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Description
The Balson Class was developed concurrently with the Excelsior and Ingram class starships. Starfleet Command was concerned about the risk of failure with the new transwarp platform being developed for use on the new Excelsior class ships. If the program ran into delays or problems, the aging Constitution class ships would be forced to continue their role at the forefront of Federation exploration. A newer class of exploration ships was needed no matter what and it was decided to launch a lower cost alternative to the Excelsior class. The Balson class built on the already successful Constitution Refit program and added updated warp core (from the Excelsior) and weapons systems. Some additional automation was added when compared to the Refit Constitution, but not as much as the Excelsior. The general layout of the ship and its warp field dynamics were taken from research for the cancelled Federation class refit program. When the Excelsior program stumbled in testing and had to be reengineered to accommodate traditional propulsion systems, the bet that was made on the Balson class paid off. It was launched for trial runs on November 28th, 2285 and commissioned in June of 2287.

Description
The Balson Class was developed concurrently with the Excelsior and Ingram class starships. Starfleet Command was concerned about the risk of failure with the new transwarp platform being developed for use on the new Excelsior class ships. If the program ran into delays or problems, the aging Constitution class ships would be forced to continue their role at the forefront of Federation exploration. A newer class of exploration ships was needed no matter what and it was decided to launch a lower cost alternative to the Excelsior class. The Balson class built on the already successful Constitution Refit program and added updated warp core (from the Excelsior) and weapons systems. Some additional automation was added when compared to the Refit Constitution, but not as much as the Excelsior. The general layout of the ship and its warp field dynamics were taken from research for the cancelled Federation class refit program. When the Excelsior program stumbled in testing and had to be reengineered to accommodate traditional propulsion systems, the bet that was made on the Balson class paid off. It was launched for trial runs on November 28th, 2285 and commissioned in June of 2287.