posted
Most ships we have seen in Star Trek are classified as cruisers or other kinds of battleships/explorers. Only a few ships have been mentioned as freighters or couriers. Look at a real navy. They use repair ships, tugs, marine carriers, landing craft, espionage ships/planes... Why we have never heard of them in the Star Trek universe? It seems that the Star Trek staffers (or is it the encyclopedia) are creating ships just to have something new in the show now matter if the ship type is realistic. I mean Starfleet has more than two dozens of FF/DD/CG/BB/EX type but no ships with the ability to start cruise missiles, gather information or deliver a load of marines.
---------- "You! Hold my pint while I get the satchel charges. Yes, of course I'm kidding, you stupid bastard - you think I'd trust you with the beer?"
-------------------- "Ah, Romulans. I like them best burning and in pieces."
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-The_Tom "Don't fire till you see the whiets of there eyes!!!"
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
without any launchers.. impressive.
well i daresay the trek universe doesnt have cruise missiles.
and an array of ship types shown can have a lot of purposes.
the Oberth is a scout..
a Galaxy cancarry 5000 troops if needed
the Nebula has always had that big interchangeable pod.. probably could get a lot of mission specific gear in there.
Starfleet does seem to have a lot less specialized ships that a traditional navy.. but why would they need traditional navy applications in space?
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Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
The Kapetanov-class Attack Carrier (another variant of the Akira) is a landing ship that incorporates all LP/LC ship of a real navy.
But what about the final attack on Cardassia? The Federation/Klingon/Romulan ships tried to destroy the weapons platforms. A simple Tiberius-class Strike Cruiser could start a few quantum missiles and evaporate dozens of this platforms. But Starfleet preferres to sacrifice ships and crews? Not even the "lets bring war to Saddam" US Navy would do this.
Okay, the Nebula (and also Springfield) with its pod is a multimission platform and okay the Galaxy can carry a shitload of Marines but it has only a few transporters and no heavy landing shuttles. Maybe a Oberth would make a good planetary surveyor but with its 150-year old warp geometry it will never be a plenty armed fast scout.
---------- "You! Hold my pint while I get the satchel charges. Yes, of course I'm kidding, you stupid bastard - you think I'd trust you with the beer?"
-------------------- "Ah, Romulans. I like them best burning and in pieces."
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Kapetanov? Tiberius? Are we supposed to know these ship classes?
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I created the Kapetanov (a amphibious carrier based on the Akira-class, like the Navys Wasp-class), Tiberius (a missile cruiser based on the Excelsior-class, like the Navys Ticonderoga-class), Meteor(a missile/torpedoe defense vessel based on the Intrepid-class), Chimera (you know the Portland, a cloaked espionage vessel), Mediterranean (you know the Lalo, a deuterium/antimatter tanker) and several other vessels just for my own pleasure. Sorry guys, despite I'm austrian I'm a fan of the US Navy and its ship types
---------- "You! Hold my pint while I get the satchel charges. Yes, of course I'm kidding, you stupid bastard - you think I'd trust you with the beer?"
-------------------- "Ah, Romulans. I like them best burning and in pieces."
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
You're a fan of the US Navy? So am I! Actually I am a Sailor. Check with Hobbes so is he. Also post some of these ships in the Design fourm.
There are parallels between the US Navy and Starfleet, but there's also many things that are different. For one is the amount of officers on board there ships. Every episode we see a load of officers and almost no enlisted members. In the US especially on ships, the ratio of officers to the enlisted is about 1 to 25.
Second, many of these ships are about the same size or far larger than a aircraft carrier, and we are to expect a crew of 500 or so? The Galaxy class has a thounsand and that's not even a full crew but with families as well.
In terms of looking at demographics, Starfleet should have hundreds of millions of officers and enlisted.
Registered: Jul 2000
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Thread hijack time! Actually, this is just the perfect place for my thought.
While at work today, I too was thinking about the parallels between Starfleet & RW navies, but in more of the operational aspects. Specifically, I was thinking about time off. It never occured to me to think about days off. I mean, us working stiffs get on average 2 days off a week to rest & I can't see RW navies doing that aboard ship. So what about Starfleet? They're cities in space...do they give you the weekend off, & if so, how do you go about requesting it?
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posted
Or, hey, they could deploy the Enchiridion Class to perform a trans-sentient uplift on potential threat species.
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An army fella once told me that there are two things in life an army boy could never understand: Navy ranks and British money.
Well, I rather think that Starfleet ranks is a hellav lot harder to understand than Navy ones.
Is Starfleet a military? Yes, it is. It breathes,acts and behaves like a military. Must be one. Non of this TNG paramilitary organization crap.
Why? The Navy also does exploratory research (in the seas) much like Starfleet. Starfleet, on the other coin, is called when there is a threat-- i.e. V'Ger, the Borg, the Romulans, the Klingons. There may not be any saluting, but everthing else sings of the military.
Star Trek doesn't always get the military aspect right (except for Meyer, DS9, and parts of this last movie). Take a look at Enterprise; the Earth Star Fleet is acting much like the Picard one. Do we really expect to believe this?
However, I've always felt that the old Star Trek, especially the movie-era past TWOK, was more like the old Royal Navy in its heyday before WWII.
There should be different classes of ships; from frigates to destroyers. Franz Joseph in his TOS Tech Manual rationalized this, as did a lot of fandom tech. (See the Starfleet Mueseum website or any of James Dixon's stuff).
As Roddenberry once said, there's a fleet out there but we only really get to see the Enterprise.
posted
There are a few enlisted out there in the Star Trek Navy, take a look at Star Trek VI they have those two enlisted guys that killed the Chancellor and Worfs father was a Chief Petty Officer and Chief O'Brien was a Chief Warrant Officer.
-------------------- "Who cares if we bomb a few hospitals, it just means we got them a second time" Warrant Officer Robert Clift, CVN-71 OEF
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Since we hardly know what ships like the Akira class or Norway class are good for and what function they served during the DW, there’s nothing concrete to say Starfleet doesn't have troop transports, tugs, or missile destroyers.
Registered: Mar 2001
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quote: There are a few enlisted out there in the Star Trek Navy, take a look at Star Trek VI they have those two enlisted guys that killed the Chancellor and Worfs father was a Chief Petty Officer and Chief O'Brien was a Chief Warrant Officer.
Indeed. Enlisted really did not appear in Trek until TWOK, or at least didn't have a seperate distinct rank device. There were a few in TOS with Yeoman Rand and a few techs.
However, O'Brien-- who's rank was just a cluster-frack in TNG-- was really a CPO, when he should've been a CWO being the chief of ops for DS9. He says his rank as CPO in an episode of DS9 when they introduced the current NCO ranking system seen in modern Trek.
The writers were never consistant with his promotions in TNG or in DS9.
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