Saber class

## SPACECRAFT CLASS

Port view

The ***Saber*-class** was a type of spacecraft developed by Starfleet in the mid 24th century. It was rated a scale 3 frigate and was often assigned to patrol missions or service as a screening ship.

## History

The Perimeter Defense Directive, a program initiated by Starfleet Command to bolster the service's force profile, called for a variety of new designs. One of the roles required by the program was that of a fast vessel that could act as an initial defense before larger support could arrive. The design that became the *Saber*-class was developed to fulfill this need.

## Technical specifications

### Physical description

The *Saber*-class design was a unique variation on the Starfleet standard. It not only consisted of a combined saucer and engineering hull, but it was wider than it was long and the nacelles were connected directly to the primary hull.

The class had a length of 190.5 meters and a beam of 193.2 meters. Its draft was 48.6 meters, containing 11 decks, 10 of which were habitable. It had a mass of 1,356,000 metric tons.

### Deck plan

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

 3
 4
 5
 8

### Command systems

The bridge aboard a *Saber*-class starship was located forward on Deck 2. The front of the bridge was dominated by a large viewscreen. Consoles were immediately to either side, with the starboard serving as the tactical station and the port as the science station. A doorway stood aft of each console. The starboard door led to the commanding officer's ready room and the port door was a turbolift. The engineering station was next to the ready room door and it was mirrored across the bridge by a multi-purpose console. The aft wall of the bridge contained the Master Systems Display to starboard and a large, programmable display to port. In the center of the bridge was the command chair, with small control panels built into the armrests. Steps in front of the chair led to a recessed floor and a large, two station console that housed the flight control and operations stations.

### Engineering systems

The engineering complex was centered on Deck 5. Since the warp drive units were connected towards the fore of the vessel, main engineering was oriented differently than on most other Starfleet designs. The entrance doorway was in the aft bulkhead and the warp plasma conduits angled forward towards the nacelles. The chief engineer's office was located across the corridor, while main engineering had four consoles for monitoring the warp core and other ship systems.

### Tactical systems

The defenses of the *Saber*-class consisted of a duranium-tritanium double hull, with micro-fiber reinforced, ablative armor installed over critical compartments, and two FSQ Zeta 5/D Unified Deflector Field Emitter Arrays.

The *Saber*-class mounted 4 type-X Annulated Confinement Beam-jacketed phaser arrays. Two forward-facing, variable-payload Mk 80 direct-fire launchers flanked the navigational deflector. The initial standard ordnance of the class was photon torpedoes, but these were replaced with quantum torpedoes as the newer weapon became more widely available during the Dominion War.

### Propulsion systems

The design made use of the Ceries B-grade Mod 2 Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction Assembly to power the starship's two Shoshi *Sigma*-class 2 Variable Warp Drive Units and twin Vervyn TK-40 Mk 5 Combat Subatomic Unified Energy Impulse Units.

### Auxiliary systems

Due to limited space aboard the frigates, *Saber*-class transporter rooms were smaller than those found on larger vessels and shared a design with the Defiant-class. Each room had a three-person transporter pad standing opposite the control panel for the transporter operator. A small equipment locker sat opposite the doorway into the hallway.

## Derivatives

### *Hemmer*

This variant sported additional sensor systems and intelligence gathering equipment in order to serve as the eyes and ears of Starfleet on the frontier. The warp nacelles used on the *Hemmer*-class were adapted from those developed in the Century Cruiser Project and, while holding a slower top speed, could maintain a warp field for a longer duration than the *Saber’s* original engines.

## Ships commissioned

The naming conventions of the *Saber*-class varied by the shipyards where vessels were constructed. Those spaceframes launched from the Laikan Yards were named after bladed weapons from Federation cultures; those constructed at the Salazaar Shipyards were named after volcanoes on Federation worlds; and those constructed in orbit of Mars were named after notable pilots, inventors, and military officers from Federation members. A total of one hundred vessels of the class were commissioned during its run.

## Gallery

View forward of initial bridge design (Tadeo D'Oria).Initial corridor design (Tadeo D'Oria).Initial turbolift interior (Tadeo D'Oria).View of workstations in main engineering (Tadeo D'Oria).
## Derivatives

### *Rapier*

Designed by staff from the Corps of Engineers who served aboard the USS *da Vinci*, the *Rapier*-subclass had several functional improvements that the *da Vinci'*s crew tested on their vessel during the Dominion War.

### *Ushaan*

The *Ushaan*-subclass was designed by a team at the Laikan Starfleet Shipyards comprised mostly of Andorians. Taking design elements from the *ushaan-tor* mining pick, the *Ushaan*-subclass had the appearance of two blades placed against a traditional Starfleet saucer design.

### *Gladius*

At the beginning of the Last Federation-Klingon War, the chief designer of the *Maelstrom*-subclass was given the assignment to revisit the *Saber*-class design. The hard lines and angles of the *Maelstrom* were applied to the traditional shape of the *Saber* and the *Gladius*-subclass was born. The new design incorporated much of the technology developed by Starfleet in the late 24th and early 25th centuries.

### *da Vinci*

Though most of the efforts of the Allied Cooperative Starship Development Board was focused on designing new classes of starships for the Khitomer Alliance, some members advised on the creation of designs for specific services. Such was the case with the *da Vinci*-class. Two Cardassian engineers, Gul Arik Hunri and Dal Kotan Teldin, consulted the development team for the 25th century update to the *Saber* design.

## 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

* Saber class article at *Memory Alpha*.
* Saber class article at *Memory Beta*.
* *Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection* issue 56: "*Saber* Class."
* Saber class article at the *Star Trek Online Wiki*.
* Saber class article at Trekipedia.
* *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.
* Saber-class Specs article at *A Call to Duty - Advanced Starship Design Bureau*.

### Footnotes

1. ↑ Derived from MSDs created by Lee Arundel, Alexander Richardson, and Robin Chang.
2. ↑ *Memory Beta* claims that this came from the old "Ships of the Line" webpage for *Star Trek Online*, but the page no longer exists and the Internet Archive did not capture the page.