Federation Hewish-class Science Cutter

Overview:
The Hewish-class scientific survey cutters were developed in 2330 as a potential replacement for the Oberth-class survey scouts. It was based upon the light cutter spaceframe and powerplant, and featured an upgraded, dual-channel model of the unmanned Oberth-class sensor outrigger. Compared to the Oberth-class, the Hewish-class ships had improved scientific scanning and collection capabilities, more comfortable crew accommodations, a larger number of better-equipped science labs, and faster engines. It was an ideal replacement.

An initial production run of four ships was built, tested, and launched by the end of 2333. An additional eight ships were commissioned, which led to Starfleet’s retirement of a dozen Oberth-class ships. However, no further Hewish-class were produced after 2341. With production shifting to the Fleet Modernization Program (codename: Galaxy), Starfleet chose to save resources by refurbishing and upgrading the remaining Oberth-class ships instead of replacing them entirely.

While designed for a wide variety of planetary and stellar science missions, the Hewish-class excelled at deep, long-term studies of pulsars and neutron stars. These studies became the class’ exclusive mission profile by 2350. Other astronomical research missions (especially full-system surveys) were shifted to the newer Springfield-class science cruisers.

The Hewish-class was expected to have a 60-year lifecycle when it initially launched. This was reduced to a 30-year cycle due to heavy solar radiation exposure. One ship of this class was damaged beyond repair by Orion raiders in 2349 and was scrapped early. Two ships were given 15-year extensions due to limited exposure damage. Both were retrofitted for civilian duty and donated to research universities. The remaining nine ships were all retired by 2377, although the sensor pods from three ships were retrofitted to the Koshiba-3 Stellar Observatory.

Specifications:

Entered Service: 2333
Active Ships (2382): 2 non-Starfleet
Endurance: 12 months
Length: 189 meters
Beam: 98 meters
Complement: 62 crew (typical)

Designer’s Notes:

This design was inspired by an older low-poly Bridge Commander mesh I found called the Polo-class… basically a Lost Era/Ambassador-family version of the Oberth-class. I built this similar version using CaptainMojo’s parts kits: link

As far as the TV shows go, TNG and DS9 should never have been forced to re-use the Miranda-class, Excelsior-class, and Oberth-class models. Those ships should have been long, long, LONG out-of-service by the time the Galaxy-class was launched. But since we’re canonically stuck with them, my head-canon is that Starfleet designers came up with replacements, they made prototypes for those replacements, then something happened where the “intended” replacements never actually became the replacements.

This is one of those ships. It was “intended” to be a replacement for the Oberth-class, it probably replaced a handful of them, but never replaced every Oberth-class in the fleet. And they were mostly retired, or at least doing very routine things inside the Federation borders, by the time we could have seen them on-screen in TNG.

This is one of those behind-the-scenes assignments I think everyone in Starfleet has at some point… and has little to mention about those tours. “Yep, we spent six months collecting data on a couple of pulsars, safely within the Federation’s borders. I was the beta-shift impulse technician. It was fine. Dull, but I learned a few things I wouldn’t have had time to learn on a busier ship. Then I got transferred to a cruiser.” They did their jobs, but are little more than a footnote in the history of Starfleet ships.

CaptainMojo Parts Used:

Saucer and nacelles: Niagara-class parts kit
C-Deck: Brenton-class lower hull
Rear hull extension: Miranda-class parts kit (Soyuz-class rear hull, heavily modified)
Impulse engines: Excelsior-class parts kit (Enterprise-B engines)
Deflectors: combination of Cheyenne deflector module and TMP-era saucer deflectors
Warp pylons: FASA Federation parts kit (Remora-class)
Outrigger: Oberth-class parts kit (made from two sensor pods)
Outrigger pylons: Springfield-class parts kit

Please post your prints and remakes!