However I feel that finally recovering some of my files from the computer in my room, that the whoel forum should see some of it at least in my shelved website. Keep in mind this a little over two years old, so there are alot of typos, grammer mistakes, general history mistakes. But feel free to tell me whats good or bad about it (just not the typos, and grammer. I can fix that easily)
In the 23rd century, Starfleet was constantly limited by treaties or by the Council on how large the fleet or how the fleet should act. Starfleet in the beginning was starting rapidly expanding at a rate unseen in any of the nearby powers. Klingons who was once was a power beyond that of the 22nd century Starfleet was now faced with a equal power that was reaching far and wide. Only a hundred years ago, humans possessed a handful of ships capable of handling some ships, and now humans allied with various races, now has over a thousand ships more than capable of taking on any Romulan or Klingon ships. It was some members and admirals who was curtailing any more what they once said �Rapid aggressive expansion that could lead use to war at this rate.�
The first was in 2231; Starfleet was starting to design a new heavy cruiser capable of taking on the new D-7 model the Type 6. Starfleet already spent considerable amounts of resources on building the Courageous class cruisers, was now going to have a new class eclipse this class. Not only that, Starfleet was facing a what could be called at that time a fleet wide mismatch of technologies. Most ships taken in had incompatible technology with other classes. It was decided that all classes designed will be modeled after the Constitution class. Also, currency at this time was not completely abolished, so with budget cutting by the Council, caused Starfleet to cut corners in starship design. All ships designed up until the 2310�s were always modeled after the leading starship design, the Constitution, Enterprise, and the Excelsior classes.
The second, unwilling to pay for more ships to replace those being decommissioned, stating that �the current ships building should replace those being decommissioned.� So older ships were brought in and instead of being decommissioned, Starfleet was able to get enough funds to totally refit them to current standards. Most notably, several ships were totally refitted to match the Constitution class. By the 2260�s Starfleet had a large fleet of Constitutions and what looked like �kitbashes� of the Constitution class.
A combination of a few treaties and unwillingness to fund for a whole new class, Starfleet did a sneaky starship construction tactic. They brought in several Constitutions to be totally refitted to what was supposed to be the newest starship design; the first was the famed Enterprise. Several classes followed shortly. Klingons were baffled at Starfleet was doing, seeing an almost totally reconstruction of a fleet. One would see a totally different fleet if they went backwards through time from 2280 to 2260.
What ended this sort of �kitbashing� was the abolishing of Starfleet relying heavily on currency, and the willingness to expand after the 2280�s. Starfleet began a second rapid expansion that almost doubled the size of Starfleet by 2320, so it was accepted to have a bigger fleet. However it was brought to the attention of the Council and the Admirals of Starfleet, that despite having been refitted only ten years before, the Constitutions are getting too old. Also the Excelsior project which was expected to have transwarp capability, made most ships obsolete. In addition even after the failure of the Transwarp project, the Excelsior was to be the newest design.
The combination of rapid decommissioning of the Constitution class and a goodwill gesture after the Khitomer Accords, Starfleet lost almost 15% of the fleet despite trying to expand the fleet. The Constellation class was designed to ultimately replace the Constitution class, and the Excelsior class was the �flagship class� for Starfleet. Starfleet did however built massive numbers of the Oberth and Miranda class ships. Though more powerful than ever, Starfleet did have fewer ships per sector were there is 1.8 ships per sector in 2300 there was 3.2 ships per sector in 2280. Only twenty years later would Starfleet start fielding enough ships to maintain a big enough fleet, for what would be the forth rapid expansion in Starfleet.
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
I guess no one has anything to say about this.
This was meant to talk about the politics of Starfleet for the 23rd century.
Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :
Um, can you write a short summary of your theory?
Personally I doubt the Federation would let something like cost stand in the way of expanding their Fleet. After all, they've been living under the Klingon's shadow long enough to be rather paranoid. From what I've seen on screen, I'd say the Fleet actually grew after Khitomer.