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Starfleet Design Bureau

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Endorfinator said:
So really 45 light years between ships. Which seems a little on the big side. Are we sure Fed space is 150 ly across?
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Yep! An uneven bubble of over 150ly across. I just took 150ly as it's the only real number given.

Sayle said:
With Federation territory now encompassing an uneven bubble of over 150 light years across it could take over a year for the current cadre of Starships to transit from one border to another.
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A very cool list, to which I will offer one pedantic query:
Sayle said:
9 Science Cruisers
9 Kea-class [2211] [Refit 2240]
Kea, Kakapo, Cockatiel, Macaw, Parrot, Parakeet, Rosella, Iory, and Corella.
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I think we should have twelve Kea-class cruisers?

Sayle said:
The first run of the Kea-class consisted of four ships: the Kea, Kakapo, Cockatiel, and Macaw; all built between 2211 and 2214. The Saladin-class was commissioned in a similar timeframe in eight hulls: the Saladin, Hamilcar, Hannibal, Kublai, Temujin, Lysander, Darius, and Xerxes. There was then a pause in production until 2218, after which the Kea-class was ordered again in two blocks to make twelve ships, while the Saladin was further expanded to a total of sixteen.

No further orders were made of either class as new technology obsoleted their constituent parts. The Kea-class underwent a retrofit in 2240 to install a pair of forward torpedoes and lost its dilithium-analysis suite in favour of an expansion of its antimatter reserves, turning the ship into a budget heavy cruiser. The anticipated hostilities with the Klingons did not materialise as soon as expected, and the nine ships that survived the Federation-Klingon War two decades later continued in service until 2270 when they underwent a full refit as part of the Fleet Modernisation Program.
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Nine ships is the number of Kea-class which survived the Klingon-Federation War (which in this earlier version of the timeline took place in the 2260s), but before that there were twelve ships in service.
 
Shard said:
I wonder if the warp core refit incompatibility was part of why so many Excaliburs were built. If warp core production is fixed, then you build as many ships as you have new warp cores (or refit old ones, but if refit is a non-option then).
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Less one can do for refits, indeed logically means more resources go in to straight up new hulls. And with a potential looming war and a booming Federation economy they probably had some more budget to work with as well. Though presumably in future their resources will climb a lot from its current level, else the really large ships of the future aren't really affordable.
 
Tank man said:
This is good to know, can't wait to see the numbers balloon up by the late 23rd/early 24th century.

Also, what would you say the ratio of Starfleet ships is to those of the member navies (that are available for more than just systems defence)?
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I'm actually not sure, I'd expect most worlds to have at least 2-5 police cutters or system monitors, with big worlds like Vulcan or Andoria probably having at least a couple dozen, plus a dozen or so utility and science vessels, with a few more dispersed among their colonies.

That probably explains the apparent dearth of ships; Starfleet ships help the whole Federation and Starfleet-only business, but there's probably easily 5x that number of ships that are made for and operated by members only, and another 2-10x that that are civilian ships, couriers, logistics, industry, science etc. Member only ships probably also only stay very close to their host worlds and satellite colonies, outposts and facilities, so for things like defense and patrol they contribute much more to actual defense value than a single Starfleet ship that zips around a lot.
 
Star Trek just doesn't have that many ships hanging around.

When they stole the Enterprise in ST3, the Excelsior was the only ship able to respond, and similarly the Enterprise-B was the only ship able to respond to the El-Aurian refugee ships' distress call in Generations, and both of those were around Earth where you'd expect there to be tons of ships.
 
Another system surveying and cataloging ship that could do patrol work probably wouldn't hurt. With the number of stars in our territory there's likely a huge number that still wouldn't have proper surveys done and it could be a way to have some fleet assets in unexpected places. We've got other platforms that can do parts of the job but it feels like the dedicated ones are getting up there age wise. A warp 8 platform to get more detail on targets that our Excaliburs have identified or add more information in the expansion regions. Basically a science Newton with a focused science score over 15 and a bit more punch.

I wouldn't say no to Diplo-boat, Big explorer, or regional defense frigate either.
 
Tank man said:
Eh, not entirely. Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.

Assuming our core of 150ly is spherical* (and I've done the maths right) core Federation space is ~14,137,166.94 cubic light years, a fleet of 150 starships means 94,247.78ly3 between each ship on average - with a ~7,500 strong fleet (as DIS gives, iirc) that number shrinks rather massively to 1,884.96ly3 per starship.

*Which is reasonable given the average disc thickness where we are is 1,000ly.

Wolf 359 likely represented ships dedicated to missions in the 'core' of Federation space and hastily commissioned ships at the various yards there. I wouldn't call it representative of fleet size.
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Yeah, Star Trek doesn't really operate off of that logic. It's fine. We're fine. Just go off of show logic, 150 is sufficient for our needs, because it's what the show implies.
 
These are the Fleet's primary 'Ship of Force', much like CVN's are the USN's primary beat stick today. When things go wrong, the first question that gets asked is 'Where are the Carriers?'
 
Not to mention they wouldn't be evenly distributed across the 150 ly area. There would be hot spots with greater density of resources and population, and emptier areas with few required ships.
 
One nacelle: Meek, flimsy, inadequate. Weak aura.
Two nacelles: Reliable, consistent, dependable. Strong aura.
Three nacelles: Powerful, majestic, elite. Strong aura.
Four nacelles: Bloated, overbearing, compensating. Weak aura.
 
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