Over the succeeding years several attempts where made to bring the speed of the Cheyenne up to Warp 9.7, but problems with the field geometry began to re-surface with alarming regularity. With the prototype about to enter service and five more ships under construction, it was already too late to make any serious attempt to improve the top speed of the Cheyenne, so Starfleet was forced to bring the class into service even though it was somewhat slower than the vessels it was supposed to work alongside. However, in December of 2344 the Galaxy project received new specifications calling for a top speed of Warp 9.6. Eventually these problems where overcome and the USS Cheyenne, launched in 2344, achieved a maximum speed of Warp 9.2 in trials.
Starfleet has relatively limited experience with four nacelle designs, and a good deal of difficulty was experienced with the warp field geometry.
Initially, all did not go well with the Cheyenne. While the Constellation was considered to be an overworked yet underpowered vessel, due in part to the four nacelle design, the Cheyenne would benefit from new power generation and management techniques designed to work with class 5 warp drives.
In order to accomplish this, the Cheyenne was fitted with four nacelles in the pattern established by the much earlier Constellation-class. The Cheyenne was intended to be somewhat faster than its contemporaries in order to allow it to travel out ahead of the main body of a fleet to act as a scout or to act in a first response capacity. The Cheyenne-class development project was approved in 2338, the design brief for the Cheyenne originally requested a Light Cruiser to counterpart the New Orleans-class Frigate and the upcoming Galaxy and Nebula-class Explorers with the intention of utilising the class as a bridge between the explorers and patrol vessels of the fleet.
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