Federation U.S.S. Schmidt class Tug (Star Trek):

From: Starfleet Prototype

This design is meant for the times between the movies Star Trek Two: Wrath of Khan and Star Trek Six: The Undiscovered Country. This could easily also be used in Next Generation times as ships pulled from Mothball / Reserve fleets to cover the huge losses incurred while fighting against the Borg and Dominion. It is possible that some designs have been sold to civilians or might still be in service as well.

Often forgotten in the discussion of the starships of military forces are the auxiliaries yet they are very important to the existence of all military forces. These ships are used to keep battle fleets supplied, pull damaged vessels to safe places to be repaired, and a great many other vital roles. One of the auxiliaries that is often forgotten even when mentioned are the tugs.

Previous tug classes were based on the standard Federation hull design with a full sized primary hull with the multiple labs and otherwise unneeded equipment. This added more mass to the vessel as well as requiring vastly larger crews than a pure tug design would. While often other vessels can be used for the job of a tug as well, it means the loss of a vessel that might be needed for another job. In a few cases, frigates have been used as frigates when tugs were not available. Large numbers of Schmidt class tugs were constructed to replaced the use of frigates for the role of tugs.

The Schmidt class design is a very simple design that is basically a small hull with a tractor unit only. This makes the design both inexpensive to build and makes it require only a small crew. To reduce the cost of the vessel, the ship is unarmed but could theoretically be lightly armed in the case of war. The vessels have relatively light shielding and are only lightly armored. Like many smaller vessel designs, the Schmidt class design were produced in a modular constructed. This allowed the vessels to produced at small shipyards. All of the design criteria made the vessels very inexpensive to construct and the vessels were produced in very large numbers.

These ships do carry a fairly large crew for its size but crew spaces are reasonable. Many of these crew members are specialists in the operation of tractor beams. These ships carry no marines and the senior officer is often a Lieutenant Commander.

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-800
Vehicle Type: Tug
Crew: 62 (12 Officers and 50 Enlisted)
Troops: None
Passengers: 10

Vehicles: None

M.D.C. By Location:

	Main Deflector Array:	400
	Warp Nacelles (4, Primary Hull):	3,000 each
	Impulse Engine:	1,000
	[1] Bridge:	1,500
	[2] Primary Hull (Main Body):	12,000
	[3] Variable Deflector Shields:	1,000 per side (6,000 total)
	[4] Tractor Beam Nacelle:	5,000

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 the ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that does not penetrate the ship’s integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the M.D.C. of the primary hull will put the tug out of commission. If the primary hull is destroyed, all internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Shield's positions can be varied and all can be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (300 M.D.C. total) per melee round.
[4] Mounted below the primary hull on a roll-bar strut is the tractor beam nacelle. This contains both the rear-facing tractor beam array and a dedicated KR05-P matter/anti-matter reactor. Without the massive primary hull of the Heavy Cruisers, the smaller SW30/3-2 nacelles are capable of maintaining a Cruising speed of Warp 5.0 while towing a load massing 275,000 tons (250,000 metric tons). This means that 5 tugs can operate together in parallel to tow a space station. Starfleet Logistics has recommended that the tugs be given an escort (Scout or Destroyer) on any loaded run exceeding a distance of 50 parsecs (163 Light Years) from the Federation center.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Atmosphere: Cannot travel within an atmosphere efficiently.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent the speed of light. The starship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.65 percent of light per melee. As an alternative, the starship can reach .99 of the speed of light but is normally restricted to slower speeds so that the starship is not affected severely by the time attenuation that occurs at the higher sublight speeds.
Stardrive: Uses a warp engine that allows the ship to travel at Warp Factor 5.0 on cruise (0.01 light years per hour), Warp Factor 7.25 Flank (.04 light years per hour), and Warp Factor 8.75 Emergency (.07 light years per hour). Flank and Emergency speeds can only be obtained when not towing anything.
Warp speed is raised to the third power to figure out how many times the speed of light the ship travels. 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. The ship carries about 1 year worth of supplies on board but has no hydroponics.

Statistical Data:
Length: 334.65 feet (102.0 meters)
Height: 181.76 feet (55.4 meters)
Width: 337.93 feet (103.0 meters)
Mass: 35,000 metric tons (Starfleet Prototype)
Power System: Primary power system is a Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor with a 10 year lifespan. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 2,750 tons (2,500 tones) of cargo in addition to the standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. The tug is also capable of towing a load massing 275,000 tons (250,000 metric tons).
Market Cost: 450 million credits to construct. As far as it is known, the Federation does not sell their starship designs to other interested parties but this design may very well be an exception.

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Technical information sourced partially from Starfleet Prototype.

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

Writeup by Harold Nichols (sha_radun@yahoo.com) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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