The Kanazawa class was response to the Kzinti conflict of 2278. Although preforming to the best of their abilities, the Federation and Foley class dreadnoughts were showing their age, as well as being smaller then their contemporaries in other navys. This started a program to build a new, larger, and vastly more capable dreadnought class that would eventually become the Ulysses class.

However Starfleet also felt a need to maintain a “large cruiser” class in the same mass range as the former dreadnoughts. The new ship was envisioned as a “cruiser killer”, designed to run down and destroy anything comparable to the Constitution and Miranda class heavy cruisers. To this end the ship was designed with speed and maneuverability first and foremost, resulting in a unusual design often derided as “a Klingon battlecruiser with a fat head”.

The new hull also incorporated several new technologies derived from the Excelsior program, as well as the new large nacelles developed for the Ulysses class. This resulted in a ship that boasted high warp speed, excellent maneuverability, and potent firepower, while retaining the squadron command facilities typical of command cruiser classes.

Although the ships were intended to replace Starfleet’s entire inventory of command cruiser and light dreadnought classes, this never really came to fruition. The signing of the Khitomer Accords greatly reduced Starfleet’s military stance, and it was found the hulls didn’t take well to Transwarp Drive conversion, unlike the unexpectedly successful Miranda class.

In the end only a handful of these ships were built, and they mostly operated independently in the hunter-killer role. However, the Kanazawa class would eventually see it’s legacy carried on in the Akira class, which operated in a similar role during the Dominion War.

This is my take on a TMP Akira Class. I was inspired by the Kusanagi Class by Diogo Vincenzi. His model is amazing, but I didn’t like his design. I felt to kept too much of the Akira spaceframe and didn’t look like it fit in the era. My version is intended to fit into the 2280-2290 range, so I drew some design language from the Excelsior Class. I also designed this to be the same size as the Federation Class dreadnought, sitting in between the Constitution and Ulysses in size.

Akira is one of my favorite designs, and this is one the designs I made that I love the most. I genuinely love this ship. Now for some stats:

Length: 319 meters
Width: 153 meters
Height: 57 meters
Displacement: 297,000 tonnes
Crew: ~500-600
Phasers: 20x Type 7
Torpedoes: 3 Forward, 2 Aft