SU Cost: 6 x Size
Power Cost: 4 Power per round of use

Regenerative forcefield technology was combined with the navigational deflector in order to produce a more efficient deflector array. When particles impact the primary deflector field, the impact energy is channeled into a field storage chamber and then into the secondary and tertiary generators, reinforcing the strength of the fields.

The experiment was a qualified success. Power use was reduced slightly in comparison to standard arrays, but not enough to justify the increase in cost and space required by the improved system.

In a further experiment that many saw as reckless and dangerous, a test vessel accelerated to warp speed in a nebula. The ship attained warp 2 for a few moments. As the deflector fields impacted the nebula particles, the particles were ionized or even converted to plasma. These particles piled up against the fields in a highly charged "bow wave" that blinded all the forward sensors. The crew reduced to impulse speed, unwilling to risk flying into planets or anything else that the deflectors could not handle.

Starfleet has not been able to develop sensors capable of penetrating this "particular bow wave". An Andorian engineer compared the problem to "using a candle to try to see through a snowplow in a blizzard." Psionic researchers have suggested a helmsman with ESP could sense the danger of incoming obstacles and steer around them, but Starfleet is not willing to develop a procedure in which the safety of a ship and crew are entirely dependent on the psionic ability of a single individual.

Some astronomers object to nebular warp speed flights on the grounds that the bow waves disturb the natural equilibrium of the nebula. Preliminary research has not showed any long-term effects of bow waves, but they do report that the waves are long-lived and easily tracked.

These issues have led to Starfleet R&D reducing funds to the regenerative navigational deflector project. It is likely to remain on the back burner in the immediate future.