Constitution-class
Type	Heavy Cruiser
Decks	23 11 (Primary/Saucer section)
Complement	400-500

For additional meanings of "Constitution", please see Constitution (disambiguation).

The Constitution-class was a type starship in service to Starfleet in the Mid to Late 23rd century. The design underwent several refits in its many decades of service. The original configuration and refit variants of this class influenced starship design significantly, and accelerated the standardization of the fleet. It is also one of the oldest used class.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Development 2 Refits 2.1 2255 2.2 2271 2.3 2403 3 Design Layout 4 Alternate Timelines 4.1 The Nero Altered Universe 5 External Links

HistoryEdit

DevelopmentEdit

Development of the Constitution-class began in the 2230s when key Fleet personnel, including Admiral William Jefferies and Captain Robert April, came to see the necessity of an all-purpose vessel that could explore space while protecting Federation interests and expanding its reach. When a design team led by Doctor Lawrence Marvick finished plans late in that decade for just such a ship, a new class was swiftly approved by Starfleet Command.

Starfleet authorized its Fleet Yards in San Francisco to build two vessels, with Admiral Jefferies overseeing NX 1700 -- christened Constitution -- and Captain April supervising its sister ship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). Later on, 12 were created in all.

RefitsEdit

	2245 - 2254
	2255 - 2265
	2266 - 2270
	2271 - 2285

2255Edit

When Captain Pike took command of the Constitution class USS Enterprise, it was refitted for the first time since it's commissioning in 2245. This would become a refit for all Constitution class starships.

2271Edit

Beyond minor modifications, the successful design saw no major changes until the 2270s, when a significant refit had been more than earned. Upgrade proposals all shared a more efficient power plant, with some versions streamlining the hull for greater warpfield geometrics, and others emphasizing enhanced weaponry or science capability; the final design merged many of the proposals.

2403Edit

In 2403, the class of starship got it's first refit in 134 years. By the 25th century the Constitution was not literally refit yet again however it was more rebuilt from the ground up. The new Constitution was made centrally due to the reason that while several other legacy ships (primarily the Enterprise) were being built as several classes sharing the same name, and while their technical abilities were greatly improved it had appeared that advancement was being sacrificed for over complexity and complication. So the new Constitution was created as a more simplified and dressed down functionality.

Also Starfleet decided to just refit the Constitution class because designing an entirely new starship would take years and the Borg threat was getting worse. This refit was strikingly exactly the same design as in the alternate reality that Ambassador Spock visited 16 years ago.

Design LayoutEdit

The largest and most elaborate vessel class Starfleet had yet fielded, with an unprecedented fourteen research labs each, ships of the Constitution class became the most extensive mobile research platforms ever deployed by the Federation, and were responsible for expanding known space by thousands of cubic parsecs.

The class utilized a greater level of modularity, which allowed for incremental changes to configuration -- so flexible that it became standard starship design practice. As other classes began to employ such modularity, Fleet design became increasingly more uniform.

Alternate TimelinesEdit

The Nero Altered UniverseEdit

The USS Enterprise in an alternate timeline created by Nero the Enterprise was more advanced in weaponry and very similar to the prime universe Constitution class refit of 2402.

External LinksEdit

• Constitution class article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
• Constitution class article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
• Constitution class article at Star Trek Expanded Universe.

Constitution-class Starships
Federation	USS Arella • USS Barbarossa • USS Challenger • USS Constitution • USS Defiant • USS Enterprise • USS Enterprise-A • USS Monitor
Alternate reality	USS Hood • USS Farragut
CRC	USS Columbus • USS Enterprise-F
UPA	UPA Enterprise