USS Lightning

NCC 67219-B

Tien Tang class Explorer/Tactical Cruiser

Notable vessels.

USS Tien Tang NCC 67032
USS Falling Star NCC 67117
USS Lightning NCC 67219-B

The mid-late 24th century saw the herald of a new era for the Federation shipbuilding, where frequent conflicts, such as the Dominion War, The Battle of Wolf 359, The Battle of Sector 001 and the Federation-Klingon conflict forced the creation of a new breed of Federation Warships, designed with offensive armament and warfighting capabilities in mind. The days of exploration seemed to be at an end, with newer ships boasting phasers instead of science labs, marines in place of families, torpedoes instead of probes. Some officials at Starfleet Command were particularly worried about this situation, but alas, the Federation's safety still came before the eternal quest for knowledge.

But undettered, Starfleet command made a bold and surprising move, and ordered Utopia Plainitia Fleet Yards of Mars to come up with a design of a hardy, capable, long-range exploration vessel. The vessel would be cheap, easy to construct, as well as boasting the latest advanced scientific equipment avaliable. Funding for the project was unsurprisingly low, since exploration was of lower priority at the time. The engineers and shipbuilders of Utopia Plainitia, however, took up the challenge, and the Tien-Tang class was the culmination of their efforts.

To save cost on design, the Federation engineers at Utopia Plainitia took a design that dated more than a century ago, the famed Constitution class ship, made famous by the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 and NCC 1701-A. The class was chosen as a base design due to it's past reliability, performance, and relatively simple design. The designers then used the base design, upscaled it, and added modern components, such as high-performace warp nacelles, phaser strips, science labs and a powerful warp core. The result pleased many Starfleet officials, and the sight of a ship that resembled the old "Connies" as the Constitution class were affectionately known, brought many more Starfleet officials to support the project.

Eventually, the 380-meter long ship was complete, the Tien-Tang being the lead ship of the class. Captains noted excellent performance and helmsmen applauded the ease of handling the science vessel. Her quadruple mounted impulse engines gave her impressive acceleration and her warp engines yielded a cruising speed of Warp 7.8, and emergency speed of warp 9.2 for 12 hours. Most of her specifications were relatively average for a ship of her class, but her low cost and modular design were winning points for Starfleet, which gave the order for the class to go under production.

But the Utopia Plainitia engineers had one more surprise under the box. The Tien-Tangs were designed with modularity in mind, able to replace and upgrade components with relative ease. The ship has been reported to be able to change her entire warp drive while in dry dock for less than three days. But what really appealed to Federation commanders, is that, when needed, the Tien-Tangs could be fitted with additional armour and weapons at a moment's notice, becoming a very formidable fighting ship when the need to defend the Federation arises. For example, the sensor pod mounted on the ship's rollbar could be replaced with a weapons pod, giving the vessel an additional boost in firepower. This made the Tien Tangs very versatile, and have proven themselves in combat operations.

In all, the Tien Tangs, although having an outdated, yet classic design, would continue serving Starfleet and the Federation for the next coming years. Due to their modularity, the desginers expect the ships to last until the next century, or even beyond.