Centaur class

## SPACECRAFT CLASS

The ***Centaur*-class** was a type of spacecraft developed by Starfleet in the late 23rd century.

## History

Development of the *Centaur*-class was born from a request by Starfleet Command for starship designs that required less resources and could be constructed more quickly than the *Excelsior*-class then under construction. Initially, Starfleet engineers presented the *Georgiou*-class. The design entered limited production, but concerns over its heavy combat focus and high resource cost prompted another new design. This time designers created a starship that was closer in purpose to the *Miranda*-class.

The prototype USS *Centaur* entered service in 2285, but failures with the *Excelsior*'s propulsion systems delayed additional construction of *Centaur*-class vessels. In the mid-2290s a few additional vessels were constructed, but the class was soon supplanted by newer, more versatile designs.

As war loomed between the United Federation of Planets and Dominion in the early 2370s, Starfleet Command looked to quickly update vessels to ready its fleet. The simplicity of the *Centaur* design and its small resource need made it a prime candidate for rapid retrofit. All *Centaur*-class vessels in service entered drydock to bring their systems up to par with current technology. By mid 2372 all seven had returned to service and were assigned to patrol along the Federation's borders.

## Technical specifications

The *Centaur*-class implemented many elements from the *Excelsior* design, but was closer in profile to the *Georgiou*-class. The saucer-shaped primary hull was connected to a small, underslung secondary hull. Two curving pylons swept from the secondary hull and connected with two elongated warp engine nacelles. The *Centaur* had a total length of 210 meters, a beam of 127 meters, and a draft of 38.8 meters, allowing for 9 decks.

Two unique elements of the *Centaur* design was its covered deflector dish, located at the base of the secondary hull and its forward-facing shuttlebay located forward of the bridge. The dish placement was intended to offer the functionality of a standard deflector without the need to expose it to potential enemy fire. The location of the shuttlebay was necessitated by the minimalistic design of the engineering hull.

### Deck plan

The following was the standard internal layout of *Centaur*-class vessels.

 2
 5

### Command systems

#### Bridge

The initial bridge module for the *Centaur* followed the same basic layout used by Starfleet for over a century. A viewscreen was located on the forward bulkhead and the command chair sat towards the center of the bridge. Forward of the chair, in a recessed area, were the conn and operations stations. Six stations lined the outside bulkheads, three each against both the port and starboard bulkheads. Aft of the command chair was an additional monitoring station with a Master Systems Display. To either side of the station were doorways, the port led to the turbolift and the starboard to the commanding officer's ready room.

As hulls were rushed into construction as the Dominion War loomed, a new bridge module, designated the VAR-2, was developed for the new *Centaur* starships.

### Propulsion systems

Four cyclic intercoolers sat above the impulse engines. These allowed the engines to run at a higher rate than contemporary units and gave the *Centaur*-class high acceleration and maneuverability for a starship of its size.

### Tactical systems

The original production run of the class mounted 9 type-VIII dual-emitter phaser banks and 4 Mk 70 direct-fire launchers. The armaments remained the same in number for the Dominion War series, but with significant updates to match technological advances at the time.

## Appendices

### Connections

**Project groups:** **Union Station** (*Geneva* • *Concorde* • *Presidio*) • **Century Cruiser** (*Springfield* • *New Orleans* • *Challenger* • *Niagara* • *Freedom II* • *Galaxy* • *Nebula* • *Cheyenne*) • **Multi-Mission explorers** (*Brigid* • *Esquiline* • *Palatine*) • **Deep Shadow** (*Eclipse* • *Phantom* • *Scryer*) • **Miracle Worker** (*Scott* • *Daystrom* • *Tucker* • *Gagarin*) • **Aeronaut** (*Mercury* • *Ajax* • *Icarus* • *Shran*)

**Other named classes:** *Aegian* • *Aerie* • *Akula* • *Atlas* • *California* • ***Centaur*** • *Challenger* • *Cheyenne* • *Constellation* • *Constitution III* • *Crossfield* • *Curry* • *Daedalus* • *Dauntless* • *Excelsior II* • *Freedom II* • *Gemini* • *Glenn* • *Guardian* • *Inquiry* • *Iwo Jima* • *Jupiter* • *Lexington* • *Niagara* • *Obena* • *Okinawa* • *Parliament* • *Perseus* • *Pioneer* • *Ranger* • *Sagan* • *Solanae* • *Springfield* • *Turing* • *Ulysses*

**Auxiliary craft:** *Aero* • Class C • Class F • *Danube* • *Flyer* • *Gondola* • *Kodai* • *Mollard* • *Peregrine* • *Selenic* • Type 4 • Type 5 • Type 6 (Type 6A • Type 6S) • Type 7 • Type 8 • Type 9 (Type 9A) • Type 10 • Type 11 • Type 14 • Type 17 • Type 19 • *Valkyrie* • *Venture* • *Waverider* • *Yellowstone*

**Leadership:** Commander-in-chief • Joint Chiefs • Chief of Starfleet External Affairs • Chief of Starfleet Operations • Chief of Starfleet Research and Exploration • Chief of Starfleet Tactical

**Agencies:** Operations (Engineering • Judicial • Materiel Supply • Mission Operations • Personnel Management • Records Service • Shipyards Operations • Starbase Operations) • Research & Exploration (Science • Medical) • External Affairs • Tactical (Intelligence • Security • MACO)

**Notable units:** Ktarn Fleet • Task Force 77

**Facilities:** Deep Space K-7 • Deep Space K-13 • Deep Space 9 • Masamichi Array • Starbase 45-Keepsake • Starbase 82-Maat • Starbase 234-Beskerm • Starbase 247-Vershina

**Agencies:** Starfleet • Diplomatic Corps • Department of Temporal Investigations • Federation Security Agency

**Facilities:** 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards • Antares Ship Yards • Beta Antares Ship Yards • Copernicus Ship Yards • Laikan Starfleet Shipyards • McKinley Station • Memory Project • New Aberdeen Shipyards • Proxima Maintenance Yards • Salazaar Shipyards • San Francisco Fleet Yards • TL-9139 Starfleet Maintenance Yards • Tranquility Base • Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

### Sources consulted

* Centaur type article at *Memory Alpha*.

Centaur class article at *Memory Beta*.

* Miranda Light Cruiser article at the *Star Trek Online Wiki*.
* The DS9TM Kitbashes - Excelsior Variant (USS Centaur) at *Ex Astris Scientia*.
* *Star Trek Adventures - The Command Division* by Modiphius Entertainment.
* *Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection* issue 52: "U.S.S. *Centaur* NCC-42043."
* Centaur class article at Bravo Fleet - Star Trek RPG and Community.
* Centaur Class article at Starbase 400.
* Centaur-class article at *Memory Zeta*, the Sixth Fleet RPG wiki.
* Centaur Class document by Admiral Horton.

### Footnotes

1. ↑ This wiki uses the 210 length extrapolated from the size of the bridge and not from equating the saucer size with that of the *Excelsior*-class.
2. ↑ Derived from MSD created by J. Anderson and hosted at Cygnus-X1.
3. ↑ Derived from Centaur Bridge by Reaper63 on DeviantArt.