Bolivar Class
The starships of the Bolivar class were a further development of the Detroit class, in anticipation of the success of the warp propulsion system that was on the drawing boards for the Asia-class upgrade at Copernicus Ship Yards. Unlike it was the case with the Asia, Starfleet's explicit wish was to develop a completely new starship instead of upgrading the Detroit class from which only the basic spaceframe of the saucer was taken. With the new warp propulsion system being the same as on the Asia refit, the direction the Bolivar design would take was clear, and the prototype was completed only six years after the start of the project. Even more than the Detroit, the Bolivar class was designed as a multi-purpose vessel for exploration, diplomatic missions and tactical assignments. The engineers devised a special module on the top of the saucer hull to hold miscellaneous scientific labs that could be quickly interchanged, but only a weapons module found its way into production when relations to the Klingons once again deteriorated in the years before 2266. Copernicus Ship Yards launched the prototype, USS Bolivar, in 2264.
In the meantime, Starfleet had assigned the development of an alternative design to a syndicate of San Francisco Fleet Yards and 40-Eridani-A Fleet Yards, the Miranda class. When both ship classes were in regular service, it soon turned out that the Miranda class had the better overall performance concerning propulsion, weapons and sensors, but these ships were also 25% more expensive in construction and maintenance than a Bolivar class. When Starfleet finally decided to halt the production of the Bolivar class in 2282, the Miranda class had won the competition and should become the most built major Starfleet vessel of all times. After that, the Bolivar-class starships were rebuilt to serve as mere research vessels. The last ships were retired in 2328.
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Datasheet
| Class specifications Ship type: Light cruiser Length: 198m Width: 146m Height: 58m Crew complement: 296 Max. speed: Warp 5.9 First commissioned in 2264 |
Commissioned ships USS Bolivar NCC-1880 USS Mistral NCC-1913 USS Dublin NCC-1934 USS Stonehenge NCC-1967 USS Calypso NCC-1968 USS Sea Lion NCC-1969 USS Tolstoy NCC-1970 USS Teheran NCC-1971 USS Siegen NCC-1995 USS Kilimanjaro NCC-1996 USS Cartagena NCC-1997 USS Scientia NCC-1998 USS Sutherland NCC-2115 USS Neptune NCC-2183 |
