Guide:Strider

Strider
Class Overview
Category	courier/scout
Operational	2159 - 2197 2256 - 2268
Constructed	30
Dimensions
Length	73.0 m
Beam	42.1 m
Height	17.6 m
Mass	12,800 tons
Performance
Max Speed	w 3.0
Endurance	3 months
Complement
Officers	2 (courier mission) 6 (scout mission)
Enlisted	18 (courier mission) 23 (scout mission)
Passengers	10-20
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	1x Type C phased particle cannon (100 GW) (fwd of bridge) 1x Type C phased particle cannon (100 GW) (fwd of deflector dish) (optional) 4x plasma cannon (0.8 GW) (2 twin mounts flanking stern shuttle hanger) 2x plasma cannon (0.8 GW) (twin mount fwd of deflector dish) (optional)
Missile Weapons	2x fwd torpedo tubes (bow cutout)
Shields	Polarizable armor Navigational deflector beam on lower fwd hull
Transporters	1 GP (1-pad); Mk I
Historical
Ships of Note	UESS Conti (NO-69) UESS Franklin (NO-46) UESS Jackson (NO-70) UESS Revere (NO-50) UESS Strider
Canonicity
Design	ST:Legacy computer game
Name	ST:Legacy computer game
History	ST:Legacy computer game, own

The developments in advanced warp propulsion in the 2140s and 50s concerned the entire range of starfaring vessels. By technological necessity, though, smaller vessels could only hope to receive relatively modest upgrades. The multistage plasma recharging systems that gave cruisers their warp 5 plus performance were bulky pieces of machinery, and the massive protective chambers for dilithium foci did not easily fit aboard ships smaller than destroyer in size, either. Yet the UESF need for fast liaison and reconnaissance vessels in the first years of the Romulan War was acute, even desperate. Propulsive modifications on the Athens couriers were thus given a priority. The resulting Strider class courier/scout met the requirements, giving the fleet its first warp three messenger.

The move from cowled to outriggered warp engines was a predictable one, facilitating the greater field strength that was provided by the Kingdom GX total conversion powerplant. This was housed in the boatlike lower hull in a heavily armored amidship compartment. Reactor swaps were facilitated by a ventral stern pullout port, a necessity for a vessel that was supposed to run her engines at maximum power for extended periods of time. Directly atop the reactor was a plasma manifold feeding twin impulse engines and topped by the field manipulation crystal. The plasma leads then branched to the upcanted pylons of the warp nacelles.

A high performance navigational deflector array forward of the reactor made possible on its part the great speeds that the engines would provide. Atop it lay the payload to be moved at warp three: a spade of a hull, not markedly different from that of the Athens in shape, but featuring a number of novel systems. For starters, there were twin torpedo launchers at the bow, each carrying ten casings in revolver loaders that injected antimatter from the main fuel tanks to the warheads just before firing. This was by far the lightest application of the antimatter torpedo technology yet, and promised parity with the Klingon Raptor class torpedo boats from which much of the technology had been copied in the first place.

A Strider out of time? Numerous old scout hulls were carefully mothballed at retirement in the 2180s, as it appeared that Starfleet would remain short of battlefield couriers and light recce units in any conflict that would emerge in the next twenty or thirty years. Emergency activation did not take place within the lifetime of the drive systems of these veteran vessels. However, six were in 2256 re-engined with the system Starfleet would soon adopt as WD-1. The test fitting was a splendid success and allowed the old Striders to be employed as combat scouts for more than a decade, armed with modern twin phaser IV turrets.

There were also two through-hull loading bays to increase the speed and flexibility of bringing the courier packages onboard. Anything from key personnel to crucial spares could be loaded, yet personnel ingress was also possible via a portside gangway; a pair of utility airlocks with an adjoining shuttlecraft target pad aft of the reactor area; or a single transporter platform, which was considered standard gear for the modern courier. Heavy projected energy weaponry was also fitted, in the form of a phase cannon on dorsal main hull, an optional (in practice never fitted) second bank on the corresponding ventral location, and plasma cannon positions flanking the fantail docking target and thus covering aft angles.

In contrast, command and communications facilities were kept to a minimum. There was no dedicated combat control room apart from the navigation bridge, and the modest communications facilities did not form a complex of planning and analysis rooms like in the Athens. Out in the battlefield, the Striders were doers and movers rather than commanders or analysts. Their role in fleet action was limited to bringing in spares, personnel and key intelligence, and even the latter was typically gathered by other types of vessel, such as the Mercury and Doppler frontline scoutships of proper muscle and instrumentation.

During the course of the war, thirty of the couriers were manufactured, and 26 fielded in time to see action. Losses were light, as the odds of intercepting a warp three courier were significantly lower than catching a warp two vessel. The ships were in great postwar demand, though, and several already suffered from fatigued engines in the Tarn conflict of the 2160s. Spare reactors were out of stock by the 2170s, and the final Striders had to be withdrawn from use in 2197. A remarkably different design would take their place as the principal glue that tied together the thinly spread Starfleet.

Gallery

• 
  Forward beam aspect
• 
  Strider en route
• 
  Weapons trials
• 
  In nebula
• 
  23rd c., stern ventral

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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: Starfleet Organization - General Outline
• Appendix D: Abbreviations From Outside