Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth Beta Canon, a Star Trek web series that dives into the history of any given topic using Beta Canon sources and my imagination to fill in the gaps. In today’s episode, we’re looking at the Archer Class, as seen in the Star Trek: Vanguard Novel Series as well as the FASA RPG module: Federation Ship Recognition Manual, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
As always, because this IS a Beta Canon video, all information re-laid should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! And so, with all that out of the way, let’s begin.
As the United Federation of Planets continued to grow by leaps and bounds in the 23rd Century, it quickly became apparent the need for a tactically fortified Scout Class to defend Federation Holdings in deep space, to this end, Starfleet Command would commission the Archer Class.
Starfleet Command was establishing Starbases, Space Stations and Colonies at an alarming rate, and although encouraging the expansion of their territory, the United Federation of Planets was not blinded to the inherent danger that went along with the increase in that territory.
Once out of the core systems of the Federation, Starfleet starships and their crews were at the mercy of any number of never encountered before phenomena.
Giant Space Amoebas, Centuries-old Sleep Ships and even some of their Starships would present a significant risk to the life and limb of any starship or facility in the outer reaches.
Starfleet had developed many starship classes to address these concerns, in fact, an entirely new era of starship designs, had led the 2 organizations during the mid-23rd Century, but that still wasn’t enough.
The problem with these starship classes wasn’t in their capabilities, but rather their availability.
Starfleet was still in the process of building up its fleet after the first Klingon War which began with the Battle of the Binary Stars, and as a result, Starfleet Command was often spread quite thin.
What Starfleet needed was a small, fast, and powerful starship design, which could be easily built and deployed to defend any Starfleet and Federation facilities within the Alpha and Beta Quadrant and set a special team within Starfleet’s Core of Engineers and Starship Designers to make this goal a reality.
And in 2263, the Archer Class would be born.
Sitting at the length of 45 meters and a width of 22.5 meters, the Archer Class would design to be operated by a crew of only 14 Officers and Crew members.
The Archer Class was named after the famous 22nd-century explorer and fourth President of the United Federation of Planets, Jonathan Archer.
And thanks to developments and breakthroughs in Duotronic Technology, the Archer Class would have a maximum safe cruising speed of warp factor 7 and an emergency maximum speed of warp factor 9.4.
This made the Archer Class one of the fastest starship classes in the fleet for its time.
Specially reconfigured Impulse and Thruster Systems would also give the Archer class extreme manoeuvrability during combat.
This made starships of the class, very hard to hit when engaging a target, the Archer class was also capable of Atmospheric Flight and landing on a planet or other target.
Small and quite cramped for a starship, the Archer class nevertheless, packed quite a punch, with Phaser Strength and ability comparable to that of a Saladin Destroyer.
She would also contain a single Photon Torpedo launcher, although she would only carry 20 torpedoes in her arsenal at a maximum.
Shielding for this class was standard for the time, though at impulse speeds, the Archer Class could divert the bulk of its warp energy, directly into the shield grid, giving the class a marked advantage over most other classes.
Again, due to its small size, only the captain and first officer would have their quarters.
The remainder of the classes crew would share 4 single-bed bunk compartments. And these compartments would contain no extra amenities and would be forced to share a single head between them.
A display screen where relaxing crew members could watch an extensive library of centuries of films and entertainment was included in each of these compartments.
A small mess and rec area would be included in this class, but again, due to the nature of the class and its mission profile, all food available onboard these starships were reconstituted, a complaint made by most who served aboard one.
The Archer Class also had no turbolift system, instead, the crew would rely on ladders to travel between decks.
The Archer class would contain a small 4-person transporter room but had no shuttlebay or tractor beam capabilities, and only a very small cargo bay included only for mission-specific functions or as an additional Photon Torpedo storage facility.
Once launched for its shakedown cruise, the USS Archer would perform admirably, showing its teeth during combat simulations, and by the end of 2363, the class would go into full production with the intent of assigning at least 1 of these starships to all Federation and Starfleet Facilities throughout the outer sectors.
Thanks to its relatively short construction time, the Archer Class would have over 200 starships to its name by the later 2260s, and overall, again, was performing quite well for its function.
There had been a change in Starfleet’s deployment of the class, however, as it was felt that 1 starship assigned to each facility was simply not enough.
With the Klingon, Empires continued aggression towards the federation, and the re-emergence of the Romulan Star Empire on to the galactic stage, Starfleet Command began to deploy the Archer Class in groups of 3 to the facilities they were assigned to protect.
This became an effective deterrent to raiding missions by both Federation enemies.
Though outgunned by the much larger starships of both of those entities, the manoeuvrability of the Archer Class often gave the upper hand to these little scrapper style vessels.
Because the Archer Class was assigned to specific facilities, the crews of these starships would often take up residence on those facilities as full time living in such small accommodations proved to be far too difficult.
The Captain and First Officer, however, were expected to reside on their ship, with the rotation of 2 crew members always remaining on board at any given time.
Due to the bond and nature of such a small size of the crew, most of the normal formalities of rank and starship hierarchy were dispensed with for this class.
Members of the crew typically wore a simple green jumpsuit, without insignia or specialist markings, just a patch bearing the name of the ship on the right shoulder and the crew person’s name stitched on the front left chest flap.
Crew members would also often refer to each other by simply their first name, and although Starfleet command would have preferred a much more regulation style operation onboard this class, it would often overlook these infractions in favour of fostering a mentally healthy crew.
This was because the Archer Class would end up seeing combat far more frequently than any other starship class, and many crew members would lose their lives protecting the Federation.
With the New Technologies developed for the Constitution Class Refit program, many felt that the Archer Classes days were numbered.
However, this spunky little class would see its service continued into the 2280s before Starfleet Command finally made the decision to decommission the Archer Class and replace it with a newer class in the Constitution Class Refit style.
But even after this decision was made, many of the Archer Class starships would be given to Federation Member Worlds as a part of their planetary defence forces. Further extending the classes life into the 24th Century.
The USS Archer itself would be the first of the class to be decommissioned, with its systems restored and then placed in the Fleet Museum, where it remains today.
And the USS Archer is one of the most visited Starship Classes of that Era in Starfleet History. A constant reminder of the dangers that Early Starfleet Officers faced while securing the future of the Federation.
Although small and quite cramped, the Archer Class would become somewhat of a hero class to many cadets joining Starfleet, with many of them dreaming of what it must have been like serving aboard one and being called to lay down their lives in a display of Starfleet Heroics in the best traditions of the fleet.
And this fact, above all others, has earned this class its admirable place, in Starfleet History…
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