Specifications
Classification: Explorer
Subclassification: Cruiser
Dimensions
Length: 588m
Width: 232m
Height: 125m
Deck: 30
Compliment
Officers: 140
Crew: 549
Marines: 96
Passengers: 136
Speed
Cruising Warp: 8.5
Maximum Warp: 9.95
Emergency Warp: 9.997 (6 hours)
QSD: QSV 1.5
Defensive
Auto-modulating shielding (Deflector Based)
Multiphasic Shielding
Ablative Armor
Armament
- Type XIII Phasers: 6
- Type XI Phasers: 10
- Burstfire Torpedo Launcher: 3
Auxiliary Craft
- Type 9 Shuttle: 4
- Type 14 Shuttle: 2
- Type 6A Shuttle: 2
- Arrow Class Runabout: 2
History
With the crippling of the Utopia Planetia Fleet Yards during the Synth Attack on Mars, the Obena-class production was halted during a consolidation of fleet design measures. New, critical ships were introduced to the San Francisco Fleet Yards, such as the revamped Vesta-class, and the new Merian-class that came after. This meant that designs such as the California, Parliament, and Obena that served in fleet support roles were retired from active manufacturing, and those ships removed from front-line operations as production of new ships was halted entirely.
With the Starfleet Design Order Forvitni in full swing, the production of Curiosity and Inquiry class ships began. While these ships occupied critical roles in combat and support capability, the need for a Federation standard command ship was brought up, with a focus on specifically a ship to fully replace the Excelsior and Obena as a true modern operator. Many Obena frames were salvaged from Utopia Planetia after the attack, and towed into orbit to await their future plans. The same design board that had produced the Inquiry and Curiosity requested access to the frames for experimentation, as well as the original plans for the Obena.
Working with the existing structure, the team set to work creating a new command ship from the designs, making the frame backwards compatible with the Forvitni design scheme of modular and easily upgradeable ships. Segments of the superstructure were modified to fit modern systems, and changes were made to match the new design language of the Forvitni designs. The saucer was elongated to meet new weapons requirements, as well as to house command and control systems. New science labs and research stations were accommodated, and an increased hangar size was added.
Where as most ships had their frame designed around the systems, the new ship was designed around the existing frames, with as little modification as possible. From 2387 until 2391 the team worked to fine tune the design and delivered the first production model, the USS Excelsior II – NX42000. This would later be redesignated simply the Excelsior, NCC-42037.
The newly designated Excelsior II-class featured elongated nacelles compared to the Obena, and a heavy emphasis on modern fleet technologies. More weapons were added to compliment the ship, and the first ever perpendicular dual-core structure was used on the class, with the warp core and Quantum Slipstream Drive system laid with the warp core vertical and the QSD horizontal. This limited the speed she would have at Slipstream, but allowed the older frame structure to safely make the transition.
As the Obena-class had been in full swing, with many yards with frames in various states of construction, the classes not already in service were upfitted to Excelsior-II classifications. As Obenas begin to age out and require refit, they too will be upfit to the new standard.
The Excelsior underwent space trials from 2391 until 2393, and was slated for production in 2395.
USS Excelsior – NX42000 (Later redesignated NCC-42037)
| Name | Registry | Status |
| USS Excelsior | NX-42000 | Prototype |
| USS Mestral | NCC-42026 | Active |
| USS Orphic | NCC-42090 | Reserve |
| USS Kilig | NCC-42013 | Reserve |