Imperial Romulan Navy Technology Overview

• Status: Entente, tenuous
• Location: Rimward, BETA Quadrant
• Threat Level: Moderate to High
• Technological Level: Comparable to the United Federation of Planets

Historical and Political Overview

Encompassing over a half a million square light-years, the Romulan Star Empire is a large interstellar empire governed by one dominate species, the Vulcan offshoot known as the Romulans or Rihannsu. The twin worlds of Romulus, or ch’Rihan, and Remus, or ch'Havran, are not only the homeworlds to the Romulan people but also the political and economic center for the Empire. Governed by a Senate and led by a Praetor, the Empire has been likened, somewhat inaccurately, by political scientists of the Federation as being similar to the ancient Romans of Earth. Although the Star Empire is marginally larger than the Klingon Empire, it controls a smaller number of worlds due to the less stellar denseness of the rimward Beta Quadrant. Moreover, these worlds tend to be mineral poor and lacking in many of the resources needed by a warp-level civilization. The Empire can also be described as mildly xenophobic and has been classified as a race of totalitarian expansionists.

Since First Contact with Earth in 2156, relations between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire has been strained at best, volatile at the worst. First Contact started a war that raged for four years. Finally, in 2160, a strained peace was negotiated via sub-space radio, text or voice only transmissions. The treaty that resulted was the formation of the Romulan Neutral Zone, a one light-year wide buffer zone separating the Empire from the Federation. After that, the Empire fell silent, the people of the Federation never having seen the face of the race with whom they had been at war with for four long years. This was to be the first of several periods of silence and isolation the Empire would go through while it quietly gathered it’s forces or regrouped. More than a century adter the Earth-Romulan War, the Empire resurfaced again, testing the defenses and assets along the Neutral Zone. In that incursion, a lone cruiser destroyed four outposts along the Neutral Zone. The USS Enterprise, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, stopped that vessel before it could return to its base and report on the Federation’s defenses and weaknesses. This encounter also marked the first time a Romulan was ever seen by humans and the first time a Romulan warship was known to employ a cloaking system to mask the vessel from sensorsl.

In the years that followed, the Empire’s views toward its neighbors would change. There were several short-lived alliances with the Klingon Empire, which resulted in an exchange of military technology. One such exchange resulted in the Klingons gaining cloaking technology and the plans for a small scout ship. This design layout would prove to be so popular with the Klingon Fleet that it would later be used as the basic hull plan for a series frigate, destroyer, and cruiser designs. The hull plan remains in use to this day. In exchange, the Romulans gained the D-7A-class heavy cruiser hull. After numerous small incursions into both Federation and Klingon space, the Empire fell silent again in 2398, when the Borg invaded the Beta quadrant. It is known that the Empire was finally able to repel the invasion in 2406, but it is not known how the Empire was able to accomplish this.

In 2407, the Empire joined with the Federation and assisted in building Deep Space 12, located near the mouth of the Herod II Wormhole just inside the Neutral Zone. When the Dominion invaded the Beta Quadrant in 2408 and attacked Starbase Gamma, the Romulan Star Empire joined the Federation to repel the invaders. Later that year, the Star Empire and the Federation signed a formal agreement to cease all hostilities during the duration of the Dominion threat. In recent years, the threat from the Dominion has lessened and, as a result, the resolve of both sides to honor the entente has weakened. Evidence of this comes in the form of covert operations at Serrat III, as reported by the USS Chesapeake, commanded by Captain Elizabeth Romee, and the near destruction of Deep Space 4, located near the Badlands, commanded by Commander Avikar th’Tellan. Both events occurred with sectors of space patrolled by Green Fleet, headquartered at Starbase Delta.

Technologic Overview

The severe lack of natural resources in the Empire has led to some differences in technology. For instance, unlike many space-faring races, the main power source on most Romulan Star Empire starships is not derived from a dilithium mediated matter-antimatter reactor. Instead, they capture their power from the powerful gravitational field of a quantum singularity, often described as a miniature black hole. The strength of the singularity and the exact power systems, of course, vary from vessel to vessel.

Romulan impulse drives are similar to those in common usage by the United Federation of Planets and Klingon Empire. The drives consist of a fusion reactor network connected to a linear accelerator and a vectored thrust nozzle.

Romulan weaponry seems, at first, to be an ecclectic combination of whatever happens to be at hand. Through the history of Romulan ship design, efficiency and efficacy have been the rules and no particular technology base has been favored. This has become especially true over the past few years during the Romulan conflict with the Borg. In many ways the Empire was fighting for survival, and the replacement of damaged weapon systems was often based on whatever was at hand rather than what the design specification called for. It is often not possible to tell what weapons a particular Romulan ship is equipped with until she begins firing.

The signature weapon of the Romulan Star Empire is the plasma torpedo. Despite the fact that the torpedo has not been in constant use by the Empire, no other single weapon system is so well associated with the RSE. Although the weapon has undergone many major revisions since its first appearance over a century and a half ago, the operating principles remain the same. The plasma torpedo is, essentially, a particle cannon which fires a superheated ball of ionized particles (plasma) at a target.

Originally, the weapon was simply a plasma ball pushed by a ship's tractor beam emitter. Modern, seventh generation, plasma weapons are far more sophisticated and long range than their early cousins. The modern plasma torpedo has a range exceeding that of phaser weapons and massive destructive power. The plasma ball can destabilize shields and short out shield generators, vaporize hull materials, dirupt electronic systems, and fuse power transfer grids. For these reasons, no weapon in the Romulan arsenal is quite as feared as the plasma torpedo.

As one might expect, the plasma torpedo requires a tremendous amount of power to charge and fire. The use of the plasma torpedo is therefore generally limited to capital ships, since smaller ships simply cannot provide the power for it. However, older generation plasma torpedo systems, while not as powerful or accurate as their modern counterparts, are occasionally found on RSE frigates and destroyers. In many cases those weapons were cannibalized from older cruisers.

More standard missile weapons also find a place in the Romulan arsenal. The matter-antimatter torpedo first found its way into Romulan service after the First Romulan-Klingon Technology Exchange. The Star Empire currently employs two versions of photon torpedo, the design of which is influenced both by Klingon and Federation weapons technology. The first type is similar to the standard Federation photon torpedo. Its warhead charge is somewhat smaller than that of its Federation counterpart, allowing it to be employed within closer proximity to the launch vessel. This torpedo also has a more powerful drive unit which makes it more maneuverable than its Federation counterpart. These features made this weapon very useful in the war against the Borg, especially when the Borg acquired cloaking devices. The more powerful drive unit allowed the weapon longer endurance and better maneuverability to track and intercept a cloaked Borg ship.

The advanced warhead of the Romulan counterpart of the quantum flux torpedo is the opposite of the first photon torpedo in Romulan service. Instead of being reduced in size to make room for a larger drive, it packs the maximum possible charge into the warhead. This weapon, unlike its Federation counterpart is meant to supplement, not replace, the standard photon torpedo load. When a target is located, the Romulan flux torpedo is made to reduce that target in the minimum possible time.

Both types of torpedoes are capable of being fired from the same launch systems. Larger ships typically carry the Mark XLI-m (a multiple shot launcher system) which has a targetting system roughly equivalent to the Federation's Mark III flux torpedo system. Smaller ships usually carry the Mark XLI-s (the smaller single shot cousin of the XLI-m), Mark XL, or the older Mark XXXIX systems. The Mark XXXIX has targetting sensors which are roughly the equivalent of the Federation Mark XXII photon torpedo system.

Romulan beam weapons can only be described as an ecclectic collection of "whatever works." They have employed weapons ranging from beams nearly identical to Federation phasers to actual Klingon disruptors acquired during the technological exchanges during times of better relations between the two empires. The standard for Romulan beam weapons is a fourth generation phased X-ray laser. The system has capabilities similar to those of Federaion phasers, but a slightly lower peak power output. They make up for this disadvantage by having a more efficient power usage curve which allows longer firing duration and slightly longer range than their Federation counterparts. The XrL-4 emitter is seen on all models of Romulan starship. Capacitor bank capacity for the emplacements varies from ship to ship with larger ships capable of firing higher intensity blasts for longer durations than smaller units.

There is also a pulsed version of the phased X-ray Laser, the XrL-4p, which is similar to the Type Xa pulse phaser. This system is less powerful than the Xa system, but has a faster recycle time resulting in a higher rate of fire and approximately equal damage potential. Ships that are considered too small to mount a plasme torpedo launchers are generally equipped with a pulsed phaser system.

The standard Romulan arsenal relied heavily on Klingon inspired disruptors up until about 50 years ago. Older ships would have been built with these weapons and many still have them. Again, because of equipment cannibalization during the Borg wars, many newer ships will mount disruptors instead of phasers in some locations. As the Romulan Star Empire recovers from their less than friendly encounter with the Borg, disruptors are expected to be slowly retired from service.

The best well known piece of Romulan equipment is the cloaking device. Like other hardware, the cloaking device has undergone continuous improvement. Modern cloaking devices are more efficient, requiring 30% less power than they did only 50 years ago. Cloaking field manipulation is still a problem, and most Romulan ships are limited to cruising speeds of Warp 7 when the cloak is active. At higher speeds, spatial distortion becomes evident making the cloak ineffective.

The Romulans have done some limited research into phase cloaking technology, however, they have not yet developed an operational phase cloaking device. There are indications that there is a fundamental incompatibility between phase cloaking technology and the quantum singularity power sources that they use.

Romulan shields and sensors are about on par with similar Starfleet equipment. Their standard sensor suites tend to lean more toward military, rather than scientific endevours.

Romulans starship planforms have frequenty been inspired by the birds of prey which can be found on their homeworlds. This has led to the generic terms "Bird of Prey" and "Warbird" being employed to describe all Romulan military starships. Early vessels had the form of a striking raptor painted on the underside of the hull. Since the late 2300s, the vessels have gone as far as to take on the actual shapes of the animals they mimic. Many vessels of the Star Empire during the period between 2340 and 2406 were considerably larger than their Star Fleet counterparts. The former mainstay of the Romulan Fleet, the D'’Deridex-class heavy cruiser, out-massedthe Galaxy and Endeavor-class starships by a significant margin, though it’s firepower remained on par with it’s Federation counterpart.

Since 2406, newer designs have surface from the Imperial Shipyards near Remis. These designs are thought to be the Imperial Navy'’s attempt to rebuild after the Borg invasion. Sleeker and more powerful warships have been seen on patrol near the Neutral Zones of both the Federation and the Klingon Empire. From a tactical standpoint, it could mean that the peace that has endured for several years could be at an end, thrusting the Allies of the Alpha quadrant back into a period of distrust and war.

Notes

• This briefing was compiled by Edward Bell, making use of memoranda and briefs written by Alton Reich.