Guide:Normandy/Port Stanley

Normandy / Port Stanley
Class Overview
Category	escort fightercraft
Operational	2162 - 2187
Constructed	510 total: 370 Normandy 140 Port Stanley
Dimensions
Length	40.0 m
Beam	12.2 m
Height	11.5 m
Mass	195 tons Normandy 202 tons Port Stanley
Performance
Max Speed	w 2.9 Normandy (sustainer only) w 2.8 Port Stanley (sustainer only)
Endurance	2-3 weeks
Complement
Crew	3 Normandy 2 Port Stanley
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	4x laser emitters (40 MW) (pylons) 2x laser emitters (60 MW) (fwd hull) (Normandy) 1x laser emitter (60 MW) (fwd hull) (Port Stanley) 2x Type D phased particle cannon (4.0 GW) (fwd hull) (Normandy) 4x Type D phased particle cannon (4.0 GW) (fwd hull) (Port Stanley)
Shields	Light polarizable armor
Canonicity
Design	SFC
Name	SFC
History	SFC

The end of the Romulan war spelled the end of convoying as well. Although theoretically a good anti-piracy measure, the practice of forcing multiple ships to share destination, timetable and speed was not commercially viable in the long term. Yet the transports did not have to do without the protection of escort craft – wartime industry, although gearing down, could still produce such overwhelming numbers of escort fighters that practically every single transport could be accompanied by one.

A wing of Port Stanleys swoops past a perimeter sensor platform at Beta Rigel. Independent sublight patrol was hardly the ideal role for the design, yet little other employment was available in the 2180s. The decision of the Starfleet Merchant Marine not to operate escort fighters was especially damaging to the future of the type.

Surplus Galliant fighters were not a favored solution, though. The discomfort to which their pilots were subjected had not changed, nor had their combat performance increased despite the many wartime inventions and refinements. Both ECS and Starfleet called for an improved design, but could not hope for miracles. What they got was a moderately enlarged model, with space for three crew so that piloting could be performed in shifts. Life support endurance was increased to about 500 hours. Propulsive endurance naturally remained theoretically infinite; yet the warp 2.8 top speed of the sustainer engine, once considered excessive, now meant that some transports had to throttle down so as not to outrun their escorts!

A quantum leap in combat capabilities was taken when miniaturized phase cannon were mounted in the forward hull for FTL engagements. Targeting data could be shared via a subspace transceiver array mounted ventrally amidship; onboard scanners could lock on to targets with two warp factors of speed differential. Shielding remained as nonexistent as ever, however; shuttle-standard armor plating might withstand the glancing hits of particle cannon, but a sustained laser beam would easily cut the craft to pieces, and a proximity nuclear detonation would be lethal to crew and equipment alike. Half a decade of operations was sufficient to erode Starfleet’s trust on the vulnerable craft. As casualties mounted in action against the Tarn and the Nausicaans alike, a production run of 370 Normandy and 140 Port Stanley escort fighters, a major commitment in prewar terms, was shrugged off as a mis-investment in 2164. Operations continued until 2187, but with a diminishing number of craft involved in progressively shorter escort missions.

Warp sustainer technology made steady progress in the following decades, and helped extend the reach of torpedoes and probes. It was not applied on manned craft any longer, however. The accidents suffered in escort operations ultimately weighed more than the combat losses, and deep space escort was completely relegated to frigate or destroyer vessels. The number of escorted shipments fell to 2% of the 2160s figures, but improved intelligence helped Starfleet provide protection where it was truly needed. Fightercraft escort was an outdated concept in the late 22nd century anyway, since the pirates that still dared operate within the UFP sphere of influence were by definition tactically formidable opponents, not to be scared off by a pair of phase cannon mounted on a shieldless outgrowth of a shuttlepod. In the 2180 defense review, an explicit decision was made not to develop a successor of any sort to the escort fighter line.

Gallery

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