Borchardt class

Inscription on Commissioning Plaque:
 "For a Righteous man shall fall and rise seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity."

--Proverbs 24:16

General Specifications:
Length:  62.75m
Width:   62.75m
Height:  18.5m
Emergency Warp: 4.75
Cruise: Warp 4.5
Max Impulse:  0.25 lightspeed
Crew:  6 officers, 18 enlisted

Armament: One quad-mount laser cannon turret (fwd arc) and two missile launchers (fwd).

Type: Patrol/Escort frigate

Status: 115 Borchardts had been built when its production run ended at the close of the Romulan war. 45 Borchards were destroyed in action, 17 were missing in action. The remainder were demilitarized and sold for civilian use.

About Ship: In the early 22nd century, the United Earth Space Probe Agency learned that not all Earth's neighbors were as pacifist as the Vulcans. As a cautionary measure, they began designing several ships with offensive and defensive capability, to ensure that, if attacked, Earth could defend itself. The Borchardt was one such vessel.

The Borchardt class vessel was a contemporary of the Daedalus class cruisers. With a maximum Warp Factor (old reckoning) of 4.5, the Borchardt was the fastest starship of its day, but suffered from poor range. Armed with a quad-mount laser turret and dual missile launchers, the Borchardts were intended primarily to protect unarmed transports in convoys, but saw service as front-line combatants as escort, patrol, and reconnaissance vessels along the Romulan border.

The Borchardt was one of the first Earth ships to use a saucer-shaped hull. The hull shape minimized aerodynamic buffeting during reentry into an atmosphere, something it was called upon to do frequently. The only way to transport personnel to a planetary surface at that time was either to land the vessel or send a landing craft. The Borchardt was too small to carry an auxiliary vessel, and so it was designed for transatmospheric operation and was equipped with landing jacks.

The Borchards served admirably during the Romulan wars. It was primarily assigned to scout ahead of the Deadalus class cruisers and Ptolemy class frigates to detect the enemy and alert the fleet. It could not operate independently, however; it's limited range meant that it dare not stray far from its support vessels.

45 Borchardts were destroyed in action (34 of these during the Romulan wars), and 17 went missing (8 during the Romulan wars). The Borchardts gained a reputation as a fast ship that could sustain appalling amounts of damage and continue to function. A full-sized mock-up of a typical Borchardt is being reconstructed from original plans, for display as a walk-though exhibit at the Zephram Cochrane Memorial museum at Alpha Centauri.