Pathfinder I class

=Construction=

The Pathfinder-class Starship had its origins in the early 2360s shortly after the Galaxy class starship began their successful run in to the Fleet as a deep-space explorer. It was felt that Starfleet needed to diversify the fleet with command ships capable of multi-mission design specifications to cover the three primary duties of the Starfleet charter - exploration, defense, and diplomacy. Admiral Victor Murdock took up the gauntlet and began the process of designing a new starship class capable of meeting these requirements. While the project development peaked and waned over the next few years - usually at the whim of Starfleet Command - it was not until 2368 that the modern Pathfinder-class design was developed. In light of the events at Wolf 369 against the Borg, the design principles of the Pathfinder-class leaned more to defensive and offensive capabilities. The design of the current Battlecruiser contributed to other contemporary starship designs - Akira, Steamrunner, Saber, Sovereign - which were being designed and built at the same time.

The following year, following confirmed approvals from Starfleet Command and the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, the Pathfinder-class Development Project. Continuing until 2373 the ship was not ready for the next encounter Starfleet had with the Borg, but the first superstructure was built in the following year. By 2375 the prototype was completed, USS Pathfinder, which began her shakedown cruiser shortly thereafter. In 2377 a new class of ship entered service, the Pathfinder-Class was designed as the ultimate in front-line explorers. This Vessel was initially named USS Pathfinder, but Recommissioned USS Miranda-B in honor of the previous vessel to bear the name, at the request of Fleet Admiral Victor Murdock.

The Pathfinder-Class merges the catamaran hull design of the Akira class with the maneuverability (both physically and mission-wise) of the Sovereign class. The ship also was constructed as a response to the Klingons Negh'Var class Warships, the Romulans D'Deridex class Warbird, and the Dominion's Battleship-Class Heavy Cruisers. The ship featured a brand new torpedo turret as it's primary weapon and the type-XIV Phaser arrays, (known as Sovereign-Type) as well as two Type XV (commonly known as Defiant-Type) phased pulse emitters.

The USS Miranda is one of the few Starfleet vessels which has enough firepower for any combat role, but also carries the full capabilities of an exploratory Starship. The Miranda is designed to go for extensive periods on deep-space exploratory duties. The ships carry an extremely heavy torpedo armament of 7 torpedo launchers. Four of these are mounted in the large roll bar pod, two forward and two back; the one is located on the underside of the saucer section, two of which face directly out to port and starboard : an unique feature in a Starfleet vessel, shared only with the Akira and Wazikashi Classes. Another special feature of the Pathfinder-Class is the hangar bay arrangements. There is one large shuttle bay in the saucer section, running the width of the ship with bay doors on both sides. These allow large numbers of launch and landing operations to be handled simultaneously. During peacetime this allows the Miranda to evacuate large numbers of small survey craft, or ferry evacuees on board at a high rate. During time of war, the ship can serve as fighter carriers; in this role they can carry up to thirty-six attack fighters, although a load of  six fighters and a dozen utility craft is Starfleets current Standardisation of the Pathfinder Class. The USS Miranda-B entered service in 2377 and was assigned to units on the outer Federation territories, performing patrol and presence missions as well as the normal mapping and exploration duties which any Starfleet vessel is expected to handle. The ship also features and MVAM – Multi-Vector Assault Mode, a design feature shared by the Prometheus-Class Starship. However, at this time, the components to make the Secondary and Tertiary hulls completely self-sufficient are not installed, in the rush to get the Pathfinder-Class prototype commissioned. The MVAM capabilities are negated with the upgrade to Pathfinder MkII.

=Technology= With the destruction of the Borg cube in 2366, Starfleet stepped up several new ship designs to combat the new threat. One of the designs to benefit was that of the Pathfinder. The Pathfinder design developed and evolved rapidly, an one point being the proposal for the Prometheus class. Instead, Starfleet decided to go with the smaller MVAM capable proposal, and the Pathfinder design was commissioned as a separate class. New weapons, shields, computers, and other systems continued to develop rapidly. The design was modified constantly to incorporate all the new technology. As a result the prototype emerged from the dry dock as Starfleet's most sophisticated and comprehensively armed vessel. The vessel is equipped with a new variant of the Type XIV Phaser array, formerly known as the 'Type X+' for security reasons, which equips the Federation's most powerful Starbases, deep space facilities. The Type XIV has a raw beam power output some 60% more powerful than the Type X arrays installed on the Standard Galaxy class. In addition the Type XIV has a shorter recharge time and can fire a longer sustained burst, giving each bank a combat effectiveness 79.4% greater than a type ten array. All told, the Pathfinder has an overall 54.6% increase in Phaser capability over the Galaxy-Class. The shield system of the Pathfinder class is similarly one of the most powerful of any Starfleet ship; the design was modified just prior to installation in order to increase effectiveness against both high energy tractor beams and phased polaron particles, measures clearly aimed at the Borg and Dominion respectively. Under normal operation the shield modulation frequencies are under the control of the ships computer system, which continually evaluates incoming weapons fire and automatically re-modulates the shields to give the most effective possible defense. It is thought that this system will also enable the shield system to prevent beam-through by Borg transporter technology.

The Warp engines of the Miranda are of a new design which eliminates subspace distortion effects inherent to standard warp drives, a feature now becoming common on most Starfleet ships. The Pathfinder-Class is currently the fastest vessel in Starfleet, with a maximum cruise speed of Warp 9.85 and a top speed of Warp 9.94 for up to twelve hours.

The very high cruise speed is intended to allow the ship to deploy as rapidly as possible to potential trouble spots. Her Impulse drive system is the most sophisticated model in production, giving the Pathfinder-Class a maneuverability equal to that of a vessel one half its size.

After a major refitting in early 2378, the MVAM features of the USS Miranda were fully enabled, at approximately the same time as the Miranda's sister ships, Pathfinder and Stargazer, neared completion.

Deck Layout
Pathfinder class Decks

=Pathfinder Class Mark II=

In 2381, the Pathfinder Class Mark II program began the process of upgrading all existing Pathfinder Class Starships to these new Specifications. The Miranda was the first Starship to receive these upgrades, followed by the Exploration and the Rodan. The Starship Freedom is the only Pathfinder Mark II to be built from scratch, and was Recommissioned as the Resolution-A, after the USS Resolution was deemed to be too heavily damaged to be a viable candidate for refitting to the Galaxy Class Mark III.

Other Pathfinders
USS Pathfinder USS Cairns USS Majestic