Akira-class Heavy Cruiser

The Akira Class starship entered service in 2364 and has quickly become the pride of Starfleet’s next generation of starships. Akira Class vessels are part of the new belief that smaller, faster, more manoeuvrable Starships are needed to better serve Starfleet's, and, by extension, the Federation's needs.

Initial production of the Akira class began at the ASDB Integration Facility, New Aberdeen Fleetyards, Aldebaran, and has since expanded to include the ASDB Integration Facility, Utopia Planitia, Mars where nearly 15 of these vessels enter service each year, and the newly revamped Atlas V Assembly Facility, Deneb V along with the Antares Fleetyard.

Unlike many larger starships of its development era, with saucer separation as a prerequisite, Akira Class vessels to date cannot separate into two vessels. As a result, the Akira Class no longer has the twin hull design that has been seen in vessels such as Excelsior-class Heavy Cruiser, New Orleans-class Frigate, Galaxy-class Explorer and Ambassador-class Heavy Cruiser classes. This means that the primary hull and the engineering hull are no longer separate, with no "neck" section. While this division of Saucer and Stardrive has been blurred, it does allow the Akira Class to make a smoother, less polluted entry into subspace during Warp. Also, because of this "no stardrive" design, the surface between the two hulls has a much more gradual descent and streamlined appearance; the dorsal mid-ships section, which slopes up where the two hulls connect. The Akira spaceframe appears remarkably similar in design to that of an ancient earth sailing boat known as a Catamaran. With the Nacelles parallel to the main hull, they can be more adequately protected by the primary and secondary shield generators with only a minimal loss in shield efficiency.

The final armaments for the Akira Class were finalized during the end of the primary development phase and implemented during the vessel's first production contract at both ASDB Facilities. Realizing that relations with the Cardassians was going to deteriorate before they improved, and the looming presence of a Borg incursion, Starfleet requested that a portion of the new Akira’s be refitted with more weaponry and upgraded shields. The resulting Akira class mounted no less than 15 Photon torpedo tubes spread between 3 launchers scattered around the vessel [2 located on the Aft sail, and 1 mounted on the ventral portion of the vessel just above the main deflector].

Heavily armed, the design philosophy for the Akira class created lessons later utilized in the Defiant Project, especially the early “Torpedo Gunboat” design that was later scrapped in favour of the current design. A Combined Forward/Aft torpedo bay is located both along the Aft Dorsal "Sail" portion of the hull, while a second set of forward launchers are located just under the nose of the ship. Combined with the Type X phaser array, the current Akira class is heavily armed, and in raw torpedo firepower, could return fire - torpedo for torpedo, with the vaunted Galaxy-class / Nebula-class launchers.

With the Sabre-class Frigate designed to replace the Miranda-class and her sister classes (Soyuz, etc) of starships on internal police patrols, and with the New Orleans-class Frigate functioning adequately in the role of Mission-Specific Frigate, it was a waste of scientific resources to assign those classes to defensive patrols on the Cardassian Frontier where they were clearly outgunned against Galor class Battlecruisers. Akira class starships were outfitted with a full-fly through hangar on deck 12 from which no more than 40 fighters could be launched, combined with the 3 photon torpedo launchers and 6 Type X phaser array’s standard on the Akira class, gave the carrier impressive sublight combat capabilities and could stand toe-to-toe against even the most determined Cardassian attack.