posted
Granted the Sovereign was probably not intended to be a battlesihp when designs were drawn up, but I think its fair to say she's a better-equipped battleship than any other Starfleet design (possibly excluding purpose built Defiants). I was fishing through the DS9TM again and ran across a blurb about special weapons and equipment designed for the Sovereign class starship (in the phasers section of the book) and got to thinking about something.
Similar to how the U.S. Navy in recent years has drifted away from blue water operations and into the littorals...I wonder if Sternbach and the others were thinking about expeditionary syle warfare when they wrote the TM?
Facts: We have a massive starship that is armed to the teeth now with quantums, photons, phasers, and close range point (not necessairly "point" but you get the idea) defense launchers, wheeled vehicles that ride inside dropship style shuttles, the INS type shuttles (which BTW are probably the Danube class successors mentioned in the TM which more than likely turned out to supplement rather than replace), and pulse phaser rifles.
To me, this points to a Starfleet that's decided it needed to bulk up and be prepared to go planetside (space littorals I suppose)if they were going to win decisevly in future conflicts. The question is, who were they preparing for? The Borg probably drove many of the weapons systems that were installed during development, but certainly not the planetary operations equipment that was introduced. Maybe there was a lot of weaknesses revealed during the Klingon-Cardassian-UFP conflict and later the Dominion War which obviously had some ground combat occuring.
Regardless, I think it would be interesting to see some thoughts put down on paper as to the Sovvie's and her outfitted gear's purpose. I wonder how long in advance Sternbach turns in his technial briefs to STMAG before they are printed....wish he could squeeze in a brief on the Sovereign before the end.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
This of course has to be meshed with various plot contrivances and tendencies for the show. One thing we've noticed in recent Trek is that the bad guys tend to always have ships that are smaller/inferior to the ship in question (Voyager and Enterprise have this in abundance). In Voyager, the Delta Flyer was created in part to open up the more indiidualized storytelling options you can get from smaller ships and their smaller crews - not to mention Top Gun-esque VFX sequences.
In the present, TV (and movie) budgets can easily take several new ship designs on a weekly basis as needs require - one of the reasons we rarely saw proper shuttles for so long in TOS and TNG was simply because they couldn't afford to do it right. Now they can, and so they'll let their writers come up with stories that use these options.
Bringing this back, as a result of this the galaxy is now filled with lots of small ships where there were few before. Whatever the reason in the Trek universe, it has resulted in a need for tactical options for attack and defence on the big starships. As such, runabii, fighters, and CIWS-style weapons will find a niche in Starfleet's new and refitted designs. One can only speculate if such weapons were strapped onto other designs as well. For example, the 15+ tube Akira could have been designed that way with small-craft defence and assault in mind, especially given that it was designed as a fighter carrier.
posted
Starfleet sent a huge number of ships to a very small area around DS9, probably leaving a lot of other areas unprotected. They must have filled these gaps somehow to make sure they aren't plundered or invaded behind their back by a few small yet hostile governments. Hence, they send their most advanced ships -- Intrepids and Sovereigns, among others -- that will either talk their way out of the situation or look and act threatening.
If the Enterprise-E did participate in the Dominion War, and it probably did to an extent, it would've been in diplomatic missions given Picard's preferences. In FC, the Enterprise-E was ordered to watch the Neutral Zone while the fleet is engaging the Borg. In "Insurrection," it was on a diplomatic mission to meet with aliens-of-the-week. In Nemesis, it was again on a dangerous diplomatic mission to Romulus. The Bellerophon (an Intrepid) served as a diplomatic transport ship in "Inter Arma...".
Starfleet probably does not want to lose these ships so soon because they also serve as testbeds for the entire class, and it's nice to be able to show your allies/enemies where you stand. Another Sovereign could've gone to Jellico, who would've looked and acted threatening just in case an alien government attempts to use the situation to their advantage. A very different approach from Picard's own, but one for which a Sovereign is also suited.
After the war, these newer classes probably continued to serve as the kind of protection Starfleet didn't have prior to the Borg and the Dominion. Things won't get back to normal so soon.
Finally, just because the Sovereign has more torpedo launchers than the Galaxy class doesn't necessarily mean it is that much more a warship. It could mean that they wanted to simplify guidance systems on the torpedoes because of risks associated with close combat. It may make the Enterprise-E better suited for war, but at the end of the day, Starfleet is the defensive arm of the Federation; there isn't a separate military.
Boris
[ January 02, 2003, 14:13: Message edited by: Boris ]
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
Well thought out on both posts. I'd imagine that the Galaxy class ships have added the micro-torpedo launchers as well with the loss of the Odyssey in mind. Particularly in the rear aft quarter of the ship where a Galaxy has the leasy coverage.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Redundancy aside, from above, the aft of a Galaxy would seem to be defended by four phaser strips (six if we're talking about the post-Venture refit era) and a torpedo launcher. From below, five strips.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I meant Ventral aft. No torpedo coverage down there. It's really the same firing arc as the Connie refit from that angle. I'd add (if I were to follow the Soverign's lead) a micro-launcher facing aft near the tractor beam emitter.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I meant Ventral aft. No torpedo coverage down there. It's really the same firing arc as the Connie refit from that angle. I'd add (if I were to follow the Soverign's lead) a micro-launcher facing aft near the tractor beam emitter.
There already IS a dual torpedo launcher, identical to the forward launcher just under the deflector dish, mounted right at the bottom of the secondary hull. That's not a tractor beam emitter...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Well, initially I started this thread to see what folks thought about the Sovereign being developed as an expeditionary warfighter (for lack of a better term) and somehow it got hijacked into a GCS/SCS torpedo launcher debate
Okay...back on track now....maybe. This discussion stems from the comment in the DS9TM about special systems and equipment being developed for the Sovereign class...I was just fleshing it out alittle.
Registered: Mar 1999
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