The Horizon Refit (Block-2)
Shortly after the Romulan War, Starfleet drew up plans for a new universal explorer/patrol vessel to be used by the United Federation of Planets. With the exception of the larger Vulcan starships, mothballed by the Vulcans shortly before the Romulan War, these new Federation starships would have been the most advanced vessels thus far encountered in the Alpha Quadrant. As a tribute to the now famous Daedalus ships, each new starship would assume the name of the Daedalus ship it replaced. The new starships would have been known as the “Horizon Class” after the badly damaged Horizon NCC-176 scheduled for early decommissioning.

Just prior to construction, Starfleet Command received a budget and utilization report for the new ships. Cost analysis revealed that each new Horizon Class vessel would consume the resources required to construct nine Daedalus Class ships while only being slightly better for the intended exploration and patrol missions. The plans for the Horizon vessels were shelved. Instead each Daedalus ship was refitted to resemble Horizon Class specifications. The first ship refitted to the new (Block 2) standards was the Horizon NCC-176. With the “Horizon Refit”, the existing Daedalus Class starships and newly built Block-2 Daedalus ships were able to continue service throughout most of the Twenty Second Century.

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