Protector

Class 

Orca:

Images:

CONTENTS

Design Philosophies of the Orca Range

Production and Population History

Orca Range Design Philosophies

The idea behind the Orca Range was generate a series of military vehicles that would form a main dedicated defense fleet, before this project war craft were made in off ranges that only tackled one specific function in the defense fleet, the Orca range would try to fill all these niches with a range of diverse and specialized vehicles.

The Orca range was designed with two major concepts in mind, firstly to create a powerful backbone for a defensive fleet that had before been mostly made from custom-built craft, or from the limited military craft ranges (mostly Merlin craft). The second principle of design was to design a craft that could be rapidly and easily upgraded to keep pace with emerging technologies. It was hoped that if the craft could be quickly and rapidly upgraded then the life span for these vehicles would essentially be indefinite, something that had rendered earlier craft obsolete as although they had been built at the state of the art, their ability for upgrade had been minimal and so their own design lifetimes were much shorter, and many war craft had become obsolete before the Orca project began.

The designers had to contend with not designing one multipurpose craft, but to design a whole range of craft that although individually had flexibility in function had one specific area of particularly potency, so everything from small fighter craft to giant cruisers and carriers had to be designed.

Another important aspect of the design was the idea of compatibility, though technically all federation craft can cooperate together and share common design elements, the Orca craft really would be designed tactically to coordinate together so forming seamlessly coordinated attack groups where one vehicle's particular strength would defend vehicles whose design was not so strongly orientated for that role.

The design project really started as far back 2141, though at this point it had been a mere concept, not until the early 2150’s was flesh put to these ideas, with the production of the first craft (Protector and Defender classes, effectively heavy fighter craft) in late 2154, and the initial production of the Orca range was slow until the age of armament where further design modifications were made, and extensive refit of existing Orca fleet, since the age of armament the Orca range has predominated the construction yards, and in post war times Orca craft lacking the extensive weapons and military systems perform a great deal non military ship activity. This flexibility for the Orca range to become a useful and dependable craft even outside its own original military design has meant that they have become the backbone for more than just a defensive fleet, but rather all ship based activities (exploration, scientific missions etc.)