Federation Georgetown-class Survey Cruiser

Georgetown-class Survey Cruiser

Overview:
The Georgetown-class was proposed in 2319. Starfleet Intelligence requested a dedicated ship to test several experimental sensor and communications systems. The USS Georgetown completed its initial space trials in 2322, and was formally commissioned in 2323 and six additional vessels were ordered. All seven were in active service by 2326.

The Georgetown-class was officially classified as a “scientific survey cruiser.” This classification has been highly disputed by alien governments. These ships were never added to the numbered fleets; all were officially placed on detached duty for “miscellaneous equipment and systems testing.” Crew members assigned to the ships, along with the starbase technicians performing installation and maintenance duties, carried the highest security clearances in Starfleet. All mission reports, maintenance assessments, and official crew logs are still considered to be highly classified as of 2382.

Starfleet Command has rarely disclosed missions undertaken by the Georgetown-class ships. What is generally known is that whenever these vessels were positioned near tactical operations, other ship commanders benefitted from enhanced subspace communication and relay reporting, an increased level of intelligence about enemy combat capabilities, and significantly improved early detection times:

• An attempted Tholian incursion in 2339 was repelled before it could cross into Federation space
• Several stalemates against Carassian fleets in the early 2350s were changed to decisive Federation victories after three of these ships were positioned near the Badlands and the Bajor sector.
• In 2361, a Starfleet task force found that their combat databases inexplicably had the exact shield frequencies and communications jamming capabilities to use against Tzenkethi assault ships.
  In those three examples (along with many more), Georgetown-class ships were found within one parsec of the operational areas.

Like most ships of its era, maintenance upgrades for the Georgetown-class were never a high priority. Only three ships received warp coil upgrades following the Hekaras II subspace rift incident; the others were mothballed and stripped of all sensitive equipment. The USS Georgetown was destroyed by Breen forces during the Dominion War. As of 2382, the two remaining vessels (the USS Jamestown and USS Oxford) continue to receive “miscellaneous equipment and systems testing” missions in contested border regions.

Specifications:

• Entered Service: 2323
• Active Ships: 2 (as of 2382)
• Endurance: 36 months
• Length: 326.7 meters
• Beam: 196.5 meters
• Complement: 218 crew

Designer’s Notes:

I was attempting to create a smaller version of the Apollo-class (a fanon variant of the Ambassador-class)--something closer in size to the Renaissance-class exploration cruisers. The final result ended up looking like a clunky version of the Splendor-class at Ex Astris Scientia, and that was completely by accident. To be honest, this is probably my least favorite out of the kitbash ships I’ve made so far. So… I decided to give it the most interesting backstory I possibly could!

The real world USS Georgetown, USS Jamestown, and USS Oxford were cold war era “technical research vessels,” which was just a euphemism for “spy ships.”

This model is built using CaptainMojo’s parts kits: link Most components have been stretched, skewed, flipped, and otherwise transformed. None of the parts look out-of-scale printed at 1/3788 on FDM; larger-scale resin printers will probably see some odd-looking details.

It uses the same saucer and warp engines as my version of the Renaissance-class Exploration Cruiser. I wanted to “flesh out” the Ambassador-class Lost Era fleet.

Parts Used:

• Saucer, secondary hull, warp pylons, warp nacelles, impulse engines, sensor pylons, sensor module: Ambassador-class parts kit (mostly Apollo- and Consul-class pieces)
• Bridge: Freedom-class parts kit
• Saucer deflector and torpedo module: TMP-era and FASA parts (I can’t remember which specific pieces I used)

Please post your prints and remakes!