Guide:Procyon

Procyon
Class Overview
Category	corvette
Operational	2244-2283
Constructed	40
Dimensions
Length	145.0 m
Beam	69.7 m
Height	20.8 m
Mass	200,300 mt
Performance
Max Speed	w 6.0
Endurance	1 year
Complement
Officers	10
Enlisted	68 (later, 76)
Troops	18
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	2x phaser V emitters (dorsal primary hull, pt/stbd bridge) 1x phaser V emitter (ventral primary hull, fwd lower sensor dome)
Other Weapons	1x mine tube (w/ 250 gravitic mines; 1,100 with optional ventral dispenser)
Shields	1-layer globularforcefield Navigational deflector (secondary hull bow)
Transporters	1 GP (2-pad); Mk II
Historical
Ships of Note	USS Antares (NCC-L717) USS Lyra (NCC-L273) USS Procyon
Canonicity
Design	Concordance / Brian Pimenta, Kris Trigwell
Name	Timo
History	Timo

The introduction of antimatter-powered Battleaxe corvettes in the early forties provided Starfleet with an excellent rapid response insystem police vessel. However, this was hardly what Starfleet needed at the time. With local defenses at risk of falling apart for lack of fast enough starship support, and several planets expressing separatist interests, police action was of low priority. While the numerous Battleaxes could theoretically boost local defenses with their anti-assault capability, Starfleet hoped to extend these defenses beyond the 100 AU range normally limiting corvette operations, missile defenses and realtime scanning systems. A mere warp 4 police cutter could not hope to patrol the 5000 AU -radius sphere specified in Staff Requirement 452/2242/5B – it would take almost three days to circumnavigate the patrol area in one plane at such speeds. What was needed was a craft capable of a top speed of warp six within the duonetopause of a star system, reducing the patrol circuit to twenty hours and enabling a single vessel to intercept, identify and hopefully deter intruders in time.

The first loss: on SD (11)4526.2, USS Antares (NCC-L717) disabled herself through self-mining, sending the badly hurt spaceframe to mothballs for the following three decades. Although due to crew error rather than faulty design of either the weapon or its delivery platform, the incident discouraged future operational use of mines aboard the corvettes and emphasized their phaser armament instead.

Naturally, a vessel far larger than the underperforming Battleaxes (or the fast yet overly experimental Sawyers) was required. Landing capability was abandoned early on; so were the now obsolete sublight rocket weapons. Instead, emphasis was placed on adequate shielding, sufficient sensor and targeting capabilities, and a decisive system defense armament of heavy Type V phasers and gravitic mines. Three phaser emitters and at least 250 mines were to be carried. An antimatter powerplant was required for the desired performance, and a matching set of warp engines had to be created specifically for the type.

The daunting task of designing the extended-range corvette was given to a specially appointed Starfleet team of engineers. In later years, many of them would go on to serve in the Advanced Starship Design Bureau, Starfleet’s own ‘dream factory’ whose first major product would be the Excelsior transwarp testbed. For now, the engineers had to cope with a shortage of time, but did have plenty of other resources.

Three major components were designed side by side: the compact 80,000 ton PB-34 warp engines with 75 m nacelles; the RMR-282 antimatter powerplant (later to be replaced by the more reliable KR05-P); and the 60 m dia. primary hull, fully capable of jettison and planetfall. By 2243, test articles of all the components existed, and the problem now became one of systems integration. Physically, this required the designing of a secondary hull and nacelle mounts. A streamlined four53 deck structure superficially similar to Constitution secondary hulls was chosen, with the saucer mounted directly onto the upper bow so that the uppermost two decks of the engineering section met with the lowest two of the saucer. Then, a constant-profile, half-cylindrar top deck was applied over the length of the vessel to house a variety of mission and support systems. Finally, a Class 4 bridge module was installed atop the forward part of this top deck.

By March 2244, the first corvette was ready for launching as the UFP Starfleet Starship Procyon, NX-L700; it would not be until the time came to field a successor that a prefix-free registry would be allocated to a corvette, one befitting the size and complexity of this new breed of warship. Below the four-person bridge, the forwardmost top deck compartment housed targeting and fire control sensors and scanners; the top deck then tapered slightly into a utility compartment with resupply and docking fixtures, followed by a breach line between the primary and secondary hulls. Aft of the breach line began the long upper engineering section, housing diverse support systems within, a protruding dorsal antimatter fill port forward, and two cowlings for the main battery banks aft.

On the upper saucer level, Deck 3 featured officer accommodation and communications facilities; the engineering hull on this deck in turn held the secondary plasma distribution systems forward and the shuttlebay upper level aft. No shuttles were permanently carried, nor was there a service hangar, and typically the bay was reserved for carrying of additional mine or relay buoy racks. The warp engine pylons branched out laterally at this level. They incorporated plasma expanders and radiator surfaces, and also served as attachment points for underpylon impulse nozzles. Primary plasma was led to the propulsion systems from the bottom of the secondary hull via conduits faired to follow the hull exterior.

Deck four in the saucer housed starship-standard crew accommodation without a need for hotbunking; a comfortable galley; a well-equipped sickbay; and assorted utilities. Thus furnished, the ships could perform patrol sorties as long as the nominal refueling interval of one year, without endangering the welfare or combat readiness of the crew. The secondary hull part of the deck held the top segments of the m/am reactor, and the lower level and space doors of the shuttlebay. Deck five was the bottom level of the main reactor systems. The navigational deflector machinery was out of necessity significantly larger and more powerful than in preceding corvette designs, and was housed in a separate pod attached to the bow of Deck 5. Also podded was the revolving minelaying system, inset into a berth forward of the reactor. Alternately, an additional fuel tank or a cargo pod could be carried. Finally, the only partially personnel-accessible Deck 6 housed engineering utilities, radiators and matter tankage ports.

In brief but demanding test runs, the original ventral radiator was found insufficient and replaced by a far bulkier assembly girdling half the hull. Corresponding changes were made to the two dozen other corvette hulls already under construction. The overall success of the design, verified by the tests, also meant that two hulls were immediately set aside for conversion to courier and scoutship variants. Operational deployments began in August 2244, when USS Shaula (NCC-L702) took over system patrol of Regulus from three Thunderbolt class corvettes. She was soon joined by USS Vela (NCC-L705), at which point the two elderly Marklin destroyers deployed in the system moved out into deep space. The goals of the corvette program were being met.

USS Sheliak (NCC-L703) chases an Orion Wanderer, a ship greatly influenced by the Procyon design. The Wanderers were developed in the mid-2240s largely through industrial espionage, and provided the Orions with their first truly modern and competitive ship design in several centuries. The innovations that had allowed the corvettes to reach warp six were applied in double the scale and power, enabling for example this Orion vessel to ultimately shake off pursuit. Other cultures have tried to copy the excellent Federation design as well, but few have had the resources of the Orion cartels for doing so. The Klingon approach usually is limited to crippling and capturing a ship or two, then reverse-engineering some components and adapting them to use aboard Klingon-designed ships; the Romulans in turn seldom find Federation technology worthy of copying.

A total production run of 40 Procyon class corvettes was completed between 2244 and 2249. In theory, greater production volumes or faster timetables could have been achieved, but the production lines were also utilized for the construction of the promising courier and scout variants of the basic design. Thanks to the lull of Axanar, the corvettes did not see much combat initially. Instead, their high warp speed allowed the extension of operations to true interstellar space along the old Deneva run. While the success of anti-piracy operations in the late 23rd century is generally attributed to the fielding of high numbers of frigates, it must be argued that the Procyon class also played a role in securing most of the spacelane from Earth to Rigel, thereby depriving Orion forces of their most bountiful hunting grounds this side of the Borderlands. The heavy phaser armament of the corvettes proved more than sufficient in deterring or destroying typical pirate vessels. Towards the end of their service, virtually none of the Procyon ships were carrying their intended primary arsenal of gravitic mines. Yet they no longer wore the belittling L prefix, either, having finally been accepted as full members of the starship community.

In the mid-2270s, operational strategies once again changed to favor heavier and faster local defense vessels, and corvettes faced a reassignment back to law enforcement duties. However, the success of the Procyon class was a major factor in encouraging Starfleet to experiment further with the heavy corvette concept. The relatively high operating costs of the Procyon corvettes were somewhat unexpectedly being countered by the high efficiency of the vessels in traffic protection duty – indeed, there was a clear monetary net gain for the Federation from the pacifying of the spacelanes. Ultimately, the path of heavy corvette development would again lead towards a more openly military operational role, and vessels would close the ‘lineage gap’, with the Okinawa class representing Procyon growth to frigate dimensions and the Daring experimenting with miniaturization of the Surya to corvette size.

When the Darings were fielded in mid-2270s, the Procyon class vessels gradually bowed out. Yet their heritage was being continued, not just on the conceptual level, but also in the form of the directly derived Antares multi-mission corvette series. Constant refinements on propulsion, armament and eventually also spaceframe would carry the Procyon line to the latter half of the 24th century, albeit in a greatly changed form, as described in the Antares and Merced entries.

Gallery

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  Dorsal
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  USS Antares (NCC-L717)

Notes

• see [1], especially those below the article

References

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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