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Akira class

The Akira class fast attack heavy cruisers were designed for superior speed, durability, and firepower, and was capable of multiple mission types, including first strike, reconnaissance, incursion, and perimeter defense, as well as colonization support and planetary evacuations. [1] The Akiras were produced at the Antares Fleet Yards on Antares IV , [2] as well as at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars . [3] First commissioned in 2367 , [4] the Akira class was the first vessel class authorized by the Perimeter Defense Directive (PDD). Other classes developed under this classified directive—including the Norway , Steamrunner class , and Saber clases—were brought into active service over the next several years. [5] [6] [1]

Of the twelve new ship classes placed into accelerated development by the PDD, the Akira class emerged as one of the most versatile. [6] The Akira class was one of the first Starfleet designs since the Andor class [7] to focus primarily on superior firepower and the projection of force in a quick and decisive manner. [1] Armed with both photon and quantum torpedoes, [8] six Type X Phaser arrays, [2] the Akira class possessed a devastating first-strike capability. [1] The Akira class also incorporated three quick-pressure shuttlebays; the single forward shuttlebay served as the primary launching facility, while the two aft bays were typically used for shuttle recovery. Shuttlecraft ranged from standard multi-role craft like the Type 8 Shuttlecraft to specialized fighters, which could be used for picket defense or patrol duties. [1] Squadrons of 30-50 [6] such support craft allowed the Akira class to fulfill a unique support role, and to project a Starfleet presence further than most other starships. [1]

Originally envisioned merely as the test-bed for new phaser and torpedo technologies, the Akira class was not initially intended for mass production or as a front-line combat vessel. Following the destruction of a sizable portion of Starfleet's forces during the Battle of 359 , the Akira class was pressed into development, bringing the experimental class into the spotlight under the auspices of the PDD. [1] This mission redesign coincided with increased Cardassian crises and the Dominion War , and Starfleet commissioned many more PDD ships than Starfleet Command had initially anticipated, desperate to throw a generally proven design onto the front lines. [6]

The most noteworthy deployment of the Akira class was, perhaps, the defense of Sector 001 during the Borg incursion of 2373. Akira class vessels, including the U.S.S. Thunderchild NCC-63549 , performed with distinction during the incident. [8] Limited engagements against Cardassian and Tholian forces also helped to bolster confidence that the Akira class was, indeed, a viable design. Wide-scale production began shortly before the outbreak of the Dominion War ,, which would again extract a terrible toll on all sides. Conflicts at the Chin'toka system and Deep Space 9 during Operation Return would serve to ensure the Akira class' place in history. [1]

Akira class vessels

• Prime Timeline

U.S.S. Spector NCC-63015  •  U.S.S. Thunderchild NCC-63549

Columbia Timeline

U.S.S. Akira NCC-62497  •  U.S.S. Black Elk NCC-62878  •  U.S.S. Constant  •  U.S.S. Geronimo NCC-62501  •  U.S.S. Korolev  •  U.S.S. Mateo NCC-63002  •  U.S.S. Nez Perce NCC-62891  •  U.S.S. Osceola NCC-62743  •  U.S.S. Rabin NCC-63293  •  U.S.S. Red Cloud NCC-63306  •  U.S.S. Spector NCC-63015  •  U.S.S. Susquehanna NCC-63419  •  U.S.S. Thunderchild NCC-63549

STO Timeline

U.S.S. Akira NCC-63444  •  U.S.S. Kelvin  •  U.S.S. Rideout

Notes and References

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Heinig, Jess Ross A. Isaacs (Line Developers). Starships . Star Trek Roleplaying Game . Book 4. Written by Bill Bridges , Andrew Greenberg , Kenneth Hite , Ross A. Isaacs , and Doug Sun . Illustrations by David Pipgras . Decipher, Inc. . 2003 .
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Zimmerman, Herman   et al (Authors). Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual . Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Book. Pocket Books . 1998 .
• ↑ Berman, Rick & Brannon Braga ( Executive Producers ). " Relativity ." Star Trek: Voyager , Season 5, Episode 23 (Production 218). Directed by Allan Eastman . Story by Nick Sagan . Teleplay by Bryan Fuller & Nick Sagan & Michael Taylor . Paramount Pictures , 12 May 1999 .
• ↑ The Akira's commissioning date was given as 2268 in material from both the Last Unicorn Games and Decipher roleplaying games, but this conflicts with the U.S.S. Nez Perce NCC-62891 participating in the Romulan Blockade during the Klingon Civil War of 2367. To resolve the conflict, the commissioning date has been adjusted.
• ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 Isaacs, Ross A. (Line Developer). The Price of Freedom: The United Federation of Planets Sourcebook . Star Trek: The Next Generation Roleplaying Game . Book 25100 . Written by Brian Campbell , Heather Curatola , Harry Heckel , Kenneth A. Hite , Ross A. Isaacs , Steve Long , Christian Moore , Nicky Rea , Aaron Rosenberg , John Snead , and Ray Winninger . Original art by Bryan Gibson . Last Unicorn Games, Inc. . February 1999 .
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Heinig, Jess (Line Developer). Starfleet Operations Manual . Star Trek Roleplaying Game . Book 3 . Written by Kenneth Hite . Original Art by C. Brent Ferguson and David Pipgras . Decipher, Inc. . 2003 .
• ↑ Brown, Forest G. (Author). Federation Ship Recognition Manual . Star Trek: The Role Playing Game . Book 2302 , Second Edition. Cover art by Dana Knutson . Illustrations by Dana Knutson and Robert Oswald . FASA Corporation . 1985 .
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 Berman, Rick (Producer). Star Trek: First Contact . Directed by Jonathan Frakes . Story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Ronald D. Moore . Screenplay by Brannon Braga & Ronald D. Moore . Paramount Pictures . 22 November 1996 .
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Akira Class

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Star Trek Online: Akira-Class Remodel

By LaughingTrendy | Tue 28 Jul 2015 08:00:00 AM PDT

The Starfleet Corps of Engineers have been hard at work in the war against the Iconians!

The Akira-class starship has always proven itself to be a formidable ship. This Heavy Escort is as effective as it is deadly. But with the arrival of our newest lineup of Heavy Escort Carriers, our engineers felt it necessary to give this iconic ship the update it deserves.

We’re happy to present our latest update to the Akira-class starship! We’ve remodeled the ship to show off a beautifully-high fidelity that will match our more recent starships. This updated model will be a free upgrade to any ship that has access to the Akira-class parts. Captains may have to visit the ship customization screen to see all of the new details.

Take a look at the new and improved Akira-class!

Discuss in the forums

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Designing the Akira Class

The Akira class was one of the four computer-generated starships that appeared in the battle with the Borg early in Star Trek: First Contact . It became the favorite of the Industrial Light and Magic artists who created it.

One designer, Alex Jaeger, recalled that the radically different look of the ships in the battle was born out of necessity.

“The main reason they look really different is that from a distance, the producers wanted them to be completely new looks, because we introduced a new Enterprise in the film and didn’t want it to get lost,” he told Star Trek: The Magazine in 1999.

They initially planned to have at least one ship that we could get closer to camera. That was the Akira , so it got the most attention to detail. It wound up being almost as big as the Enterprise -E — the “E” is longer, but the saucer section is almost the same size.

It was the one design the producers liked instantly, said Jaeger. “It has some of the feel of the old USS Reliant NCC-1864 and its rollbar effect, but with a catamaran-style with the split hull design.”

In the side view you almost can’t see the bridge because between the sides of the hull, down between the two sections, is a protective device.

Jaeger produced several drawings that depicted parts of the ship in greater detail for First Contact and the vessel went on to appear on several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager .

Size of the Akira Class

The true length of the Akira class is not fully evident because of the following conflicting size figures (explained in the ship size table ):

• Star Trek Encyclopedia II : 400m..460m
• Star Trek Deep Space Nine Technical Manual : 464.43m
• VFX size according to a post (January 20, 1998) in alt.tv.star-trek.ds9 by David Stipes, VFX Supervisor DS9: 860' = 262.13m
• VFX size derived by Frank Gerratana: 340±10m
• ILM size chart (graphical comparison, available only since 2009): 499m

The Akira class appears in "Star Trek: First Contact", in various DS9 Dominion War episodes and in VOY: "Message in a Bottle" and "Endgame".

Although the shots in "First Contact" are the clearest of all, we can't perform a solid comparison because the Akira-class USS Thunderchild is never in the same plane or at the same distance to the camera as other ships.

Overall, several scenes that show the Akira near ships of known sizes point to a length of the vessel between 300m and 400m. It seems that this size has been consistently used at latest since DS9. A possible reason is that, for the sake of simplicity, identical VFX sizes were nailed down for the three larger ships from "Star Trek: First Contact", although we can easily imagine that the Akira as the most detailed CGI and the overall most "important" ship class of the three should have been larger than the Norway (which never appeared on DS9, though) and the Steamrunner.

This could be the reason why the Steamrunner and the Akira in the screen capture from DS9: "Favor the Bold" are both noticeably smaller than the Excelsior. Yet, while the three ships seem to be in the same plane, their actual distances from the camera position may be quite different. Actually, most VFX scenes don't exclude the possibility that the Akira is longer than 400m. VOY: "Message in a Bottle" shows the Akira next to the Defiant, whose size is in dispute as well and in which case the evidence is even much more contradictory. Under the assumption that the Defiant is 170m, as officially postulated, the Akira would be longer than 400m. If the Defiant is 120m, the Akira could be, but does not have to be smaller than that.

On another screen capture from DS9: "Favor the Bold", an Akira and an Excelsior can be seen in what appears to be almost the same plane close to one another, with the Akira being a bit shorter than the Excelsior. The same relative scale may have been used in DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels". In the accumulation of ships, one Akira class is apparently a bit closer to the camera than a nearby Excelsior class. With the Excelsior being 467m long, the Akira couldn't be much longer than at most 400m.

Structural analysis

The Akira class has numerous windows - probably too many for an alleged warship - that allow an easy distinction of decks. There are 19 decks in total, without the weapons pod. This gives us an absolute minimum length of 330m, if the decks are only 2.5m tall, and a maximum of 522m for an average deck height of 4m as on the Intrepid class. Assuming a standard deck height of 3.4m as on most other Federation starships seen so far the Akira would be 440m, and further evidence points to about this length. There is no reason to assume that the Akira is an exception with regard to deck heights, even if we speculate that a warship might have decks of only 3m or less. The Defiant, as the only warship so far, is the best counter-evidence. At a generous length of 120m, its decks (4-deck version, unless we ignore the MSD) would be 3.9m tall, not to mention the odd "official" ship as in the DS9TM with still 4 decks but at 170m!

When we compare the top views of the Akira and the Sovereign classes, both from the Star Trek Encyclopedia II , it is obvious that the graphic artist took the same bridge modules as well as the same lifeboats for both drawings. We may scale the Akira top view from this book in a way that the bridge sizes match. The result is surprising, since the Akira would be only 272m long, much less than the minimum deck height allows, but about the same size that is allegedly used for VFX, according to David Stipes. However, the schematic in the Encyclopedia II definitely depicts a wrong bridge module, along with other minor flaws, such as a wrong color of the plasma (red instead of blue) in the nacelle window just behind the Bussard collector. The images shown in Star Trek: The Magazine and other renderings using the actual mesh prove that in reality the Akira has a different bridge module. As an alternative reference we may choose the lifeboats, which appear to be the same size on the Sovereign and the Akira. As we match the pods, the Akira turns out to close to 400m long (in a previous comparison I arrived at 440m, but that was done with too low resolution as it seems). Anyway, anything around 400m is the most likely size. In the database, I have the Akira at 440m.

Additional note Alex Jaeger, the designer of the Akira, has been quoted that the saucer of the Akira is supposed to be (about) the same width as the Sovereign saucer, but this statement is not certain. If this is true, the length would be roughly 410m and therefore in the above reasonable range.

Stipes's VFX size

David Stipes provides a length of only 262m in his newsgroup post. This is much too small for a ship with 19 decks. Actually, in this case the decks would be only 2m tall! The idea of a ship for dwarfs does not deserve further consideration, even if some of the VFX scenes would allow such an interpretation.

Reference manuals

The first printed size comparison for the Akira is contained in the Federation Starships chart in the Star Trek Encyclopedia II . Unfortunately, the ships are only roughly but not exactly shown to scale in this chart. Further clarification can be found in the ship size table page. Concerning the Akira, any length between 400m relative to the Intrepid (344m) or 460m relative to the Galaxy (641m) could be true. The faulty size charts remain unchanged in the extended Encyclopedia III .

The Deep Space Nine Technical Manual lists size figures for the ships featured in the series, including the Akira class. It can be noticed that several Starfleet as well as alien ships with definitely known design sizes are rendered too long in the DS9TM . The reason is that the size figures for the DS9TM were deduced directly from the ship charts in the Encyclopedia II , by simply measuring the depictions and calculating the "real" lengths based on a 642.51m Galaxy or a 481m Vor'cha. Therefore the Akira size figure in the DS9TM is not new, but a consequence of the incorrect (or at least quite inaccurate) Encyclopedia II chart. Hence, the intended size for the ship is somewhere between 400m and 460m.

ILM size chart

The size chart by Alex Jaeger of ILM used for the movie was published as late as 2009 by John Eaves . On this chart the 685m long USS Enterprise (still falsely labeled as "Galaxy Class") serves as the size reference for the other vessels. The Akira would be 499m long based on this evidence, which is still within a reasonable range but exceeds everything assumed so far. The chart is apparently just a draft that was produced before the actual CGI models were built. So if these models include more definite evidence such as window rows or lifeboats, this should overrule the chart.

Sizes of the Other First Contact Ships

Although the chart is probably just a guideline for the scaling of the CGI models to be built, it may be useful to derive the sizes of the other three "First Contact" Starfleet vessels, namely the Saber class, Steamrunner class and the Norway class.

If we scale the Starfleet ships relative to the Sovereign exactly as on the chart, not only the Akira but just as well the other three vessels would be considerably larger than previously assumed. Especially in the case of the Steamrunner this turns out a bit problematic. The Steamrunner, just as the Akira, apparently uses the same type of lifeboats as the Sovereign, and these would be somewhat too large at a length of this ship of some 400m.

Interestingly, if we scale down the chart lengths of the Akira and the Steamrunner by a factor of 0.88, the lifeboats match, and we arrive at my previously assumed lengths again. It seems that while these two ships later turned out to be smaller than depicted on the chart, they kept their relative sizes. Shrinking the Norway and the Saber likewise, these two remaining ships will still be somewhat bigger than I supposed but overall reasonable in their sizes.

For the most part the VFX shots insinuate an Akira class of somewhat less than 400m length. The ship, however, may be larger if we take into account that the Akira could be farther away from the camera than it seems or that it appears next to ships that don't really allow a size comparison (Steamrunner, Defiant). There is no scene that would inevitably call for an Akira of much less than 400m.

Two independent structural analyses of the Akira point consistently to a size of 440m±20m. This is most probably the design size intended by Alex Jaeger. His scaling chart should be regarded as preliminary. The Akira dimensions given in the official literature are in the according range too, but overall not reliable because of careless scaling of the ship depictions. Unless there is a scene I missed, in which the ship is shown at a really small size next to a ship whose size is definitely known, I will stick to the 440m Akira.

Starship Gallery - First Contact Vessels - Akira, Saber, Steamrunner, Norway

Thanks to Frank Gerratana for his analysis of VFX scenes involving the Akira class (his Trek site is gone for good), to Jörg for the improved screen captures, to Boris for some notes and to John Eaves for posting the size chart.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/akira-size.htm

Last modified: 28 Mar 2024

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Fleet Yards

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In 2401 , the Akira joined a Starfleet armada coordinated by the Singularity to deflect a massive energy burst from a newly forming transwarp conduit . ( PIC : " Farewell ")

Listed on a fleet formation display

Later that year, the Akira participated in Frontier Day celebrations near Sol Station . Along with the rest of the fleet, it was seized by the Borg Collective after its younger crew were assimilated by a Borg signal transmitted via Jack Crusher . ( PIC : " Vox ")

External link [ ]

• USS Akira (NCC-62497) at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

U.S.S. Akira

• VisualEditor
• View history

The U.S.S. Akira is an Akira -class escort in service to Starfleet in 2409 .

Missions encountered [ | ]

See Federation Escort .

Notes [ | ]

• All Akira -class vessels bear this ship's name and registry by default.
• The registry suggests she was at least the third vessel to bear the name.