Federation U.S.S. Saber class Light Cruiser (Star Trek):

This ship design should be used just before and during Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes as well as during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager Episodes.

The Saber class is smaller than the later Intrepid class and are designed as an escort vessel. While the vessel is most often called a light cruiser, many consider it more of a destroyer than a cruiser. Like most Federation vessels, the ship is designed for both combat roles and exploration. The Saber class was designed to replace the Enterprise and other older class but many of those older vessel have been brought back into service due to the needs created by the Dominion War. The Saber class was often used as escorts for larger vessels and for convoys. Losses of Saber class vessels have been heavy in the war but it is most like that these losses will be replaced by the later Intrepid class cruisers instead of continuing construction of the Saber class.

The vessel class was constructed around the same time as the Galaxy class and shares many of the same systems. The Saber class does not the new systems that are carried on the Intrepid class but is much less expensive and easier to construct. The ease of construction is due to the fact that the vessels are constructed in modular components. A final benefit of this is that the vessels can be constructed at smaller shipyards.

The ship is as well protected as the earlier but larger Avenger class frigate. This was done by using new hull alloys and more powerful shield generators than were previously possible. Because of the modular construction, vessel repairs are easier in many cases than most other classes. The propulsion of the vessel is fairly conservative and is not as fast as the later and larger Intrepid class.

These ships are well armed for their size and few ships smaller than it are any heavier armed. While the Defiant class is better armed, the tiny ship has a much smaller endurance than the larger Saber. The vessel has two phaser arrays with one on the top of the hull and the other on the bottom of the hull. The mounts are the same as was developed for the Galaxy class. The ship also has two forward firing photon torpedo launchers.

These ships were designed to be operated by tiny crews and have impressive automation. The normal crew of 40 can be augmented by a large passenger load. While this was original meant to be used for civilian families, this space has been useful for troops after civilian were taken off of all of the class. A load of up to 200 marines have been carried on this class and many consider this class to be as much troop transport as an escort.

This design is written to be able to interact with modified phase world rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details. There is a lack of hard detail on this ship. Some materials have suggested accelerations that are simply beyond scope. I have taken a moderate level in writing up this starship for Phase World because otherwise the ship would either be far too powerful or far too weak for Phase World. Warp speeds are far slower than the FTL speeds for Phase World but they are very close to those from the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. Also, a note on the mass of starships. The original sources indicated much smaller masses for starships than Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual does and where possible, both masses are listed for the gamers to choose which one seems most appropriate.

Model Type: NCC - 60247
Vehicle Type: Light Cruiser / Exploration Ship (In phase world terms, would be considered a Heavy Cruiser by virtue of size)
Crew: 40 Standard (5 Officers / 35 enlisted)
Troops / Civilians: 200 (Not normally carried)

Vehicles: 2 Shuttles

M.D.C. By Location:

	Phaser Arrays (2, 1 primary hull / 1 secondary hull):	2,500 each
	Torpedo Tubes (2):	1,000 each
	Warp Nacelles (2, secondary hull):	15,000 each
	Hanger Door:	2,000
	Impulse Engine:	10,000
	Main Deflector Array:	5,000
	[1] Primary Bridge:	12,000
	[2] Main Body (Primary Hull):	60,000
	[3] Variable Force Field:	6,000 per side (36,000 total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ship’s armor. This ship does not have an auxiliary bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the M.D.C. of the Main Body will put the Cruiser out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (1,800 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.9 percent of light per melee round.
As an alternative, the starship can reach .99 of the speed of light but is normally restricted to slower speeds so that starship is not effected severely by time attenuation that occurs at the higher sublight speeds.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Cannot travel within an atmosphere efficiently.
Stardrive: Uses a warp engine that allow ship to travel at Warp Factor 7.0 on cruise (0.075 light years per hour), Warp Factor Flank 9.0 (0.17 Light Years per hour), and Warp Factor 9.7 Emergency (0.24 Light Years per Hour). Speed is calculate using a formula designed to emulate Star Trek: Next Generation speeds. These speeds are very slow when compared to Phase World ship, so if used in that universe, they could be increased enough to operate within Three Galaxy speeds but should not exceed them.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Ship carries about five years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 1,196.75 feet (364.77 meters)
Height: 172.18 feet (52.48 meters)
Width: 740.19 feet (225.61 meters)
Mass: 310,000 metric tons (Deep Space Nine: Technical Manual)
Power System: Anti Matter with 20 year life span. Ship normally only goes 5 years between refuelings.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 40,000 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 8.5 billion to construct. As far as it is known, the Federation does not sell their starship designs to other interested parties.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Phaser Arrays (2): Arrays are mounted on the top and bottom sides of the starship primary hull. Each phaser array can fire four individual beams at the same time and can be aimed at different or the same targets. Each one can fire in any direction and directly up for top phasers and directly down for bottom phasers. These weapons are often used defensively and have half the normal penalties of a heavy weapon to hit fighters and small targets when fired normally. When combined into a heavy beam, they have full penalties. Weapon system cannot be used when the starship is moving faster than the speed of light.
Maximum Effective Range: 187 miles (300 km) through atmosphere and 18,700 miles (30,000 km) in space.
Mega Damage: 4D6x100 per normal phaser beam or can be combined into a single heavy beam that inflicts 2D4x1000 + 500
Rate of Fire: volley of 4 phaser beams per array twice per melee (8 beams per melee per array / 16 beams for all arrays) or can fire a total of two combined heavy blasts per melee per array.
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Photon/Quantum Torpedo Launchers (2): The ship has two launchers that fires forward. Effectively very similar to Phase World cruise missile launchers but instead of having groups of multiple launchers, Starfleet has concentrated on launchers that can launch more than one torpedo at the same time. There are two launchers that fire forward and two launchers that fire aft. Once spread of torpedoes has been launched, the launchers must reload and rearm before launching another spread of torpedoes. In the early service of this ship, it carried photon torpedoes which are anti-matter/matter warheads but in later service they have been replaced by quantum torpedoes.
Torpedoes has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). When drive goes dead, the torpedo will continue to travel in a straight line unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and torpedoes when dead is at -25% to be detected.) See modified starship rules for more details - Sublight torpedoes have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Launchers can launch on multiple targets each.
Maximum Effective Range: Powered torpedo range is 8000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage & Properties: Photon Torpedoes (Matter/Anti-Matter Warheads): Old Series inflict 2D6x100 each, Star Trek Movies One through Six inflict 3D6x100, and Next Generation inflicts 4D6x100 each. Quantum Torpedoes: 8D6x100 each.
Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2 or 4 per launcher, per melee round, for a maximum of 8 torpedoes per melee. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.
Payload: 100 total, 50 torpedoes per launcher.

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Technical information partially sourced from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual (Mostly ship sizes.)

I would like to recognize Henning Rogge as giving assistance with the revision of the Star Trek starships.

CGI of ship created by Andrew Hodges. More of his CGI pictures of Star Trek ships and craft at Devil World 6.

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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