New Orleans class

## SPACECRAFT CLASS

The ***New Orleans-*class** was a type of spacecraft developed by Starfleet in the early 24th century.

The class was designed to pioneer developments and test concepts that would be later used for Starfleet’s Century Cruiser Project. Despite being envisioned largely as a "proof of concept," the design was highly successful in its own right. Many *New Orleans*-class vessels continued to serve in various capacities into the 25th century. It filled the role of a middle ground between the endurance of a cruiser and the maneuverability of a corvette, with enough efficiency that it remained Starfleet’s only such design until the launch of the *Chimera*-class in 2407.

The *New Orleans*-class performed many different tasks within Starfleet including long-range exploration, emergency disaster response, and border reconnaissance.

## Description

The *New Orleans-*class, named for the city of New Orleans on Earth, was one of Starfleet’s most successful non-capital starship designs, popular with crews and flag officers alike. Compared to its peers it was highly advanced, with features such as an oval-shaped primary hull designed for streamlined subspace performance and a ringed navigational deflector that offered substantially higher power tolerances and output than the older solid navigational deflectors. The most defining visual feature of the *New Orleans* design, however, was the three outboard mission pods; two located on the dorsal aft section of the primary hull and one on the ventral centerline of the secondary hull.

## History

### Design

As the *Excelsior*-class had begun to show its age at the beginning of the 24th century, the Advanced Starship Design Bureau initiated a plan for the next generation of Starfleet vessels. Even as the *Ambassador*-class was finalized and moved to production in the 2310s, work had already begun on the design that would technologically leapfrog it. The ASDB was working around the idea of the "Century Cruiser," a design they hoped would act as the mainstay of the fleet for the next 100 years. Engineers found that each major design principle of the project, which would eventually become the *Galaxy*-class, would need decades of testing to ensure viability and reliability. These principles would be applied to smaller scale designs and evaluated over the course of the class' service.

The first of these smaller scale designs was the *New Orleans*-class. It was radically different from its contemporaries in abandoning the circular primary hull and cylindrical secondary hull that had been Starfleet's standard in favor of an oval shape that offered improved warp field dynamics. Additionally, the shape of the primary hull offered a more efficient glide ratio and stability for the planned "Century Cruiser" capability of saucer separation at warp speeds.

The navigational deflector used an experimental "ring" design instead of the solid parabolic dish, which allowed both larger amounts of energy to be directed and significantly more granular control over said energy. It also had the capability to safely hold an antiproton charge; a task deemed too dangerous for older solid deflectors.

The nacelles were also a departure from previous Starfleet designs. Advances in warp mechanics theorized that oblong shaped nacelles housing new "long twitch" warp coil models could offer better, consistent performance in subspace. The Vulcan metallurgy industry had discovered a method of refinement that allowed the nacelle cowling to shroud more of the engine while avoiding impediment of heat dissipation and simultaneously protecting the nacelle from energy discharges, giving the entire assembly a less exposed look compared to older models.

Separate from these technologies, that were intended to be test beds for the "Century Cruiser" project, was the hull mounted modular equipment concept, later called "mission pods." Though externally mounted equipment was not a new or novel concept, starship design traditionally favored storage and use of mission specific equipment inside hull due to the fragility of warp bubbles and the stresses of warp speed. The advantage to externally mounted equipment was hard to ignore, however. The process of swapping a ship’s internal systems took anywhere from days to months depending on the intricacy of the parts involved. External mission pods, on the other hand, could be attached and detached in a matter of hours. It was thought that with gains made in hull and engine design, external attachments could be made to the *New Orleans* frame without the adverse effects seen on older vessels.

Officially, the *New Orleans* design was classified as a Scale 4 heavy frigate by Starfleet. However Romulan, Klingon, Cardassian, and Ferengi intelligence sources designated it as a destroyer based on its size, speed, and armament. Following the launch of the *Lafayette*-class subtype in 2410, Starfleet would change its categorization to destroyer to be more aligned with the class' new purpose.

### Service

The USS *New Orleans*, the prototype and lead ship of the class, was launched on stardate 3514.3. During her shakedown cruise, it was found that the crew was insufficiently prepared to operate the highly advanced vessel. Many improvements and changes had been made during the final months of construction which had not been appropriately documented and relayed to the program that was training the senior staff and crew to take charge of the *New Orleans*. The most notable incident occurred when the deflector dish was undergoing a ship-to-ship power transfer simulation and the safety dampeners were set several orders of magnitude too low, nearly resulting in significant damage to the secondary hull. However, all major issues were resolved after four months of "hands on" experience, and the ship was commissioned on 3848.67.

This deficiency in the program caused the training for the crews of the next two ships, the USS *Kyushu* and USS *Kodiak Island*, to be extended in order to incorporate the lessons learned by the *New Orleans*. The two crews spent 12 months at the simulation facilities in orbit above Mars before the simultaneous launch of their vessels from Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in mid 2323.

*New Orleans*-class vessels continued to be produced and serve for the next several decades. The ASDB gained valuable information from the real-life application of their designs, and made adjustments to the "Century Cruiser" project based on feedback from the crews. The class gained a good reputation for its versatility and advanced capabilities compared to its peers.

In 2367, the *Kyushu* was destroyed during the Battle of Wolf 359. After action reports gave a favorable review of the vessel’s performance despite being severely outmatched by the invading Borg cube. Of particular note was *Kyushu*’s attempt to use the experimental quantum dissection arrays that had been recently added to its mission pods to damage the Borg cube. However, the *Kyushu* was destroyed before the emitter-beams could be brought to bear. In the years that followed, the *Kodiak Island* was used to perform numerous experiments with a similar equipment setup to verify the potential results of *Kyushu*’s improvised attack. The hyper-focusing trinary arrays would later be implemented as a starship defensive tool with the launch of the *Lafayette*-subclass.

## Technical specifications

*New Orleans* starships had a cruising speed of warp 6, a sustainable maximum of warp 9.3 for 12 hours, and three outboard mission pods which made it both fast and highly adaptable compared to its peers.

### Deck plan

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

### Command systems

#### Bridge

The initial *New Orleans*-class bridge design was the beginning of the philosophy that would inform all later bridge modules in the Century Cruiser Project.

The design placed two chairs in the center, one for the commanding officer and another for the executive officer. Immediately behind the command area was the tactical station, which was inset into a sweeping console that encircled the aft half of the command area. Between these and the viewscreen, that covered a large portion of the forward bulkhead, were two consoles serving as the conn and operations stations.

To port of the viewscreen was a doorway for a turbolift next to the doorway to the head. The starboard side held another turbolift doorway and the entrance to the commanding officer's ready room. The aft section of the bridge contained four consoles and a hallway to two additional turbolifts.

## Derivatives

### Lafaytte

As the Starfleet Corps of Engineers systematically updated designs of many 24th century classes in the early 25th century, a team spent eight months bringing the *New Orleans*-class up to current standards. The new design, dubbed the *Lafayette*-class, integrated the hyper-focusing trinary arrays deveoped aboard the USS *Kyushu* and USS *Kodiak Island*.

## 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

* New Orleans class article at *Memory Alpha*.
* New Orleans class article at *Memory Beta*.
* *Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection* issue 95: "*New Orleans* Class."
* Lafayette Recon Destroyer article at the *Star Trek Online Wiki*.
* New Orleans Class Reconstruction article at *Ex Astris Scientia*.
* *Star Trek Adventures - The Command Division* by Modiphius Entertainment.
* *Star Trek Adventures - Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook* by Modiphius Entertainment.
* *The Price of Freedom: The United Federation of Planets Sourcebook* by Last Unicorn Games.
* New Orleans class article at Bravo Fleet - Star Trek RPG and Community.

### Footnotes

1. ↑ Derived from MSDs created by Alexander Richardson, Bill Morris, and Lee Arundel (since removed).
2. ↑ Derived from USS Lafayette Bridge by Tadeo D'Oria.