Iowa class Heavy Deterrent Cruiser

[Dino27Captain (PCG)]

Spoiler:

"The Star Trek starship U.S.S. Iowa is the lead ship in the Iowa class Battleships. It is armed with type 11 phaser arrays, multiple photon torpedo launchers and a single quantum torpedo launcher mounted on the bow. It is also armed with experimental quantum phasers, that were made to counter the Borg threat, which fire many beams of different modulations, so they can not adapt. They are mounted on the bottom of the secondary hull. It has a thin layer of ablative armor allowing it to stay in a fight longer. It is equipped with new warp nacelles which allow it to travel at a top speed of warp 9.71. All in all this is a powerful ship, it falls between the Galaxy class and the new Sovereign class. It is named for the Iowa class Battleships used in World War 2. What do you think?" - Legotrain587





Peace.




Peace is lie.




War is reality.




"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
---
"If you seek peace, prepare for war"




    "For too long the Federation has slept, oblivious of the dangerous that are all around it. Although they are attacked, they do little, or nothing at all. They build science ships when they need warships.
    The Admiralty has slumbered for too many decades.
    The shall be rudely awakened. Forced to see the truth that they are vulnerable, and that they must fight if their ideals of "liberty" and "justice" are to survive. The Borg and the Dominion will teach them that. Though it will cost them many hundreds of ships, and far worse, hundreds of thousands of lives to realize how utterly they have failed in their most basic duty." - (just written) Imperial Romulon history lesson on the Federation.


    The year is 2365. The Federation has made first contact with the Borg. And found itself utterly unprepared. The ~15 year old Galaxy class Explorer makes for a poor warship against such an immensely dangerous foe. The Defiant class is put into production, but a larger warship is still needed. The Sovereign class is still in the design phase as the new technologies intended for that class are not yet ready. One Admiral manages to acquire the funds for an extremely limited run of massive combat vessels, instead of only one test-bed. This new class of ship was originally intended to serve only as a test-bed for many of the technologies to be implemented on the much smaller Sovereign class. Such a massive space-frame is needed as the Sovereign's combat related systems are starbase grade, and thus an immense hull is needed to house the systems. The design is rushed, and is released in 2367.5, fully two and a half years before the Sovereign class, with mixed results. The Iowa class Heavy Deterrent Cruiser. (Battleship) is born, the largest starship ever built by the Federation; a title it will hold for decades.

Spoiler:

Name: U.S.S. Iowa
Registry: NX-7359

Original release date: April, 19, 2009 (within days of my Bday)
Original designer: Legotrain587 (PCG 5th Anniversary)

Redesign release date: July, 25th, 2014
Redesign designer: Dino27


Dimensions:
    Length: 840 meters
    Beam: 288 meters
    Draft: 132 meters
    Decks: 38
    Mass: 5,456,000 metric tons

Piece count: 1138 (A nod to those SW fans among us)

Crew: 900

Speed:
  Impulse:
    .47 c cruise
    .75 c max.
  Warp:
    warp 8.53 normal cruise
    warp 9.42 maximum cruise
    warp 9.64 emergency cruise (36 hours)
    warp 9.71 maximum emergency cruise (12 hours)

Armament:
    10 type X+ phaser arrays (later reclassified as type XI)
    1 quantum phaser array (ventral)
    4 photon torpedo launchers (2 fore, 2 aft) with 300 rounds
    1 rapid fire quantum torpedo turret (fore, ventral) with 150 rounds

Defenses:
    High capacity, auto-modulated shielding system (4,640,000 TeraJoule capacity)
    Secondary, inner layer shielding system (460,000 TeraJoule capacity)
    Duranium/Tritanium double hull plus 8 cm Ablative hull armor
    High level structural integrity field

Embarked craft:
    12 shuttlepods
    8 personal shuttles
    6 medium shuttles
    6 heavy shuttles
    4 cargo shuttles
    2 runabouts
    3 work bees


    The Iowa class received mixed reviews. The engineers who had to build and maintain her, and her designers, found her to be a nightmare. They had to create a massive ship, to exacting requirements, in an extremely short amount of time. Capital ships usually took decades to design and perfect. The Iowa was finished from conception to testing in just over two years; an insanely short time period. This is attributed to a lot of the design elements having already been used in the Galaxy class, or being researched for the Sovereign.
    The speed of the build, the amount of new tech, and the sheer size of the ship, cost a fortune in Latinum. The ship was a dilithium, antimatter, and torpedo guzzler, and as such logistics officers despised it.
    The Iowa's captain liked the ship for its increased sublight speed and maneuverability, as well as it's combat prowess compared to the Galaxy class. It was still no starfighter, but it put the even more cumbersome Galaxy class to shame with its somewhat improved turn rate.
    The crew liked the ship, although it took a lot of getting used to after the comfort of the Galaxy class. No families here. No children. Just combatants. Although it was still much more of a science ship than the Sovereign class that would replace it, and certainly much more so than the minuscule Defiant class.

    The Iowa is armed with 10 type X+ (later renamed tpye XI) these arrays are only nominally more powerful than the type X arrays of the Galaxy class. They do boast far better cooling systems, a significantly larger power reserve, increased accuracy, and marginally increased range.
    The design team tried to fit the type XII arrays intended for the Sovereign, but even with so much available space, it was impossible with the current technology. A better warp-core was needed, but time was of the essence.

    The Iowa class was the first, and for decades, only, ship to implement quantum phaser technology. Quantum phasers fire at multiple modulations, to prevent Borg adaptation. The design is extremely expensive, and inefficient. It is less accurate, capable of fewer shots, slower follow up shots, and less range than type X arrays. It is extremely effective against Borg, at the expense of being less effective against the vast majority of enemies. Future technological advancements will allow improvement to this system.

    The Iowa is the first Starfleet ship to be outfitted with Ablative hull armor, although less than later designs. This is essentially as protective as a lower capacity shielding system.

    The research team had hoped that the Iowa would be the first ship to carry regenerative shielding systems, but so much power was required, that an entirely new warp-core had to be designed to do so on the Sovereign class. And with the primary goal of the Iowa class to reach the front lines as soon as possible, proper regenerative shielding was scraped for a pseudo regenerative/dual layer system.
    The Iowa is equipped with a secondary, inner shielding grid. Although it is less powerful than the primary shielding systems of cruiser sized craft, it added to serve two purposes.
    1: Allow a non facing shield (EG, aft shields) to be dropped in order to recharge far more quickly, but still have some shielding in place against a possible attack. This tactic is extremely risky as it leaves a section of the ship almost entirely exposed to enemy fire, since even a single hit can take down the inner shield, leaving the Iowa vulnerable to further attack.
    2: Catch the small percentage of fire that bleeds through the outer shield layer.
    This system is neither truly dual shield layers, nor regenerative shielding, but it is less expensive in power and Latinum than either. But it was still far less efficient, and more expensive, than than a single layer shielding system.
    Actual use of this unique shield design had some interesting results. The Iowa's total shield capacity was 10% lower than if it simply used a single layered shielding system, but it was able to take FAR less damage through the other 90% of its shields. This proved to be ideal for skirmishes, or for single cruiser to single cruiser battles as the ship came out in better shape. However, it was undesirable in large scale, long term, fleet battles in which the more shots you could survive, the better. As such, the design was ultimately replaced by true regenerative shielding in the Sovereign class.

    The Iowa suffered from other problems as well. It's warp core, although very powerful for the time, proved to be inadequate for the ship's insatiable demands for power. This meant that the Iowa class lacked the combat endurance of other, smaller ships.
    It's structural integrity field was also not powerful enough to handle the new, larger impulse engines, so it's expected hull-life is reduced, and it must operate at lower sublight speeds than possible.
    Although it is capable of higher a sustained warp cruising speed, it's maximum warp speed is slower than the Galaxy class, and the entire system is much less efficient.
    The Iowa's computer systems had assorted bugs that took years to fully straighten out.

    With so many setbacks to the intended design, Starfleet swept the the Iowa class under the rug; even though they still found it quite useful, even in its limited numbers, during the Dominion War. But it would never be considered for mass production, and certainly not to be christened Enterprise E.

    Even with numerous design flaws, the Iowa class was still a ship to reckoned with.              
 
_________________________________________________________________________
 

Spoiler:

The old and the new. Side by side.

Spoiler:

I used Legotrain's Nebula class ship (I want to say that someone else made it first.. I don't know, I'm tired) as a size comparison. Granted, I build at a slightly smaller scale than the Perfect Grade, so this isn't in that scale. And my Galaxy and Nebula are slightly too small compared to my other ships, so the Iowa IS to scale with most of my ships.  

Spoiler:

Legotrain said that he wanted the Iowa to come between the Galaxy class, and the Sovereign class. So I tried to make a few modifications to show the evolution that happened in the 20 years between the Galaxy and Sovereign classes. However, I tried to keep it overall very much the same as the original design, and there are some things I would've designed TOTALLY differently had it been an original design. But, ah well. I still like it very much.

Spoiler:

Showing off the Iowa next to the Indomitable, or perhaps vice-versa. At this angle, the size difference is deceptively small. (The Indom is FAR larger.)


This ship SHOULD be getting a PCG refit in the near future... must... motivate... myself. (Unless LT says otherwise, the PCG acquired the Iowa a long time ago, this is just pics/info for the original Starfleet ship.)


Fun fact: Although Legotrain named the Iowa class after the battleships of the same name from WWII, Iowa was actually James. T. Kirk's home-state, so it is a doubly fitting name for a ST ship.


Original

Redesign LXF

[JohnnyredCaptain (PCG)]

Simply gorgeous! I really love the engineering hull!


I REALLY (and I can't emphasize this enough) love the warp nacelles.

The only change I would make is the color of the weapons systems. I'd make them either dark gray or the dark gray metallic.

[PXRRecruit (No Affiliation)]

I am totally with J-red! The front of the warp nacelles is not only amazing, but clever as well. I love the ventral side of the engineering hull with the smooth/round look which makes it very sleek. I think my only slight complaint is that the nacelle pylons look kind of bulky compared to the very beautifully-sleek design of the rest of the ship, but the more I think about it, the more I like the contrast it adds.

Amazing job!

[Lord General SpudLord General (MSI)]

Oooo, very nice!! It's smooth, sleek, and very pretty. I love the nacelle shape. Heck, I love the whole thing!

[Dino27Captain (PCG)]

J-red:
As you might say "Danke! Danke!"
Why thank you! Feel free to use the nacelle design! I actually came up with the basics of that design some time ago, but most recently (prior to the Iowa) used the framework on the Indomitable. I did do these nacelles with a lot more SNOT though. So they are different in a way to anything I've done before.
I do phasers in black. I know it breaks from the original, but it's just how I do phasers.


PXR:
Thank you! I do enjoying doing a SNOT engineering hull and nacelles.
I tried to keep the pylons at least something like those of the original, but I really considered making them more sleek and Starfleet 2,300's, but it would just have changed the ship too much.


Spud:
Thank you!

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