The USS Hunter is a Prometheus-class vessel, one of the most advanced fighting ships in the fleet. She spans 415 meters in length, has a beam of 170 meters, and a draft of 113 meters. She carries a crew complement of up to 141 persons. With a cruising speed of warp 9, she can achieve maximum warp speed in excess of warp 9.9, making her the fastest ship of her day.
Her weapons consist of thirteen Type XII collimated phaser arrays, and three Mk 95 direct-fire photon torpedo tubes. With a computer system comprised of M-16 bio-neural gel pack isolinear III processors, she can operate fully automated over prolonged periods.
Prometheus-class vessels are capable of multi-vector assault mode, splitting into three separate ships in order to attack an enemy from multiple directions at once.
The USS Hunter is officially named for Orion the Hunter, the constellation and mythical figure of ancient past. Unofficially, however (unofficially because ships cannot be named after Paramount licensed characters or actors), the name was inspired by Jeffrey Hunter, the actor who portrayed Captain Christopher Pike in the Star Trek pilot episode, “The Cage.” Jeffrey Hunter grew up in Milwaukee.
While in multi-vector assault mode, the sections are officially designated Hunter-A, Hunter-B, and Hunter-C. But the crew loves to nickname things. The ventral system always remains the Hunter, but the other two sections are nicknamed after two Wisconsin astronauts. The dorsal section becomes the James Lovell, one of the astronauts who was on the ill-fated Apollo-13. The keel section becomes the Laurel Clark, who was killed when the space shuttle Columbia exploded during re-entry in 2003.
The ship was initially named the USS Wisconsin. However, it was noted that another Star Trek Fan Group, Starfleet Command Quadrant 1, also had a USS Wisconsin, NCC-213001. To avoid confusion, and to show respect to our fellow Star Trek fans, a name change was proposed by captain Eric J. Hildeman in 2003. Several name candidates were chosen, and USS Hunter won out in the voting.