posted
Following on from a thread in General Discussion, I pose this issue for debate. The Dominion War is over. The Federation and Starfleet are rebuilt to the point that it can once again concentrate on exploring the galaxy. Assuming that during the war most exploration and scientific missions were put on hold (as was seen to be true in "One Little Ship", "The Sound of Her Voice" et. al.), how would Starfleet go about getting back to business? And what would change in Federation exploration policy?
Obviously, the "norm" as presented in TNG and the early seasons of DS9 would probably never be restored. But what would change? Is the notion of "one ship, alone out there" still tenable? Would there, or should there, be multiple ships on a single mission? Shorter duration (and range) missions? Why or why not?
The point is, in all the talk we've had on the post-War period, rarely do we seriously speculate about the whole exploration thing that defines Trek in the first place - it's all about beefing up the territory we know and have won back, to ensure it doesn't happen again. So, what would you do?
posted
I don't see a major change in policies. They were at war with the Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians and so forth through the years and that never really made a noticable change in how exploration was done. Being that this is Roddenberry's Universe...and peaceful exploration is the "norm", then I think that that can be safely continued from this point on. So do explorer ships need warship escorts? no, I dont see why the Federation would all of the sudden need to get paranoid about how it goes about exploration. All of its previous threats have been nullified, lullibied or pacified in newly changed regimes, so the galaxy is really the safest it has been since the days of invading space probes. I think SF will quietly go back to exploring once it recovers from the war and Skipper Bob of the SS Minnow won't need to incessively worry about who is lurking in the shadows as he is out trying to score with the alien babes today anymore than Picard did in the early TNG era...
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posted
In one way, I'm thinking that sending out lone ships for the five-year exploration missions was extraordinarily ambitious and possibly overconfident. After all, Christopher Columbus sailed to America with three ships.
The concept of an all-in-one explorer is definitely a workable concept, considering that it was quite obviously a success in TOS and TNG. A large starship that has the ability to perform long-range surveys of entire sectors, make contact with new civilizations, and explore new uncharted regions of space. I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that the majority of the Starfleet ships lost have been in exceptional circumstances, and the majority of exploration missions are relatively safe. Many people call the Galaxy Class project a failure; but considering that the Yamato was destroyed by an extraordinarily advanced computer virus and the Odyssey was destroyed by a vastly more prepared and aggressive alien race, I don't think that there's a major problem with the technology in Starfleet.
My major policy change, IMO, should be the division of Starfleet into two sections -- the Tactical Division and Exploratory Division. Each would be overall separate, but fall under the umbrella of the upper echelon of Starfleet Command itself. I think this would help establish clear priorities for each of the purposes, with the main goal of enhancing Starfleet's defensive capabilities.
Not to say that there was something specifically wrong with how Starfleet managed itself in the TNG era, but it seems to me that it was overall unprepared for the extreme aggression that some races presented -- the Borg, the Dominion, and so forth. These are foreign forces from distant parts of the galaxy, that have little or no stake in local politics and diplomacy and are pursuing specific agendas without regard for local influences. As the Federation expands with ever-faster starships and more advanced technology, the probability of encountering more of these kinds of forces increases.
A dedicated Tactical Division would enable Starfleet to create specific defense capabilities; mention was made in DS9 of Betazed's planetary defenses, which were obviously outdated and then completely swept away. There are numerous instances of poor monitoring of border regions, gaps in the patrol patterns, and the lack of resources for defense in depth.
Having a Starfleet that is supposed to be both explorer and defender simultaneously means that it will end of doing neither to the best of its ability. The Galaxy Class was built to be the best exploration platform ever conceived -- and within a few years, the Enterprise-D was doing nothing but cruising around Federation space stamping out political brushfires, because it was also one of the best defensive platforms of its time. Because of that, the exploration programs obviously suffered. Without dedicated defensive forces, the exploration programs can't devote their entire mission to exploration, and are innately hindered by their need to split their focus.
This will probably sound very fanboyish, but I think it's true regardless -- launching a large fleet of Defiant-class warships (or other ships of similar capabilities) would be a good idea for Starfleet. The Defiant has proven itself a very capable defender and patrol vessel; it rarely needs to be very far from port, and so provisions for longer duration cruises are unnecessary. The elimination of most scientific gear lets it pack in more defensive and offensive power. A super-high warp speed isn't necessary because the ship doesn't go too far from home. And when concentrated in numbers, it's a good bet that they can pack a huge punch. Having a dedicated patrol fleet of Defiants would give Starfleet the kind of security it needs -- not just against the Borg, but against any kind of conventional or moderately unconventional threat.
At the same time, perhaps sending more than one ship on a five-year exploratory cruise would be a workable idea. The Galaxy Class is certainly more than capable of defending itself, but in some ways it's always struck me as slightly limited by its inability to divert its attention to more than one place. What if a Galaxy were accompanied by two smaller ships -- a small dedicated survey ship, and a small dedicated defensive combat ship. Take Lewis and Clark's expedition of 1804-1806 as an example: there were plenty of instances where they would split up into two or more parties to cover more ground, to explore tributary rivers, or to scout for potential attackers. Having more than one ship in an explorer mission would increase the resources needed to supply it, but I have no doubt that it could also increase its effectiveness. The loner do-it-all is not necessarily the most effective method all the time.
Obviously, Starfleet needs to carefully practice moderation in these changes. Certainly, a dedicated combat division would create the danger of a more military-like organization that is contrary to the values of the Federation. Likewise, the need to defend those values of the Federation do require action. I think that Starfleet of the TNG era, while overall adequate for the military necessities of the time, was still focused too much on the exploration aspects of its mission and thus lost valuable time when it needed to convert to military focuses in the late 2360's and early 2370's. Hopefully, Starfleet can avoid becoming a more overtly military force with such blatantly aggressive ships like the "Renaissance" Rapid Reaction Force, too.
I think I've rambled on long enough, don't you?
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Valles
Ex-Member
posted
So, for the traditional supership model we have: Pros: Powerful ship Flexible ship Impressive ship Combination of the first two makes an -extremely- survivable ship
Cons: Point failure source Expensive Can only be one place at a time Jack of all trades, master of none
Solution: Expand extant small craft designs (Peregrine, Runabouts, et al.) up to small starships in the 80-100 meter range. These corvettes will be short range specialist designs essentially along the Defiant's mold (although not neccessarily for combat), only cheaper.
Design the next iteration of the Constitution/Excelsior/Galaxy tradition to act as tender/mothership for a small (or large, if you feel like being expansive) fleet of corvettes.
That way, instead of spending the time to run off and put out a brushfire instead of finishing a delicate set of negotiations or running a system survey or monitoring a dangerous ion storm or -whatever-, you can just dispatch a specialist parasite or that'll do the job on its own. And if it's something that needs to be dealt with -now-, well, the mothership won't be far away
And, if there's some big major disaster problem type thing - a war, for instance, the parasites are quick, cheap, and easy to build and replace. Those Defiant squadrons that got mentioned would be available, along with heavy-duty support from their motherships.
posted
Before pitching in, I wanna pitch this entire thing in the general direction of the Creative forum. It's very Starship, yes, but I only promised to keep Sector Gamma here, for reasons of historical continuity - new semi-related threads ought to be Creative (and this one seems to be shaping all right!).
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