Star Empire was authorized for construction by Starfleet appropriation on stardate 6066 as a Federation-class dreadnought starship with registry NCC-2116. (TOS reference: Star Fleet Technical Manual) Construction of the USS Star Empire was ordered by the Admiralty two years prior to stardate 8180.2, during a peak uprising and series of border skirmishes with the Klingons while the Empire was undergoing a purge. Construction took place under the supervision of Vice Admiral Vaughan Rittenhouse. One of the ship's designers was Samuel Boma, who developed a phaser-resistant material called quantobirilium which comprised Star Empire's outer hull.