Federation USS Ambassador Class Battlecruiser:

This ship design should be used from before and during Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes as well as during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager Episodes.

This vessel were originally meant as the replacement for both the Excelsior and Constellation class starships. Due to the high cost of replacing all of the Excelsior class starship in service, this was never realized. Instead, these vessels took over most of the more hazardous duties of the Excelsiors or acted as flagships of groups of excelsiors. A lower cost and easier to mass produce class was needed for replacing the Excelsior class and this was the basis for the Intrepid class starships. While having more space for diplomatic duties than Excelsior class starships, they are not the gigantic monsters that some senior Federation officers consider the Galaxy class starship. Before the Dominion war, it was planned to stop production of these vessels but due to the war against the Dominion, production on these vessels were continued.

One of the fairly early Ambassador class Battlecruisers was te U.S.S. Enterprise N.C.C. 1701 C. This ship was lost protecting a Klingon outpost from Romulan vessels. Many more vessels were lost during the war against the Dominion but the vessels did quite well considering their age and many have not been heavily upgraded.

This ship became on of the few well balanced vessel designs and combined some new innovations, a well armed combatant vessel, good research capacity, and spacious diplomatic quarters. Before the Galaxy class starship, many non Ambassador crews called these ships hotels. These vessels introduced many innovations in starships. The ship was the first vessel that carried rapid fire torpedo launchers which doubled this vessels missile firepower when compared to the older Excelsior class. As well, it introduced the phaser arrays that are seen on all newer federation vessel. These mounts tend to be harder to destroy that the older ball turrets and give better arcs of fire. The vessel has a total of eight arrays with two mounts on the secondary hull and three on both the top and bottom of the saucer section.

These vessels are quite luxurious when compared to older classes. These ships were designed as flagship originally and have extensive flag facilities which also work well for ambassadorial duties. These vessels were originally meant to carry fighters but most never carried fighters until the Dominion war in which many of the Shuttles were replaced with fighters. This is normally done at the rate of two fighters for every shuttle replaced. Originally, these vessels also carried marines but they were replaced by quarters for families. Since the war against the Dominion, the families have been taken off of the vessels and marines put back in their place.

This design is written to be able to interact with modified phase world rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details. There is a lack of hard detail on this ship. Some materials have suggested accelerations that are simply beyond scope. I have taken a moderate level in writing up this starship for Phase World because otherwise the ship would either be far too powerful or far too weak for Phase World. Warp speeds are far slower than the FTL speeds for Phase World but they are very close to those from the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. Also, a note on the mass of starships. The original sources indicated much smaller masses for starships than Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual does and where possible, both masses are listed for the gamers to choose which one seems most appropriate.

Model Type: NCC-10521
Vehicle Type: Battlecruiser
Crew: 550 (75 Officers and 475 Enlisted)
Families: 160 Families (Most have been replaced by marines)
Troops: 300 Marines, 200 fighter and Shuttle pilot

Vehicles:

25

Standard Shuttlecraft

M.D.C. by Location:

	Phaser Arrays (8 Arrays):	1,500 each
	Photon/Quantum Torpedo Launchers (4; 2 forward, 2 aft):	2,000 each
	Warp Nacelles (2):	30,000 each
	Primary Hull Impulse Engine:	15,000
	Secondary Hull Impulse Engine:	15,000
	Primary Hull Hangar Bay Door:	5,000
	Secondary Hull Hangar Bay Door:	4,000
	[1] Primary Bridge:	20,000
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge (Also used as Flag Bridge):	20,000
	[2] Primary Hull:	65,000
	[2] Secondary Hull:	70,000
	Connection between Hulls:	20,000
	[3] Variable Deflector Shields:	10,000 per side (60,000 total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ships armor. This ship does have an auxiliary bridge. Even if both of the bridges is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridges that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the primary or secondary hull will put the Battlecruiser out of commission. If the secondary hull is destroyed, the primary hull will remain capable of sublight travel and weapons may still be fired. If the primary hull is destroyed, all internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (3,000 MDC total) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 70 percent of the speed of light. The starship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.6 percent of light per melee. As an alternative, the starship can reach .99 of the speed of light but is normally restricted to slower speeds so that starship is not effected severely by time attenuation that occurs at the higher sublight speeds.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Cannot travel within an atmosphere efficiently.
Stardrive: Uses a warp engine that allow ship to travel at Warp Factor 8.77 on cruise (0.159 light years per hour), Warp Factor 9.639 Flank (0.226 Light Years per hour), and Warp Factor 9.85 Emergency (0.299 Light Years per Hour). Speed is calculate using a formula designed to emulate Star Trek: Next Generation speeds. These speed are very slow when compared to Phase World ship, so if used in that universe, they could be increased enough to operate within Three Galaxy speeds but should not exceed them.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system. The ship carries about three years worth of supplies on board and a small hydroponic section.

Statistical Data:
Length: 1,725.7 feet (526 meters)
Height: 410.1 feet (125 meters)
Width: 1,049.9 feet (320 meters)
Mass: 2.35 million metric tons (Daystrom Institute Technical Library)
Power System: Primary power system is a Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor Assembly with a 20 year lifespan. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 150,000 tons of cargo in addition to the standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 18.5 billion credits to construct. As far as it is known, the Federation does not sell their starship designs to other interested parties.

Weapons Systems:

1. Phaser Arrays (8): Primary energy weapon system with three arrays on the top and three arrays on the bottom of the primary hull. The ship also has one array on the top and bottom of the secondary hull. They are similar to those mounted on the Galaxy class class but are smaller and has less overall output. Each phaser array can fire two individual beams at the same time and can be aimed at different or the same targets. Each one can fire in any direction and directly up for top phasers and directly down for bottom phasers. These weapons are often used defensively and have half the normal penalties of a heavy weapon to hit fighters and small targets when fired normally. When combined into a heavy beam, they have full penalties. Weapon system cannot be used when the starship is moving faster than the speed of light.
   Range: 187 miles (300 km) through atmosphere and 18,700 miles (30,000 km) in space.
   Mega Damage: 3D6x100 per normal phaser beam or can be combined into a single heavy beam that inflicts 1D4x1000
   Rate of fire: volley of 2 phaser beams per array twice per melee (4 beams per melee per array / 32 beams for all arrays) or can fire a total of two combined heavy blasts per melee per array.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
2. Photon/Quantum Torpedo Launchers (4): The ship has two launchers that fire forward and two launchers that fire aft. Effectively very similar to Phase World cruise missile launchers but instead of having groups of multiple launchers, Starfleet has concentrated on launchers that can launch more than one torpedo at the same time. There are two launchers that fire forward and two launchers that fire aft. Once spread of torpedoes has been launched, the launchers must reload and rearm before launching another spread of torpedoes. In the early service of this ship, it carried photon torpedoes which are anti-matter/matter warheads but in later service they have been replaced by quantum torpedoes.
   Torpedoes has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). When drive goes dead, the torpedo will still cruise unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and torpedoes when dead at -25% to detect.) See Modified starship rules for more details, Sublight torpedoes have minuses to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Launchers can launch on multiple targets each.
   Range: Powered torpedo range is 8000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space
   Mega-Damage & Properties: Photon Torpedoes (Matter/Anti-Matter Warheads): Old Series inflict 2D6x100 each, Star Trek Movies One through Six inflict 3D6x100, and Next Generation inflicts 4D6x100 each. Quantum Torpedoes: 8D6x100 each.
   Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2 or 4 per launcher, per melee round, for a maximum of 16 torpedoes per melee. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.
   Payload: 200 total, 50 torpedoes per launcher.

[ Phase World™, Kreeghor™, and CAF™, are trademarks owed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. ]
[ Star Trek is copyright © Paramount Pictures ]

Parts of Technical information are from Daystrom Institute Technical Library (Mostly Ship Sizes). The site is hosted by Graham Kennedy .
CGI of Ship by Andrew Hodges. More of his CGI pictures of Star Trek Ships at Devil World 6

By Harold Nichols (sha_radun@yahoo.com) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).

I would like to recognize Henning Rogge as giving assistance with the revision of the Star Trek starships.

Rifts Conversion Copyright © 1998, 1999, and 2000, Harold Nichols & Kitsune. All rights reserved.