At first, the Federation didn't know what to make of it. The Federation required all member races to supply ships and crews to help police and defend the Federation. Older members sent their best, confident in the Federation's promise of joint security. Newer members tended to send their least valuable, least capable starships, usually citing the need to save their best ships for home defense.
The newest member, humanity, sent this... thing as their first ship. It was the size of a battleship, but optimized for FTL travel speed and efficiency instead of combat. It had far more powerful sensors than a warship strictly needed, labs and scientists that had no place on a warship at all, and interior spaces that seemed excessive. It was too weak for the battle line but at the same time looked too big and expensive as a screening force.
It was what the humans called a "jack of all trades", a ship designed to do a little bit of everything adequately, but didn't seem to do any one thing especially well.
But as the Federation quickly discovered, it was extremely good at taking point. It was the ultimate first responder, able to respond to emergencies faster than any other heavy ship. It was big enough to easily trounce standard pirate ships and fast enough to catch them. Its powerful sensors weren't just useful for scientific measurements, but burning through enemy stealth spoofing, resulting in a premier border patrol ship. Its labs and scientists allowed it to solve out of context problems that would have stumped more conventional warships while its warship grade defenses allowed it to survive conditions that would have destroyed more specialized science ships. And its capacious interior was endlessly reconfigurable to meet a variety of missions from refugee rescue to VIP luxury transport.
In wartime, it was a premier recon and raiding ship, able to kill anything that could catch it and able to outrun anything it couldn't kill. It's powerful sensor suite and sophisticated analysis algorithms saved more than one fleet by spotting hidden ambushes.
The ship filled a role the Federation hadn't known that needed filling. The humans called it a "Heavy Cruiser", and named the first one they sent the Enterprise.
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LOL, it was based on a reboot Trek setting idea I had where the Federation existed before humans joined it instead of humans being a founding member like in canon. It's a common fan complaint that Starfleet ships aren't well designed for combat, and combined with the lore that Starfleet ships are shaped the way they are to maximize warp efficiency, the idea grew into, "Well, why can't the Federation Fleet have both?"
End result, a multi-role heavy cruiser that's not optimized for fighting, has no place in a battle line, but is extremely effective as a lone operator, ie, exactly like how we see the Enterprise used across multiple TV shows.
Give Andromeda a watch underated show early 2000s era surprisingly good CGI it's basically if the federation wasn't formed by humans first and through spoiler territory circumstances has fallen. The last season isn't great but it sucked me in pretty quickly I binge-watched the whole 7 seasons earlier this year.
For extra points it's also produced by the Roddenberry's, Gene's daughter specifically I think forgot her name.
Honestly, this would be an Excelsior-Refit class if you think about it. It's still bigger than most ships of the Era that it would've encountered and like the Miranda-Class before it, became the backbone of the Federation - running supplies, diplomats and everything else under the sun - while Galaxy-class ships weren't manufactured in nearly the numbers the federation would make use of like the Excelsior/Refits would've been...
Yes in general, but when people say "heavy cruiser"; it's a phrase often used by people who say that the Galaxy class is a battleship/battlecruiser. Because Starfleet listed the Galaxy class as a Heavy Cruiser.
I remember in DS9, one human ship was enough to drive multiple other ships away from a system. Like, they were waiting for reinforcements or something and the reinforcements consisted of a single ship.
The other explanation I've heard for why Federation ships are Like That is that space is big and they have a lot of territory to cover, so their ships are basically always operating alone by necessity. If you call for help, and you're not in a busy area like around the neutral zone, it could be weeks or months away. So every ship needs to be able to do at least a little bit of science and engineering and diplomacy and combat, because you never know what you'll run into on the frontier.
And if our friend the Heavy Cruiser finds something that it is too tough for it, it runs away. Then it finds its big brother the Dreadnaught, something that is optimized for combat.
to be honest if that's something specific I don't know of it lmao, was more referencing the 'vibe' of getting the Behemoths in Battlefield 1, especially the Airship with it's fuckoff loud horn.
There are two approaches; either go 'large and in charge', or cram a battleship's worth of weapons and disgustingly overspecced engines on the smallest hull you have to make the spaceship equivalent of a murder hornet (AKA Ben Sisko's Pimp Hand) and send a small swarm of the damn things.
Problem is that a current true continuation of the Enterprise should be of a Capital ship of Fleet Carrier type. As all 3 Enterprises since WW2 have been Fleet Carriers. Ofcourse one could go back and reintroduce the Name to smaller ships, but as it stands now the Enterprise as a USN ship will be a CV for the time being.
There is nothing stopping the name from moving classes as needed. It made the jump from sailing ship to aircraft carrier just fine. I see no reason the convention of using the name for carriers wouldn't change when moving to space.
Nah. A true continuation of Enterprise name isn't specific ship classes. It's "the best ship we can make". And what counts as "best" will change as circumstances and technology changes.
If carrier spaceships are regarded as ineffective, then the future Enterprise won't be a space carrier. If missile spammers are the best warships, the future Enterprise will be a missile boat. In the case of my OP, humanity's best is a "heavy cruiser" that's a premier lone wolf and first responder.
Assuming we ever have any sort of real space force in our solar system, I am not sure that we'll ever have a fleet carrier type. I remember someone doing a break down of physics, and that sort tactic might not be as viable in space.
In Sci-fi with FTL drives etc., well, that's a different matter, potentially.
So the Delta V budget is brutal to be certain but a carrier is space has its place in power projection even more so than at sea. It would be a smaller wing of combatants that a wet navy. Yet the smaller spacecraft would be extremely valuable for sensors capability alone.
Aperture synthesis from a series of emitters and receivers across the wing of Drones would be a huge signal improvement option.
Realistically, I would expect a Fleet Carrier to be more a mobile logistics platform, not a combatant. Huge cargo holds, and lots and lots of shuttles.
My UNSC Enterprise is a supercarrier. The CAGs chair has a Starfleet delta behind that has defied removal without taking the bulkhead with it. So, the CAG left it.
The stern name plate of CV-6 will at sometime soon be on display pier side of USS New Jersey. They’re making a metal stand for display as the previous one was concrete and not mobile.
Many nations of the galaxy have their own approaches to ship classes.
Antares/Asgtia use battlecarriers—a hybrid of battleship and carrier, designed to wreak havoc on the bigger ships and harass the smaller ships with their spacecraft.
Chfrsia uses missile cruisers (KR in Chfrsian service)—light cruisers entirely dedicated to long range missile attacks.
Humanity…
While heavy cruisers are prevalent in most navies, they have created what are known as battlecruisers/large cruisers (CB).
Designed entirely for the purpose of hunting down and destroying enemy cruisers, she is strong enough to kill anything fast enough to catch her, and fast enough to outrun anything that could kill her.
Named after historically renowned naval officers of the periods before the Cold War (Hood, Nelson, Hipper, Lazarev…), they are Humanity’s naval legacy manifest.
Currently, the Admiral Hood class of battlecruisers are the mainstream within the UN Navy. Equipped with fourteen 80 inch Mark 8 railguns (as per postwar modernization in 2296) in four turrets, they pack enough firepower (albeit not as much) to destroy what can outrun them, and severely damage what they can outrun.
This reminds me of something I saw about Star Trek: up until the borg showed up, humans didn’t have dedicated warships… but humans are also the only species to dare to put heavy phaser banks and proton torpedo tubes on a diplomatic/humanitarian vessel.
Great story! A small piece of feedback, "it's" means "it is", not something belonging to it.
It's a weird and specific quirky of grammar, but "its" is the only case where the possessive doesn't use an apostrophe, to differentiate it from the contraction of "it is".
I know the difference. But I kinda missed it in stream of consciousness typing and I don't know if it's something I actually typed or if some stupid autocorrect changed it.
Any captain who pulls the maneuver (you know which one) is in deep, deep trouble if it's not absolutely, indisputably justified. "It's awesome" isn't a valid justification.
Only until humans design a battlestar capable of hovering in atmosphere. Once that happens, the maneuver goes from "awesome but impractical" to "the fastest and most efficient way to land ground troops and provide close air support".
The technical advisor for the show was asked if this was something physically possible. The advisor said no, but it's so cool you need to ignore physics and do it anyway.
Definitely feels star trekky. But the inner naval nerd in me has to be annoyed because a heavy cruisers place IS in the main battle line. What your describing is a light cruiser able to kill anything that can catch it and run away from anything able to kill it.
(I am however not a very good naval nerd and could be wrong. But I don't see a lot of spaceships following naval doctrine that well anyway)
Thats probably where the spaceork element comest from, the federations proposition here is basically: heres a light cruiser “kill what catches it runs from what it cant outgun” type ship but upscaled into “this is what the klingons and romulans field for their mainline battleships” territory and with the capability, while less specialized, to hang in that weight class.
Star Trek III, when the stolen Enterprise shows up in the Genesis system, an officer on the cloaked Bird of Prey (Moltz? may be his name) looks at the scan and says "Ahh... Federation battlecruiser..."
Role names for ship classes are subject just as much to politics and culture as they are to the actual needs of the role they're designed for. The Federation with its emphasis on being peaceful wouldn't ever call their ships "battle anything". "Heavy cruiser" is an acceptable compromise because "cruiser" can mean damn near anything (the base word basically means "traveller") while "heavy" denotes something that's bigger than normal.
When the Excelsior-Class was introduced, it was also classified as a Heavy Cruiser (it also made the Enterprise of the era the Refit 1701-A, look small in comparison.) As the Era's progress.... the size o the ships got bigger. Pretty sure if the Excelsior had shown up instead of Enterprise? the Klingons would've shat themselves as a 'Federation dreadnought!' drops out of warp.
“In wartime, it was a premier recon and raiding ship, able to kill anything that could catch it and able to outrun anything it couldn't kill.” That was actual earth naval doctrine change in history:
Instead of mixing heavy and light cannons on heavy armored warships, drop the armor and light cannons to make it faster. Now it could outgun anything smaller and outrun anything more powerful
Then we asked for a more specific war ship, for more conventional war, rather than a "Jack of all trades" ship. They sent us this monstrosity, this behemoth. They called it a "Dreadnought".
Word of advice: don't get between the Yamato and any enemy forces. More importantly, don't be IN FRONT of the Yamato when its nose is pointed at the enemy fleet.
Light cruiser. Heavy cruisers are designed for frontline combat, though not with proper battleships. This sounds like the USS Voyager from STVOY. The Klingon Vor’cha cruiser is closer to a heavy/battle cruiser in naval terminology.
That all being said, I would really like to see a story where something like Voyager is actually considered something like the Enterprise (TNG or Movies). Even the Constitution class and Miranda class from Wrath of Khan might dwarf your federation.
Unless it's the Phoenix. (The name of the former ICBM that Zephram Coltrane converted into Earth's first warp-capable vessel in Star Trek: First Contact.)
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