Every Nebula class ship has a number of mission specific pods, that can be swapped in under 4 hours, they are clamped on the back by means of a common support strut, with only the Sensor pod using 2 special and seperate supports due to its immense size, growing to be allmost half the size of the saucer section.
This is a rundown of the various pods assigned to the USS-Griffon:
Due to the dominion war, the advanced weapons pod has become the standard attachment for the Nebula class ships, but since then, Nebulas have gone back to using other pods as well. The Advanced Weapons Pod adds:
4 x burst fire Quantum torpedo tubes
4 x burst fire Photon torpedo tubes
As well as this, there is space for 400 Quantum, and 400 photon torpedoes and the 35 staff needed to work these extra tubes. These Staff also double as security personnel and the Weapons pod houses 3 Armouries, including Weapons, Various Grenade charges, and Body armour.
These extra tube more than double the firepower of the Nebula class, and a salvo from all tubes can cripple most ships.
There are also 20 Brig Cells, with the force fields, which have been known to fail during battle, have been reinforced by 1 second-closing Blast doors, that can only be unlocked by the brig manager or the command crew. These have proven to be much more effective than standard forcefields when used in battle conditions.
Medical Pod
This variant does not carry the weapon pod and replaces this with extra facility for medical patients. This Pod adds 250 medical personnel to the crew of the Griffon, and has facilities for 5000 patients, There are 8 Triage wards, and the pod has facilities for limb cloning, and 300 stasis chambers in the case of life threatening ailments.
The pod also has 10 Isolation wards, for dealing with
Disease. All the wards all have force fields on the doors, to protect the
nurses from rowdy patients, a measure introduced after insane patients killed
64 nurses in a break out, and the remaining Doctors/Nurses had to be beamed
to safety.
This pod is completely separate from the main ship, and runs on its own power,
and life support, to help minimise the risk of spreading disease.
The Medical Pod also has a Large Transporter, that can beam 50 people at a
time, but is locked out to everyone but the Transporter chief, to stop the
risk of spreading disease.
Cargo Module
Cargo Module The Cargo Module is just that. It is big and bulky, but it adds
and extra 200,000 metric tons to the cargo capacity of the ship, and an extra
shuttle bay housing 4 Type 10, cargo hauling shuttle conversions of the conventional
shuttles. This is usefull in large scale landing operations, relocations of
colony's, and during resupply during war.
Transport/Colony Module
The Habitat Module is used when transporting colonists. It has room for 5000
people, 4950 of which in what is essentially a cargo bay with bunks in it,
with a small amount of space for personal items, and the other 50 for the
colony officials who get separate, but still sparse quarters.
Troop Transport Module.
This is a very mission specific module. It has room for 600 Ground Troops,
a command HQ, and a subspace relay with Starfleet Command.
It also has a shuttle bay, holding 6 Argo class Shuttles, with 3 Argo class
jeeps for each (the shuttle makes 3 runs to drop them all off), each shuttle
holds 6 troops, as well as a Pilot and Gunner for the ship.
Diplomatic Module
The Diplomatic module is for special operations, this is a rather smaller
module which is attached. It has quarters for 200 aids, plus 50 VIP quarters
for the Diplomats them self, it has large negotiating rooms, and a small entertainment
center. It is designed to be a neutral area where negotiations can be staged.
Housing the diplomatic module, gives the nebula class 10 diplomatic facilities,
insted of the normal 8.
It also has its own security detachment, who are a highly trained and use Body Armour, and the Bajoran style of phaser weapons, to identify them as VIP Bodyguards as opposed to starfleet security. As well as this, the Bajoran Weapons have been identified as more accurate and have a larger psychological impact due to their THWUMP-THWUMP as they fire. The VIP Guards are not really needed most of the time, but a ruler without protection is unlikly to live for very long.
Advanced Sensor module
The Module itself is nothing more then a very large bundle of sensors, increasing
the long range scanning range 10 fold and allowing short range sensors 90
times better resolution.
It also includes 50 science crew, along with 20 Highly specialised labs, and
a small shuttle bay, housing 2 Danube Class-Science adapted Runabouts.
It has been stated that ‘This Sensor suite is so advanced, that it makes
a regular science ship's sensor array look like a tricorder’