Ogre class starship
Designer: Robert C. Dunehew E-mail [email protected]

Ogre class battlecruiser

Inscription on Commissioning Plaque:

"Be vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbit!"

-- Elmer Fudd

Armaments: Five laser cannon (fwd), 3 missile launchers (2 fwd, 1 aft).

Type: Battlecruiser

Status: 2 produced. Production began in 2157 and ended with the formation of Starfleet. Both vessels were transferred to the ready reserve in 2161, and were subsequently decommissioned and mothballed at the Jupiter boneyard in Sol system in 2163. One is undergoing restoration for inclusion at the Zephram Cochrane Memorial Space Museum in orbit at Alpha Centauri III, the other is being restored by the Starfleet Academy Museum of Spaceflight.

About Ship: The Ogre was a warship designed and built expressly to serve in the Romulan wars. At the outbreak of the war, Earth forces had no purpose-built warships. The most heavily-armed ship in the inventory was the Borchardt, a fast, short-ranged escort. What was needed was a cruiser-sized vessel with sufficient range and speed to pose a serious threat to the Romulans.

United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA) had steadfastly refused to consider a combat-only design for many years, declaring them unneccessary. The advent of the Romulan war meant that it now faced a well-armed opponent with only scientific and exploration vessels to use in its defense. An emergency arming program was implemented to mount lasers and missile launchers on any vessel that could be used for combat. This allowed UESPA to immediately implement some sort of credible defense. The disadvantages to this practice were apparent from the start, as the science vessels were slow at sublight compared to their Romulan adversaries, their shields were barely adequate, and the modifications to make them combat-ready often adversely affected performance. UESPA issued a requirement for a cruiser-sized fighting ship to enter production as soon as possible. The Ogre class battlecruiser was the result of this requirement.

The Ogre's hull was cylindrical with a flattened ellipsoid cross-section. This ensured a high degree of strength and volume for the amount of materials used. The forward half of the vessel contained the command section, armaments, sensors and navigational deflector. The aft section contained the drives and the warp core. In an emergency, the forward half could separate from the drive section and accelerate to safety in case of an impending warp core breach. The hull was armored and had better shielding than any previous design. Interior volume was nearly as much as a Daedalus class cruiser, but the Ogre was so tightly packed with weapons and equipment that it was as cramped as a 20th century Earth submarine.

Main weaponry consisted of five laser cannon slaved together to fire as a single battery. This was supplemented by three missile launchers, with two forward-facing tubes and one rather long launch tube slung beneath the hull to fire aft. The aft tube acted as the barrel of a rifle, confining the missile's exhaust gases and accelerating the missile even faster. This was largely to ensure that the missile cleared the main sublight drive's cone of exhaust. Otherwise the missile could be damaged or, worse, prematurely detonate.

The Ogre's main sublight drive was an annular fusion drive located aft. The ship was designed with most of its mass concentrated around its center of gravity, providing lower polar momentum and thus greater maneuverability. As a result, the Ogre was the most agile ship in the fleet. Warp drives were simple, but effective. To maintain the low polar momentum necessary for high agility, the nacelles were mounted along the thrustline and close to the centerline. This sacrificed efficiency for maneuverability. The warp core was the most powerful yet designed, and carried plenty of fuel, so the lack of efficiency was not the handicap it had been for the Borchardt class escorts. When the Ogre was introduced, it was faster than any ship in the fleet. By the time it was ready to enter service, however, the battle of Cheron had already taken place, and subspace negotiations with the Romulans were already defining the terms of peace.

When the United Federation of Planets was formed in 2161, the political climate had once again become hostile to combat-only vessels. The Ogre packed as much speed and firepower into its spaceframe as possible, at the expense of operating efficiency. When the time came to choose the new Starfleet's flagship, the Daedalus class got the nod. The Ogre and it's sister ship, Troll, were relegated to the ready reserve, having never seen operational service. All Ogre production was halted, and the spaceframes of vessels already in production were scrapped. The Ogre and Troll were decomissioned and mothballed two years later.

The Ogre and Troll have recently been donated to the Zephram Cochrane Memorial Museum at Alpha Centauri and the Starfleet Academy Museum of Spaceflight, where they are currently undergoing restoration for display.