You requested it, so we’re doing it! Today we’re talking about a ship that made its debut appearance in the 2001 PC game
Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars.
The Achilles-class, a torpedo gunboat that could give the versatile Akira-class a run for her money!
Prepare for Warp as we’re diving into the deep lore and technical details of this formidable Starfleet Starship Class!
Greeting fellow Humans! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and welcome to Trek Central.
The usual familiar ships are featured within the game Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars,
but we’re here to take a look at one specifically designed for this video game,
that flew in to save the Defiant, Enterprise-style.
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The Achilles class is a Strategic heavy cruiser, developed specifically by the Federation and launched in 2373
Non-Canonically, of course
in response to ships built by the Dominion, such as the Jem’Hadar battleships and the Cardassian Hutet-class starship.
The Battleships, as we know from DS9 episode “Valiant” are 2 times the size of a Galaxy-class starship, and three times the armaments.
If you’ve not seen or played the game, here’s a quick clip to give you an idea of what a Galaxy looks like compared to the Cardassian designed Hutet-class,
which appears to be even bigger than the Battleship!
The idea behind the Achilles, was the realisation that to end the war would be to shut down the Ketrecel White facilities in the Alpha Quadrant, without them, the Jem’Hadar would die.
The Federation and the Klingons greatly lacked the heavy ships capable of accomplishing such a mission, limited to Galaxy and Negh’Var [Pronounced Neg-Var] ships,
which were already greatly overstretched in their respective battle groups, and the Sovereign was still in its early life and not yet in wide-scale deployment.
The further issue the Federation had during the Dominion War, was also being spread far too thin,
defending its own borders and keeping an eye on the Romulan border; making Starfleet aware they had far too many obligations and too few resources.
Other forces, such as Defiant, lacked the long-term operational range, and sufficient numbers.
Akira, whilst it had more than enough firepower, was still a fragile ship by itself.
A new ship was needed, to exploit this Achilles’ heel- from which the class name was derived.
A ship that would combine the agility, firepower and range to accomplish the goal, without compromising on a crew’s necessities, or current battle groups by diminishing numbers.
Utopia Planitia Fleetyards, fulfilled the challenge of not only designing an entirely new class, but had it built and launched in under 2 years.
Achilles is easier and faster to construct than the equally capable, yet much larger Galaxy and Sovereign.
Specified as a long-range, multi-purpose, and hard-hitting heavy cruiser, capable of strategic strikes, with little to no escort, similarly to the Prometheus-class.
The design follows the lineage of the Intrepid and Sovereign classes, being that the primary hull and engineering section are directly connected, with no neck weakness, as seen on many previous Starships.
The nacelles are inline with the saucer section, keeping the profile streamlined from most angles.
With a size of 612 meters long, 272 wide and 67 high, divided into 14 Decks.
Small and sleek, the Achilles was a far cry from the supersized Dominion ships, however it was equipped with systems originally intended for the Defiant,
but given the mass of issues the defiant had during its development, it is easy to see why they held back on them, and put them to use for a larger ship.
Other tech included adapting existing Anti-Borg technology, such as the pulse cannons and class 1 ablative hull armour,
new retro thrusters for superior manoeuvrability, redundant warp and impulse systems, allowing for heavy damage and still being able to retreat to safe harbour, should primaries fail.
It has an unsupported self-service range of a Galaxy, a long-range attack role and the firepower of the Sovereign, all of which is beneficial to operate effectively behind Dominion lines.
Boasting 8 pulse phaser cannons, 4 type-XII phaser arrays, 2 quantum/photon torpedo launchers and 8 quantum micro-torpedo launchers.
The latter of which is a prototype phalanx array mounted along the spine on the of the hull,
covering the entire dorsal range of the ship, giving a unique firing arc for torpedoes during an attack run,
avoiding the need to fly directly at, or away from enemy vessels, which proved extremely effective in making short work of Hutet-class ships.
The array allows for the ship to combat multiple enemies, whilst focusing forward weapons on a single target.
The prototype deployed for field testing, performed admirably, destroying two key facilities within a single mission behind enemy lines.
t also accounted for two full Cardassian attack wings as well as nearly 20 Jem’Hadar strike cruisers, the best record for any single ship that participated in the war.
However successful, a number of problems were identified when the Achilles returned to Utopia Planitia following the wars’ conclusion, for refitting.
The remainder of the hull was outfitted with non-warfare facilities that would have been standard on any other Starship design, such as science labs, holodecks and ship-wide holo emitters.
She was re-tasked with system patrols and deep-space exploration then moved out for further field testing, closing in 2375.
Time for a little theory.
We know how anyone that has anything to do with anything Trek ever, has the need, the right and thrill of creating something new for not only themselves, but the fans too.
The Achilles is no doubt built with the sole purpose of being an Anti-Dominion type class. Therefore introducing it into the game aptly named Dominions Wars was the time to do so.
So, why didn’t we see it in the series, or even another type of Anti-Dominion ship with these abilities?
Sure, the DS9 series had already ended and the game wouldn’t have been out for another 2 years following the finale,
but not only was the ship larger and as agile as the Defiant, she was clearly better equipped to single handedly blindside an unsuspecting opponent, of massive proportions,
where the Defiant-class USS Valiant failed abysmally against the same ships the Achilles was built to fight. True, she was manned by a crew of Red Squad cadets, but still wasn’t up to the job by herself.
With that in mind, the series creators likely did not want to overshadow the hero class of the series, and make its role redundant.
Possibly why another Greek named starship, USS Prometheus was introduced later, in Voyager?
Maybe in universe it was inspired by Achilles, which by the DS9 novel: The Long Mirage, was still in service in the 2380s.
Then, for the game, the Achilles was inspired by Prometheus, going by their respective release dates
But it is all just an idea, fun to think about.
The Achilles is an overpowered ship for a Star Trek game, but such a ship, maybe toned down,
could make it to screen.
One of the main similarities with this ship compared to new ships in shows such as Star Trek: Picard, is the Achilles deflector,
which is remarkably similar to the deflector grill seen on the Inquiry Class,
the Infamous ship that appeared hundreds of times in the season 1 finale to Star Trek Picard.
We have also recently seen ships from games, such as Star Trek: Online appear in the shows
with Star Trek: Picard Season 2 having the Ross, Reliant, Gagarin and Sutherland class appearing in the show.
Obviously this can work a little easier for Star Trek Online, due to the high details of the ship models, but even they need to be upgraded to have the visual acuity to match the shows.
So don’t hold out hope for ships from the early 2000s to appear in these new shows, but I can definitely see inspiration coming from these ships into designs in the future.
Especially with ships from books, like the Luna Class USS Titan, and Games like the ones described above, making it into the shows!
So that wraps up the requested Achilles-class starship. If there are any others, however obscure, we’ll do our best to dig up the info and make a video! Let us know in the comments below!
But for now, If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central! You can also follow us on social media, or come and hang out on our Community Discord Server!
For now, I’ve been _Captain Jack_, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!