Akira class

The Akira-class was a class of Federation starship that was in service with Starfleet by the early 2370s. 
== History ==
Starships of this class were constructed at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards by 2371. ()
It quickly became a common fixture in Federation fleet deployments, appearing on the front lines of numerous engagements, including against the Borg at the Battle of Sector 001 in 2373, and in the Dominion War, where several vessels of this class were assigned to Starfleet's Second Fleet, which participated in Operation Return in 2374, the second Battle of Chin'toka, and the Battle of Cardassia in 2375. They were also frequently stationed near Deep Space 9 during the war. (; )
An additional noted engagement happened in 2374, where an Akira-class, and two escorts successfully engaged three Romulan D'deridex class-class warbirds after Tal Shiar agents hijacked and stole the prototype , and tried to take the ship back to Romulan space for study. The Akira-class, in conjunction with the Prometheus, and the Defiant-class escorts, destroyed one of the warbirds. ()
At least one member of the class was within a light year of Earth in 2378. ()
Admiral Alonzo Freeman kept a model of an Akira-class starship in his ready room in 2381. ()
Later that year, an Akira-class starship chased a Zakdorn data forger into the Romulan Neutral Zone and captured him for interogation about the destruction of Pakled Planet. ()
In 2384, at least 8 ships of this class intercepted the in a restricted sector near the star Gamma Serpentis. They were part of an armada which included , , and starships. ()
In 2401, four ships of this class were sent by Starfleet to join an armada opposing a unknown Borg vessel. The Borg liaison sent to the briefly commandeered this vessel and others, before the crew managed to engage their auto-destruct system. ()
Later that year, eighteen ships of this class participated in Frontier Day celebrations near Sol Station. Along with the rest of the fleet, these ships were seized by the Borg Collective after their younger crews were assimilated by a Borg signal transmitted via Jack Crusher. ()
By 2402, at least two ships of the class, the , and the were retired from service, and placed on display at the Fleet Museum in orbit of Athan Prime. () 
== Technical data ==
=== Physical arrangement ===
The Akira-class design ditched Starfleet's usual saucer-secondary hull-nacelle design, and more closely resembled the with its catamaran shaped hull. The engineering section was tucked under the main saucer, which housed the main deflector, and some of the ship's tactical systems. The nacelles were connected via long catamaran type structures, which in turn connected to a large weapons pod, housing several photon torpedo launchers. The catamaran pylons offered a degree of protection for the main bridge, which retained its traditional location at the top of the saucer. (; , et al.)
=== Tactical systems ===
The Akira-class design incorporated a multitude of tactical systems, including at least three phaser arrays, and housed numerous photon torpedo launchers along the port and starboard sides of the ventral primary hull, at least one launcher forward of the deflector, and several located on the aft weapons pod, which rotated into place before firing. (; ; )
=== Command and control systems ===
By 2401, the computer systems on board the class had been overhauled to include the Fleet formation mode, also known as Starfleet emergency protocol NX12.11, designed to place all Federation starships within a fleet under the automated control of the Starfleet mainframe. ()
== Ships in class ==
; Named
Name	Registry 	Notes 	Status 	Date
 	NCC-62497	Akira-class prototype	Active 	2401
 	NCC-63887	 	Active 	2401
 	NCC-64280	 	Active 	2401
 	NCC-63284	 	Active 	2401
 	NCC-63293	 	Active 	2401
 	NCC-68455	 	Retired, Preserved	2401
 	NCC-63549	 	Active 	2401
 	NCC-63328	 	Retired, Preserved	2401
;Uncertain
Name	Registry 	Notes	Status	Date
 	NCC-63277	 	Active	2401
 	NCC-63898	 	Active	2401
;Unnamed:
*Unnamed Akira-class starships
== Appendices ==
=== Appearances ===
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=== Background information ===
The name of the ship class was never mentioned on screen, but is derived from production sources.
The total number of Akira-class vessels present at Frontier Day was established by Picard Research Assistant Jörg Hillebrand. 
According to the , the Akira-class was named after the anime fantasy film . "Along with the , the Akira-class starship helped to inspire Doug Drexler's design of the from ."
According to designer, Alex Jaeger, "This was my gunship/battlecruiser/aircraft carrier. It has 15 torpedo launchers and two shuttlebays – one in front, with three doors, and one in the back. I really got into it with this one, with the whole idea that the front bay would be the launching bay, and then to return they'd come into the back, because they'd be protected by the rest of the ship." (Star Trek: The Magazine, , Issue 3)
A design sketch of the USS Akira shown the vessel bearing the registry NCC-2497. In an unpublished interview with author Larry Nemecek, designer Jaeger said he simply used the four-digit number of his then-phone extension for that registry; to conform to Starfleet practice, the number "6" was added by Mike Okuda and the film's art department to make "62497," a number then approved by producer Rick Berman. At the same time, Jaeger said, two other ship names and registries were approved as back-ups, if needed, to the USS Thunderchild actually seen on film as NCC-63549: the (named after former Israeli Prime Minister ) as NCC-63293, and the USS Spector (NCC-65549). The ship scale sheet showing the back-up names and registries can be found on .
The latter ship's name has appeared on screen in a graphic from the episode . The CGI file used for the Akira-class seen in the Voyager episode was ostensibly the Spector, and was used by the Star Trek Fact Files. The ship allegedly appeared in one of the battle scenes from the sixth and seventh seasons of , but this has not been verified.
The scale of the CGI mesh, according to a January 20, 1998 post in the newsgroup alt.tv.star-trek.ds9, by DS9 Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes, was 860 feet or 262.13 meters, the length used when he blocked shots in DS9. However, the measurement used by Visual Effects Supervisor Gary Hutzel, according to an in-house chart dated 5/15/98, was 840 feet.
According to a size chart of Alex Jaeger, the Akira-class would be roughly 500 meters (1640.4 ft) in length. 
==== Studio model ====
==== Technical Manual ====
The following specifications and defenses come from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual (p. 153):
*Production Base: ASDB Integration Facility, Antares Fleet Yards, Antares IV.
*Type:	Heavy Cruiser.
*Accommodation: 500 officers and crew; 4,500 personnel evacuation limit.
*Power Plant: One 1,500 plus Cochrane warp core feeding two nacelles; one impulse system.
*Dimensions: Length, 464.43 meters; beam, 316.67 meters; height, 87.43 meters.
*Mass: 3,055,000 metric tonnes.
*Performance: Warp 9.8 for 12 hours.
*Armament: Six type-10 phaser emitters; Two photon torpedo launchers.
=== Apocrypha ===
==== Novels ====
The Star Trek: The Dominion War Behind Enemy Lines features the Akira-class starships and the .
The Millennium novel The Fall of Terok Nor mentions two Akira-class starships, the and the , both named after Canadian astronauts and .
The Akira-class starship features heavily in the DS9 novels set after . The Gryphon was commanded by . In Lesser Evil, Kira Nerys is given command by Captain Mello when the Gryphon is sabotaged by its first officer after he was infested by a Bluegill parasite who intended to use the ship to attack , but Kira was able to stop Montenegro and regain control of the Gryphon.
The mentioned in is described as an Akira-class starship that Lt. Commander Sonya Gomez served on during the Dominion War as chief engineer, according to Pocket SCE: War Stories, Book 1 and had the registry NCC-68455. The ship would make it canonical appearance in Season 3 of Picard.
The DS9 novel Original Sin features the Akira-class (NCC-63719), named in honor of Captain James T. Kirk of the . The James T. Kirk was commanded by and had an illustrious service history which included exploration and defensive missions.
The Star Trek: Destiny novel Gods of Night features the Akira-class . During the of 2381, the Constant was assigned to defend the planet Khitomer, along with the and . Although the signaled of an incoming Borg cube, the fleet of three vessels had little chance of defending the Klingon planet. The Constant was destroyed first after the cube adapted to their weaponry; although the vessel was able to launch escape pods, they were all consumed by the ship's destruction.
The short story "On the Spot" in the anthology book The Sky's the Limit features the Akira-class USS Korolev.
==== Games ====
The Decipher role-playing games supplement lists several Akira-class starships, including (NCC-62501), (NCC-62743), (NCC-62878), (NCC-62891), (NCC-63002), (NCC-63306), and (NCC-63419).
The Activision PC game Star Trek: Bridge Commander includes the (NCC-64088), (NCC-69302), and .
The Activision PC game Star Trek: Armada includes the (NCC-71267) and , as well as many others. In both this game and the sequel, Star Trek: Armada II, these vessels have an advanced weapon called the "" which bounces a bolt of energy off of enemy shields, damaging several ships consecutively. The Jupiter was also a promotional card for the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, where it was listed as being "under the command of Captain Satelk."
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars includes the .
Star Trek: Away Team includes the (NCC-71427).
The Akira-class is featured in the game Star Trek: Starfleet Command III, where it is classified as a heavy cruiser. 
The Xbox 360/PC game Star Trek: Legacy allows control of Akira-class ships as cruisers with names such as USS Akira, USS Spector, USS Rabin, and USS Thunderchild.
The Akira-class is featured in Star Trek Online as the prototypical example of a "Strike Wing Escort", a class of tactical starship blending the weaponry an escort with the capacity to field smaller vessels such as shuttlecraft, runabouts, or attack fighters in combat. Other Strike Wing Escort classes fielded by Starfleet with designs derived from the Akira-class include the game-original , , and classes. The in-game model has been updated multiple times to improve its level of detail and make it more screen accurate, the most recent of which was used in . In 2024, the game released a new mission depicting the Battle of Wolf 359 in a Holodeck simulation where players are embodying one of the 40 fleet vessels engaged against Locutus' Borg Cube. One Akira-class ship, the (NX-62498), is depicted as one of the destroyed ships during the battle. Her NX designation suggests it was another prototype, launched years prior the initial commissioning of the Akira-class. 
*Akira-class ship names from Starfleet Command III:
**USS Akira
**USS Aquino
**USS Begin
**USS Cristiani
**USS Galtieri
**USS Gorbachev
**USS Grant
**USS Kennedy
**USS Kravchuk
**USS Landsbergis
**USS Lincoln
**USS Mitterand
**USS Ramos
**USS Reagan
**USS Shamir
**USS Shevardnadze
**USS Sihanouk
**USS Thatcher
**USS Thunderchild
**USS Yeltsin
=== External links ===
* – contains detailed notes and articles on the Akira-class
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* – fan wiki on the Akira class starship
bg:Клас Акира
cs:Třída Akira
de:NCC-63549-Typ
es:Clase Akira
fr:Classe Akira
ja:アキラ級
Category:Federation starship classes
Category:Memory Alpha articles named from supplementary resources