STARFLEET'S HERITAGE

CARRIER'S PART I

THE EARLY YEARS - (2251-2280)

by Vitoria Mackey

The history of carriers or shuttlecarriers in Starfleet service begins quite modestly about 120 years ago during the Four Years War (2246-50). Starfleet was looking for an effective way to escort convoys against Klingon small craft attacks. It was Commander Natasha Ingram of the Tactical Development Division who suggested building ships based on the carrier model.
Until this time, fleet tactics and doctrine was based solely on the “capital ship” model: large, multi-task capable vessels which both served as exploration assets and as patrol and defense assets for the fleet. While many vessels were able to carry a small amount of specialized small craft and shuttles, there were no dedicated small craft support vessels in the fleet at that time. Nor were there any ships geared toward a defense against enemy small craft. Ingram immediately pressed for and received Emergency War Funding

Authorization 0-671-46391-8 to develop a prototype class of Escort Carrier for the fleet. As it would happen at the time, there were four partially assembled neutronic fuel carriers being built in Earth orbit. The company who had ordered the ships, Matrix Neutronics, had recently gone bankrupt. A quick word before we go on: the contribution of Matrix Neutronics, off-hand as it was, went long unrecognized until the mid-2280’s when the Archangel class shuttlecarriers entered service. The
last act of Fleet Admiral Natasha Ingram before her retirement in 2283 was that a vessel of the Archangel class be named “Matrix”. The name that began with a washed-out fuel supplier became a badge of honor for NCC-2296, and is now carried more than a hundred years later by the current USS Matrix, NCC-72296, a Gabriel class ship. It should also be mentioned that Admiral Ingram was honored in 2289 with the launch of the USS Ingram (NCC-2001), a one-of-a-kind space control ship. But more about that later.Getting back to the subject at hand: The four ships purchased from Matrix were easily converted to their new use. They were refit using the then-new technology and design philosophies being used for the
Constitution (CH-1700) class heavy cruisers. The secondary hulls having been intended as the bulk carry holds for fuel, were converted completely to hangar and landing bay spaces.

These vessels typically carried 20 or so medium craft, although there were instances of ships carrying upwards of 30 similar sized craft with little difficulty. Within six months all four vessels entered service: USS Santee, USS Chenango, USS Sangamon, and USS Suwanee.They mostly escorted logistic and replenishment groups to forward bases near the war zones. After proving their usefulness in this task they were used with battle groups as screening and perimeter defense assets, freeing the capital ships up for exclusively offensive misions. After the war, the four ships were retained in service, escorting merchant convoys in the frontier regions of Federation space. Especially along the Orion-Rigel border zones where piraty was a real concern of the time. USS Sangamon was damaged beyond repair in a skirmish with Orion pirates in 2256, the other three vessels of the class remained in active service until the mid-2270’s, and in the Starfleet Reserve until the late 2280’s. Post-War Starfleet planners saw little need for carrier type vessels. The trend was twoard more versatile and flexible designs like the heavy cruisers and frigates which could be employed as exploratory or military vessels interchangeably. However, the Coranado class “through-deck” cruisers did see service in this period. Again based on the same basic design philosophy of the two-hulled cruisers of the period, these six ships entered service between 2258 and 2260, and served well into the early years of the 23rd century.

Due to the use of modified components from the Bonhomme Richard and Archener class heavy cruisers, they were limited in the number of craft carried (only around a dozen or so). These ships never saw much tactical use, being used mainly to support exploratory missions. However, there are rumors to this day that USS Devonshire took part in a few classified forays into Klingon space while deployed with TACFLEET in the 2260’s. The next carrier class commissioned by Starfleet were the four vessels of the Ariel class. These ships have the distinction of beng the first starships built from the keel up as carriers. Massive for their time, the Ariel class entered service from 2276 to 2280, and carried as many as 80 tactical craft in the distinctive delta-wing secondary hull. These were also the first carriers to have multiple hangar decks, having eight arrayed along the stern of the ship. These ships dwared even the Federation class dreadnoughts of the period, and were the largest ships in the fleet until the introduction of the Excelsior and Ingram class ships of the late 2280’s. These vessels served well into the first decades of the 23rd century in both civil- releief and military capacities. They became the perfect flagship for detached-duty task groups, exploration missions into deep space, and mass evacuations of colonies. Their design influence can be seen in the present-day Galaxy class exploration cruisers, especially the “flow” of the secondary hull. Two more vessels were built as “Malverne” class carriers in the early 2280’s, but were essentially modified Ariel class vessels.