Romulan "Firebird" intelligence report.
All specifications are estimates unless otherwise indicated.

General Specifications:

Length: 51.9m (Confirmed)
Width: 38.55m (Confirmed)
Height: 8.25m (Confirmed)
Max Warp: 3.65
Cruise: 2.55
Max. Impulse: .57 lightspeed
Crew: 18-24 personnel

Armaments: One Laser cannon (fwd), the plasma exhaust of the sublight propulsion system was repeatedly used as a highly effective short-range weapon throughout the Romulan Wars.

Type: Fast Frigate

About Ship: At the beginning of the Romulan Wars, the Romulan Empire had no starships equipped with Warp drives, but they quickly modified existing ships to include warp capability. Starfleet intelligence has surmised that the sublight engines in use at the outbreak of the conflict incorporated many features of warp drives, and were modified to add that capability once the Romulans derived the technology from captured ships.

Romulan ships were much faster at sublight speeds than Federation ships of the day. Analysis of sensor records suggests that the nacelles on pre-warp Romulan vessels contained coils rather like those in warp engines. These coils created a weak warp field which reduced the apparent mass of the Romulan ship and reduced the amount of fuel required for high acceleration and violent maneuvers. This aspect of subspace technology escaped Federation engineers until quite recently. It is puzzling to consider that the Romulans had solved this problem many years in advance of their discovery of warp drive.

The sublight propulsion system consists of the above "mass reduction" system and a quite powerful fusion main drive, augmented by reaction control thrusters. The fusion drive was used as a quite effective short-range weapon. The tactic used was to approach the target vessel while firing the laser, then change heading so the plasma exhaust plume struck the target vessel. Earth ships of that time were well-defended against lasers, but their shields often weren't capable of fully deflecting a close-in fusion blast. coupled with the Romulan tactic of "swarming" a single ship at a time, this "plasma torch" put many ships out of action.

The Firebird (Romulan designation unknown) was a fast, small frigate-sized vessel seen on all fronts. It is presumed that this vessel was the mainstay of the Romulan Empire since it was seen in numbers at virtually every battle throughout the war. Like many Romulan vessels, there are few external features to aid an adversary in identifying potential weaknesses. Laser weaponry was in place at the war's outbreak, with frequent upgrades. Laser output power increased 475% between the first sighting of this type and the cessation of hostilities.

Intelligence analysis of the design suggests that the Firebird was initially designed as a fast courier. The Firebird is an inherently stealthy design, and appears to be equipped for atmospheric penetration. No gear doors are visible, so if the Firebird was intended to land on a planetary surface, it may only have landed on a liquid surface, such as oceans or lakes, though it is possible that gear doors are present but never detected.

A smaller version of this ship (approximately half as large) was also fielded by the Romulans, Code-named Hummingbird. The Hummingbird was never observed to use warp drives, but had an estimated top speed of 0.85 lightspeed. Hummingbirds were used as system defense ships in large numbers. Neither their laser nor plasma exhaust weapons were impressive in an individual basis, but they attacked in such numbers as to invite comparison with an angry swarm of bees. No one sting was potentially fatal, but hundreds of them were catastrophic.