As part of the lesson learnt from the Four Years War, Starfleet realised
that the sheer multitude of destroyer classes in service (around 15
different classes) and in production (10) was wholly impractical. The
usefulness of twin engine destroyer has been demonstrated during the war,
offering extra power for movement and weapons (although at the expense of
range and cost). The simple solution proposed to meet the need for twin
engine destroyers was to utilise existing single engine designs with a
'minimum change' addition of a second engine.
The 'Twin Saladin' class was one example of this approach, the
design basically added a second warp nacelle to a Saladin Class Destroyer.
Unlike the Warhawk class (which added a ventral nacelle), this design added
a small secondary hull, upon which warp nacelles were mounted. As with the
Warhawk the additional nacelle connected directly into the existing power
systems of the Saladin design with no major modification to the design other
than some uprating of components to handle the additional power.
After evaluation the decision was made that the Warhawk class would be
adopted as it was a more simple design to build. However the promise shown
by the 'Twin Saladin' meant that it was instead chosen to be intoduced in a
new role, as a medium cruiser.
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