaluate them during their shakedowns.


=== Dominion War (2373-2376) ===
The prototype, ''Constitution'', was launched in 2244 and undertook an extensive six-month shakedown cruise in the core of the Federation while NCC-1701 continued under construction. A year later, the second prototype was unveiled as the first Federation starship to bear the name ''Enterprise'', named after the Earth Starfleet vessel widely considered to be the primary instrument leading to the founding of the Federation. Her launch was followed quickly by Constellation, which was completed more quickly thanks to lessons learned along the way of building the first two.
The Dominion War came as a shock to Starbase 72, as even though most of their defenses were operational already, the base was still years away from being finished. It was understaffed and vulnerable. As such, Jailan was pressed into service as an Officer of the Watch, taking many shifts in Station Operations, as the few senior crew who had already been assigned there were shifted to crewing starships. Though she was trained like any other Starfleet officer for such duties, it had been over a decade since she’d gone through her academy training before specializing in the law.


Starbase 72 was the subject of numerous assaults and was a refuge for damaged Klingon, Starfleet, and eventually Romulan starships, some of which were venting plasma as they limped into the base, which was a major test of Jailan’s abilities to manage. She learned early on to trust the more junior officers who were specialized in tasks like docking starships, and career enlisted servicemembers who had decades more experience than she did in such matters. Delegation and a recognition of her own limits served her well during the war.
===Early Service===
''Constitution'', ''Constellation'', and ''Enterprise'' were sent on their first five-year missions in 2245, with Captain [[ma:Garth|Garth of Izar]] commanding ''Constitution'', Captain Robert April commanding ''Enterprise'', and Captain [[ma:Matt Decker|Matt Decker]] commanding ''Constellation'', under the careful watch of Admiral Jefferies. The initial three ships were very successful in their first two years of service, and even as ''Republic'' and ''Intrepid'' were still nearing completion, Starfleet increased the order to twelve total ''Constitution''-class starships. A number of other classes using the same technological base, such as the ''Bellerophon'', ''Radiant'', and ''Archer'' classes were also ordered around this time.


=== USS ''Athabasca'' (2376-2380) ===
The concept of a Five-Year Mission was prototyped aboard the original ''Constitution''-class vessels as a new way of managing the command and staffing of starships. It was not uncommon for short-range vessels to have a captain for a few months at a time or even for a single mission and regular contact with starbases allowed for frequent crew rotations. As the ''Constitution'' was intended to be much more independent, a structure was developed that commissioned each captain to a five-year stint aboard their vessel, with a command crew that was intended to be more or less stable. This required new regulations for managing crew advancement in the field, as well as new strategies for making a starship a comfortable and fulfilling place to spend five years of one’s life.
Following the war, Jailan continued in her temporary role for another year before the fleet stabilized enough for her to be offered her old role back, now that other officers were available to take over running the station. She declined this opportunity, though, as she’d enjoyed the challenge of doing something new. She managed to secure a posting to the ''New Orleans''-class USS ''Athabasca'', a frigate that had just gone through a post-war refit before being sent to aid colonies in the now-Former Demilitarized Zone. Her experience as a watch officer translated imperfectly to life aboard a starship at first, if only for the drastic change in scale of her surroundings, but she rose to the challenge, as her captain valued her ability to connect with the crew on a personal level, seeing their strengths and weaknesses and assigning them appropriately to different tasks.


The ''Athabasca'' was largely spared from major combat during her time aboard, but it was involved with a number of skirmishes with the early grumbles of what would later become the renewed True Way in the 2390s, an organization that she would become intimately familiar in time. While on Starbase 72, she’d participated in the defense of the station against large Cardassian and Dominion forces, but the more intimate nature of ship-to-ship combat felt more personal. She found it inconceivable that any Cardassians wouldn’t want to be part of the Federation; her deep belief in the IDIC philosophy made it hard for her to understand why someone would choose independence at the cost of prosperity.
===Mid Career===
In 2250, ''Constitution'', ''Constellation'', and ''Enterprise'' all completed their first five-year missions to widespread acclaim. While Garth of Izar and Decker remained at their posts, Robert April was promoted to flag rank and, as the newly-minted Director of Deep Space Operations, became the supervisor of the entire Constitution fleet.


=== Return to JAG (2380-2388) ===
A decade into their service, the ''Constitution'' class received their first major overhaul in 2255, with widespread systems upgrades and a shrinking of the crew by two hundred to optimize them for longer deep space missions. This allowed for larger and more spacious quarters, as well as less strain on the life support systems. The members of this class were absent from the [[ma:Federation-Klingon_War_(2256-57)|Federation-Klingon War of 2256-57]], as Starfleet wanted to keep them in reserve. As the class was a large investment of both resources and crew, Starfleet rush-ordered a leaner variant that would replicate the engine and tactical systems of the ''Constitution'' but with a much smaller crew: and a much shorter construction period the ''Sombra''. Few of these vessels were built, given the short duration of the war, and they were all refit as Constitution-class ships with full exploratory systems by 2260.  
Though she enjoyed her time on a starship, Jailan knew that her real passions weren’t ones that she could really pursue in that environment. She applied to take the newly-vacant Sector Judge-Advocate position based on Starbase 72, which she took over as a Captain in 2380. While the Maquis situation was long resolved (by simply being destroyed by the Dominion), the legal situation near the Former Demilitarized Zone was complex: agreements made between colonies based on Cardassian law had to be arbitrated under Federation law, and some former-Cardassian colonies struggled to adapt to the Federation criminal justice system as well. While there were civilian courts on Minos Korva, Jailan was the senior Federation judicial official in the region and ended up sitting as a judge for hundreds of minor cases in her eight years in the position, as well as a prosecutor for high-profile cases that required a flag officer to preside.


Jailan had spent the majority of her career on and near Starbase 72, and she developed a positive reputation among starship captains and colonial officials in the area, which allowed her to take the relationship-building skills she’d developed on a one-to-one basis and apply that to a larger scale with chains of relationships that stretched across the entire sector.
Following the war, Starfleet prioritized the construction of classes that were derived from the ''Constitution'', including the new ''Miranda'', ''Hermes'', and ''Saladin''-class vessels that were directly built from Constitution-type components. This building program included a handful of ''Constitution'' orders which made up losses in the years following, bringing the total ''Constitution''-class fleet up to 12 by 2265.


=== Starbase 72 Command (2388 to Present) ===
Most ships of the ''Constitution'' class retained their 250-person crew into the 2260s, when the next major overhaul returned the core twelve vessels to a 450-person crew. The hull was also encased in a thin layer of metalo-ceramic armor, which gave them their now-classic, stark exterior. While serving still primarily as explorers, this refit also incorporated fewer but heavier phaser banks as a response to simmering tensions on the Klingon border.
Jailan’s abilities as a relationship builder and communicator combined with her wartime experience made her a perfect candidate to become Starbase 72’s executive officer. Technically, it was a step down in terms of her authority, but she welcomed yet another new challenge. Starbase 72 had finally reached its full population of 25,000 Starfleet officers and 50,000 civilians, so the role was somewhere between XO and Deputy Mayor. She held this role for eleven years, before being promoted to Commodore in 2396 and assuming command of the station itself and the surrounding sector.


=== Service Record ===
===Later Life===
{| class="wikitable"
Though these vessels proved to be highly successful in service, ''Defiant'', ''Constellation'', ''Intrepid'', and ''Excalibur'' were all either destroyed outright or lost with all hands during the period between 2265 and 2270. While each of these circumstances was extraordinary and no underlying flaw was found in the class itself, Starfleet ordered an extensive overhaul, starting with the refit of the ''Enterprise'', a project which eventually became the ''Constitution II''-class heavy cruiser.
|+
!Date
!Position
!Posting
!Rank
|-
|2358-2359
|Interstellar Relations Cadet
|Starfleet Academy
|Cadet Fourth Class
|-
|2359-2360
|Interstellar Relations Cadet
|Starfleet Academy
|Cadet Third Class
|-
|2360-2361
|Interstellar Relations Cadet
|Starfleet Academy
|Cadet Second Class
|-
|2361-2362
|Interstellar Relations Cadet
|Starfleet Academy
|Cadet First Class
|-
|2362-2366
|Law Student
|Starfleet Legal Academy
|Ensign
|-
|2366-2370
|Judge-Advocate
|Starbase 21
|Lieutenant Junior Grade
|-
|2370-2373
|Judge-Advocate
|Starbase 72
|Lieutenant
|-
|2373-2376
|Officer of the Watch
|Starbase 72
|Lieutenant Commander
|-
|2376-2380
|Executive Officer
|USS ''Athabasca''
|Commander
|-
|2380-2388
|Sector Judge-Advocate General
|Starbase 72
|Captain
|-
|2388-2396
|Executive Officer
|Starbase 72
|Captain
|-
|2396-Present
|Commanding Officer
|Starbase 72
|Commodore
|}


== Commodore Jailan In-Play ==
Throughout the 2270s, the majority of the ''Constitution''-class vessels were upgraded into ''Constitution II''-class vessels, with the exception of the USS ''New Jersey'', which was not launched until 2268 and thus was considered too new to upgrade. ''New Jersey'' was decommissioned after 20 years of service in 2288, having stubbornly resisted a refit, and was placed in the Starfleet Museum, where she remains as of 2401: the last remaining example of an original configuration ''Constitution''-class starship.


* As a Task Force 72 NPC, you are free to use Commodore Jailan in your own fiction writing or if your game (RPG) visits Starbase 72 during a mission. The information here is meant as a guide for folks to use this character consistently across different stories, but feel free to take some liberties with her exact characterization. Her rank, position, gender, species, and other mundane details shouldn’t be changed, though. Also, don’t kill her; that wouldn’t be nice.
==Vessels Commissioned==
* Jailan is not a stuffy desk warrior; she’s friendly, gregarious, and likes to mingle with the crew and residents. You’re just as likely to find her in the arboretum or strolling between the shops and restaurants in the common areas as in her office or in Station Operations. So, even as an Ensign or Lieutenant, you might meet the head honcho herself, while just out and about rather than formally reporting in.
*USS ''Constitution'' (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
* As a Saurian, Jailan’s natural voice uses lingual clicks and pops, so she uses a universal translator to speak to other species, as her vocal cords can’t produce the sounds that make up the English language. She is approximately two meters tall, but with a slender build, as Sauria has lower gravity than Earth does.
*USS ''Enterprise'' (Refit as Constitution II, Destroyed)
* If you have a thirty-minute meeting scheduled with the commodore, it will last an hour. She’s very curious, and easily fixates on small details which lead to personal questions, questions about family, hobbies, interests, etc., but this is how she gets to know people. This can be a little intimidating to junior officers.
*USS ''Constellation'' (Destroyed)
* As the commodore of a starbase, Jailan has a lot of staff around her to handle the day-to-day operations, but she’s still someone who you might interact with if running missions on a runabout off of the starbase to get your orders and instructions. As someone who enjoys talking to people, it’s not unusual for her to personally be in Station Operations to answer docking requests. The starships in the area that don’t report to Task Force 72 (i.e. your basic border patrol ships, utility ships, and science vessels) report to her.
*USS ''Cayuga'' (Destroyed)
* Jailan has a ''lot'' of experience not only with Starbase 72, but with the True Way and the Former Demilitarized Zone. She’s always happy to share advice to young officers looking for insight on the situation. She also built her early career on the legal aftermath of the Maquis situation, so she has a good understanding of insurgency groups in general, even though she’s not strictly speaking a diplomat.
*USS ''Defiant'' (Lost)
*USS ''Intrepid'' (Destroyed)
*USS ''Excalibur'' (Destroyed)
*USS ''Exeter'' (Refit as Constitution II, Active as training ship)
*USS ''Lexington'' (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
*USS ''Potemkin'' (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
*USS ''Republic'' (Refit as Constitution II, Active as training ship)
*USS ''Hood'' (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
*USS ''Valiant'' (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
*USS ''Yorktown'' (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
*USS ''Sombra'' (S) (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
*USS ''Peregrine'' (S) (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)

Revision as of 00:27, 9 February 2024

This article is official Bravo Fleet canon.









File:Constitution.png
Constitution Class
Information
Affiliation

United Federation of Planets

Status

Retired

Role

Heavy Cruiser

Lineage
Succeeding Class Constitution II-class
Service
Operator

Starfleet

Entered Service

2244

Production Ended

2268

Retired
  • 2271 (for refit)
  • 2288 (last original configuration retired)
Endurance
Expected Design Life

100 Years

Expected Refit Cycle

10 Years

Expected Resupply Cycle

5 Years

Crew Capacity
Standard Complement
  • 450 (standard)
  • 200 (5-year missions)
Emergency Capacity

2,000

Dimensions
Decks

22

Propulsion
Propulsion Systems

M/AM Warp Drive

Cruise Speed

Warp 6

Maximum Speed

Warp 8

Emergency Speed

Warp 9

Armaments
Energy Weapons

6x Type-VI Phaser Emitters

Torpedo Launchers
  • 2 forward
  • 1 aft
Torpedo Payload

150 Photon Torpedoes

Shields

Graviton Shielding System

Small Craft
Shuttlebays

1 aft landing bay

Shuttles

4 Class F shuttles

Template:Specification

The Constitution-class heavy cruiser is a legendary starship design often considered to be the exemplar of both Starfleet’s mission and its design ethos. First built in the 2240s, they remained Starfleet’s premiere heavy cruiser until the 2270s, having been refit and overhauled numerous times over those three decades until the changes became so substantial that the class was succeeded by its Enterprise sub-class, known officially as the Constitution II-class.

History

Genesis

By the 2220s, the United Federation of Planets Starfleet had established its mission and its philosophy as being distinct both from the United Earth Starfleet and the stellar services of the Tellarites, Vulcans, and Andorians, but its shipbuilding practices continued to be largely fragmented. Vulcans built science ships, Andorians built warships, Tellarites built trade vessels, and Humans built a little bit of everything. In some ways this was advantageous—national shipyards could excel in what they were good at—but the Federation had yet to truly synergize the strengths of its member worlds into a cohesive technological platform. Named for the idea of the governing documents of a union serving to strengthen its people, Project Constitution was ordered in 2230 as a way of unifying the technological abilities of the Federation’s members into a single vessel that would embody Starfleet’s core missions of exploration, diplomacy, defense, and mercy for missions far beyond explored space.

Starfleet Engineering created the Advanced Starship Design Bureau to design the Constitution, with its headquarters and production facility located in the heart of the Federation at San Francisco Fleet Yards. The design process was slow and methodical, taking nearly fifteen years before the first two vessels left the yards. The brief was not just to create a starship that incorporated aspects of various member worlds’ achievements but to go beyond them to create a vessel that innovated in every area. This would be the largest, most elaborate, and most capable starship yet fielded by Starfleet, taking on a crew of 500 humanoids for voyages of five years with minimal outside support.

Constitution herself, NX-1700, and the yet-unnamed NCC-1701 were laid down at San Francisco Fleet Yards in 2234, the former under the supervision of Admiral Matt Jefferies and the latter under then-Captain Robert April. The construction project was a truly multi-species affair, with each systems team purposefully composed of officers from across Starfleet’s own yards and the shipyards of member races. This initially led to conflict, but the management styles of Jefferies and April allowed every member of each team to find their own way of contributing to the project as a whole—this also served as a blueprint for operational procedures and command techniques for managing large multi-species crews, as this was something that Starfleet still lacked significant experience in.

Thanks to the success of the construction process, the order was increased to six vessels in 2238, and Constellation, Republic, and Intrepid were laid down that same year.

As the design evolved, many areas of the Constitution-class spaceframe were built to be modular and easily reconfigurable to allow the design to be upgradeable, something that proved to be prescient as the class would have many minor upgrades and two major redesigns over its service life. The saucer section in particular was designed to be able to handle anywhere from two-hundred to five-hundred crew, with space for labs, recreational facilities, and sickbays alterable to suit different mission parameters and crew sizes. This was made possible by locating the majority of the ship’s larger equipment—the deflector dish, warp core, cargo holds, hanger, etc.—in the secondary hull, so that the primary hull was reserved for crew support and mission-specific equipment. The initial two vessels were configured to support a crew of 450, with a generalist lab arrangement and volume reserved for diagnostic computers to evaluate them during their shakedowns.

The prototype, Constitution, was launched in 2244 and undertook an extensive six-month shakedown cruise in the core of the Federation while NCC-1701 continued under construction. A year later, the second prototype was unveiled as the first Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise, named after the Earth Starfleet vessel widely considered to be the primary instrument leading to the founding of the Federation. Her launch was followed quickly by Constellation, which was completed more quickly thanks to lessons learned along the way of building the first two.

Early Service

Constitution, Constellation, and Enterprise were sent on their first five-year missions in 2245, with Captain Garth of Izar commanding Constitution, Captain Robert April commanding Enterprise, and Captain Matt Decker commanding Constellation, under the careful watch of Admiral Jefferies. The initial three ships were very successful in their first two years of service, and even as Republic and Intrepid were still nearing completion, Starfleet increased the order to twelve total Constitution-class starships. A number of other classes using the same technological base, such as the Bellerophon, Radiant, and Archer classes were also ordered around this time.

The concept of a Five-Year Mission was prototyped aboard the original Constitution-class vessels as a new way of managing the command and staffing of starships. It was not uncommon for short-range vessels to have a captain for a few months at a time or even for a single mission and regular contact with starbases allowed for frequent crew rotations. As the Constitution was intended to be much more independent, a structure was developed that commissioned each captain to a five-year stint aboard their vessel, with a command crew that was intended to be more or less stable. This required new regulations for managing crew advancement in the field, as well as new strategies for making a starship a comfortable and fulfilling place to spend five years of one’s life.

Mid Career

In 2250, Constitution, Constellation, and Enterprise all completed their first five-year missions to widespread acclaim. While Garth of Izar and Decker remained at their posts, Robert April was promoted to flag rank and, as the newly-minted Director of Deep Space Operations, became the supervisor of the entire Constitution fleet.

A decade into their service, the Constitution class received their first major overhaul in 2255, with widespread systems upgrades and a shrinking of the crew by two hundred to optimize them for longer deep space missions. This allowed for larger and more spacious quarters, as well as less strain on the life support systems. The members of this class were absent from the Federation-Klingon War of 2256-57, as Starfleet wanted to keep them in reserve. As the class was a large investment of both resources and crew, Starfleet rush-ordered a leaner variant that would replicate the engine and tactical systems of the Constitution but with a much smaller crew: and a much shorter construction period the Sombra. Few of these vessels were built, given the short duration of the war, and they were all refit as Constitution-class ships with full exploratory systems by 2260.

Following the war, Starfleet prioritized the construction of classes that were derived from the Constitution, including the new Miranda, Hermes, and Saladin-class vessels that were directly built from Constitution-type components. This building program included a handful of Constitution orders which made up losses in the years following, bringing the total Constitution-class fleet up to 12 by 2265.

Most ships of the Constitution class retained their 250-person crew into the 2260s, when the next major overhaul returned the core twelve vessels to a 450-person crew. The hull was also encased in a thin layer of metalo-ceramic armor, which gave them their now-classic, stark exterior. While serving still primarily as explorers, this refit also incorporated fewer but heavier phaser banks as a response to simmering tensions on the Klingon border.

Later Life

Though these vessels proved to be highly successful in service, Defiant, Constellation, Intrepid, and Excalibur were all either destroyed outright or lost with all hands during the period between 2265 and 2270. While each of these circumstances was extraordinary and no underlying flaw was found in the class itself, Starfleet ordered an extensive overhaul, starting with the refit of the Enterprise, a project which eventually became the Constitution II-class heavy cruiser.

Throughout the 2270s, the majority of the Constitution-class vessels were upgraded into Constitution II-class vessels, with the exception of the USS New Jersey, which was not launched until 2268 and thus was considered too new to upgrade. New Jersey was decommissioned after 20 years of service in 2288, having stubbornly resisted a refit, and was placed in the Starfleet Museum, where she remains as of 2401: the last remaining example of an original configuration Constitution-class starship.

Vessels Commissioned

  • USS Constitution (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Enterprise (Refit as Constitution II, Destroyed)
  • USS Constellation (Destroyed)
  • USS Cayuga (Destroyed)
  • USS Defiant (Lost)
  • USS Intrepid (Destroyed)
  • USS Excalibur (Destroyed)
  • USS Exeter (Refit as Constitution II, Active as training ship)
  • USS Lexington (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Potemkin (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Republic (Refit as Constitution II, Active as training ship)
  • USS Hood (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Valiant (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Yorktown (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Sombra (S) (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
  • USS Peregrine (S) (Refit as Constitution II, Retired)
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