Federation Starbase 23 - Federation Vessels

Federation Shiplist - USS Ambassador


Introduction


The first huge leap forward in starship design in the 2300s came with the development of the Ambassador class. The design project was originally begun in 2306 with the naval construction contract number 10521. Within a week it was decided that a parallel project would be initiated to try out design variations and speed up the prototyping stage, and this one was given hull number 10532. The two prototypes were seven years in the design phase, then took another seven years to construct. Both of them were officially commissioned in 2320 as the USS Ambassador NX-10521 and USS Horatio NX-10532, and after 2 years of trials and testing—much like in the case of Project Excelsior—the design was finalised and cleared for full-scale production, with an average build time of six years. This class was designed to be the replacement for the Excelsior class, as—despite the peaceful years—Starfleet still held on to the lesson that a strong ship is needed with the latest in Federation technology and design concepts to brave the depths of the interstellar Void. The number of times in the 2240s-80s when a lesser ship than a Constitution could have survived what Starfleet’s vanguard actually went though were very low, and Starfleet didn’t want a ship that was over 40 years old in both construction materials and design concepts dealing with the ever-more dangerous natural galaxy out there. Since these deep-space explorer classes usually took around 20 years to get from the design stage to having multiple units in service, the concept was advanced in 2306. True to naval experience as far back as the 20th Century, the first production Ambassador-class ships entered active service in 2326. This class became the flagship class of the Fleet, and the Enterprise-B, when she was retired, handed her name over to a new Ambassador-class ship.


The commissioning dedication plaque of the Ambassador-class explorer USS Ambassador NCC-10521