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Or it lets them create a more powerful one. I would need to check my TNG Tech Manual but IIRC the Galaxy one also integrates powerful sensors in its deflector dish.
Jensaarai
Sing Victory Everlasting
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Though the arrowhead "eschews a deflector entirely," so who knows if it's a design choice we can update with deflectors later on or not.
I'd guess so, maybe something like a retrofitted secondary hull or whatever that costs a bit so we just kick the can of expenditure down the road a little further, but IDK for sure...
I'd guess so, maybe something like a retrofitted secondary hull or whatever that costs a bit so we just kick the can of expenditure down the road a little further, but IDK for sure...
Starfleet loving sensors could be a good explanation for exterior deflector dishes.
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The deflector seems to be able to do a bunch of different things. Presumably if you're building a large structure which is essentially beaming out and controlling a powerful force-field at warp, the idea that this could also make for a handy active sensor emitter/receiver when not at warp didn't take too long to follow.
Whilst you're right that one of our ships has basically no chance of responding to an attack in progress on one of our merchant ships, this has also been true for basically most of naval history. Modern navies might be able to respond to Somali pirate attacks as they're happening now, but only because a large number of warships are permanently sitting off the Horn of Africa. But if you go back decades or centuries, forget about it. There would be no realistic prospect of attacking a German surface raider in either World War or a 17th century pirate ship whilst it was in the process of attacking a merchant ship, unless you had warships already present. However, this isn't really the role of using small warships for anti-piracy work?
The point of an anti-piracy ship is to hunt pirates, not to arrive on the scene of a pirate attack like Batman intervening to stop a mugging. A navy will look at the pattern of attacks in an area, and sets up patrols to try and find pirate ships, locate pirate bases, assign warships as convoy escorts (although this is not ideal), or even disguise warships as merchant ships. This is honestly a good reason to go for the half-saucer too, because it means our ships will be more able to chase down pirate vessels when they encounter them, whether at impulse or at warp.
To be clear, we could probably have done a version of this if we'd gone for armed cargo ships, although I expect that dedicated frigates with polarised hull plating will be more capable combatants. But the concept of anti-piracy patrols is not invalid, and I think it's worth keeping in mind as we go forward.
Whilst you're right that one of our ships has basically no chance of responding to an attack in progress on one of our merchant ships, this has also been true for basically most of naval history. Modern navies might be able to respond to Somali pirate attacks as they're happening now, but only because a large number of warships are permanently sitting off the Horn of Africa. But if you go back decades or centuries, forget about it. There would be no realistic prospect of attacking a German surface raider in either World War or a 17th century pirate ship whilst it was in the process of attacking a merchant ship, unless you had warships already present. However, this isn't really the role of using small warships for anti-piracy work?
The point of an anti-piracy ship is to hunt pirates, not to arrive on the scene of a pirate attack like Batman intervening to stop a mugging. A navy will look at the pattern of attacks in an area, and sets up patrols to try and find pirate ships, locate pirate bases, assign warships as convoy escorts (although this is not ideal), or even disguise warships as merchant ships. This is honestly a good reason to go for the half-saucer too, because it means our ships will be more able to chase down pirate vessels when they encounter them, whether at impulse or at warp.
To be clear, we could probably have done a version of this if we'd gone for armed cargo ships, although I expect that dedicated frigates with polarised hull plating will be more capable combatants. But the concept of anti-piracy patrols is not invalid, and I think it's worth keeping in mind as we go forward.
[X] Half-Saucer Hull
[X] Half-Saucer Hull
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[X] Half-Saucer Hull
Which is why in the 17th and 18th century merchant ships were armed. And since we're building a short range patrol and defense vessel, and not a long range commerce protection cruiser I suspect that our design will not be large enough to really go out and hunt pirates. That kind of long range operation is what we need the Warp 5 NX types for.
Just caught up and as someone who has watched ENT and has some of the books about the Romulan War/early Federation there are a few things that should be considered
1.While early stage NX-01 was basically a deathtrap the later versions like NX-02 Columbia were akin to the Century class where you had a production nightmare that made up for it by being able to wreck the everlasting shit out of the Romulans and could hit Warp 5 cruising speed thanks to having better parts than the NX-01.However the NX classes took much too long to produce and lacked the hacking immunity human ships had and recquired modifications to be hacking proofed ( long story short but the Romulans could essentially backdoor hack their way through Vulcan and Andoran systems incredibly easily but had issues with hacking well prepared UE and Tellarite ships but unprepared or civillian designed ships could and would be infrequently hacked and used as cannon fodder so as to attrit enemy forces and hurt morale)
2.Later in the Romulan War Deadelaus class ships would be modified to have Warp 5/7 engines in order to make up for the fact that most of the NX classes couldn't be built in a reasonable timeframe and got slaughtered to a man (the only reason the original NX-01 survived the war was what amounted to luck and some quick emergency repairs)
3. major issues with early fed ships wasn't lack of millitary ships but the fact that most of the fleet was built to be warships meant to fight a war of attrition as soon as they got of drydock and not actual civillian ships with good scientific or logistical capabilities.Like sure your hastily modified Deadalaus can hit Warp 5 but it isn't going to be reliable.
1.While early stage NX-01 was basically a deathtrap the later versions like NX-02 Columbia were akin to the Century class where you had a production nightmare that made up for it by being able to wreck the everlasting shit out of the Romulans and could hit Warp 5 cruising speed thanks to having better parts than the NX-01.However the NX classes took much too long to produce and lacked the hacking immunity human ships had and recquired modifications to be hacking proofed ( long story short but the Romulans could essentially backdoor hack their way through Vulcan and Andoran systems incredibly easily but had issues with hacking well prepared UE and Tellarite ships but unprepared or civillian designed ships could and would be infrequently hacked and used as cannon fodder so as to attrit enemy forces and hurt morale)
2.Later in the Romulan War Deadelaus class ships would be modified to have Warp 5/7 engines in order to make up for the fact that most of the NX classes couldn't be built in a reasonable timeframe and got slaughtered to a man (the only reason the original NX-01 survived the war was what amounted to luck and some quick emergency repairs)
3. major issues with early fed ships wasn't lack of millitary ships but the fact that most of the fleet was built to be warships meant to fight a war of attrition as soon as they got of drydock and not actual civillian ships with good scientific or logistical capabilities.Like sure your hastily modified Deadalaus can hit Warp 5 but it isn't going to be reliable.
[X] Half-Saucer Hull
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
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Should we be focused on things other than warships then here, since a focus on combat seems to not go all that smoothly for the early federation?
KlavoHunter
THOU SHALT WORSHIP NO GODS ABOVE ENTERPRISE!
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
(seriously screw you people who voted for the interceptor. Especially me earlier when I was on the thoughtless bandwagon!)
Worth noting that our current merchant ships are also armed, not that I disagree with you per se. A small warship fundamentally exists to do a different job than an armed merchant ship, at the end of the day. They're both valid jobs.
I think you're absolutely right that what we're building now probably won't be able to undertake long-range anti-piracy missions. But I think the issue we're facing now, which is why Starfleet asked for a short-ranged warship, is that pirates feel comfortable acting with impunity basically in our back yard. To extend the analogy, if we were England, it's less that we're worrying about pirates in the Carribean, and more that there are pirates who are comfortable operating right in the English Channel.
For that, a more short ranged corvette is sufficient, and will hopefully provide experience for operating something more capable in the future. Even if we can only really fly the flag and ensure pirates feel our presence within a small bubble around Sol, that's still a notable step forward from where we are currently. Armed cargo ships might be able to do that as well, and could probably reach out further.
But I think an armed cargo ship also reflects a fundamentally different doctrinal choice. Better able to project power, but less able to actually chase down and engage pirates when encountering them. Probably best employed as convoy escorts or as the sinews of humanity's nascent colonial presence, and less as patrol ships. If we didn't already have an armed merchant marine, and Klingons were not literally flying into Sol with impunity, then I'd go for the armed cargo ships, but as it was, I think we need to secure our core before turning to the periphery.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
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I do recall an episode focused on the Boomers in ENT where it is shown that they do have weapons on their slow ships.
Jensaarai
Sing Victory Everlasting
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I do eventually want to make our ugly spherical duckling child of an armed Q-ship/cargo transport Daedalus
Yeah, but they presently only have plasma cannons, which isn't really enough to handle any sort of pirate action, and contributes to all the lost vessels and cargo.
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Yeah, they do. This is explicitly stated in the first 2145 update:
Plasma cannons, according to the second-to-last update.
Now that we're expanding production of the phase cannons for Starfleet, hopefully we will in a few years start to produce enough that we may be able to start retrofitting our merchant ships.
EDIT: Sorry lmao, realise I'm like the third person to point this out. I always find it annoying when that happens to me in quests.
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[X] Arrowhead Hull
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
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I'm reading a bunch of stuff right now, sometimes I skim over small details; didn't know it had already been mentioned.
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[X] Half-Saucer Hull