posted
Ok ok, but you have to admit, one wonders what was going on through Jaeger's mind when he came up with that stuff. I mean the ship looks great, but obvious there was a lack of careful thought when it came to the inside. 15 tubes (so what if they're only single fire) plus huge shuttle bays plus saucer seperation? It looks like the main deflector would remain with the saucer upon seperation, and since the warp core is almost always located behind the dish, wouldn't that mean the core would be with the saucer section?
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posted
Who says the wore *has* to be behind the dish? It's generally that way because, well, they're both so big. There's no rule that says so.
I'm of the opinion that if the Akira has all this combat stuff, there just ain't enough room left over for all that scientific stuff - which is the very reason we didn't see any of them through TNG.
Mark
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posted
Quite true. For example, the Miranda-class, the Defiant-class, the Intrepid-class, and I believe the Sovereign as well. Warp cores seem to be getting smaller and smaller anyway. Or at least their basic layout has changed a bit.
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posted
There's a CGI of the Akira which shows two hatches, one on each catamaran arm. I was under the empression that the Akira has two warp cores. Why? I don't know, but then again 15 torpedo tubes don't make much sense either.
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posted
Well, maybe this explains the sudden appearence of 'old' ships... in the last few years, when we didn't see them in TNG... also for their 'different' appearence.
The Borg. The Borg caused it. Maybe these ships are purely combat vessels - i.e. the Akira, Sabre, Steamrunner and Norway. The appearence of the Defiant may help in explaining this...
OK we might have had something like this:
Cardassian Wars - the Federation starts to create war-dedicated ships. The Akira and the Steamrunner are rolled of the assembly line.
End of Cardassian War outright conflict. Akira's Steamrunners and other 'dedicated to conflict' ships are retired and stored away.
then...
Borg encountered.
Several new 'weapons' are designed after the Enterprise encounter with a Cube in System J25.
The Defiant, the Sabre and the Norway are created.
Borg reach the Federation and penetrate the Terran system. New ships aren't ready for deployment.
Borg cube destroyed by Enterprise above earth orbit.
Federation decide to finish at least two of Each of the Defiant, Sabre and Norway class ships, to at least some semblence of operation.
The Federation encounter the hostility of the Dominion... the Odyssey destroyed.
DS9 upgrade commenced. Defiant taken out of mothballs by Commander Sisko, and taken to DS9. Miles O'Brien brings the Defiant into working order. His notes are passed on to The Starfleet Core of Engineers, and they are ordered to begin the alterations to the remaining Defiant Class ships along with the Sabres and Norways.
Norways prove to be more time consuming compared to Defiant and Sabres...
Dominion War threat looming. Changelings throughout the Federation. Klingon Hostilities. The war-dedicated ships like the Akiras and Steamrunners, (along with the finishing upgrades on new Sabres, Defiants and the remaining Norways) are brought out of retirement and upgraded to current performance standards. I.e. refit of majority of systems, using Sovereign development and Defiant refitting as a blueprint. (Evidence seen during "Relativity" [VOY]
First refit Akira's and Steamrunner's roll out. Looking different to when they originally appeared during the Cardassian Wars. They are ready to take on the Borg, the Dominion, the Cardassians and the Klingons.
Dominion War immenent. Retired starships are purged for useful parts. New - and old designs combined to provide more numbers of ships. These ships crews take to their hybrid sisters fondly.
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posted
But the Galaxy WASN'T a warship - neither was any other class for that matter (except for the Defiant) - its official designation, IIRC, was 'multirole exploratory cruiser'. In fact, their tactical capabilities were found to be quite unsatisfactory, if the 2371 refit programs are any indication.
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posted
I too thought the Galaxy was seen as a flawed design. I can remember at least one episode where such a thing was said.
quote:Megawarships just didn't exist before 2363.
This could be true, if you don't count tha Akira as a battleship. I still think the sideways firing tubes are actually just windows. And disregarding the 15 tubes mentioned, I think the Akira only got a weapons-pod upgrade after the End-D Borg encounter.
The Defiant class are warships, that's for sure. And I also nominate the Prometheus class as a warship as well, given it's overall design features and the "... designed for deep-space tactical assignment" statement.
------------------ "We have a good arrangement. He supplies the weapons, I use them." - Blade
Looking at the Akira, Steamrunner, Sabre and Norway classes, I'd consider them to be older vessels (20 years or more?), possibly upgraded to present weaponry standards (and quite possibly not).
They don't seem to match the present design philosophy of Starfleet - even though their weapons and escape systems might be updated.
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posted
Mark Nguyen: According to the DS9TM (burn #*&$^ burn!) the Defiant can carry out 90+% of standard scientific missions. The Akira is a lot bigger.
The_Evil_Lord: You can also see it this way: basically ALL Federation ships WERE warships. Starfleet might have said that their primary mission is exploration, but that's just propaganda, everyone knows their real job is to ensure the safety of the Federation. Don't think that those soft looking Starfleet people will let science and discovery stand in the way of them protecting their homeland and people.
I haven't really noticed warp cores getting any smaller. Voyager's core is pretty normal for a ship her size, and Defiant's was oversized (look at the size of the M/AM reaction chamber instead of the magnetic constrictors).
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