Guide:Arcadia

Arcadia
Class Overview
Category	fleet tanker/tender
Operational	2252-2296
Constructed	48
Dimensions
Length	237.0 m
Beam	111.1 m
Height	70.0 m
Mass	647,900 mt
Performance
Cruise Speed	w 3
Max Speed	w 6
Endurance	1.5 years
Complement
Officers	9
Enlisted	72
Cargo	97,000 mt
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	2x phaser VI (single bank) (port/stbd bow dorsal primary hull) 1x phaser VI (dorsal stern) 1x phaser VI (ventral primary hull)
Shields	1-layer conformal forcefield 1x navigational deflector (secondary hull bow)
Transporters	1x general purpose (6-pad), Mk II 1x emergency evacuation (22-pad), Mk II
Auxiliary Craft	2x medium shuttles 4x work pods
Historical
Ships of Note	USS Arcadia USS Fabucci (NCC-S531)
Canonicity
Design	Roger Sørensen
Name	Roger Sørensen
History	Roger Sørensen, own

While constructing support vessels optimized for its frontline needs, Starfleet kept searching for commercial alternatives for the less demanding roles. One of the pressing logistics issues was delivery of fuel to those outposts and Fleet formations that were distant from the major refineries. Standard containers were practical in moving large quantities of deuterium or tritium, but many of the frontline recipients could not truly handle such high volume shipments. For inexpensively hauling around smaller neutronic fuel tanks, as well as antimatter pods, Logistics Command in 2250 ordered a limited number of commercial tugs and modified them to meet its needs.

The Arcadia cargo tugs were essentially half-scale versions of the Ptolemy fleet tugs, with less capable even if equally massive SEMT ‘Pumori’ warp drives. For Starfleet use, they were equipped with customized twin cargo grapples that would accept ten fuel pods each. This total load of some 97,000 tons did not unduly task the warp engines, so a practical top speed of warp 6.0 could be maintained. For increased range and endurance, the engines were fitted with Fleet standard Leeper- Fell ramscoops at the bows; plasma diffuser caps were added to the aft ends to help the vessels better evade raiders. In a more active measure, four M-63 phaser emitters were installed on the primary hull. The original navigational deflector and sensor array was also replaced by a more capable Dor Ayela unit.

These modifications added to the capabilities and unit price of the tugs, but did not detract from the existing strengths. While the fuel pod grapples and the accompanying fuel transfer boom (with attached offloading control cabin) prevented the hauling of more conventional types of outsize loads, the vessels retained their internal holds which could be accessed through bow and stern airlocks. Flanking the stern lock were two hangars for auxiliaries; the usual Starfleet contingent was two medium shuttles for efficiently moving spares, supplies and personnel, and four work pods for manipulating the fuel modules. Mk II pads were also available for transrep, and an emergency evacuation pad and two banks of 17 lifepods were added to comply with Starfleet regulations on troop shipments, another possible use for the internal holds.

The four dozen Starfleet Arcadias were delivered between 2252 and 2256. Their rapid delivery was facilitated by concurrent shrinking of commercial markets for the type, as the Klingon threat still hampered freight traffic in frontier space. While some Starfleet improvements on the Arcadia design were allowed to diffuse back to the mercantile world, making the tugs more self-sufficient, allowing civilian vessels to carry heavy defensive weaponry was out of the question. Thus, the only Arcadias that were cleared to operate on border sectors were those working for Logistics Command. The purchase of further vessels in basic armed transport configuration was considered in 2256, yet both Logistics and SMM favored heavier designs for the simple fact that they could perform any given job with fewer shipments and thus at lower risk. The Arcadia was doomed to remain a medium tanker, and in this role had to bow out in favor of the faster, smaller Huntington in the 2270s.

In the 2280s, there did emerge a direct successor to the Arcadia, chiefly for supporting Starfleet’s increasing force of light frigates and heavy corvettes. The Ural class, as described in a later entry, was constructed wholly out of military components at a time when expenses mattered little. Her performance specifications thus differ rather radically from those of the Arcadia, yet the basic design solutions endure.

Gallery

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Notes

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