Since the construction of the first in 2243, many Constitution-class ships have been lost or destroyed. Given increasing hostilities with neighboring Klingon and Romulan empires, a great deal of importance was given to building replacements.

However, there had been a number of technological advancements in the past 20 years. Starfleet considered the current starship design out-of-date, and revised their shipbuilding program to include the improvements in all their new ships. A schedule was drawn up to refit the Constitutions currently in service to the new technology in orderly rotation, so they would constantly have top-line ships in the field.

Construction began on new vessels, but it turned out that the cost of building new ships was vastly less than refitting the current ones. So the decision was made to retire the current Constitutions, and build new ones to replace them.

Ironically, the only Constitution-class to return from it's latest mission intact and undamaged was the Enterprise. This gained the ship no small amount of fame, and Starfleet realised public support would fall away from them if Enterprise were to be retired. So, the decision was made to refit Enterprise. The only shipyard available to do the refit, however, was finishing up construction of the first new vessel, the USS Kitty Hawk. Once final construction was completed, Kitty Hawk was moved to Spacedock (Starbase One), and Enterprise was brought in to begin refit.

Final adjustments and calibrations on the Kitty Hawk are being completed at Starbase One.

Specifications - USS Kitty Hawk (NCC-1863):

Overall Length: 990.6 ft.
Overall Draft (height): 231.7 ft.
Overall Beam (width): 460.5 ft.

Primary Hull (saucer)
Length: 475.4 ft.
Draft: 106.9 ft.
Beam: 460.5 ft.

Secondary Hull (engineering)
Length: 393.2 ft.
Draft: 154.3 ft.
Beam: 106.9 ft.

Nacelles (Leeding FWG-1)
Length: 503.1 ft.
Draft: 54.9 ft.
Beam: 40.9 ft.

Ship's Compliment
Officers: 78
Ensign-grade personnel 205
Enlisted: 217

Performance
Maximum velocity: Warp 12[1728c]
Cruising velocity: Warp 8[512c]

Acceleration
0 - .99c 19 seconds
.99c - warp 1.1 seconds

warp 1 - 4 .78 seconds
warp 4 - 8 .67 seconds
warp 8 - 12 2.13 seconds

Deck layout:

Deck 1: Bridge, Docking Port 1
Deck 2: Security, temporary holding cells
Deck 3: Commisary, Officer's lounge
Deck 4: VIP Quarters, jr. officers quarters, conference room
Deck 5: Senior Officers' quarters
Deck 6: Crew quarters, crew lounge, Impulse deck, gangway access hatches
Deck 7: Sickbay, transporter rooms, Main briefing room, Main Brig, Armory, Chapel, Gymnasium, Science labs, Rec Deck
Deck 8,9: Docking Level, Ship's laundry, Fabricators, viewing lounges
Deck 10: Circiut breaker room (primary hull)
Deck 11: Main Sensor array monitoring room
Deck 12,13: Photon Torpedo launch system
Deck 14,15: Main Engineering
Deck 16,17: CEO Briefing room, office, Hanagar Bay
Deck 18: Aux. Con., lifeboats
Deck 19: Cargo transporters
Deck 20,21: Antimatter storage, Botanical garden, swimming pool, sundeck

Source: Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise by Shane Johnson

Thanks to Dennis C., who wrote the introductory paragraphs.

Interested in more information, please contact gamer@stargame-redux.org.

LLAP!