Star Trek Expanded Universe
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The USS Indomitable (NX-1023) was a Horizon-class heavy cruiser—a testbed for a new battle cruiser concept—in Star Fleet service from 2210 to 2212. (Star Fleet Starship Recognition Manual: Report #296: Horizon Heavy Cruisers)

History[]

The USS Indomitable battle cruiser was the one-off experimental continuation of an Advance hull that was tremendously overdue because of flaws that had gone undetected until late in the construction process. The hull on NCC-1023 was set aside for a special purpose: an experimental up-gunning intended to specifically address the emergent Klingon threat. The Indomitable hull was a fleet-management opportunity: an existing design could be used to rapidly develop this new battle cruiser concept without hauling an active ship off the tip of the spear, when it would be needed the most. The hull's advanced stage of construction also meant that critical shipbuilding assets would not be tied up, right when Star Fleet was considering how to pivot. (Star Fleet Starship Recognition Manual: Report #296: Horizon Heavy Cruisers)

The key to this upgraded heavy cruiser design was the enormous PB-19. The 180-meter long nacelle was envisioned to push the ship to supercruise speeds. The pylons to support the nacelles were made longer and stronger, and far outside the breadth of the primary saucer. The Scarbak impulse engines of the preceding sister ships were miniaturized, with all six staggered along the two pylons, while not providing redundancy so much as impulse-capable survivability. Often lost because of and behind the massive scope of the nacelles was the significantly-lengthened secondary hull; its 140-meter length was intentional, to allow for the installation of two Mann-class SSWR-IX reactors in parallel. The tremendous amount of power provided by the two reactors meant that not only would the nacelles see the required amounts necessary for supercruise, but that enhanced shielding and an increase in the number of main lasers would also be well-supported. All the critical spaces that typically reside in the engineering hull needed to be accounted for, and that required an extension. (Star Fleet Starship Recognition Manual: Report #296: Horizon Heavy Cruisers)

Unfortunately, the ship could not pass its warp trials: the fluctuating output of the temperamental reactors threatened to overload the electroplasma conduits that fed the thirsty nacelles. As so much hope was being placed on the upgraded cruiser, its frequent emergency down-warping was a common end result of any one trial, as witnessed plenty of times by the tailing Texas-class USS Altay (NCC-911). Star Fleet could not risk fielding the class with such an unreliable power system. While the ship itself would not proceed to commissioned status, much less to subclass production, the weapons integration proved useful in succeeding military ship construction and in upgrade programs, including that of the various Horizon subclasses. The elongated secondary hull would also be adopted and adapted by the follow-on Essex battle and Archon heavy cruiser subclasses. (Star Fleet Starship Recognition Manual: Report #296: Horizon Heavy Cruisers)

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