Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
Flare Sci-Fi Forums
»
Sci-Fi
»
Designs, Artwork, & Creativity
»
You're the Guy In Charge of the Admirals!
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message:
HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [QB] As for the balance between exploration and defense, I think Starfleet prior to TNG might have been counting on having both done by pretty much the same fleet. The key would be to have the fleet deployed so that it could be summoned to "man the ramparts" quickly enough to stop an invasion. Slower ships would have to stay closer to home if they were to be used for defense. The faster ones would have a longer leash. This works fine as long as you know the speed at which the enemy will invade. If that speed increases significantly, you are screwed: every single mission is disrupted if you redeploy your forces closer to home. I guess the idea of "mobile defenses", of your best combatants roaming out exploring, of watching out for the enemy trying to "steal to the base", worked just fine during the Cardassian war, and lulled the fleet to false security. Then the Borg struck faster than the Cardassians. The Dominion struck harder than the Cardassians. And the only way for the "flexible" defenses to adapt was to either rebuild the entire fleet, or to abandon all current missions and reassign everybody. In this sense, I could see major postwar changes. Either in the direction of creating a new "mobile defense force" that suits the current parameters of enemy speed and strength - or then in the direction of abandoning the whole idea and going for heavier fixed "siege mentality" defenses and lesser emphasis on the recall-warship-on-demand doctrine. Interestingly enough, the various dedication plaques do seem to mention these "exploration command/division" and "defense/tactical command/division" things. Perhaps they are now-on, now-off features of Starfleet, sometimes abandoned for political convenience ("See, all our ships are under a single exploration-oriented Command. We aren't a warfighting force. Don't fear us."), sometimes reinstated ("See, we have a mighty part of the fleet solely dedicated to war. Fear us."), while the actual fighting ships stay the same. The early TNG era might have been one of those times when there wasn't a separate Defense Command, perhaps as a counterreaction to the "Border Wars". This caused lots of schizophrenia within the fleet, and made Picard sprout strange platitudes in "Peak Performance" et al. After the Dominion war, I could see Defense Command reinstated and given possession of the newest multipurpose ships, while Exploration Command has to build new explorers for its missions. Older types would now finally be scrapped as a cost-cutting measure. A big fleet of Defiants doesn't appeal to me - those aren't much of a strategic deterrent, and tactically I'd rather build ships big enough that you can permanently assign just one per each star system and expect her to put up a meaningful defense. In time, Starfleet would again move the ships out of their fixed defense positions, especially if the constant military presence became politically unacceptable (and of course, it would be dramatically unacceptable were Trek as entertainment to continue beyond the "Endgame" timepoint). And introduction of transwarp would again make it realistic to send all the fleet out to explore, since the ships could return at a speed comparable or superior to that of the enemy once again. Timo Saloniemi [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
© 1999-2024 Charles Capps
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3