Guide:Griffon

Griffon
Class Overview
Category	escort
Operational	2267 - 2312 Griffon Flight I: 2267 - 2312 Griffon Flight II: 2269 - (non-Star Fleet) Terrier: 2273 - 2311
Constructed	107 total Griffon Flt I: 19 (built: 2266 - 2268) Griffon Flt II: 60 (built: 2267 - 2272) Terrier: 28 (built: 2272 - 2273)
Dimensions
Length	Griffon: 167.8 m Terrier: 168.0 m
Beam	Griffon: 66.0 m Terrier: 65.8 m
Height	Griffon: 21.0 m Terrier: 32.2 m
Mass	Griffon Flt I: 240,195 mt Griffon Flt I: xx mt Terrier: 210,450 mt
Performance
Cruise Speed	w 5.0
Max Speed	Griffon: w 7.2 Terrier: w 8.0
Endurance	4 months
Complement
Officers	9
Enlisted	Griffon: 76 Terrier: 78
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	4x phaser IV emitters (twin banks) (fwd secondary hull)
Missile Weapons	Griffon, Terrier: 1x light fwd torpedo tube (w/ 35 photon torpedoes) (ventral primary hull) Terrier: 1x light aft torpedo tube (w/ 15 photon torpedoes) (ventral primary hull)
Shields	1-layer conformal forcefield navigational deflectors (fwd secondary hull)
Transporters	2x GP (2-pad); Mk III/Mk IV select ships (2285): Mk V
Auxiliary Craft	Terrier: 2x work pods
Historical
Ships of Note	USS Feist (NCC-E977) USS Griffon (NCC-E940) USS Saluki (NCC-E962)
Canonicity
Design	FASA/Timo
Name	FASA
History	FASA

Background: Hobbyist's Guide

Star Fleet escort needs peaked in the mid-2260s, after the Remora and Hellespont classes had been fielded and their initial production runs completed. Yet from the contemporary viewpoint, the peak looked like the foothills of a towering mountain range. With no way of knowing that in just a few years, the Klingons would be signing documents of truce and the core space pirates would be driven into hiding on the outer rim or behind Orion backs, Star Fleet had no choice but to continue procurement of dedicated commerce protection vessels. Since vessels with single and triple nacelles had proved suboptimal, the next step was obvious.

The Griffon deep space escort was conceived with mass production in mind. Specifications relating to performance included but two items: warp five sustainable for operations spanning one year (to be attained with twin PB-35E engines), and torpedo armament (consisting of one launcher of any suitable type). Apart from these, solutions enabling a production run in the hundreds should be favored in all respects. Salazaar’s Lenthal was simply too large and costly even before the addition of the required torpedo system. ECF’s saucer hulls proved prohibitively expensive as well, and the company also acknowledged its failure to reduce mass enough to make the twin-engine configuration perform as required. Empress offered a radically simpler and lighter design, compatible with a production rate of 24 keels per year at its Morena yards. In the August of 2266, Star Fleet signed on to purchasing five annual yields and providing the engines thereto.

The Empress proposal was essentially a Corona series lifting body converted for warp drive by welding a propulsive appendage astern. The engineering section doubled the length of the vessel, and the laterally-rigged warp nacelles quintupled the mass, depriving the combination of atmospheric maneuvering or landing capabilities. A forward hull jettison mechanism restored these options in emergencies, though. The lifting body was a practical primary hull structure in other respects as well, already featuring military-standard shield generators, life support scaled for some troop carrying in addition to the needs of the flight crew of 12, and twin cargo holds readily reconfigurable for various deep space purposes. The original impulse engines of the lifting body were replaced by larger ones of military FIE-1 standard, and operated independently of main power.

Also added in this section was a Graynet-style Mk 14 light torpedo launcher with 35 rounds, replacing the original ventral cargo ramp/elevator. The necessary interstellar sensor and deflector gear was in turn installed on the dorsal forward end of the engineering section, along with a beam armament of two twin Type IV banks.

The piecemeal construction was a quick and inexpensive way to proceed, and very little integration was performed on the resulting hodgepodge of systems. When the first Griffon (NCC-E940) was delivered in March 2267, Star Fleet was immediately forced to increase the onboard crew from planned 62 to 85. Personnel expenses were insignificant in the escort equation, however, and 19 of the affordable vessels were fielded by the end of the following year.

A simulated emergency ends the service of USS Saluki (NCC-E1149) at the Arcturus Test Range, demonstrating primary hull separation and atmospheric entry. Deep space sensors, deflectors, and the double twin phaser banks can be observed above the explosive glow of the separation line, just forward of the twin plasma expanders and the housing for the shield generator. There are some striking conceptual similarities to the Kovaris destroyers half a century older in the Griffon design; it is perhaps not so surprising, then, that those vessels would be pressed to escort duty in the 2290s alongside their Griffon counterparts.

Operational experiences were “satisfactory” in official reports. Crews were less than enamored with the compact design, but valued the firepower of the torpedo launcher. A stern tube would help with the poor turning rate and additional aft sensors were also requested. More speed would also be welcome and, in fact, Star Fleet was quite ready to provide it: if either LN-23, LN-41 or LN-61 panned out, the Griffon class would be a prime recipient.

However, Organia and the anti-piracy crusade put new Griffon production on hold for 2268. Like most yards, Empress was reeling from multiple other starship program cancellations or downrampings, and wanted to hang on to the escort program the best it could. Reinventing the mission profile would be more important than reworking the technical details; keeping costs down would be absolutely paramount for project survival. The linear engine refit was postponed, the extra torpedo tubes left ashore for the time being, and the next two batches of sixty finished with more austere sensor systems pared down to nearspace, policing-oriented specs. These Griffons spent more time as system protection cutters than in accompanying transports and merchantmen between systems—a valuable role as such, even if a waste of PB-35 capabilities.

Yet Empress never gave up: plans to install a linear drive were constantly reworked to best match the stage of completion and state of equip of the latest vessels off the dockyards. Sure enough, in 2272 the permission came to finish the final 28 vessels to the LN-61 propulsive standard. Production then moved to the higher endurance Genser type; beyond that, Star Fleet had no need for so-called “medium escorts” any more.

The vessels of the Terrier type had a rather different silhouette out of technological necessity: the linear-excitation engines were rigged below the vessel to give a line of sight between the field windows. All the requested improvements were introduced, and since it was already known that production numbers would be limited, funds were also directed at modern interiors, encompassing both creature comforts and user interfaces. While some chided this as wasted effort, operating crews certainly held the opposite view.

Out of the 19 vessels of Star Fleet's Griffon subclass, some 13 saw service to the early 2300s, and 7 of these were refitted with improved interiors, although not with the modern propulsion system. The Terrier subclass was not slated to outlive the first. At the end of active operations, there were 10 total confirmed Griffon losses, mostly in system protection duties at the restless frontier, and three vessels declared missing. A final training unit (USS Feist, NCC-E1164) was retired in 2312; she was the last example of classic Empress lifting body design in Star Fleet service.

Gallery

• 
  Terrier bow
• 
  dorsal
• 
  separated fwd hull

Notes

• The Griffon production run all are assigned the "escort" registry, as they are completed prior to 2271; the Terrier production run are all assigned standard registry numbers.

• The re-assignment to standard registry (for the Griffon run) should be considered about the time the article for this class, and the Remora refit class, is being completed.

• I added the word "new" to Timo's 2268 hold on further production, as ships that had already been started were completed that year, per a previous paragraph. Errand of Mercy would have occurred (by one standard) in mid-March of that year, so production orders would only have been reduced/halted following that episode.

• I’ve concluded that the Griffon subtype had two production runs: the first, built before Organia, with 51 19 ships constructed for Star Fleet; and the second, a Flight II run of 185 ships sold to other concerns, continuing until the Terrier subtype was ordered. At the bare minimum, the sensors of the Flt II were reduced in capability (compared to the Flt I and the Terrier).

• I've reduced the number of Flight I Griffons from the 51 provided by Timo to 19, based on the August 2266 approval for construction, a lead time prior to construction start, and a mid- to late-year order to suspend new-start construction (for Star Fleet). This issue is that it is very clear the intention was to build 24 a year and presuming a build-length of at least 13 months, a lot less than 51 would have been started by the time the suspension came down from SFC.

• Since the Terriers did not "outlive" the original subclass, the USS Feist must be a representative of the Flight Is.

Alt Sources

• STSTCSOLDA

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• Back to the Table of Contents
• Corvettes, Couriers, Escorts, Perimeter Ships & Light Scouts
• Appendix A: Of Ship Statistics
• Appendix B: Glossary
• Appendix C: Star Fleet Organization - General Outline
• Appendix D: Abbreviations From Outside