Hello all!
Ric here with a video breaking down a Starfleet vessel that appears a couple of times in canon
and is originally just a mixture of two other vessels.
I have already alluded to it in part of the Frankenstein Fleet video, but that is non-canonical
as far as I know so this is to cover the Centaur class specifically and some of the filtering
lore around that derived from numerous other sources.
In real life, the Centaur class was constructed as a kitbash from the Excelsior class models
and a Miranda class.
These two models were not to scale with one another, so when they were combined they created
a large Miranda body on a smaller Excelsior head.
This has resulted in some scaling issues in apocrypha but that’s not exactly new for
Star Trek.
The Saucer had the shuttlebay of the excelsior atop the hull while the miranda had the roll-bar
inverted and added underneath along with the torpedo pod to create the Centaur’s shape.
The Nacelles were a new design and pretty unique for the class and originally the ship
was simply known as an Excelsior-variant.
It’s original purpose was to act a sort of “destroyer” style vessel.
As a kitbash, it did not really undergo a design stage or concepting from scratch as
other vessels in Trek do and was created to bring variety to the Federation fleet.
However, with it being an obvious mixture of two iconic vessels, this was tied into
its backstory for in-universe lore.
The Starfleet Advanced Ship Design Bureau Facility, Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards was
ultimately responsible for the construction of the earliest Centaur class medium cruisers
derived from the Excelsior class project.
This is nothing new for Starfleet as their ship designs often spawn several other similar
looking vessels based on the breakthroughs made in one project filtering through to another.
See the Galaxy class saucer style of the 2350s to 70s.
With the prototype USS Excelsior being developed to house the transwarp drive project, through
to 2293, the Centaur class was put on hold for some time until that project was completed.
While initial designs were penned around 2385, the first of the line, the USS Centaur would
not see active service until much later.
Essentially, the plan was to create a class of ship that would be based on the advances
of the Excelsior class, but on a fraction of the scale and resources.
In the mid 2290s, the class was overhauled once more before entering production properly
and the Centaur being reregistered as NCC-42043.
The ship was designed to manage crisis and response operations as well as survey and
patrol missions, a sort of grab bag of standard Starfleet missions, minus the extensive diplomatic
ventures of ships like the Excelsior and Constitution.
It served a secondary purpose as a science vessel but overall set in the middle ground
of defence and discovery.
In this fashion, it was similar to the Miranda class, although it was far less customisable
than its contemporary.
Which is saying something considering it was still pretty adaptable and would often see
internal systems overhauled for specific missions.
Only a handful of these ships were produced as Starfleet was becoming more focused on
creating more multirole ships during the 23rd and early 24th centuries.
One principle feature of the Centaur was its speed, along with the saucer section of the
Excelsior, came its oversized impulse engines, now on a far smaller frame, so the Centaur
was an excellent sublight vessel, with high manoeuvrability.
The Centaur class saw a large resurgence during the Dominion War.
Although it was an older design, the Centaur was seen as a more combat capable alternative
to the Miranda class and about as easy to produce considering the myriad or spare parts
that were around from ships like decommissioned Excelsiors and Mirandas.
These components could be easily retrofit into a Centaur class and even after 80 years
of service, both these designs were still in ample supply.
The vessels of this era however strayed from their scientific and patrol origins with a
heavier focus on battle, as ships of this era did.
Their role in the war was effectively to be a patrol ship that could act as deterrent,
warning to starfleet, and the first line of defence against Dominion forces.
Some Centaur, like the USS Resolute NCC-92317 received an overhaul of their engineering
hull to a larger, more spacious drive section and some more alterations to the fore shuttlebay
with a new design.
Overall, the Resolute had a more scientific profile that the Dominion War era Centaur
classes although both designs remained present into the late 24th century.
There was also the USS Elysium NCC-39851 which was produced by the Betazed Clarity shipyard
in 2340 and had extra fusion reactors and additional antimatter pods to create an even
faster variation of the Centaur.
This was the only ship of its kind and unfortunately was destroyed in the Dominion War at the battle
of Betazed.
It appears the Centaur line was finally ended around the conclusion of the Dominion War,
but the vessels in service continued to remain well into 2384.
The Centaur class’ scale does seem to vary on whether or not you pick the Excelsior style
saucer as being one-to-one with the excelsior, or the miranda looking engineering hull.
But while a small vessel, the former seems to be the more common point of comparison
with the Centaur being 381 metres long, 320 wide and 78.5 metres tall.
It weighs in at a mass of 870,000 tons and has a crew of 315, although later models support
far less at around 200.
With the Centaur class being a relatively long-lived class, like the Miranda or Excelsior,
there have been several variations in its capabilities in things like armaments and
warp.
Towards the end of its line however, it had a 1500 plus Cochrane warp core which could
cruise at warp 6 and maintain warp 9.6 for 12 hours before emergency shutdown.
In terms of firepower, the Centaur class was surprisingly powerful considering its scale.
It housed older phaser banks than phaser strips, a left-over from its time of original creation
and even newly constructed models used these banks.
They were 9 type-IX while it maintained 2 torpedo banks on average, but the versions
created during the Dominion war had double this number with 18 phaser arrays and 4 torpedo
tubes.
This reflected their role as patrol and escort cruisers.
Its main shuttlebay was on the top of the saucer section and carried around 8 class
8 shuttles as well as a complement of standard repair and worker bees.
In canon, it is effectively a sleek and fast patrol ship designed for combat, but with
games and apocrypha fleshing out its role, the Centaur was given a long legacy that accompanied
things like the Excelsior and saw its place across two centuries.
Originally a specialised medium cruiser, the developments in technology saw its role diminish
to a light cruiser in comparison to later designs.
During the Dominion war, it saw a revival and was outfitted to be more combat-oriented
as an adroit counterpart to the ageing Excelsiors and alternative to the battle-boat Mirdanas.
After the war, the remaining vessels still served as patrol ships, but the line was already
on its way out when the war started, with a final bolstering of the line before its
conclusion in the late 24th century.
For a kitbash vessel, it is one of my favourite ships and comes off with a surprisingly cohesive
look.
The further refit of the Resurgence style USS Resolute with a newer hull and visible
deflector unified the design further and overall it’s a ship I adore.
Thanks for watching this breakdown of the Centaur class.
I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you later.
Until then, thanks again and goodbye!