Hello all!
Ric hailing with another video on a Starship from Trek canon.
This time, looking into the 23rd century with the first four nacelle designs.
The Cardenas Class is a pretty amazing vessel to be honest and a contender for the most
impressive ship in its era, certainly at least until the creation of the Constitution class
40 years later.
Yeah, it’s a pretty old class, as were most of the fleet we see in Discovery.
So as usual we will start this breakdown with a quick look into its real origins.
The class was designed as one of the many 23rd century vessels for Star Trek Discovery
and followed the design aesthetic for ships of that era, harkening more to a combination
of Enterprise era and TOS film ships.
It was created as a concept for the Shenzhou by John Eaves around 2016 before being reused
as a background vessel for the setting.
It was named for test pilots Robert Cardenas, while the on screen vessel we witnessed was
the USS Yeager, named for Chuck Yeager.
The position of the bridge was done on purpose to differentiate it from the later Starfleet
vessels, suggesting that standardisation had yet to be established.
Of course much of that look was informed by the earlier concept art of Ralph McQuarrie
and his work on the unmade plans for a 70s Star Trek Phase 2 series, featuring harder
lines and more blocky shapes.
Many of the ships that came out of the first season of Discovery were made alongside each
other which were mandated from above to adhere to this style to create a unique look.
Now, into its in universe lore!
The ship was designed at the San Francisco Orbital Shipyards and in conjunction with
the Avalon Transhipment Ships in Portsmouth as part of Operation: Next Step.
Next Step was the name given to one of Starfleet’s major overhauls of its fleet, following on
from the initial wave of development in the wake of the formation of the Federation.
As part of this, several new designs were drawn up and worked on steadily over the next
few decades.
Among the designs that prospered from this program, Starfleet finally got around to developing
a heavier vessel in terms of capability and firepower based on the same technologies,
that being the Cardenas class, designated a rapid response frigate.
Construction of this ship was pretty smooth if lengthy as it was built using the same
designs ironed out over the last decade and the prototype USS Cardenas launched in 2202
with the notion of supporting the colonisation efforts of the Orion arm.
Very early Starfleet stuff.
The biggest feature was of course the obvious utilisation of the 4 nacelles, which is the
earliest canon vessel with that formation.
The design was to create a more powerful warp field, allowing for sustained faster travel.
With this particular warp system, coined the Eaves/Beyer system that featured the squarer
warp coils, leading to a distinctive design shape.
This worked very well until Starfleet shifted its design once more, and these vessels were
often deployed both on exportation missions and responding to threats along the edges
of Federation space.
This means many were in operation along the Neutral Zone and Klingon Borders.
During its time, the Cardenas class effectively took on the role of the most coveted postings,
considering its often high profile missions, eventually taking that crown from the Walker
Class.
What eventually ended this line was the birth of the Constitution class coupled with the
fleet-wide adoption of Duotronic computers.
The Cardenas class was a fantastic class, but such an extensive reworking of its core
systems was a very time consuming effort and while Starfleet did update the design, it
was a slow affair that saw other classes replacing it with their newer systems.
The last vessel of this line was retired in 2263, it was just easier to make new ships
than refit this stubborn old one.
The Cardenas class is a whopping 411 metres long, about 226 wide and 113 tall from nacelle
to nacelle, which is not the biggest vessel, but hey, most of the early 2200s ships were
apparently huge.
It featured 2 rear shuttlebays positioned just over its impulse engines, and a second
impulse drive was further back and above these.
Interestingly, this is another of those designs that has the bridge in an unorthodox location,
this time, right at the fore of the saucer section, with the engineering hull basically
running through the centre of the vessel.
This means many of its systems were all centralised, but with it being a larger vessel overall,
it could specialise in several different fields.
The Warp system, as mentioned was a proven design developed as part of Operation Next
Step and a precursor to the Warp Coasting design that was seen on later quad-nacelle
ships.
Essentially the Cardenas would only use one set of nacelles while at warp, while the second
pair acted as additional warp field stabilisers, then they would switch roles, allowing the
last set to cool down.
Unlike later classes however, this early utilisation of the design had the vessel drop from warp
so it could reroute systems, before setting off again so it was not a seamless switch
out.
This means that it had a cruising speed of warp 6 indefinitely and could peak at warp
7.7 for a day with its only stop being that aforementioned switch over period.
In terms of armaments, the Cardenas class is a great example of why the Phaser Strip
is preferable to turrets or cannons.
It is absolutely covered in turrets (17 of them) and what’s more, many of these were
attached to localised fusion generators instead of a central weapons grid meaning that it
was a lot harder to break its weapons subsystem.
This combined with its volume made it a formidable vessel in combat and the reason for its presence
along border territories.
In many ways, we see this reflected in the Galaxy class later on; A heavily armed explorer
that ends up being very visible to other galactic powers.
It also featured 3 photon torpedo launchers, 2 at the fore which appear to be dual-tubes
each and one at the rear.
The Cardenas at its time of launch was an amazing vessel utilising all the developments
made in the prior decade and although it took longer to produce, the results speak for themselves.
This class maintained a 60 year lifetime in service until newer and incompatible technologies
eventually resigned the class.
It was equally adept in exploration and patrol duties and has a pretty much brute force approach
to everything.
Bigger class means it can do more and hold more versatility.
More phaser arrays and fusion generators means it's more powerful.
Twice as many nacelles despite the coasting system not being present yet means more warp!
It’s kind of a fun vessel but displays why Starfleet eventually pivoted into a design
change as there is only so long you can just turn up the dial.
During the Klingon War of 2256 it was extensively deployed on combat encounters and Starfleet
suddenly found that its crown was slipping, it was a stubbornly powerful design, but old
and pretty unchanged aside from some fusion reactor tinkering many were still undergoing
the lengthy duotronic core upgrades.
They had acted as great defenders in the early 23rd century for sure, but half a century
later, their time in the limelight was waning.
Built to last, it was sheer tenacity and stubbornness that kept them around, but in the face of
the Klingon Empire, it could not last.
Thanks for watching this breakdown on the Cardenas class frigate.
I actually really enjoy the background lore to this ship and strangely it reminds me of
the history to the Galaxy class in some ways and it has a pretty long service history.
Many of the ships of Star Trek Discovery were of very early 23rd century origin and merely
still around by the time of the show with Starfleet in the midst of a new design approach
that would manifest over the next generation of ship design, but I’ll touch more on that
when we explore the other ships of this era, until then, thanks for watching, I’ve been
Ric and I’ll see you next time for another lore video, goodbye!