7.8 Other Starships of the Romulan War & Cylinder Ships

Fa-Xian Class Explorer

Service Dates (Old Calendar): 2089

The starships of the Pacific States are often overlooked in studies of early Terran spacecraft, due largely to the overwhelming dominance of Western designs. To be fair, these were not the only world powers setting forth on the final frontier in the years before the formation of the United Earth Government. The Pacific States had a spacecraft history of their own stretching all the way back to the 20th century, with the Chinese and Japanese being the primary leaders. As for the Fa-Xian, it was a typical late-era Pacific States starship and one of the last built before the world unification movement began to take hold of Terra at the turn of the 21st century.

The Fa-Xian class, considered primitive by the time the Romulan War came around, had been among the most advanced starships of their time. They were colony transports, helping to seed humans throughout the stars in those early, heady days of Terran interstellar exploration. The class ship was responsible for the colonization of Alpha III by the Buddhist Chinese, whose influence still remains strong in the colony today.

After serving their purpose, many Fa-Xian class starships were eventually sold off to help pay for the operating expenses of the colonies they founded. They were slow, ungainly, and ungraceful, but their large cargo capacity and relatively low price made them attractive buys on the "classic starships" market. They wound up as privately owned transports, with their new owners refitting them in various ways to get the most out of their aged hulls. A number were still in civilian service at the outbreak of the Romulan War but many of these fell victim to Romulan raids. The rest had all fallen victim to the scrapper's torch by 2175.

Tellarite Trading Vessel (Degbraxis Class)

These massed produced vessels were very popular with civilian traders and commercial transport firms. They were excellent for the small-to-medium cargo, long-haul role and could be found everywhere in the Federation. A number of these were on supply runs to various colonies and stations in the New Territories when the Romulan War broke out and were hurriedly pressed into service as evacuation ships. They were not very maneuverable but were heavily armed for civilian craft, usually capable of holding their own against lone Romulan raiders until nearby Star Fleet vessels could come to their rescue. They were also among the thousands of civilian craft pressed into service as Star Fleet supply craft to support the war effort. Many were lost in convoy raids by Romulan marauders before the tide turned in favor of the Federation. The survivors continued in service after the war until the 2170s, when most were replaced by their owners with newer, faster designs. Only a handful still continue to ply the stars today, with the rest having been grounded or scrapped.

Specifications

Length: 198 m. Beam: 95 m. Draft: 77 m. Mass: 115,000 DWT. Crew: 190. Armament: 2 lasers / 1 bank.

Star Fleet "Cylinder Ships"

Service Dates (Old Calendar): 2154-2162

Aside from a few notable new ship classes, such as the Daedalus class survey cruisers and the Marshall class destroyers, most of the Romulan War was fought by clumsy cylindrical Terran starships against hordes of clumsy, cylindrical Romulan starships, with the occasional odd class or two thrown in for good measure. This was a throwback of sorts as far as Terran spaceflight had developed; however, there was a very good reason for it. All battles took place at sub-light speeds at or near a planetary system or other stellar landmark. One did not need a ship designed for warp speed to fight a sub-light battle.

These CS-series starships, or "cylinder ships" as they were better known, were derived from the unbuilt Dyson-Yoyodyne DY-1300 military cruiser of 2130. They were designed to be cheap, easy to build, and quick to launch and join the action. Average construction time was six to nine months per ship, with some of the ships in the smaller design classes being built in as little as three months. All of the CS-series starships were produced in large numbers in all sizes with a varying mix of weapons expressly for the war effort. Creature comforts were kept to an absolute minimum. The extra room gained was used for weaponry, armor, and even early force field systems (in the later classes). When the Romulan War finally ended all of these "cylinder ships" were either sold or scrapped within four years after the Federation Council mandated the downsizing of Star Fleet. A surprising number were purchased by undercover M'dok agents (in disguise as Caitians) and used against Star Fleet in the short-lived Federation-M'dok War.

Illustrations of some of the more important CS-series starship classes involved in the Romulan War are shown here in order to highlight their role in Federation spacecraft history. Midshipmen wishing to conduct further studies into the CS-series starships should address their inquiries to the Starfleet Museum, Memory Alpha branch, via the Academy Intranet.