Early Bird of Prey

D-4 model

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Affiliation :	Klingons
Class Name :	Early Bird of Prey
Type :	Scout
Unit Run :	30 built in total. 19 have been lost in all. 16 have been retired from service.
Commissioned :	2125 - 2140, remained in service until 2170
Dimensions :	Length : 100 m Beam : 80 m Height : 24 m Decks : 4
Mass :	28,000
Crew :	18
Armament :	4 x Mark 3 disruptor cannon1 4 x Mark 2 disruptor cannon, total output 45 TeraWatts 2 x Original photon torpedo tube1 with 30 rounds
Defence Systems :	Standard shield system, total capacity 5,000 TeraJoules Light Monotanium Single hull plus 0.5 cm Dispersive armour.2 Standard level Structural Integrity Field
Warp Speeds (TOS scale) :	Normal Cruise : 5.1 Maximum Cruise : 5.2 Maximum Rated : 5.8 for 10 hours.
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000)	Beam Firepower : 0.9 Torpedo Firepower : 40 Weapon Range and Accuracy : 15 Shield Strength : 1.85 Hull Armour : 26.25 Speed : 102 Combat Manoeuvrability : 3,000
Overall Strength Index :	36
Diplomatic Capability :	None
Expected Hull Life :	30
Refit Cycle :	Minor : 1 year Standard : 1 years Major : 6 years

Notes

One of the first models of Bird of Prey produced by the Klingon empire, these ships were in service in the 2150s.3 They were powerful vessels, armed with photon torpedoes and disruptor cannon.1 They were also faster than NX class ships.4 Fitted with energy shielding, the vessels were capable of taking a significant pounding, but could be vulnerable to the photonic torpedoes being issued to NX class ships in the 2150s.5 One of these vessels was stolen by a group of Human Augments in 2154, leading to considerable tensions with the Klingon government.1 The ship was crippled by the NX-01, which managed to find a weak point in the armour behind the sensor array and so disable the main plasma junction. The ship was subsequently destroyed by a reactor overload.2

Yellow text = Canon source

Green text = Backstage source

Cyan text = Novel

White text = DITL speculation

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1	ENT	4	Borderland
2	ENT	4	The Augments
3			Various Enterprise episodes
4	ENT	2	The Expanse	Duras's ship kept up with Archer's on the way to the Expanse
5	ENT	2	The Expanse

Comments

As seen in several Enterprise episodes now, this ship is a forerunner to the Bird of Prey seen in Star Trek III and throughout the TNG era. Like most Enterprise ships it looks for too advanced for the period, and far too similar to its successors to be credible.

The data is largely speculative - I can't reasonably pepper ships like this with "unknown" since it strains credibility that the real DITL wouldn't have information on a ship design more than two centuries old. If anybody has more solid figures for sizes, masses, etc, I'd be very happy to hear about it.

The weapon count is somewhat speculative, somewhat not. The ship carries two clearly visible wing mounted disruptors. There's another two of what look like similar sized weapons on some sort of turret/arm under the hull. Another four much smaller weapons are visible in pairs on either side of the torpedo tube. There is a clearly visible forward torpedo tube, and in "The Augments" there is mention of aft torpedoes, so I speculate that there is a single aft facing tube as well. It is noted in the same episode that the ship's aft facing weaponry is very weak, which seems to be the case - apart from the aft tube, all other weaponry faces forward - though the ventral turret may be able to face directly backwards. The same episode establishes that the bridge is protected by dispersive armour, and I have assumed that the rest of the ship has this also with the exception of the weak point mentioned.

Overall, I've rated the ship as being ever so slightly inferior to the refitted NX class. This is based on the fact that Archer's ship couldn't cope with one Bird of Prey prior to the refit in "The Expanse", but did fight one of them off afterwards - yet on the third engagement it seemed a pretty even match.

Page views : 52,305

Last updated : 20 Sep 2016

Series :	ENT Season 4 (Disc 1)
Episode :	Borderland

Series :	ENT Season 4 (Disc 2)
Episode :	The Augments

Series :	ENT Season (Disc )
Episode :	Various Enterprise episodes

Series :	ENT Season 2 (Disc 6)
Episode :	The Expanse
Comment :	Duras's ship kept up with Archer's on the way to the Expanse

Series :	ENT Season 2 (Disc 6)
Episode :	The Expanse