Canon Facts Backstage Info  Speculation

Notes : The Polaris class was built as a Frigate counterpart to the Constitution class Heavy Cruisers and Miranda class Destroyers. It was designed to act as a general purpose short duration starship whose multiple roles included limited diplomatic and scientific missions, colony patrol and support and escort duties for merchant vessels operating in medium threat areas.

When the design was requested, Starfleet made it clear that project was not to impact on the production of larger ships in any way. In order to minimize the design and build time, the designers decided to stick with a simple reconfiguration of the existing Constitution class design. The Constitutions had just completed their refits, leaving the shipyard facilities which had done the work available for new projects. By using the existing design elements there was virtually no requirement to rework the production plants or retrain personnel, which saved considerable resources.

The Polaris emerged with a standard Constitution saucer section, neck and torpedo module but without the engineering hull. A pair of Constitution nacelles attached to the torpedo bays via a simple bar attached to the base. The major design work involved moving systems such as the warp core into the saucer section; this required considerable re-working of the internal structure of the saucer, but the original constitutions had their own warp cores within the saucers so in fact the designers already had a ready-made model to follow.

The total design process took only nine months; construction of the required nacelles and hull sections actually began only a few weeks into the design process, and much of the work proceeded in tandem. The first ship of the class rolled out of the shipyards in 2273, only fourteen months after initial approval of the concept. Construction of the class over the next seventeen years proved to be remarkable smooth and trouble free.

Warp speed was identical to the Constitution, while the lower mass made the Polaris class somewhat more manoeuvrable. The phaser armament was reduced from the Constitution standard by eliminating the port and starboard ventral saucer banks, while the torpedo armament was reduced from four tubes to two. Much of the storage capacity of the Constitutions was lost in order to give space to the fuel tanks, which where re-located to the neck section. In addition, the Polaris class had approximately 40% of the sensor capacity of the Constitution.

The Polaris class proved remarkable successful in service, and as new builds rather than conversions they have far outlasted their Constitution cousins. Of the original one hundred and fifty nine built, six have been lost in various incidents over the last century. The class began to be phased out in 2363 as they reached the end of their service lives, with most of them scrapped or used as targets in live fire exercises. The final thirty five were retained in service when the Dominion situation arose, and they have served in several combat areas during the war. Four Polaris class ships have been lost in action thus far.