The Romulan Fleet

As with so many things Romulan, very little is known of the structure and organisation of the Romulan fleet. Pre-war, the Rolmulan empire is known to have spent considerable effort disguising the size and constitution of it's fleet, even to the extent of giving some ships multiple names and leaving others unnamed. Additionally, fake radio chatter between warships and outposts was creating, intended to confuse listeners as to the actual location of Romula ships. It is a measure of the success of these tactics that the Federation did not get a visual look at a D'Deridex class Warbird until 2364 - nearly 20 years after the Romulans reopened diplomatic relations. Since then, only one single other class of Romulan ship has ever been identified. Whether this idicates a high degree of homogeny in the Romulan fleet, or that the Romulans are experts at hiding themselves is simply not known.

Information on the Romulans has proved hard to come by. The Defection of Admiral Jarok was hoped to be a major intelligence coup, but turned out to be a complex disinformation ploy by the Romulans. Most of the information on Romulan warships and their capabilities where gleaned from Vice Proconsul M'ret and his aides after their defection. Also the return of Ensign DeSeve - defector to the Romulan empire in 2349 - provided background information on the Romulan military

Unless the Federation can find some other source of information, it is doubtful we will learn much more about the Romulan's military capabilities in the short term.

Romulan Fleet Doctrine:

The underlying priciples of the Romulan fleet are another significant unknown, but appear revolve around their preference for relatively few large ships. The first strike capabilty granted by superior Romulan cloaking technology is another important factor.

The ships themselves - so much as is known of them, are thought to be designed to be visually impressive so as to intimidate opponents - certainly the first images of the D'Deridex class sent shock waves through Starfleet.

The fact that the D'Deridex appears to offer a frightening ability to deliver troops to a planet's surface and subsequently support them also tend to support the view that the Romulan fleet has an expansionist imperial role, as opposed to a defensive one.

Ships of the Romulan Star Empire:

Scout Craft
D'Deridex Class Warbird