Federation USS Pharris class Strategic Frigate:

This design is meant for the times between the movies Star Trek Two: Wrath of Khan and Star Trek Six: The Undiscovered Country. This could easily also be used in Next generation times as ships pulled from Mothball/Reserve fleets to cover the huge losses incurred while fighting against the Borg and Dominion.

The Federation operates several other frigate classes including the Avenger (FH-1860) class heavy cruiser and Knox (FR-1940) class Frigate. They require smaller crews than most cruiser class yet carry a comparable firepower. This is done by a reduction in carried fuel and by having fewer research facilities. Frigates are not normally assigned research missions or missions beyond Federation territory so this is not normally a problem.

One problem with frigates has been the restriction of torpedo launchers to heavy frigate designs such as the Avenger class. Many designers state that the Mega-Phasers on the Knox class make up for the lack of torpedo launchers but most captains would disagree with this. Photon Torpedo launchers have a much longer range and require much less power than the Mega-Phasers. The Pharris class attempts to solve this problem. The Surya class frigate, laid down around the same time as the original Constitution class cruiser, had two Photon Torpedo launchers mounted under the ship's bridge. As the power of Photon Torpedoes got heavier, this was no longer an option and the Avenger class rebuilds moved the Torpedo launchers to a pod above the ship's hull. The Pharris class reverts to having a Torpedo launcher just under the ship's bridge and was designed with additional safety systems to allow the repositioning of the launcher. This safety system includes a delayed activation of the torpedoes' drive system so that they are clear of the bridge's danger zone.

These ships do not have as much firepower as the rebuilt Constitution/Enterprise class cruisers and they only carry six banks of Phasers as compared to eight banks and two single mounts carried on the Enterprise class. Three banks of two Phasers are on top of the hull with one bank on either side and one behind the bridge. There are three Phaser banks are on the bottom of the hull with two on either side and one in the forward position. These act as the ship's main beam weaponry and act in the roles of both point defense and anti-ship weaponry. The ship carries two Photon Torpedo launchers under the bridge that fire forward. Although not as heavily armed as the Enterprise class cruiser (or the Avenger class heavy frigate for the matter), the Pharris class frigate still carries a fairly heavy amount of weaponry

These ships can carry a decent fighter compliment and carry a small contingent of marines for shipboard defense. These ships are not equipped with flag facilities due to the fact that most of the space dedicated to officers quarters are taken up by the photon torpedo launchers.

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-3537.
Vehicle Type: Strategic Frigate (By Phase World terms would be considered to be a Cruiser)
Crew: 375 (50 officers and 325 enlisted)
Troops: 50 Marines and 60 fighter pilots.

Vehicles:
Fighter Compliment:

	12	Tycho class light interceptors.
	12	Arco class attack sleds
	6	Argus Class warp fighters

Shuttles:

4

Standard Shuttles

M.D.C. By Location:

	Siege Phaser Cannons (6 banks of 2 each):	800 each bank
	Torpedo Tubes (2, Under Bridge):	800 each
	Warp Nacelles (2, under primary hull):	15,000 each
	Small Craft Hanger Doors (2):	2,500 each
	Impulse Engine:	8,000 each
	[1] Primary Bridge:	12,000
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge:	12,000
	[2] Main Body (Primary Hull):	35,000
	[3] Variable Force Field:	6,000 a side (36,000 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 are destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but the 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 main body will put the Frigate out of commission. 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% (1,800 MDC) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.9 percent of light per melee round.
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 the ship to travel at Warp Factor 7.8 on cruise (0.054 Light Years per Hour), Warp Factor 9.6 Flank (0.101 Light Years per Hour), and Warp Factor 11.8 Emergency (0.156 Light Years per Hour). Warp speed is raised to the third power to figure out how many times the speed of light the ship travels. These speeds 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 two years worth of supplies on board and a small hydroponic section.

Statistical Data:
Length: 845.1 feet (257.6 m)
Height: 153.2 feet (46.7 m)
Width: 465.2 feet (141.7 m)
Mass: 138,000 Metric Tons (Starfleet Prototype)
Power System: Primary power system is Anti-Matter with a 20 year life span. Ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 8,000 tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 3.2 billion to construct. As far as it is known, the Federation does not sell their starship designs to other interested parties.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Five (5) banks of 2 Siege Phaser Cannons: Secondary energy weapon system with two banks on the top and three banks on the bottom of the primary hull. The weapons damage is about equal to laser cannons used by the CAF but the Phasers have a greater rate of fire. The Phasers are also slightly shorter ranged but only slightly. Both Phaser Cannons in each bank can be linked or can be fired separately. They cannot be used faster than the speed of light. Weapons system has half the normal penalties to hit fighters and small targets.
   Maximu Effective Range: 12,437 miles (20,000 km) in space and 12.4 miles (20 km) in an atmosphere.
   Mega Damage: 2D4x100 MDC each or 4D4x100 for both in a bank.
   Rate of fire: Maximum of Three (3) times per melee each cannon.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
2. Two (2) Photon Torpedo Launching Systems: Mounted on primary hull under the bridge and fired forward. While the launchers are older than those used on the U.S.S. Defiant and other next generation ships, they can use new torpedoes and quantum torpedoes if used in later Next Generation times. Newer photon torpedo warheads carry more anti-matter.
   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. 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 they can carry quantum torpedoes when they are available.
   Torpedoes have 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 the target does not move and torpedoes when dead at -25% to detect.) See Modified starship rules for more details, Torpedoes have minuses to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Launchers can launch on multiple targets each.
   Maximum Effective 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 per launcher, per melee round, for a maximum of 4 torpedoes per melee. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.
   Payload: 100 torpedoes (because both of the launchers are right next to each other they all use the same magazine)

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[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. ]
[ Star Trek is copyright © Paramount Pictures ]

Technical information from Starfleet Prototype

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By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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

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