Class Design, History, FASA Stats, Names & Registries © D. Guthrie Scott

Notes:

It has been said that, “The pinnacle of an old technology will far exceed the birth of a new technology.”Such is the case of the Ireland Class Heavy Cruiser in the late 23rd Century.

Designed for enhanced performance and greater independence to support longer mission duration including lengthy deep space exploration, the Ireland Class represents a culmination of knowledge taken from over 20 years of Constitution and Miranda Class mission reports.

The Ireland Class sports 2 primary, integrated components. A modified Constitution Class primary Hull (saucer section) and a crescent moon shaped star drive section which the saucer is hard docked into with a series of clamping mechanisms. In case of an emergency, such as an antimatter containment breach, the saucer can disengage from the star drive section by retracting the clamps or by use of a series of micro-detonators. The saucer’s impulse engines, already being active, can easily carry the crew to a safe distance. Reintegration of the saucer and star drive sections will still require a star base repair facility.

Both the primary hull (saucer) and star drive section have their own complete set of impulse engines. Both of which remain active at all times. The saucer’s impulse engines are not visible when the ship is in one piece. But they are present and imbedded into an armored area of the star drive section, constantly providing additional energy to the ships power grid. This energy can be used for almost any ships system including life support, shields, or standard phaser banks. As a beneficial side effect, the pressurized ion exhaust from the saucer’s impulse engines is shunted into the ships maneuvering thrusters dramatically increasing maneuverability.

Taking advantage of the ships low profile the Ireland Class warp drive generates an elliptical warp field. The advantage of an elliptical warp field combined with the ships design is that it allows the ship to transition to warp faster and accelerate at warp speeds with 25% less energy required. This gives the Ireland Class excellent manueverability in spite its size.

The FMH-11 Heavy-Phasers, which would eventually become the standard FH-11 phaser systems several years later, are powered directly from the warp energy plasma flow.. This allowed them to be changed prior fired to firing, allowing increased damage and greater targeting accuracy. The prototype weapon system also allows for a full or partial charge can be held in the capacitor without the reduction of computer targeting power. While many of these components soon became standard, it was the Ireland class that first allowed the practical use of these systems.

Game notes: The FH-11 Phasers must be powered from warp energy only. They can be changed at least one turn prior to them being fired. A full or partial charge can be held in the capacitor at the cost of 1 warp energy point per FH-11, per turn. These have a Forward only firing arc.Three sets of stats are provided, one for the USS Ireland prototype, one for the TOS Era Ireland Class production model, and one for a TMP Era Ireland Class Refit.*The FASA game is a 2d only tactical game. To adjust for this they removed phasers from ships to adjust for not having a “Z” axis in the games tactical system. For example they have the TMP Enterprise listed as only have 6 or 8 phasers (depending upon reference book). The actual studio model has 18 phasers at various places all over the ship. To keep within this game mechanic, I have the Ireland class listed as having 8 standard (FH-3) phasers in 4 banks of 2. When in actuality the model has 14 standard (FH-3) phasers in 7 banks of 2 (3 banks of 2 each on top of the saucer, 3 banks of 2 each on the bottom of the saucer, and 1 bank of 2 firing Aft).