Ross class

## SPACECRAFT CLASS

The ***Ross*-class**, named for the Human aerospace engineer Mary G. Ross, was a type of spacecraft developed by Starfleet in the late 24th century.

## History

Shortly after the Dominion War, Starfleet Command ordered the construction of three *Galaxy*-class vessels to replace those lost in recent years. Construction began on the three spaceframes at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in late 2377. Mid the next year, Dr. Debluch Marrone, a lead designer at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, approached the admiralty with a proposal. He had created three new designs that reworked the *Galaxy*-class to better incorporate the many new technologies developed since the class was first introduced, including those brought by the USS *Voyager* from its journey through the Delta Quadrant.

After spending a month reviewing the designs, Starfleet Command approved them and ordered the shift of the three *Galaxy*-class vessels under construction to the new designs, designated as Block II.

The design that greatly expanded upon the scientific capabilities of the *Galaxy*-class was applied to the USS *Ross*, becoming lead ship of the Block II/S *Ross*-class. The *Ross* incorporated many design elements from the *Sovereign*-class, while also incorporating technological advances from that class and others, such as the *Intrepid*-class*.*

Some of the completed elements on the three hull frames had to be redone, which slowed construction by a few additional months. As the *Ross*-class prototype neared completion, it was moved to the San Francisco Fleet Yards for finishing touches and final review. The USS *Ross* was finally completed and commissioned in 2381 with Captain Azeri Sull given command.

## Technical specifications

### Physical arrangement

The *Ross*-class was 663.2 meters in length, had a beam of 398.9 meters, a draft of 146.8 meters, and a mass of 4,409,556.7 metric tons. Holding an M-class environmental standard, the starship's standard complement was 600 Starfleet personnel and 1,900 civilian crew and passengers. The class had a maximum evacuation capacity of 14,000.

The class was designed with the ability to reversibly separate the primary and secondary hulls in what was called saucer separation, often truncated sau-sep. In this maneuver, the saucer would disconnect near the top of the stardrive neck. The concept was that in dangerous or emergency situations, non-essential personnel could be evacuated to the saucer and the secondary hull could be commanded from the battle bridge, located on Deck 12.

Unlike its *Galaxy*-class predecessor, the primary hull of the *Ross* design was equipped with its own warp propulsion system that allowed the saucer to attain warp speeds when separated from the stardrive hull.

In order to serve on the bridge of a *Ross*-class vessel, officers had to pass the Saucer Separation Clearance Exam in addition to the standard Bridge Officer's Test.

### Deck plan

The *Ross*-class was highly modular, leading to great variations in the internal layouts of the vessels commissioned. However, some facilities were not modular and the following was the layout for those.

### Command systems

#### Main bridge

The main bridge of the *Ross*-class was located on Deck 1 in the saucer section. The class made use of the Century VAR-3/A module, which was similar in layout to the VAR-1/C introduced in 2370. Three chairs were located at the center, with the middle one for the commanding officer or officer of the watch. The chair to starboard was typically reserved for the executive officer, and the chair to port was assigned as desired by the commanding officer. Each of the seats included consoles for systems access.

The main viewscreen covered most of the forward bulkhead. Between the viewscreen and the command area were the operations and conn stations. Directly aft of the command area was the tactical station. The console was embedded in a handrail that curved around the rear half of the command area. Unlike VAR-1 and 2 models, the VAR-3/A design included a chair for the officer assigned to the station.

The aft bulkhead contained two configurable consoles and the Master Systems Display. Three stations were located on both the port and starboard bulkheads.

There were six doors around the bridge. The one immediately starboard of the viewscreen was the emergency turbolift to the battle bridge. Next to it was the door to the bridge head. The door to the starboard rear opened to a corridor that led to the executive conference room. This was mirrored on the port side by a turbolift door. At the forward aft were another two doors, one of which led to the commanding officer's ready room while the other was another turbolift.

The auxiliary command facility, known as the battle bridge, was located on Deck 12 in the stardrive section.

### Propulsion systems

*Ross*-class vessels were equipped with two warp cores powering two separate warp propulsion systems. The primary core, a Yoyodyne 33R Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction Assembly, was located in the secondary hull and was connected to two Cochrane Type 8V Linear Warp Drive Units, the primary warp engines of the design. A secondary core, a Yoyodyne 19L2 M/ARA, was housed in the primary hull to provide power to the single Yoyodyne Model P1.7 Planer Warp Drive Unit. Nicknamed the "Frisbee," the secondary drive was composed of seven flat warp field coils and allowed for the primary hull to achieve warp speeds during saucer separation.

The primary impulse engine, located along the stardrive spine, was a Charon OL-9G Heavy Subatomic Unified Energy Impulse Engine. This was supplemented with two secondary Charon OL-4T Subatomic Unified Energy Impulse Engines located on the trailing edge of the primary hull.

### Science and remote sensing systems

The design incorporated six DYN 58 Multi-Band Lateral Sensor Suites, four GBG Directional Sensor Arrays, and one NDM-09 Omni-Phase Deflector Array.

### Tactical systems

The *Ross*-class was protected by an ablative duranium-tritanium double hull and three FSS-3 Eta 8/K-class Unified Deflector Field Emitter Arrays.

The class mounted eleven Type X phasers placed strategically around the outer hull. Each array contained an Annular Confinement Beam-jacketing device, which allowed the phasers to be fired at warp speeds without the need for the starship to overlap warp fields with its target. Additionally, *Ross* starships bore seven variable-payload launch tubes. Though the launchers could deploy a variety of torpedoes and probes, photon torpedoes were the standard ordnance.

### Crew support systems

#### Medical facilities

The *Ross*-class contained three sickbays, the main facility on Deck 12 and two secondary sickbays on Decks 20 and 31. The main sickbay was rated Class G and hosted the office of the chief medical officer, while both Sickbays 1 and 2 were Class C. Additionally, there were general aid stations located on every deck and emergency aid stations located near core locations aboard the ship.

## Ships commissioned

NCC registries assigned to the class ranged from 76710 to 76799, with the exception of USS *Vanguard* and USS *Yi Sun-Sin*, which were assigned lower, unused registries.

## 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

* Ross class article at *Memory Alpha*.
* Ross class article at *Memory Beta*.
* Ross Legendary Command Exploration Cruiser article at the *Star Trek Online Wiki*.
* *Star Trek Adventures - Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook* by Modiphius Entertainment.
* Ross Class Exploration Cruiser artwork by Thomas Marrone posted at ArtStation.
* USS Ross article at the *Clear Skies RPG Wiki*.
* USS Ross (NX-76710) article at *Star Trek Expanded Universe*.

### Footnotes

1. ↑ From Clear Skies RPG wiki and MSD by Lee Arundel.