"Maximum Warp" redirects here. For the Pocket Books miniseries, see Star Trek: The Next Generation - Maximum Warp.

Maximum warp (or top warp speed) is the maximum warp factor velocity a starship is designed for and a term whereby a bridge officer can ask the flight controller to accelerate the ship to its highest possible velocity.

The maximum warp velocity, and time it can be maintained, of a starship varies between classes due to warp core limitations. Galaxy-class ships, such as the USS Enterprise-D, could only maintain their maximum warp for approximately twelve hours. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", "The Best of Both Worlds") Intrepid-class ships such the USS Voyager, on the other hand, could maintain it from three days up to two months. (VOY: "Workforce", "Workforce, Part II", "Friendship One")

The USS Carolina travelled 0.7 light years in two hours when at maximum warp. (VOY: "Inside Man")

Even though the Nova-class was designed to travel at a maximum speed of warp factor 8, when the USS Equinox powered its warp drive with energy derived from the corpses of nucleogenic lifeforms, an increase of 0.03% was added to the warp factor, allowing the velocity of traveling ten thousand light years in less than two weeks. (VOY: "Equinox")

Maximum warp limitations by class Edit

• Warp 1.4^† - Arctic One-type
• Warp 1.8^† - Y-class
• Warp 2^† - Neptune-class, J-class
• Warp 4 - Type 9 shuttlecraft
• Warp 5 - NX-class^†, Danube-class
• Warp 6^† - D5 class, Class 3 neutronic fuel carrier
• Warp 8^† - Constitution-class
• Warp 8 - Nova-class
• Warp 9.8 - Galaxy-class
• Warp 9.975 - Intrepid-class
• Warp 36^† - Karla Five's vessel

^†Original Cochrane Unit warp scale

Maximum warp requests Edit

Background information Edit

There is evidence that maximum warp is not always the highest reachable warp-factor. For example, in ENT: "Affliction", the Enterprise NX-01 already travels at maximum warp, but then accelerates to Warp 5.2. A similar occurrence is depicted in DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice": The USS Defiant already travels at maximum warp, but then accelerates to Warp 9.5.

In both TNG: "Time Squared" and TNG: "Bloodlines", maximum warp seems to be equivalent with warp 9, although the Enterprise-D can move faster in other episodes.