Star Trek Archer Class
Perhaps more than any other class, the Archer class of system patrol ships were responsible for saving the outer colonies of the United Earth (UE) during the perilous early months of the Earth-Romulan War. These tiny ships were often all that stood between the mighty Romulan war machine and thousands of colonists on the planets within striking range of the Romulan Empire.Archer was designed in the early 2150s to serve as a semiautonomous intrasystem patrol vessel for protecting colonies and performing police actions against raiders and pirates. The UE Stellar Navy (UESN), whose strength at that time was still at its extremely low prewar levels, had barely enough ships to patrol the major space lanes and protect UE core worlds, much less to defend colony worlds at the far reaches of its territory.
The UE frontiers were simply too vast to be reliably protected by the UESN’s lumbering interstellar cruisers, such as those of the Alexander class, which could barely make wf 2.3. To provide for colonial defense, Archer-class ships were to be based singly or in pairs at each border system, where they would operate under nominal local control. Unlike larger UESN cruisers, the 62-m-long Archer carried only a small, high pressure 6N-4A fusion reactor, a single Firefly inline warp nacelle, and a small supply of deuterium. This drive system allowed Archer to respond at moderately high warp speeds (wf 2.7) to trouble within 500 au of its base but not to travel to other star systems.All Archer-class ships were all built at the Monarch R&U Shipyards in orbit around Mars and were transported to their bases 4 at a time by specially modified Bison cargo ships similar to the later Yorktown-class carriers. These small ships could be based in orbit around colony worlds, at asteroids or space stations, or even at tenders far from any planetary body. Archer required little maintenance (a support team of 30 was standard) to be kept in a constant state of readiness and could be launched on a mission with its crew of 20 in as little as 15 minutes. Because of their relatively modest drive systems, Archers had more room available for sensor and targeting systems, lasers, and missiles than did interstellar ships of similar displacement.The lead ship of the class, UES Archer (PC-59) was launched in the summer of 2154, just as the Romulan threat was finally being publicly revealed.
- The Archer class scouts were a type of starship active in the mid-23rd century. (Star Trek: Vanguard novel: Harbinger) The Archers were modeled along similar lines of the early 23rd century Paris-class cruisers but much smaller. Designed for a crew of 14, only the commanding officer.
- This is an 8000+ poly model with 2048x2048 textures for armada 2. It is a redesign of the NX-01 Class Cruiser. It has Akira Class weapons (as can be seen in the ODF), Phaser cannons, and donut.
The USS Archer (NCC-44278) was a 24th century Federation starship operated by Starfleet. In 2379, the Archer was assigned to Star Fleet Battle Group Omega.This battle group was redirected by Starfleet Command to sector 1045 for a rendezvous with the USS Enterprise-E, which was returning from Romulan space with the Reman warbird Scimitar, under the command of Shinzon, in pursuit.
In view of this threat, the initial order of 25 ships, which was believed adequate in peacetime, was immediately doubled. Through 2157 some 73 Archers entered service with the UESN.
Even before the formal declaration of hostilities between the UE and the Romulan Star Empire in March 2156, Archer-class ships had already begun countering incursions by Romulan raiders and scoutships. For example, in May 2155 an anomalous energy signature was detected by orbital sensors near the UE’s Utopia colony at 61 Virginis. The single Archer based there, UES Suri (PC-74), was sent out to investigate and soon detected faint sensor traces suggesting the presence of a small, stealthed Romulan ship. The two vessels played a desperate game of cat and mouse for 3 days before the intruder was destroyed.In the valiant but unsuccessful defense of Deep Space Stations Yu-lei and Shen-shu in the war’s opening action, the First Battle of Hell’s Gate, 3 remotely piloted Archer-class ships, UES Leyton (PC-61), UES Winstead (PC-72), and UES King (PC-78) rammed and destroyed 3 Cabbage-class cruisers. Two manned Archers, UES McKeggan, (PC-75) and UES Castillo (PC-80), managed to destroy a further Cabbage apiece.
Amazingly, 54 of the UESN crew who volunteered to remain in-system and fight aboard Archers and at surface installations survived the Romulan attacks by hiding aboard these Archers in the systems’ asteroid belts. They were rescued when a UESN relief force recaptured the systems in the Second Battle of Hell’s Gate the following year.Archers did much to blunt Romulan thrusts in the desperate days following the attacks on Yu-lei and Shen-shu. In the first 4 months of the war Archers were credited with the destruction of some 25 Romulan ships, including 6 half-million-ton Cabbage-class cruisers. In June 2156 2 Cabbage and 3 smaller Elbow-class cruisers attacked the Utopia colony.
Star Trek Archer Class Scout Ship
The 4 Archers based there—UES Pemberton (PC-60), UES Haar (PC-66), UES Suri (PC-74), and UES Hachez (PC-92) and 1 San Francisco-class corvette (UES Taipei, CL-73)—engaged the attackers near the system’s Kuiper belt. Four of the Romulan ships were destroyed (including 1 destroyed in a suicide attack by UES Hachez), and the fifth escaped back across the frontier.With the introduction of shipboard matter/antimatter (M/AM) power systems in 2158, the UESN launched an improved version of Archer, designated the Curran class. Although outwardly resembling Archer, Curran, which was also constructed by Monarch R&U, was powered by M/AM fuel cells similar to those carried by the famous Minotaur fighters. However, unlike Minotaur, Curran did not carry a fusion reactor capable of creating and sustaining a warp field for interstellar flight. Minotaurs were usually carried internally at warp speeds by Yorktown-class carriers and released deep within enemy territory. After attacking a target within 300 au of its release point, the Minotaur would rendezvous with the Yorktown and be carried back to UE space.
However, if a Minotaur were unable to rendezvous with the carrier or if the carrier were destroyed, the Minotaur could return to UE space at low warp speeds using its onboard fusion reactor. In contrast, Curran’s fusion reactor was used only to power internal systems and the sublight impulse drive; warp drive was powered only by fuel modules. Within these replaceable modules, 10 of which were carried by Curran, matter and antimatter were stored, then reacted at narrowly controlled rates. However, because Curran was never expected to cross interstellar distances under its own power, a large fusion reactor was unnecessary. This weight savings allowed Curran to mount more powerful sensors with which to detect attacking ships.
They could also achieve higher peak speeds (wf 4.6) than could Minotaur or Archer for intercepting enemy ships and making attack runs.In the last 2 years of the war, 30 Currans entered service with the UESN. Although Curran was a more powerful attack ship than either Minotaur or Archer, it did not achieve the fame of either of these ships because by the time it was introduced the tide of the war had turned in the UE’s favor. In the latter half of 2158, UESN task forces, spearheaded by powerful second- and third-generation M/AM-reactor-equipped cruisers and carriers, had begun their drive towards the Romulan homeworlds. Although the UE’s outer colonies were still under threat of Romulan attack until early 2160, by 2159 the Romulans had begun to withdraw from their most forward bases and to consolidate their defensive sphere around their core worlds.
Thereafter, Romulan forces made only occasional nuisance raids against the UE’s outer colonies, which were now much more heavily defended than in the early years of the war.Archer and Curran were purely defensive patrol craft that took no part in the great UESN offensives of the last 2 years of the war. However, by defending the outer worlds of the UE against Romulan attacks in the war’s early years, they saved the lives of thousands of UE citizens and held the line until the UESN was itself ready to go on the offensive.
I'm a fan of the tiny Archer-Class ship from the Vanguard series; from the look of it, to its function, to the small crew, all of it just seems like a great idea.I've found the interior deck arrangement, which gives the broad strokes of where the rooms are located. But one thing I keep wondering is: where is all the hardware?The core of the mid deck is allocated for 'machinery', but when you think about all the little bits and pieces Starfleet ships need (phaser cells, shield generator, SIF system, inertial dampners/stabilisers, environmental/life support, computer core) there really doesn't seem enough space. Then you need to add in the deuterium tanks and antimatter storage pods in order to power the ship.Anyone care to hazard a guess where all of this stuff might go? You could put all the fuel in the nacelles, say - but they are already very, very small for their supposed performance of warp nine'ish (heck, the whole scout is, almost shaking my belief in size being a prerequisite for speed in Star Trek).But much of the rest could be in plain sight. Only on a large starship would one bother with 'Jeffries tubes' and vanity covers; on an Archer, life support systems and the like would be lining the walls and ceilings, and be constantly accessed by the crew because of the lack of redundancies and the subsequent greater need of maintenance. 'Rooms' as such would be of limited use, unless they were filled with useful things like tanks, valves, stem bolt manifolds and the occasional bunk in between.Timo Saloniemi.
I guess you could use any shuttlecraft as an analogue. They all have the various systems you describe, even the TOS versions, and they all seem to somehow fit it into a volume scarcely larger than the shuttle itself. Heck, even cloaking devices can be fit into an oversize suitcase if you had to do it.The base conclusion we have to reach is that all the hardware is already tiny by our standards and thus doesn't take up THAT much space. Indeed, we hardly see ANY of the major hardware on a full-size starship save for a warp core and sometimes the computer core. I'm guessing pretty much everything save tanks for fuel and water would not take up any significant space in the Trek universe unless specifically shown as such.Mark. I hadn't seen that before and it didn't turn up in my searches.While Masao had gone on about how cramped the ship is and how the decks weren't often at full height, that diagram seems to show near-full deck height for the main/red deck - unless the figures in the diagram are children.:PThis in turn leaves quite a bit of space in the upper part of the saucer for fuel and water tanks, various machinery, and ad-hoc stowage - there's arguably even enough space for a Jeffries tube crawlway up there to access it all.
Likewise much of the lower/blue deck is apparently unallocated and has lots of space for extra stuff; and I'm thinking the computer core would fit nicely in the hull blister that has the navigational deflector in it, or up in the suitably-labelled 'machinery' space in the upper/green deck.Now that we know this layout, I'm honestly thinking there's a big Serenity-from-Firefly vibe about this ship. Not everything THERE was explained either, but they had characterized most fo the living space on the ship and it has pretty much the same sort of space, plus a very large cargo bay. If Starfleet is more advanced than that, I can believe the Archer class has more than enough space for all the extra things to make it go.Mark. Click to expand.Think of the way it used to be aboard older naval vessels, especially submarines, the crew would work, eat and sleep with the machinery completely surrounding them. If you were the radio operator, you slept in the radio room, the guys who handled the torpedoes slept on bunks immediately above the torpedoes.So the crew of a Archer Class might not have discrete separate areas for working and living and equipment. The areas marked 'crew quarters' is also the area with the deuterium tanks, and the crews beds are on top/below the tanks (it's just a type of water). The room that holds the food fabricators is where you go to eat.
Ah, but either way a typical shuttlecraft is basically a fully functional, FTL starship with all the basic bells and whistles to travel in space. So it means that everything from grav generators to life support to SIF/IDF fields to shield generators must be contained within its volume; judging by this, none of this key technology can take up too much space on even the TOS shuttles. Assuming that this is at best a proportional scaling up to a ship the size of the Archer, all the stuff listed in the OP should be neatly tucked away in very little of the total volume of the ship to have 'the basics' covered. IMO, this leaves more than enough usable space for other stuff. OTOH, a ship like this finally gives an excuse to work on a plot point in Engineering or the mess hall instead of a dedicated lab!Mark. I worked up those deck plans just as a general guide for the writers.
They weren't intended for publication so have just minimal detail. I didn't account for every bit of gear because doing so wasn't necessary for the writers. However, we must assume that everything needed was present because Archer seemed to function OK in the Vanguard novels.
Star Trek Archer Starship Class
USS Enterprise, as seen on TV, works in the same way.Also, Archer was described (in the first book) before she was designed (for the second book). Because of time constraints, I adapted one of my earlier designs from my website, shrunk it down, and tried to make the interior match the description in the book. So, Archer was designed backwards and outside-in.(Regarding the people appearing smaller than normal, they're 5 feet 5 inches tall.
That's normal, for me at least. I'm usually around that height.)The guy who designs the deck plans for the ships my website (The Starfleet Museum) also did some detailed deck plans for Archer/Sagittarius but they weren't published, for reasons I won't go in to. I don't know if they'll ever be released. There may also be a massive threshold between doing shuttle speeds and doing the sort of speeds a scout needs. In TOS, any stupid old freighter could do warp two - but no more, despite supposedly being gigantic in comparison with the smallest craft capable of this feat.
OTOH, small 'scouting' craft such as those flown by Cyrano Jones or Carter Winston were larger than the theoretically interstellar shuttles, but only accommodated one person.Even in TNG, the fastest we've heard a shuttle go would be warp 4, for the unseen Type 9 in 'Resolutions'. Something keeps the shuttles from being as fast as the slightly larger runabouts (at least warp 5). It might be something as simple as nacelle size - but also something more complex, involving stuffing the interiors with proportionately more machinery (as the Danube seems to have less crew-accessible space inside than the Type 6, proportionally).Timo Saloniemi.