Continuing from the first grouping that we posted on Tuesday, today we’re going to look at another set of spaceframes inspired by FASA’s Federation Ship Recognition Manual. Last time we looked at ships associated with the Andorian-dominated Blue Fleet. This time we’re going to look at four fast, hard-hitting ships from the 23rd century.
Fast Response Vessels
Defense forces around the world today have various groups, vessels, and teams designated as “fast response” units. These forces are used in dangerous situations when dangerous events are changing rapidly and decisions have to be made fast. The U.S. Army has several such units that can be on their way to a combat zone within 18 hours of an order to deploy being given, even flying directly into hostile airspace to get boots on the ground when there are deadly situations becoming worse by the minute.
One of the central tenets of the Star Trek franchise is that Starfleet is not a military force and the tension between Starfleet’s exploratory and diplomatic mandates and the necessity to go to war for the Federation is one of the most fascinating parts of the series. Even if you are fervently of the belief that Starfleet should not and does not have dedicated military starships, that situation is even more cause for fast response ships. If there is, say, a sudden invasion of Federation space by the Klingon Empire (far-fetched, I know) then most of the vessels in the area are not going to be ready for a fight and Starfleet Command needs to get combat-ready vessels to the area ASAP.
The Northampton and Kiev classes are two such fast response designs, small frigate vessels but with a serious punch and some nice lines as well (the Kiev, at least). The Kiev is presented here as a predecessor to the fan-favorite Chandley-class spaceframe and all three of these frames were used as patrol vessels to show the flag along the Klingon and Romulan borders. In the event of reopened hostilities, these fast response designs can be across the border and executing missions before the enemy knows Starfleet is coming. In a somewhat different vein, the Remora-class escort (probably my favorite design aesthetically out of this series) was intended to provide a fast and serious companion vessel to Federation ships moving through dangerous areas. Whether hostile Gorn ships, Orion pilots, or xenophobic Tholians there are plenty of dangers on the border in the 23rd century. The Remora‘s successor, the Charger-class destroyer took the successful escort frame and turned it into a formidable fast response vessel for dealing with growing threats nearby.
Again, a really awesome set of PDFs designed by Christian Fernandez-Duque. Let us know what you liked and what you didn’t in the comments and keep an eye out for batch three coming soon!
has the U.S.S. Ranger been done yet?
Ron, you mean the Ranger-class scout from the Federation Recognition Manual, p.32? I haven’t done that one, but I suppose I could do a version for a later release if you want.
In fact, I just started drawing up the Ranger. I’m treating your comment as a direct request for a Ranger-class starship PDF. If you give me a few days to draw it up, I can have a PDF ready for your personal request ahead of whenever we publish it here at CM. Like most FASA starships, the Ranger doesn’t have a backstory so I’ll try to come up with something appropriate for a TMP-era scout ship.