Starfleet may be all about exploration at it’s core, but peace isn’t it’s only mission. As the first line of defence for the Federation, the fleet has engaged in as much war time as it has on missions of peace from bitter wars with the Klingons and Romulans, to invasions from the Borg and Dominion. While some ships are designed to be travelling research labs and others comfortable homes for long term exploration missions, some are built to fight.
The 24th century was a mixed bag when it came to keeping the Federation safe. Peace with the Klingons was achieved, and the Romulans were quiet. But that didn’t stop the Federation having to defend itself and it’s members. Conflicts with the Cardassians and Tzenkethi were still felt when the Borg and Dominion threats were heating up. The more complex the enemy, the more complex the solution had to be. While the Defiant Class was the design that became a popular defensive escort, it wasn’t the only design path Starfleet took.
Built with battle in mind, the Prometheus Class was one of several ideas commissioned to help defend the federation against ever increasing threats. The mid to late 24th century saw several similar innovations, such as the carrier style of the Akira Class to the highly armed and nim,ble Steamrunners. For the Prometheus, a whole new direction was taken that remains highly unique in Starfleet design philosophy.
A forbearer of integrated automation that would become common thanks to Borg inspired technology towards the end of the 24th century, the state of the art technology allowed the ship to operate under near full automation. This not only allowed it to operate under a smaller crew, but to help expand upon the remotely controlled operation of three starships in one design; a feature that would later be expanded on through the wholly automated Texas Class.
Unique to the Prometheus Class was it’s Multi Vector Assault Mode. Advancing from what seems like a simple saucer separation in models like the Galaxy Class, where the primary could separate from the engineering section and reintegrate later on, the MVA operation of the Prometheus took things a step further.
Prometheus was designed to separate into three individual parts when required. Saucer separation, as normal for the time, was included while the secondary hull would split into two high-speed tactical vessels controlled by the bridge on the primary hull. At a time when Federation forces were facing unique challenges during the Dominoin War, the innovation in design required more tactical awareness than most in operation at the time. Designing the ship to splice apart with a central command point gave significant tactical advantage in the heat of battle, turning any fight into a three against one scenario.
As a core element to it’s development, the design wasp kept highly top secret in it’s planning and implementation stages. Prototype and forbearer USS Prometheus was kept so tightly under wraps that only four officers were fully trained in it’s operations with the shop only operating under a skeleton crew in it’s test flights. Despite all the secrecy, Romulan intelligence always seemed ahead of the Federation and the ship was swiftly captured before control was regained by the Romulans being unaware that the USS Voyager had transmitted their Emergency Medical Hologram to the ship through an alien array to make contact with Starfleet in the Beta Quadrant.
Propulsion systems were the most fascinating aspect of the development. With both sections of the primary hull having their own fully functional warp cores and engineering labs, as well as a micro-warp array build into the primary hull, space was at a premium as most was dedicated to multipliers of the standards internal components. Weapons and defensive systems also took a large chunk of the available internal volume, with thirteen individual phaser arrays packed into it’s integrated fifteen decks alongside dual torpedo bays.
Maintaining a simplistic and minimalist internal design the Prometheus was designed for it’s function over adaptability. Even after being rolled into production during the Dominion War, only a handful were commissioned due to it’s purpose. Despite having state of the art facilities which included holographic remitters on every deck to allow photonic crew support including an assigned Long Term Medical Hologram, there was more limitation for providing more than the basic facilities for it’s limited crew components resulting in the shp being used as an advanced escort used solely for defensive patrols and in times of conflict.
Designed by Rick Sternbach for Voyager episode Message in a Bottle, Initial concept sketches show the original plan was for the ship to split into five pieces, however this was difficult from a production perspective. Set designer Richard James put together the ships bridge from the remnants of the Excelsior bridge from Flashback. The set would later be repurposed for the USS Equinox. The ship itself wouldn’t be seen again until Voyager’s Endgame as part of Earths defence fleet. Later appearances included a reuse of the model in Enterprise and recreation for Lower Decks first season.
The Prometheus Class is a rare sighting with a handful on reserve at Clydeside shipyards, ready for any CO leading defensive strategies within SFCQ2’s fleet.
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