8.2 Goliath Class Battlecruiser
The Goliath was a gigantic Romulan War-era dreadnought concept whose excessive size and systems overwhelmed its engines, leaving it sluggish and easily outmaneuvered, and the prototype was abandoned and sold off after failing its space trials.
Service Entry Date (Old Calendar): N/A
The Goliath was ordered during the dark days of the Romulan War (2160-2161), when the threat of Local Group invasion was all too real. It was the first Star Fleet vessel to evoke the image of the Terran aquatic dreadnought — a gigantic starship optimized for heavy firepower, designed to blast into the heart of the Romulan Star Empire at Warp 4 while destroying everything in sight. It was also Star Fleet’s first colossal failure of this period in Federation spacecraft history.
The biggest problem with the Goliath was that it was too large. It was too massive and had too many systems for its engines to handle all at once. The end result was little more than a dreadfully sluggish, badly overgunned monitor. In theory it had a cruising speed of Warp 3.5. In space trials it could barely manage Warp 3. In combat trials it could be outmaneuvered even by an old Warp 2 freighter. The Goliath project was abandoned immediately after its space trials, after which the disarmed prototype was sold to recoup its development costs.
Specifications
- Length: 312 m
- Beam: 189 m
- Draft: 95.6 m
- Mass: 245,000 DWT
- Crew: 375
- Armament: 20 laser banks, 18 particle beam cannons, 16 fusion torpedo tubes
- Cruising speed: warp 2.8
- Maximum speed: warp 3.1