Name: TAS Kitea (Maori for Discover)
Class: Concorde
Type: Command Battle cruiser
Launched: 2421
Commanding Officer: Captain Nathan Morris
Flag Officer: Vice Admiral Angelica Ryder-Morris
Executive Officer: Commander Becky Sandoval
Function: Engineering Test Bed, Planetary Defense, Exploration
The TAS Kitea is a newly commissioned and constructed Command Battle cruiser based on the Concorde class design, with the usual Alliance Navy improvements and a number of other classified updates. Kitea was designed to be a multi-mission ship, able to do planetary defense and military operations as well as long range exploration and diplomatic functions. Its size allows it to be a Command carrier - with a fighter wing, multiple shuttle bays and smaller drone fighters available depending on the operation. Large cargo bays and easily reconfigured spaced allow it to work as both an evacuation ship or colonist transport. Her warp drive is powered by a brand new engine system powered by RyderCore Technology that will allow it to function without expensive dilithium crystals or even slush deuterium - although the ship does have a traditional drive and fuel system for emergencies - for more than 10 years before it needs replacement. The large warp nacelles are capable of maintaining high transwarp speeds for far longer distances than those on the TAS Seraphim. In most every way the Kitea is a refinement of numerous technologies that the Alliance has been implementing on existing space frames.
The Kitea is also capable of saucer and drive section separation, with both sections being warp capable and able to sustain themselves independently for at least five years before needing to be reconnected. Both the saucer and the drive section are equipped with multiple torpedo and probe tubes, 360 degree phaser strip emplacements and adapted Romulan plasma ball launchers. Holo-emitters equipped throughout the ship allow for the presence of holographic crew members to supplement or even replace flesh and blood crew - which all operate on an independent system, so even in a power outage, the holographic crew and the emitters will still function.
Unlike other Starfleet vessels the bridge is not in the top of the ship, instead it's nestled between Decks 3 and 5, with the bridge actually being two levels with flight deck and engineering consoles being on a level of their own.
