| abstract
| - The Pathfinder-class Starship had its origins in the early 2360s shortly after the Galaxy-class starship began their successful run in to the Fleet as a deep-space explorer. It was felt that Starfleet needed to diversify the fleet with command ships capable of multi-mission design specifications to cover the three primary duties of the Starfleet charter - exploration, defense, and diplomacy. Admiral Victor Murdock took up the gauntlet and began the process of designing a new starship class capable of meeting these requirements. While the project development peaked and waned over the next few years - usually at the whim of Starfleet Command - it was not until 2368 that the modern Pathfinder-class design was developed. In light of the events at Wolf 359 against the Borg, the design principles of the Pathfinder-class leaned more to defensive and offensive capabilities. The design of the current Battlecruiser contributed to other contemporary starship designs - Akira, Steamrunner, Saber, Sovereign - which were being designed and built at the same time. The following year, following confirmed approvals from Starfleet Command and the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, the Pathfinder-class Development Project. Continuing until 2373 the ship was not ready for the next encounter Starfleet had with the Borg, but the first superstructure was built in the following year. By 2375 the prototype was completed, USS Pathfinder, which began her shakedown cruiser shortly thereafter. In 2377 a new class of ship entered service, the Pathfinder-class was designed as the ultimate in front-line explorers. The vessel was initially named USS Pathfinder, but recommissioned USS Miranda-B in honor of the previous vessel to bear the name, at the request of Fleet Admiral Victor Murdock. The Pathfinder-class merges the catamaran hull design of the Akira-class with the maneuverability (both physically and mission-wise) of the {class|Sovereign}}. The ship also was constructed as a response to the Klingons Negh'Var-class Warships, the Romulans D'Deridex-class Warbird, and the Dominion's Battleship-class Heavy Cruisers. The ship featured a brand new torpedo turret as it's primary weapon and the type-XIV Phaser arrays, (known as Sovereign-Type) as well as two Type XV (commonly known as Defiant-Type) phased pulse emitters. The USS Miranda-B is one of the few Starfleet vessels which has enough firepower for any combat role, but also carries the full capabilities of an exploratory Starship. The Miranda is designed to go for extensive periods on deep-space exploratory duties. The ships carry an extremely heavy torpedo armament of 7 torpedo launchers. Four of these are mounted in the large roll bar pod, two forward and two back; the one is located on the underside of the saucer section, two of which face directly out to port and starboard: an unique feature in a Starfleet vessel, shared only with the Akira and Wazikashi classes. Another special feature of the Pathfinder-class is the hangar bay arrangements. There is one large shuttle bay in the saucer section, running the width of the ship with bay doors on both sides. These allow large numbers of launch and landing operations to be handled simultaneously. During peacetime this allows the Miranda-B to evacuate large numbers of small survey craft, or ferry evacuees on board at a high rate. During time of war, the ship can serve as fighter carriers; in this role they can carry up to thirty-six attack fighters, although a load of six fighters and a dozen utility craft is Starfleets current Standardization of the Pathfinder-class. The USS Miranda-B entered service in 2377 and was assigned to units on the outer Federation territories, performing patrol and presence missions as well as the normal mapping and exploration duties which any Starfleet vessel is expected to handle. The ship also features and MVAM – Multi-Vector Assault Mode, a design feature shared by the Prometheus-class Starship. However, at this time, the components to make the Secondary and Tertiary hulls completely self-sufficient are not installed, in the rush to get the Pathfinder-class prototype commissioned. The MVAM capabilities are negated with the upgrade to Pathfinder MkII.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)