The Ambassador class was developed during the 2320's as a replacement for the aging Excelsior and Constellation classes as Starfleets front-line Explorer type vessel. Several innovative new features were included in the new design, most notably for the diplomatic and scientific missions. The USS Ambassador included high quality guest quarters and was equipped with elaborate conference facilities. Many of these areas were capable of maintaining a wide range of environments, a vital prerequisite for a vessel which would spend a great deal of its life dealing with non-standard life forms. These facilities allowed her to host a much wider range of diplomatic functions than the more cramped Excelsior class, although it did lead to the class being dubbed "space hotels" in some quarters.The scientific facilities of the Ambassador class were equally well equipped. The ships contained the most powerful space borne sensor arrays of their time, including eighteen modular sensor pallets for mission specific equipment. Twenty eight large dedicated laboratory facilities are included in the ship, along with facilities to convert three of the cargo bays to hold extra scientific equipment if necessary. This gave the Ambassador an estimated 450% increase in research capabilities over an Excelsior class vessel.
While the primary purpose of a starship is exploratory and scientific, the Ambassadors also have teeth. The class introduced phaser arrays to Starfleet in place of the ball turret phasers carried by previous designs. This measure greatly increased the ability of the Ambassador class to fire sustained bursts, and greatly reduced the recharge and cool down times. The use of an independent power system for every group of ten emitter segments in the array triples the survivability of the array compared to a ball turret, while there are also benefits to the reaction time, greater control of thermal effects, field halos and target impact. Overall the phaser arrays of the Ambassador are over 65% more effective than ball turrets of similar power. The concept of burst firing photon torpedoes was another first; although fitted with the same number of torpedo tubes as the Excelsior class, the Ambassadors ability to fire five torpedoes at a time from each tube effectively gave her ten tubes in place of two. The expected lifetime of the Ambassador class is 80 years.
