Regenerative Shielding System
During the Dominion War, it became apparent that the Multi-Layered Shielding System was becoming woefully ineffective against some of the most dangerous threats Starfleet had to face. Because of this shortfall, the call went out for the advancement of shielding systems for all future Starfleet vessels, along with the possibility of refitting some currently deployed vessels as well. The Regenerative Shielding System was proposed in 2373, and testing began immediately. After the initial tests went well, it was mandated that the Regenerative Shielding System was to be deployed in combat craft and tested in battle to prove its usefulness. The system passed with flying colors, and final approval for field deployment of the system was given in 2375.
The Regenerative Shielding System is an ingenious use of current shielding technology in a fashion that was not really deemed necessary during the peaceful years before the Borg were contacted and the Dominion War broke out. Simply stated, the shielding system uses extra shield generators to act as "backups" for the primary shield generators on the ship.
Under red alert conditions the primary shield generators are brought online from standby mode and the secondary generators are brought to full standby mode. When the active shield generators reach a weakness threshold of forty-five percent the back up generators are automatically brought to full operator mode and take over the shield generation duties while the primary generators are powered back to standby mode for recharge or fully offline for any necessary repairs. This constant swapping of duties before too much damage has been sustained to a single generator means that survival rates were increased by more than seventy percent for those ships that deployed the Regenerative Shielding System during the Dominion War.
Other technologies were also introduced with the new shield matrix including countermeasures to increase effectiveness versus the Breen, Dominion, and Borg weaponry which Starfleet had been ill-equipped to handle before. In 2389, the Regenerative Shielding Matrix was upgraded to provide three layers of regenerative shielding, enabling for multiple use cases such as atmospheric entry, close proximity to white stars, and additional protection in armed conflicts.
