D'Deridex Class
For much of the operational life of the Romulan Warbird, Starfleet knew absolutely nothing about it. Indeed, it was not until 2364 that any Starfleet personnel even saw a Warbird firsthand. Prior to this only the haziest of intelligence reports existed concerning any class of Romulan vessel. An encounter between a Romulan Warbird and the USS Enterprise at the Romulan neutral zone in that year provided Starfleet with its first good information on the Warbird. The first impressions were not comforting ones; the Romulan vessel was almost double the length of the Enterprise, itself then the largest and most powerful vessel in Starfleet. The Warbird's cloaking device was highly effective against the latest Federation sensors, and the great size of the vessel indicated that it outgunned Starfleets finest by a considerable margin.
Over the next few years Starfleet intelligence devoted considerable resources to the new Romulan threat; the defection of Admiral Jarok promised to be a famous intelligence coup, but disappointingly it proved to be a disinformation ploy by the Romulans. The return of former Ensign DeSeve, who had previously defected to the Romulan Empire in 2349, generated a good deal of background information on the Romulan military structure and the general capability of their fleet, but provided little specific detail. The Federation's greatest victory in the intelligence war occurred shortly after the defection of DeSeve when Vice Proconsul M'ret and two of his aides defected. M'ret, who had served on several defense related councils in the Romulan Senate, was able to provide a great deal of detailed information on the capabilities of the Warbird - among other things.
The appearances of overwhelming size and strength was to prove somewhat deceptive. Much of the vessels internal volume is given over to ground forces and their supporting equipment. Although the disruptor armament is impressive, the technology behind it is significantly behind that of the Federations phaser banks; the disruptors have a high power but relatively low rate of fire and somewhat limited range. The twelve torpedo tubes are capable of firing only one torpedo each at a time, and have a combined rate of fire some 80% that of the two tubes of a Galaxy class battle section. The Warbird is somewhat slower than a Galaxy class starship, and also a great deal less agile. The Federation has also made considerable progress in defeating the Romulan cloaking technology in the past few years; the deployment of wide area tachyon nets along the border together with advanced sensor posts has made penetrating Federation space a rather chancy proposition for the Warbird.
Nevertheless, the Romulan Warbird remains an impressive design which is capable of defeating all but the most advanced and powerful Federation vessels. Starfleet continues to treat these behemoths with a considerable degree of respect.
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