Federation FKP
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R02: FEDERATION PROPOSALS:
Federation FKP
Imagine replacing the boom on a G2 (or a G6) with the forward hull of a Federation POL.
It's just a screwball idea I had while thinking of the OK6 and TK5.
No history for it in mind at all, but does it sound like something that might be fun for a light evening's game?
What do y'all think?
While I wouldn't see it as being an Alpha Octant design, perhaps a variation of this concept could be offered as a "what-if" destroyer design for the Omega Octant's Federal Republic of Aurora.
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For comparison's sake, the Aurorans had adapted the Federation POL into a frigate design, as well as creating a series of Size Class 3 hulls derived from the Terran light cruiser. And yet, the FRA did not have a destroyer of their own prior to the Y170s.
Initially, this was not seen as a problem. However, once the Aurorans signed a treaty to send extended patrols into Mæsron space, they soon found themselves with a pressing need for something larger than a frigate, yet smaller than a cruiser, to deploy on such an assignment.
In a case of convenient timing, four of the five Klingon ships that had been transplanted to Omega (along with the Klingon colony world of Kraknora) in Y171 found themselves in FRA service a year later; the SSDs for these ships can be found in Captain's Log #53.
So, after reverse-engineering one of these Klingon ships - the F5L Storm Lord, which had been damaged in battle in Y173 - the Auroran engineers were able to develop a ship with a modified F5-type boom, a pair of F5 engines, and a secondary hull which... appears to be derived from that of an Auroran FF. (Alas, there is no proper line art, nor 3D model, for the Auroran DD as of yet.)
The resulting destroyer design proved to be remarkably successful, and led to a number of variant designs; to include an Auroran destroyer leader.
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In theory, one could consider a "design competitor" that was intended to do the opposite: as in, to create a modified POL forward hull, attached to an F5-esque secondary hull, as an alternative Auroran destroyer class.
Perhaps, had the Storm Lord not have been taken out of service when it historically was, a rival engineering team would have pushed for the F5 Storm Song (one of the other Klingon ships in FRA service) to be decommissioned and used in order to make this alternate destroyer type possible?
One problem might be that, unlike the "historical" Auroran destroyer - which can separate its boom section if called upon - this alternate ship might not be able to do the same. As in, a POL-derived forward hull would have to be hard-welded to the secondary hull,
Another concern might be which elements of the F5L were easier to reverse-engineer than others. As in, it might have proved more economically and logistically viable to set up production runs for the F5-type boom and engines, and then attach them to a POL-derived secondary hull; rather than figure out how to build an entire F5-type secondary hull, and then combine it with a POL-derived primary hull.
Which might help to explain why the Aurorans did not choose this "design competitor" for series production. But, it might still make for an interesting "what-if" take on things nonetheless.
Or it may have been cheaper to just use a CL or pair of FF instead of retooling up for a new DD.
TBH, I hadn't thought of Aurora. Thinking about it, now, though, makes me worry about the firepower to power available ratio for the ship. Would it be too overgunned for its available power?
On the other hand, the basic G2 hull, but replacing the Type-B Drone Racks with the larger Tachyon Missile racks (I can't remember the designation for them, but as I recall, they've got five missiles apiece, and with two of the racks, this ship can, in theory, fire one Tachyon Missile per turn for ten full turns; that's a heckuvalotta firepower) and, of course, the ADD would be upgraded to a SRC.
As far as using the rear hull of an F5, that would, IMO, be stepping on the toes of the Canon TK5; something I wished to avoid. Plus, using the G2, or even the G6, would keep the whole design within the category of "Police"
At any rate, Gary, Mike, thank you for your inputs; they're very interesting. 
If you haven't checked them out already, I would suggest taking a closer look at the Klingon-hull SSDs in Captain's Log #53, in terms of how the FRA historically dealt with adapting these vessels to their own service.
By and large, if a Klingon drone rack was "shuttle-adjacent", the Aurorans would swap it out for a shuttle bay, so as to leverage the FRA access to shuttle bombs. "Non-shuttle-adjacent" ADD racks on Klingon ships get swapped out for SRCs prior to Y181, and for type-B tachyon missile racks thereafter.
In the case of a G2, the Aurorans would probably turn the ADD rack - which had been a type-E rack prior to the Y140 refit - into a shuttle bay.
As for the G2's drone racks, it might depend on what kind of mission the Aurorans would want to use this hull for. Since these racks are placed where the E3 has its disruptors, it's quite possible that the FRA might prefer to install light photons in those same weapon mounts.
Alternatively, they could install SRCs (1 LS and 1 RS) in those mounts; they'd probably only do this if they wanted to use the ship as a carrier escort. In which case, they would later swap the SRCs for ESGs, rather than for type-B TM racks.
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One thing to bear in mind, however, is that the OK6, the TK5, and the "hybrid" Auroran destroyer all benefit from the "built-in" capacity of the base Klingon hulls being used in these instances to separate their respective booms.
In contrast, a G2 does not have the ability to separate its boom - which might make life a bit easier for Romulan engineers adapting one into a Kestrel, yet which might require more effort to actually slice the ship in half in the event that the FRA wanted to weld a POL forward hull in place of the boom.
Although, one alternate option could be to use an F5I - which is still a "police" hull, technically.
Or, perhaps, an E4J? Unlike an E4I, the -J model of the E4 has a separable boom...
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Another potential issue is that, to date, there are no G2 or G6 (or E4) hulls that are known to have been transplanted to Omega.
Although, there is by no means a "complete" list of such transfers; there might well have been more such instances than the ones we presently know about.
In any case, I personally don't see a problem with simply using the F5 hull the FRA already has access to; the TK5 is in a different Galactic octant, so shouldn't risk overlapping with this concept overly much.
I was thinking a bit more about how one might be able to make this concept, or at least one adjacent to it, work here.
For argument's sake, let's say that, at some point after the transfer of Kraknora in Y171, a survey team exploring the outer reaches of the system stumbles across the detached secondary hull of an E4J. While the crew is missing, as is the boom, the hull is otherwise salvageable.
Yet, there is a problem: the F5-type booms the Aurorans use for their "hybrid" destroyers cannot be attached here. Instead, the only viable option is to weld a modified frigate (i.e. POL) forward hull directly to the ship.
If this is done before Y181, the Aurorans would upgrade the phaser-2s to phaser-1s; replace the security station with a rear hull box; swap out the drone rack for a shuttle box; and swap out the disruptors for light (4-point) photons.
This might lead to a new problem. Since the FF forward hull typically has 2 light photons installed as standard, giving the ship a total of four light photons overall would likely risk shock effects if, say, more than two are fired in a single turn?
Or, it might be better to replace both the prow light photons and those on the secondary hull with something else, and perhaps deploy the ship as some sort of "mission variant" (scout, escort, or some such) from the outset.
From Y181, however, a convenient way to solve this problem might be to swap out all four weapon mounts for type-B TM racks, turning the ship into a "missile" variant. (To date, the FRA does not have any such SSDs in print; but this is likely due to there not being all that many FRA SSDs thus far overall, rather than acting as a statement on whether they would have deployed such variants or not.)
So, after a round-about development process, the "final" iteration of the ship would be as a de facto missile frigate, used to support the other ships of the Honor Guard in defence of the FRA home systems - not least in the face of three major incursions by the Andromedans during the Sixth Cycle.
So how does that sound?