
Very rough sketch of an idea I've had for a few weeks. While I do love the TOS Bird of Prey and the revamped design Atolm did for a refit, it's never sat well with me that the Bird of Prey in Star Trek III was supposed to be a Romulan vessel. Yeah it's Klingon in the film but it was built long before they'd changed the villains from the Klingons to the Romulans. For a Romulan ship though, it lacks... elegance.
So, my school of thought here, is this Bird of Prey was started about the same time as the Klingon version and they had the same basic design idea down. The Klingons wanted a fast strike ship that was small and agile and could run with minimal crew and looked savage. The Romulans, growing tired of the Klingons need for barbary, went in another direction. Taking the lesson they learned from the TOS plasma weapon, they refined their weapon and bird of prey design so that it was still fearsome, but they had also started screwing around with artificial singularities to power their ships, so instead of just impulse, they had a full blown warp drive once again.
To give their Bird of Prey a more elegant look, as well as provide more space for power, they built the wings in a fixed position, and using their Vulcan ancestry, built their warp engines in the spirit of the Vulcan ring ships and into the wings of their ship, leaving a very haunting glow to come off the back of the wings and a highly unusual warp signature on enemy scanners. Since the plasma weapon was taxing, even with the singularity, they added modified disruptors that they lifted from the Klingons to the center of their wings where they could draw the most power with less effort.
Slightly larger than the Klingon version, which was tagged more as an aggressive scout, the ouye'Llaihr class was considered a frigate or corvette as it patrolled along the borders before the Romulans self-imposed exile through most of the 24th Century.
Obviously, this is a sketch. One that I really think I want to turn into a full blown model for some Starfleet Captain to need a change of pants after getting a look at it.