Romulan "Starhawk" intelligence report.
All specifications are estimates unless otherwise indicated.
Star Fleet Intelligence (SFI) has given this report a 83% reliability rating.

General Specifications:

Length: 10.84m
Width: 9.88m
Height: 2.6m
Max Warp: 7.8
Cruise: 7.0
Max. Impulse: 0.84 lightspeed
Crew: 1-2 personnel (pilot plus possibly an engineer or a weapons system officer)

Armaments: Four lasers, later refit to disruptors (fwd); one plasma cannon (fwd). Presumably the plasma stream of the impulse drive could be vectored across a target to the rear. Originally, some were fitted with a missile rack on the dorsal surface, but these were removed when torpedo technology rendered missiles obsolete.

Type: Heavy fighter

About Ship: The Starhawk (Romulan designation unknown) was a very fast, fighter-sized vessel used by the Romulans from around 2265 to the end of the 23d century. It was designed to scout ahead of the fleet, attacking targets of opportunity and generally disrupting an enemy's approach to the Romulan main fleet.

The Starhawk is very large and well-armed for this type of mission. In addition to four forward-firing lasers (later refit to disruptors) the Starhawk also possessed one of the most powerful weapons of its day, a plasma cannon. Although limited in range, the plasma cannon gave this fighter a weapon capable of seriously damaging a capital ship, a feat the Federation was unable to duplicate until the invention of the Enhanced Quantum Torpedo.

Like many Romulan vessels, the Starhawk is capable of very high sublight speeds without experiencing significant time dilation effects. While the vessel is operating at sublight, the warp nacelles are engaged, producing a field strength of less than one Cochrane. This reduces the apparent mass of the vessel, allowing very high acceleration for the nominal thrust of the impulse engines. The sub-critical warp field also reduces time dilation effects to within acceptable levels.

Most of our information of this vessel has been derived from intelligence gathered by clandestine means. Due to recently improved relations with the Romulan Star Empire, much of the information regarding this vessel has been confirmed.