Renaissance-A

While the Envoy represents less an upgrade and more a purpose-driven variant from the Renaissance, this is the primary upgrade to it, intended to develop the ship along its original lines. As such the Renaissance-A is more of a fighting cruiser than might be expected from a Federation ship, having identical qualities as such to the 1.4mt heavier Excelsior-A in a smaller and significantly cheaper package. It is slightly less durable than the Cardassian Jaldun-bis or Kaldar-bis platforms, but has superior or equal firepower. The ship is optimized for what Federation doctrine considers the "Vanguard" stage of battle, where cruiser lines clash, and was initially referred to as the "Vanguard" refit.

Other improvements include a significant upgrade of the Renaissance's anemic science suite, bringing it to a level superior to most Federation frigates, and improved endurance. It also requires slightly fewer enlisted crew. Overall it emerges as a significantly better ship in peace or in war. It also prototypes, as the original Renaissance did, a number of new technologies including new sublight drives, short-range sensors, and shield generators that are expected to appear in ships after it: specifically the Ambassador-A and Excelsior-B refits.

Refit Cost: 30 BR, 25 SR

Warp Core
The Renaissance-A is powered principally by an updated ONA-IV-M Standard warp core, an upsized version of the reliable core used on the Centaur-B.

The highly efficient Luna-VII M/AM injection system, focused on power-to-weight ratio, is a more incremental upgrade. This system is designed by Luna Commune, a research outpost on Sol III's moon that works closely with Yoyodyne, and is produced in a facility at Vancouver Orbital Plant. Again for reasons of weight, the core has a Yoyodyne VIII Mod L coolant system produced in the Yoyodyne Assembly Plant in the Andor System. The upgraded VSA-7 Pulse Injection Manifolds can distribute 70% more 120hz, six-phase electro-plasma delivery.

Impulse
The Renaissance-A features a single upgraded SDB-23 impulse drive system, more sophisticated than the dual SDB-09 units on the Comet, producing nearly 40% more impulse vectoring delta than the SDB-97. Still a 33,000 ton triple-ducted system rigged for high sublight power, allowing more rapid throttling and vectoring changes. They are linked to a single battery of four fusion plants that operate a separate plasma trunk. The battery is in the saucer section, half-way between the bridge and the trailing edge. This impulse engine is produced at Apinae Long Lance Plant.

Nacelles
A twin-nacelle system is employed, retaining the mid-weight Standard 2305 Cruiser Pattern nacelles. Like almost all nacelles in Starfleet use, the warp coils for all Renaissance variants are produced at the Yoyodyne Assembly Plant in Andor. This nacelle system employs a very efficient, but maintenance heavy, 8,000 ton warp matrix, based around a quadruple-chamber plasma conditioner and a eight-valve distribution system. The verterium-cortanide warp coils are Yoyodyne-XII patterns, the same employed in the much larger Ambassadors.

Deflectors
The Renaissance-A employs a new generation of Mk-VI tactical deflector shield system. Unlike the multiple frigate-sized emitters of the Renaissance, the Renaissance-A employs dual SuperHeavy explorer-grade shield generators, one on the saucer and one on engineering. These explorer-grade units are extremely powerful, and their coverage limitations are supplemented by the eight separate Mk-VI-E Light secondary deflectors.

These components are made by Leas Akaam Protective Field Systems, and the arrangement consumes roughly 10% less EPS power than the Renaissance system, while providing approximately 20% more dissipation. The Mk-VI line of deflectors is expected to be employed across Starfleet refits and new designs for the next decade.

Sensors
The Renaissance-A employs a pair of extremely powerful Mark-VIII-Heavy Short Range Lateral sensor arrays, the most advanced in the fleet- even more sophisticated than the designs stolen in the Caitan Fathership Scandal. The primary SR sensors are mounted on the port and starboard edges of the saucer, on the upper lip, and are served by the Primary Radial EPS trunk, but additional SR arrays are mounted on the ventral section of the dish, serving to provide advanced targeting information for the burst torpedo launchers. They will be built at Stellar Tomographics Cooperative, Kadann. The additional space for these heavy SR units has meant Navigational and LR sensor functions are moved to a Science Sensor Module, furnished with a powerful Mk-VIII Long-range array and respected Mk-V Nav array and built at Tomographic Production Division, Lomay II.

Computing
The Renaissance-A design features the most sophisticated core in the fleet, a medium-weight Type-V duotronic system, which is also likely to form the basis of the larger Excelsior-B refit core. Type-V cores are produced by Alpha Centauri Advanced Processing and likely represents the ultimate refinement of duotronic computing before the anticipated transition to Isolinear technology in the late '20s.

As a mature design, the standard Type-V core is no larger than the 'light-weight' Type-IIIa employed on the original Renaissance. It features six discrete processing loops, each consisting of a chain of sixteeen Daystrom Mk11 Logic Units, spaced one to each deck through the "meat" of the saucer-section. The core is served by Yoyodyne coolant systems and the Inner Core EPS Loop, which runs from the neck to loop around the core and return, and is the same EPS trunk that serves the sensors and bridge.

A specialist targeting computer is placed near the neck of the starship, port-side. The Renaissance-A retains the Type-III duotronic TCU, which though no longer quite cutting edge remains a capable design. Like the heavier DI-4 employed by the Ambassador, the Type-III duotronic TCU is produced by Saturn Tactical Manufacturing.

Life Support
The Renaissance-A features three capital-grade, cutting-edge Quorsh-Pattern Sickbays. The fore saucer sickbay is main sickbay, and provides the offices of the Chief Medical Officer. This is located halfway between bridge and bow, carefully spaced between the Inner Core EPS Loop and the Tactical Trunk, with considerable SIF reinforcing on the bulkheads in between. Additional sickbays are located in the aft of the saucer near the neck turbolifts, and in main engineering. As with all Starfleet Medical equipment, they are provided by the Starfleet Medical Manufacturing Division's plants, the initial run primarily coming out of the specially-built Starfleet Joburg Medical Plant.

Coming a few years before Mark-III Replicators are available, updated Mk-VII Protein Synth systems are used to provide perisahable crew stores, as well as consumable medicinals and science materials. Crew can enjoy the modernised onboard Recreation facilities, located on the port side of the saucer (the same location as one of the facilities on the Envoy), with the diplomatic facilities to starboard. These are not newly-manufactured, but instead refurbished from decommissioned Constitutions and original pattern Constellations.

Phasers
An unchanged trio of Model 83 twin phaser banks protects the Renaissance-A at close-range. This is an old standby phaser design, but power-efficient and one that is very reliable now, and its waveform is said to be one of the first patterns Romulan and Klingon sensor operators are drilled on. The Renaissance-A mounts two of the twin phaser banks in widely-separated fittings on the dorsal side of the saucer, at 330 and 30 degrees from the bridge. These are served by the Tactical Radial Trunk EPS conduit, which loops in the middle of the saucer, a deck above the central deck, and exclusively delivers to the phasers and the saucer deflectors. The third set of phasers is mounted dorsally on the secondary hull to protect the nacelles, and is served by a plasma tap from the warp matrix PTC feeds.

Torpedoes
Two pairs of Mk IV Burst torpedo launchers provides the long-range punch of the Renaissance-A. These are both mounted in the secondary hull, with one forward pair- mounted above the navigational deflector dish - and one pair mounted over the aft shuttle bay. The aft launchers are served from a magazine that sits several frames forward of it, and delivers via a turbolift style delivery chute. Tactical Services Rethelia supplies these.