U.S.S. Miranda Technical details by Michael C. Rupprecht, Alex Rosenzweig and Memory Alpha]:

Miranda class Light Cruiser specifics:

Primary Hull:

01 Main Bridge, Ready Room

02 Executive Deck - First and Second Officers offices and Briefing room.

03 Senior Crew Quarters, Junior Crew Quarters, Crew Quarters, Social Sciences Department

04 VIP lounge, Officers Quarters, Arboretum, Quartermasters office, Mathematics and statistics laboratories, aeronautics and aquanautics labs, Main Deflector, Main Impulse Drive, Deuterium Tanks, Main Engineering

05 Officers mess, Gym, Swimming pool, Crew Quarters

06 Crewman and NCO quarters, Food synthesis equipment, Primary navigational deflector, Shuttlebays

07 Main deck - Sickbay, Transporter Room

08 Docking level - Docking ports, Aux fire control, Fabrication facility, Laundry, Reclamation, Anti-matter Storage, Cargo

09 Computer laboratory, Intelligence department, Temperature regulation Cargo

10 Circuit breaker deck Cargo

11 Main Sensor Array, Navigation dome

Length: 233 metres

Beam: 142 metres

Height: 58 metres

Crew: 223 [23 officers, 200 enlisted]

Cruising Warp 7 [OCU]

Max Warp 11 [OCU]

Maximum Speed: Warp 9.2 for 12 hours (new scale)

Armament: 6 dual type-7 phaser banks; 2 pulse phaser cannons; 4 photon torpedo launchers

Defences: Deflector shields

The refit U.S.S. Miranda can be traced back to the year 2272. In the light of the technical advances that were being made in the Constitution class refit programme, Starfleet had sought to design an upgrade to the current design, utilising the new technologies being used on the new Enterprise. The design which was later to become Miranda class (refit) was intended to be simply an improvement on the original Miranda design, but with increased mass and capabilities. NXP2272CL was the design selected by Starfleet as the testbed vessel to test this concept. U.S.S. Avenger, a refit of the existing Miranda class NCC 1860, would compete against another design: Soyuz class NXP2270FH. Both designs were based on the older Miranda design which had served Starfleet for the last few decades. Avenger was to be rebuilt at San Francisco Fleet Yards, whilst Soyuz was rebuilt at Baikonur. The first vessel of the new NXP2272CL design was NX 1860, which had just completed a deep space mission, which was now chosen to be the pioneer of a new refit class in 2272.

NX 1860 was drydocked on December 2nd 2275, after three years as a testbed testing the new technologies necessary to utilise linear war drive and associated new generation systems in the cruiser frame. The refit design, retaining the title Miranda class (refit) - after Prospero's daughter in Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and the original lead ship NCC 1833 U.S.S. Miranda- would use ASDB's new configurable workstations and daystrom Duotronic III with M-9 Multitronic supplement. Her primary shakedown mission would be to test one of the most important aspects of the Miranda class refit: Modularity; the interchangeable and removeable elements which allow the class to be utilised for a wide variety of missions.

NCC 1860 U.S.S. Avenger was launched on February 16th 2277. After a shakedown period, she was commissioned on 3rd November 2277. Seven Miranda class refit were initially ordered, with four later ordered to compensate for the cancelled Soyuz programme [NCC 1975 - 1978]. U.S.S. Avenger was extensively tested from 2277 - 2279, alongside the new prototype scout vessel U.S.S. Oberth. U.S.S. Miranda was herself drydocked on March 15th 2282, emerging on December 19th 2283 as a refit Miranda class light cruiser.

U.S.S. Miranda and her sisters had a state-of-the-art torpedo/sensor rollbar assembly mounted on her dorsal hull. This rollbar array produced impressive results with negligible effects on the performance of the starship. The additional benefit was the lack of requiring an extended aft hull, allowing additional space for shuttlebays. The success of NX 1860 immediately led to the new refit starships of this new class, such as NCC 1837 U.S.S. Lantree, to be joined by new-build members of the Miranda class.

U.S.S. Reliant - NCC 1864 - was destroyed in 2285 during a classified mission, U.S.S. Saratoga - NCC 1867 - was disabled by a whaleprobe in 2286. Today, Starfleet has commissioned the first of the Flight 2a Miranda class starships: Neptune and Venerable. The design is set to last in service well into the latter years of the 24th Century.

Miranda class history based upon the history created by Alex Rosenzweig for the Miranda class blueprints, Memory Alpha website entry for the Miranda class starship and the startrek.com entries for the various starships.
Used with permission of Alex Rosenzweig. Copyright © 1999 All Rights Reserved.

Miranda class [A list of all the known members mentioned to-date]

Name	Starship Registry	Notes	Author's Notes
Coventry	1230		Ships of the Starfleet
Archer	1275		Taken from The Light Works artwork.
Bombay			ST: Vanguard novels - destroyed in the Taurus Reach.
Achilles			Destroyed in the 2250s
Mayflower	1621		JJ Abram's Trekverse equivalent in prime universe.
Miranda	1833	Prototype. Launched in the 2250s and refit 19/12/83.	The registry number is the number given in Alex Rosenzweig and Michael Rupprecht's Miranda class blueprints.
Rutherford	1835		Starfleet Academy
Lantree	1837	Cargo vessel destroyed by the Enterprise-D	TNG 'Unnatural Selection'
Alexandria	1842		Starfleet Academy
Surya	1850		Tip-of-hat to fantastic Ships of the Starfleet coffee table book.
Tempest	1852		Starfleet Academy
Emden	1856	Star Trek VI Operation Retrieve	Given as Constitution class but number fits better as Miranda.
Avenger	1860	First starship of Miranda class (refit) design, commissioned 03/11/77.	The registry number is the number given in Alex Rosenzweig and Michael Rupprecht's Miranda class blueprints.
Courageous	1861	Klingon Neutral Zone observer	Used as basis for Bozeman model by Okuda
Endurance	1862	Extra science equipment fitted for her mission.	Ships of the Starfleet
Illustrious	1863		Ships of the Starfleet
Reliant	1864	Destroyed stardate 8130 by detonation of Genesis torpedo.
Atlantis	1865		Starfleet Academy PC game guidebook
Saratoga	1867	Disabled by Whaleprobe SD 8390	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Demeter	1868		Starfleet Academy
Oberon	1880		Starfleet Academy
Copernicus	1893	Derelict vessel	Star Trek: Phase II 'Blood and Fire'.
Trial	1948		DS9: 'The Way of the Warrior'
Ranger	1975		Star Trek: New Worlds
Sheffield	1976		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Nottingham	1978		Star Trek: The Interim Years
La Fayette	1992		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Surcouf	1996		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Amagi	1997		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Chen Du	1998	Commanded by Captain Viktor Lebed	Star Trek: The Interim Years
Varyag	21002		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Ardent	21004		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Delhi	21024		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Persepolis	21025	Persepolis was an ancient capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, situated some 70 km northeast of Shiraz	Star Trek: The Interim Years
Brisbane	21028		Star Trek: The Interim Years
Nasca	21102	South American ancient people	Star Trek: The Interim Years
Caral	21114	Peruvian site is a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation in the Americas and is as old as the pyramids of Egypt.	Star Trek: The Interim Years
Bellerophon	21150
Brattain	21166	Rescued by the Enterprise-D. 35 crew?	TNG 'Night Terror'
Helike	21220	In 373 BC, the Greek city of Helike was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tidal wave, lost beneath the sea.	Star Trek: The Interim Years
Carthage	21237	Involved in Cardassian/Klingon peace initiative	Lost Era: 'Art of the Impossible'
Tian An Men	21382	In Picard's blockade. Thought destroyed by the Dominion, but survived	TNG 'Redemption II' DS9 'In The Cards' 'Tears of the Prophets'
Trellech	21541	Named for the lost Welsh village.
Honshu	21667
Cahokia	21777	Cahokia was a Native American city located near Collinsville in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Illinois.
Minerva	31017	Hauled out of mothballs to chase Orion Syndicate member Vikstaad	ST: Intrepid: Mirror's Edge
Majestic	31060	Destroyed by the Dominion	DS9 Sacrifice of Angels
Sitak	31859	Destroyed by the Dominion	DS9 Sacrifice of Angels
ShirKahr	31905		DS9 Tears of the Prophets
Nautilus	31910		DS9 Tears of the Prophets
Saratoga	31911	Destroyed by the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359	DS9 'The Emissary'

Author's Notes:

N.X. 1833 was selected for U.S.S. Miranda in the absence of any canon registry number. The backstory of the Avenger becoming the refit class leader is a minor change to the class history in Alex Rosenzweig and Michael Rupprecht's Miranda class blueprints, created in conjunction with Alex's work on the 'Starship Spotter' book. The Miranda class must be a very good design, since we still see them in service right up to the end of Deep Space 9, some one hundred years after the first of the class was commissioned.

Miranda class is the workhorse of the Starfleet. I always envisioned the Miranda class as being the starship class that would be seen the most, with the exception of the multitude of Oberth class vessels around at the time. Miranda class starship models have been seen throughout the Star Trek franchise since their first appearance as the U.S.S. Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Since then the Miranda class has appeared as the U.S.S. Saratoga in Star Trek IV, the U.S.S. Lantree in Unnecessary Selection [TNG season 2, minus rollbar], the Brattain in Night Terrors [TNG season 4, with rollbar again], configured with modifications as the Soyuz class Bozemen - a ship she was to reappear twice more as in Miranda class configuration, as the Saratoga in Emissary [DS9 pilot, minus rollbar again but with outboard sensor pod] and as numerous vessels during the Dominion war including the Nautilus and Majestic.

The background to the development of the Miranda class is shrouded in both canon and fan histories. Various precursor classes including Soyuz, Surya and Avenger class have been mentioned. Miranda class plans by Michael C. Rupprecht and Alex Rosenzweig make a great mention of the Avenger class as being the precursor to the Miranda class. Click on the dedication plaque for the U.S.S. Miranda to go to their comprehensive site.

I have utilised the history of Alex - with his kind permission - to generate the history of the Miranda class. I have integrated the histories of Soyuz and Miranda classes to come up with a history of competing designs for the successor of unrefit Soyuz class, resulting in the eventual Miranda class. This mirrors such contemporary aircraft development as the YF-22 vs 23, YAH 63 vs 64 and YF32 vs 35.

NCC 1975 U.S.S. Ranger and NCC 1976 U.S.S. Sheffield have been added to the Miranda class history to fit with both my own website and with the appearance of U.S.S. Ranger on Interplay Games' Star Trek: New Worlds website. Curious coincidence put the two vessels registries concurrent and thus I thought they must have been ordered as replacements for Reliant and to be used to assess Intelligence gathering equipment for Starfleet Intelligence. Fandom previously put these as Coronado class, I am ignoring this in the face of New Worlds and established Sheffield NCC registration [I'm sure there's a good excuse!].

A fan history of the Miranda class has made it into the realms of semi-canon via Alex Rosenzweig's involvement in the book 'Starship Spotter'. In the book he has compromised to mention that 'The success of the Miranda-class design began even before the U.S.S. Miranda was completed. The unique spaceframe concept was applied to a refit program for an existing fleet of frigates'. This carefully avoids the issue of the name of the original frigate starship class, Surya, or the refit program, Avenger. Surya is the Hindu Sun God, and has its origin in fandom. The frigate becoming the cruiser design was an easy one. HMS Daring, the new Type 45 destroyer doyen now undergoig trials in the Clyde, is classed as a destroyer. Her size, tonnage and capabilities clearly make her a light cruiser. By the same token, Miranda's size and capability after the frigate design is refit becomes a light cruiser. I have therefore managed to keep consistant with canon and avoid mention of the fanon terms of Surya or Avenger class.

In an article about the Constellation in Star Trek: The Magazine, Rick Sternbach conjectures that there was indeed no "TOS Miranda", albeit only in a side note. He writes: "When the Miranda and Soyuz classes also became major out growths of the refit program, the production lines expanded, ultimately involving a total of three Starfleet yards." After there had been a misunderstanding about this statement, Rick confirmed in an e-mail to Kris Olinger that this statement really referred to the Constitution refit program, so Miranda and Soyuz are new classes. As a result of this comment that the Miranda is an offshoot of the Constitution refit and the appearance of a TOS era Miranda class U.S.S. Bombay (in David Mack's Star Trek: Vanguard series of novels), I had to find a way to 'have my cake and eat it'. I originally decided that Bombay would be a proto-Miranda class, of the frigate design with no rollbar - very much like the Surya or Coventry class starships of "Ships of the Starfleet Volume One" - however, this was to change in November 2007 with the advent of a derelist starship in David Gerrold's 'Blood and Fire'.

For their latest episode, at time of typing, Star Trek: Phase Two have an episode 'Blood and Fire' which features an Original Series Miranda class starship. NCC 1893, U.S.S. Copernicus, features in the episode as a derelict starship encountered by the Enterprise. David Gerrold and James Cawley approved the final version, which was rendered by Joel Bellucci. The final version - with 223 officers and crew aboard - has a rollbar with a secondary hull, complete with hanger bay and cargo bays along with the deflector and Phase Two series-style torpedo tubes. This, then is the definitive pre-refit version of the Miranda class as I see it. A refit program in the 2270s, based on the Enterprise refit naturally follows.

With the Constitution class having members such as Potemkin (1657) and Republic (1371) with registry numbers lower than the lead ship Constitution (1700), I found it easy to justify having ships such as Archer (1275) and Mayflower (1621) with registries lower than the Miranda (1833). JJ Abrams Star Trek (2009) also featured the USS Mayflower which was obviously a Miranda class design. In the prime universe there had to be an equivalent starship and therefore she was part of the unrefit Miranda class. The new Star Trek: Online game features various Miranda class variants, showing how the design will survive to the 25th Century, yet still retain the designation Miranda class. Enterprise was the first of the Constitution class to be refit in 2272-2273, yet the class was still known as Constitution class (refit). So Miranda class will keep her title, regardless of Avenger being refit first.

The crew compliment of Miranda class has been a matter of debate for a long time. The figures I have settled for are based on a number of sources: Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance states the U.S.S. Reliant had 200 crew, The DS9 Technical Manual by Herman Zimmerman, Rick Sternbach and Doug Drexler states 220 officers and crew standard with 500 maximum. The Miranda class blueprints by Alex Rosenzweig and Michael Rupprecht has a figure of 360 - 91 officers and 269 crew, as used in the Ships of the Starfleet Volume One. Since the DS9 Tech manual states an evacuation limit of 500, it is not out of the realm of possibility to have 220 crew, a maximum berthing capability for standard crew of 360 and a maximum evacuation limit (using all available space) for 500.The breakdown of officers and men is based on the general ratio in the Royal Navy of 10 enlisted personnel to each officer - approximately. The 223 figure is taken from the one used for Star Trek: Phase Two's U.S.S. Copernicus.