These shots come from footage from Star Trek: First Contact, and the Voyager episode 'Message In A Bottle'. Three official names have been given to ships of this class so far (excluding USS Akira, the prototype).

Akira Class: 2354 - Still in Service

'Big Gun' Heavy Cruisers or 'Dreadnoughts' (see Definitions) are special bracket starships exclusively reserved for new wave vessels which have enhanced and sometimes experimental weaponry. They can, in some cases, when surpassed by superior starships later on in their life, be 'demoted' to a lesser designation. The Sentinel Class initially had the tag 'Dreadnought', but when outgunned some years later by superior classes was relabelled 'Heavy Cruiser'. So, whereas the Akiras might have been called 'Dreadnought's' in an earlier era, they are more correctly referred to as 'Heavy Cruisers' today.

Taking a close look at Akira Class, one can see a hull design that in some ways resembles the older Miranda shape, and hails from lineage perpetuated by Loknar, Compton and Nautilus Classes, indeed the basic configuration can be traced back to some early Starfleet ships such as the P Class and NX Class Cruisers. This Akira classification though is state of the art and infinitely superior. It is fast, highly manoeuvrable, and comes complete with ablative armour and regenerative shielding. This class certainly bodes well for long term production. So far fifty have been built, and the space-frames of a further seven ships of this class have been laid. The Akira fleet faired very well in recent Dominion engagements, although more than ten were lost during the recent defence of yet another Borg incursion into Federation space.

Footnote *

-Serious booty kicking class starship here, being large, fast and armed to the teeth. I would have to say though that such a class ship would certainly be a definite fleet necessity, although some Federation citizens may dislike the idea of a no holds barred 'military battleship' per se, but if its believed that the most outspoken pacifists are correct with their opinion, I'm sure they won't mind fending for themselves when the Dominion, Borg, Romulans etc, come to call. I mean who are they trying to kid, the galaxy's a dangerous place, Starfleet and their bosses are neither stupid or naive, the Federation as a major quadrant power has to have a strong defensive counter-measure if it is to protect itself...

- There is an anomaly with the registries of known vessels of this class, ie starting with 6****. Like others, I presume this class to be a fairly recent addition to the fleet, a prototype construction date being no earlier than 2365, more realistically 2370, as this class looks brand new, with a fresh concept. But the registry starting with 6 suggests 2350 -2360. For the purists that would be as good as canon, as it's been on screen and the acceptable theories in fandom regarding registries would have to reluctantly insist that this is an older starship.

- There is still a serious lack of information on this class ship, hence the heavy speculation factor. My tag of 'Heavy Cruiser' is reasonably accepted in canon now, as is the length, but in some quarters even that basic value remains contested. But I believe it is at least of the Cruiser / warship bracket, one can tell that by the impressive armaments on view in Trek VIII and 'Message in a Bottle'. It deflected the continuous fire of a Romulan warbird, then helped to take it down, which is no mean feat.

Further points regarding Akira Class

KEY

*A ship would visit drydock for many reasons, including refits, repairs, servicing upgrades, preliminary trials and testing of new components, and spacedock for similar reasons, as well as crew rotation, reassignment, prep period before redeployment, and so forth.

The listed specifications for ship classes are partly hypothetical, but some data such as ship lengths, weapon stats and crew complements are in some cases canon. For an explanation on the specs, and what the Ship designations mean, see Spec Definitions.

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