Siegfried-Class
Dreadnoughts
Diagrams

Orthographic
views Perspective
view Kaminari
test-bed (ex-Whittle)
 

Deck plans, part

1 Deck plans, part
2 3D orthographic
views
created by Allen
Rolfes (see notes) created by Allen
Rolfes (see notes) created by The
Chief

Scenes

3D scene from SF
Command 3D scene from SF
Command Siegfried 3D scene
created by Jay Hagen created by Jay Hagen created by Péter
Ambrus
 

Siegfried 3D scene Battle with a Klingon D7 Battle with a Klingon D7

created by Péter
Ambrus created by Péter
Ambrus created by Péter
Ambrus

History
The Siegfried-class dreadnought was originally another attempt in Starfleet's on-going quest to
develop an "ultimate starship beam weapon" capable of breaking through shields and destroying
enemy ships with a single volley. The Belleau Wood class's transfer of most ship facilities to the
primary hull was seen as an opportunity to mount an extremely powerful beam weapon in the
secondary hull. Such a beam weapon, code-named Kaminari (Japanese for "thunderbolt") had been
under development by Starfleet since 2223. All that was needed was a suitable hull to carry it.
Design work on modifications to the Belleau Wood class hull began at Starfleet's Western NorAm
Engineering Center at El Segundo in 2230. The new ship was to enter service in 2233.

As originally designed, the Siegfried-class dreadnought was to use a slightly modified

Belleau Wood-class primary hull and a shortened secondary hull housing the primary beam
weapon. Excluding the power feed for the primary weapon, relatively few changes were envisioned
for the warp power assembly and twin nacelles from Belleau Wood, because the weapon could not
be fired while the ship was traveling at warp speeds. Most crew and command facilities, storage
bays, and machinery were relocated to the primary hull. Because the primary weapon was to be
mounted at the front of the secondary hull, the main navigational deflector was remounted at the
front of the primary hull. An auxiliary deflector was placed at the rear of the hull. The main
shuttlecraft bay was then moved from the fantail of the secondary hull to divided locations in the
port and starboard aft quarters of the primary hull. To allow the Siegfried to have sublight
performance equal to or better than that of other Starfleet or hostile cruisers, dual impulse decks
were installed at the rear of the primary hull.
      
     

As modifications were made to the Belleau Wood hulls, work on the Kaminari beam weapon was
proceeding smoothly beneath the surface of Charon at the Starfleet Combined Weapons Research
Laboratory (SCWRL), known for obvious reasons as the "Squirrel's Nest." Unlike other phasers in
service before 2271 which had to accumulate energy from fusion reactors in rechargeable banks
before firing, this "superphaser" weapon was to receive, convert, and discharge power directly from
the matter/antimatter (M/AM) reactor. Theoretically, this would allow greater on-target energy
delivery and higher rates of fire. Because submaximal bench tests had so far been completely
successful, in late 2231 the decision was made to proceed immediately to full-power field tests.

Tragically, the initial field test of the Kaminari weapon on October 21, 2231, was a disaster. Held at
the Pluto/Charon Starfleet Weapons Range and attended by numerous dignitaries from Starfleet
and the Federation Council, the test was delayed for several hours because of targeting-system
interface problems. After the delay, several submaximal discharges were successful. When the
weapon was finally discharged at maximal output, a massive explosion occurred. The testbed ship
(ex-USS Whittle [NCC-1227, Lancaster class], which had been retired after being severely damaged
by a collision with USS Lilienthal [NCC-533, Gagarin class] at Starbase 29) was completely
destroyed and her crew of 22 were killed. The viewing station was showered with debris: 17
spectators and technicians were injured and 9, including Commodore Shrev of Andor (Chief of
Starfleet Research and Development) and Victoria Miho Chatterjee (Second Vice President of the
Federation Council) were killed. As the weapon was still classified "top secret," the true nature of
the accident was not publicly revealed until 2250.

An investigation into the cause of the accident found that the positron reflux preinitiator assembly,
a "criticality 1" component, had failed owing to damage during its installation. Although "criticality
1" indicates that the failure of the component could lead to loss of the entire ship, the possibility of
malfunction had been considered negligible and redundancy was therefore zero. For the next 20
months, engineers at the Squirrel's Nest labored to completely reconfigure Kaminari. The
redesigned weapon, designated Kaminari II, was 84% heavier and 44% longer than Kaminari I. Field
tests, again at the Pluto/Charon Range, were successful and uneventful. Further testing against
shielded targets showed that Kaminari was able to easily destroy ships with a shield dissipation
rate of less than 110 GW, which was believed to exceed anything in the present Klingon or Romulan
fleets. However, because of more rapid beam dispersion, Kaminari II could achieve this level of
effectiveness only at ranges 33% less than that of standard phasers.

With the redesigned Kaminari II, the projected displacement of the completed ship with two warp
nacelles had increased to more than 180,000 tons, approximately 50% more than Valley Forge. To
allow Siegfried to achieve satisfactory warp speeds with this increased weight, a third nacelle was
mounted on the centerline above the connecting dorsal. Although the total displacement was now
some 200,000 t, the per-nacelle displacement was approximately 67,000 t, which was comparable
to that of Valley Forge. To power the three nacelles and the primary weapon, a larger, more
powerful warp reactor was used.

     
     

Finally, on November 5, 2234, the components of the redesigned ship were assembled at the San
Francisco Starfleet Yards. The lead ship of the class, USS Siegfried (NCC-1589), joined the fleet in
December 2235, nearly two years behind schedule.

Unfortunately, Siegfried had several shortcomings as an antistarship weapon system. First,

targeting was rather difficult. Because of its length, the weapon had a limited field of fire without
turning the entire ship. This method of aiming had rarely been used since the days of winged
atmospheric fighter craft that fired simple, unguided metal slugs propelled by chemical explosives.
Despite a second impulse deck, the ship handled poorly at sublight speeds ("like a Rigellian scaly
mole pig" in the words of one helmsman) because of the added weight of the third nacelle. Second,
because of the overheating of internal capacitance elements, the Kaminari II's rate of fire was low,
approximately six full-power discharges per minute. Third, because of the relatively short range of
the primary weapon, in combat Siegfried would be forced to accept phaser fire until it could close
with the enemy and return fire. As a result, more robust forward deflector shielding, both physical
and energetic, was required.
      
     

Because of the problems stemming from its primary weapon, Siegfried had become an extremely
costly ship. Siegfried had been intended to be a relatively inexpensive development of the
Belleau Wood design, using the same primary hull and warp power train. However, because of the
failure of Kaminari I, fully 63% of the ship's systems were new. In fact, an audit by the Starfleet
General Accounting Office determined that designing a new ship from the keel up would have been
considerably faster and cheaper. Furthermore, some 6,000 man-hours per week (out of a total of
nearly 20,000 available under normal duty conditions for a crew of 350) were required to maintain
the primary weapon and related systems even if it was not fired. Because of these enormous
manpower requirements and relatively poor facilities for research, Siegfried was only suited for
combat, and in limited roles. As a result, only 14 ships of the planned class of 25 were built.

However, Siegfried was found to be an extremely effective weapons system under certain
conditions. In the famous combined fleet exercises of 2237 at Wolf 359 (which at that time was an
obscure dwarf star), the offensive Blue Team, which included four Siegfried-class ships
(USS Siegfried, Hercules, Lysander, and Perseus) and three Belleau Wood-class assault cruisers
(USS Clavius, Veracruz, and Hellas Planitia), achieved its objective of landing troops by shuttlecraft
on the system's fourth planet against the defending Red Team, comprising mostly Valley Forge-
class and Kestrel-class ships.

The postexercise analysis determined that Siegfried-class ships were effective shock weapons
against targets of limited maneuverability, such as space stations, surface installations, and ships
defending a planet or comprising a large formation, or when they were protected by escorts and
destroyers. However, in action against a smaller number of freely maneuverable ships, Siegfried
ships were at a decided disadvantage and a possible strategic liability unless the opposing vessels
were as large and slow as themselves. Luckily, contemporary Klingon heavy cruisers, such as those
of the D4 and D5 classes, were even more poorly maneuverable.

By the early 2240s the limited operational applicability of the Siegfried class kept most ships close
to port. Their relatively poor scientific facilities prevented them from performing the survey and
surveillance missions usually performed by heavy cruisers. However, whenever Starfleet had to
threaten or use overwhelming force against relatively immobile targets, Siegfried ships were quite
advantageous. For example, preceding landings at Lisyk VIII in 2239 and at Corf I in 2243, Siegfried-
class ships were used to overwhelm planetary deflector shields through concentrated orbital
barrage. In 2244, USS Perseus (NCC-1592) and USS Musashi (NCC-1600) silenced a Klingon
battlestation built from a hollowed-out asteroid in the Ganatil system after four hours of sustained
fire. However, both ships were severely damaged and sustained extremely heavy casualties.

As mentioned earlier, starship designers have periodically toyed with the idea of cruisers with a
single "big gun." Several classes of dedicated gunships were operated quite effectively by the
United Earth Stellar Navy during the Romulan War; however, the Romulan forces of the time were
technologically far inferior to Earth forces. Since that time, such designs have rarely left the
drawing board and, if built, have rarely been successful. After the failure of the Siegfried and the
Kaminari II weapon, no "big gun" cruisers were considered until the Borg threat of the late 2360s.

The Siegfried class received a new lease on life after 8 of the 12 surviving ships were converted to
standard heavy cruisers when introduction of the new Constitution class was delayed from 2242 to
2245. The Kaminari II weapon was removed and the ship's battery was changed to a standard mix
of phasers and photon torpedoes. The forward navigational deflector was moved from the primary
hull to in its usual position in the secondary hull; however, the aft deflector was retained. Several of
these refitted Siegfried-class ships saw action at the Battle of Axanar in 2250. In this new
configuration, Siegfried ships performed missions similar to those of the newer Constitution-class
ships until their retirement in the 2280s.

The Siegfried-class dreadnought USS Alexander (NCC-1596), a participant in numerous

engagements along the Klingon frontier, has been restored to her original Kaminari II configuration
and is on display at the Starfleet Museum.

Commissioned Ships

USS Siegfried NCC-1589 USS Alexander NCC-1596

USS Sampson NCC-1590
USS Beowulf NCC-1591
USS Perseus NCC-1592
USS Lysander NCC-1593
USS Horatio NCC-1594
USS Hercules NCC-1595
USS Vercingetorix NCC-1597
USS Gilgamesh NCC-1598
USS Hector NCC-1599
USS Musashi NCC-1600
USS Charlemagne NCC-1601
USS Shiva NCC-1602

Specifications*

Standard displacement:
199,320 t

  Overall 1°
Hull 2°
Hull Nacelles
Length
[m] 252.53 122.45 124.49 137.10
Beam
[m] 114.30 114.30 19.54 12.70
Draft
[m] 63.57 29.36 25.65 12.70

Crew complement: 419 (69 officers + 350 crew)

Weapons: 12 Type VI phaser turrets (6 × 2 mounts), 1 Type VII phaser cannon (fixed mount), 4
torpedo tubes with 144 Mark III photon torpedoes
Embarked craft: 4 medium personnel shuttlecraft, 4 personnel shuttlepods, 6 fighter/scouts
Warp drive: SSWR-XI-C spherical cavity M/AM reactor with 3 Merlin II nacelles
Velocity: wf 5.5, cruise; wf 7.7, supercruise; wf 8.0, maximum
Units commissioned: 14 (25 planned)
*Original configuration

Last modified: 04.06.15