Oh, now it works. Why would the Defiant need a launching system, though? It might make sense as a mobile repair station, to conduct repairs the ship's crew couldn't do on their own ... but, aside for that, I don't think the Defiant needs a "carrier" ... (next, we'll see Galaxy-Class starships getting towed around by other ships, too).
posted
Nah... The only reason to do something like this would be to extend the operational range of the Defiant. However, we know that this isn't terribly necessary; the Defiant has made multiple trips to Earth without any apparent complaint, and the USS Valiant's mission was in fact to circumnavigate the whole Federation. The class apparently isn't complaining about durability.
I remember some schmoe who designed this ginormous Galaxy variant with a huge internal bay capable of "ferrying 2-4 Defiant-class escorts into battle". That idea didn't last long.
posted
But the surprise punch might have interesting applications..... This should go in to the thread on the Defiant, this would increase endurance.....
But 1 ship being carried is a litle off, at least 4 to make it worth while. Maybe turn some run abouts in to gun boats, or something to like that, for comabt, or, for exploration, turn them in to portable labs/manned sensor pods.....
Carriers are not a bad idea, power projection is a must for even the least military-acting military that wants to be a superpower.....
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posted
I could see this being useful with a Defiant-like ship, perhaps. Scale the class down even more, so that it's just a phaser cannon attached to an engine, and you might need some other ship to take your flying gun to where you need it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Let me guess... the name of the Defiant is 'USS Blind Duck', right?
There was a comic ages ago that showed a Bird of Prey docked at the rear end of the Excelsior (don't ask me how that should work), then we have my infamous 'multiple-holoship-mega-troop-transport-idea' (yes, it's still there, and one day I'll show you how it should look), and someone once attached a large shuttlebay to the pylon, from the pod's position to the bridge of the ship (attached with two smaller pylons there), making the ship a 'modular through-deck cruiser' or whatever you want to call it.
But this idea is...err...different. Maybe the Nebula could act as a supply ship, just like today's air refueling planes. To transfer new torpedos or something like that. Not necessarily a permanent connection, just for stop-and-go's.
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Registered: Nov 2001
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posted
If that's the case, I wouldn't use a Nebula, as much as a simpler logistics ship with rapid service ability (with a smile). Anyone remembert eh Fabrux-class?
posted
"Captain, the Romulans are closing!" "Launch Attack Starship!"
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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This brings an interesting idea about the Nebula class (as some people know, a favorite of mine) and its fabled multiple missions role. Perhaps certain members of the class could be outfitted to act as "mobile starbases". It could pick up ships with major damage and help repair the ship while allowing the crew to stay on board the Nebula and provide medical care.
While this can be done by other large ships like the Galaxy, Starfleet could have these special Nebula class ships manned with more engineers, medical staff, and technical people to help speed up repairs, etc. The ship could also carry extra fuel for other ships (damaged or not) to far away from a starbase or unable to go back to dock due to mission priorities, etc. Another thing we have to remember is that besides the Galaxy, Nebula, Ambassador, and possibly Sovereign and Excelsior, most of the other ships in Starfleet are smaller and might not be able to support, help repair, and provide aid to the distressed ship's crew.
A tanker, medical ship, and repair ship all in one!
posted
I think this touches the other Defiant-related discussion we're currently having. What kind of support does a starship really require, and how often?
Fueling has never been an issue for the TOS, TNG or DS9 starships on screen. And sometimes, starships appear to plunge into years-long adventures without paying any attention to fuel replenishment. However, Kirk did receive those "fuel consumption reports" to sign whenever the writers needed an excuse to have a pretty little thing on the bridge standing eagerly next to the good captain. So perhaps fuel consumption *was* an issue, and we just never really noticed.
So make fuel replenishment one of the jobs of a tender ship. You don't need a Nebula for that job, but it does make sense to have a large tanker from which several ships can suckle. It wouldn't be smart to build a small tanker that has to catch up with a single starship and then fly back for a refill, catch up the next ship etc. Better let the starships do the catching up and come to one centrally located (and hopefully protectively escorted) tanker.
Crew rotation is something a small ship like an Oberth could handle - and we did see exactly that in TNG. Small ships could also deliver crucial and unreplicable spares or evacuate casualties, or bring aboard new and interesting samples. This assumes the small tenders are about as fast as the big ship, or else the tenders wouldn't expedite anything - they'd just slow things down.
Ammunition replenishment is probably an issue. Torpedo casings or warheads or other components may not be completely unreplicable, but they aren't easily replaced, either - both the Voyager and the Defiant faced torpedo shortages at times when the replicators were producing food and other simple items well enough.
Should a munitions ship be big or small? Should the munitions be carried aboard a tanker? IMHO, it's a good idea to combine ammo and fuel replenishment - both are things that are naturally risky, and would be prime targets to enemy armies or pirates. And both are probably needed equally often in wartime or rarely in peacetime. High fuel consumption could be a feature of intense combat maneuvering, not of calm cruising. Remember that the TNG TM claims the M/ARA "wastes" excess deuterium at low warp factors; perhaps "cruise speed" is the speed at which this "relative wasting" of matter at low speeds and the "absolute consumption" of matter and antimatter at high speeds are best balanced...
What about repairs? Could a tanker/munitions ship be a repair vessel or a tug at the same time? I don't think so - repairs may tie up an auxiliary vessel to her patient for a long time, and towing is something done on only one vessel at a time, both excellent reasons for having numerous small ships instead of few large ones.
I'd say we've seen the spares/crew rotation ship already - it's the Oberth. We haven't seen a tanker/munitions ship yet, but she's probably a dedicated design. The small tug from "Time to Stand" we have seen already, and probably the Ptolemy class is a tug, too. And as for repair ships, we either haven't seen them yet, or then those drydocks are more mobile than they look.
So in general, I wouldn't want to tie up any Nebulas to tender, tanker or repair ship duties. They are ill fitted to that, in some ways too good to be wasted and in other ways too poor to perform the role.
However, a Nebula can do warp 9.6 (or 9.7 with O'Brien enhancements), IIRC. A Defiant barely manages warp 9.5 when on nitrox. So there may be something to using a Nebula as a "carrier" for a Defiant...
posted
The way that I would design a fuel replenishment system would be to deliver antimatter loaded in containment bottles and transfer bottles from refueling ships to warpships. That would be a lot safer than pumping antimatter from a fuel bunker of a tanker through transfer pipes to a warship. Each part of that long transfer conduit would have to be shielded to prevent inaction with matter and possible supercooled, if antideuterium has to be slushy.
As for torpedoes, they're pretty small, not much bigger than a man. I'd think that ships should be able to carry many more than they supposedly do. Refit Connies carry less than 100, although their total volume is probably less than 200 m^2.
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Why less than 100? Didn't we see several hundred implied by the monitor display in ST6?
The small Defiant had "only" 45 torpedoes left in "What We Leave Behind". Perhaps we should treat the "Conundrum" figure of 250 torpedoes for the E-D in the same way - this was what was left out of possibly thousands at the time (or what was carried in peacetime in magazines capable of taking much more), and the memory-deprived Worf simply didn't realize that 250 was a low-end figure. Or, despite the Satarran claims that the memory-wipe preserved the technical skills of the crew, perhaps Worf was simply reading the display wrong.
Or perhaps it's much like WWII, where US submarines sailed out without torpedoes because US torpedoes just couldn't be called "weapons" with a straight face. The torp launchers are there, but Starfleet is still waiting for a weapon worthy of being launched by them.
I agree antimatter should be moved in self-contained pods, which in turn would be held within a second layer of containment aboard the tanker. Deuterium in turn should be stored "in bulk", perhaps in the "slush" form suggested in the TNG TM. So a Trek tanker might be a cross-breed of a container ship (with easy exterior access to the pods, once the outer containment structure or forcefield is retracted) and a classic liquid tanker.
posted
I was thinking more along the lines of the Defiant attachment being a scout ship/separation a la Prometheus from Message in a Bottle - i.e. something to take along in missions to/through hostile territory... or yeah I like the ideas of the Nebbie being some sort of 'mother ship/refueler'.
But basically the Deffie attachment would make one hell of an auxillary craft for that Nebbie!
Docking/connection would be fine - the shuttle bay 'hole' could be used for through access.
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