Federation Starships that never had a class name

[t_smitts]

Thanks to the Okudas and the Encyclopedia, we have a pretty thorough listing of the class for just about every starship seen (and several mentioned) throughout the movies and all the 24th century shows. There are a few exceptions, however.

-Reading that Eaglemoss is getting around to making the Centaur reminds me that that ship's never got a class name. It was pretty much the only Federation starship prominently featured in an episode not to get a class name (at least until the Antares was retroactively added to "Charlie X") It's also one of the few Starfleet "kitbashes" that I think actually looks good.

-The hull of the 22nd Century Intrepid in "The Expanse" and "Twilight" was pretty bare. (They didn't even put the ships name on it!). It would've been fine to call give it some letter-class that sounds like it predates the NX class, maybe something like NC class or what have you. They never gave a class name to the Arctic transport, the Sarajevo, or the "Warp Delta" ships either.

-Of course, there are virtually no class names for any of the ships in the Abrams-verse, apart, from the Constitution-class Enterprise (which, of course, they inherited from the "prime" timeline) and the Dreadnought-class Vengeance. Not even the Kelvin, essentially the hero ship for the prologue of the first movie, got a class name.

Thoughts?

 

[The Wormhole]

The Dominion War kitbashes aren't actual starship classes, but supposedly they are exactly what they look like, parts of different ships assembled together to get fast production done and new ships into the fight. I think this comes from the DS9 Tech Manual.

The novels do call the 22nd century Intrepid an Intrepid class ship. So I guess 24th century Starfleet also takes class names from the 22nd century as well as ship designs.

According to Federation: The First 150 Years the Kelvin is an Einstein class ship.

 

[tafkats]

It would've been fine to call give it some letter-class that sounds like it predates the NX class, maybe something like NC class or what have you.

Is NX-class is an actual designation, or just an informal term that grew out of Enterprise being the only ship with an NX-prefix registry number that was featured heavily?

 

[simone]

The novels do call the 22nd century Intrepid an Intrepid class ship.

 

[The Wormhole]

It would've been fine to call give it some letter-class that sounds like it predates the NX class, maybe something like NC class or what have you.

Is NX-class is an actual designation, or just an informal term that grew out of Enterprise being the only ship with an NX-prefix registry number that was featured heavily?

NX-class is the official name, said on screen in the Enterprise episodes Fortunate Son, E2, and Home. Possibly others, but those ones come to mind off the top of my head.

 

[t_smitts]

The Dominion War kitbashes aren't actual starship classes, but supposedly they are exactly what they look like, parts of different ships assembled together to get fast production done and new ships into the fight. I think this comes from the DS9 Tech Manual.

The novels do call the 22nd century Intrepid an Intrepid class ship. So I guess 24th century Starfleet also takes class names from the 22nd century as well as ship designs.

According to Federation: The First 150 Years the Kelvin is an Einstein class ship.

The novels do call the 22nd century Intrepid an Intrepid class ship.

Yeah, I really never cared for those kitbashes, especially that hideous Yeager that combined the saucer of a Voyager model with the body of a Maquis ship. Those kind of cobbled-together Frankenstein ship design fit much better in the Star Wars universe.

I think I remember reading something about it being a 22nd century Intrepid class in the novels. I think that could get a bit confusing, and it begs the question why they went with a class name for the presumably older Intrepid, then went to numbers for the NX, then back to names when the Daedalus and future classes came around.

It's debatable whether you want to call the Federation history book canon or not. I think the fact that the novels have gotten so convoluted (The Andorian names and genders? Bringing back the "Conspiracy" parasites and some sort of weird outcast Trills? Seriously?) that I'm quite dubious trusting any of that as canon (even though I know it actually contradicts the novels in at least some respects, such as the fate of Columbia NX-02.

It just would've been nice to have a canon class name for the above ships. I mean all the starships we saw in First Contact got class names.

 

[Dukhat]

The Dominion War kitbashes aren't actual starship classes, but supposedly they are exactly what they look like, parts of different ships assembled together to get fast production done and new ships into the fight. I think this comes from the DS9 Tech Manual.

While that is what the manual states, that can't possibly be true, since the multiple components that the ships were constructed from are massively out of scale with each other and can't realistically have come from other ships in those sizes.

The novels do call the 22nd century Intrepid an Intrepid class ship. So I guess 24th century Starfleet also takes class names from the 22nd century as well as ship designs.

IMHO, that's kinda being lazy. Considering that it's inconsistent with ships of the Enterprise's and Columbia's class having a letter designation for their class, ships like the Intrepid should have been known as "NV" class or similar.

 

[eyeresist]

It would've been fine to call give it some letter-class that sounds like it predates the NX class, maybe something like NC class or what have you.

Is NX-class is an actual designation, or just an informal term that grew out of Enterprise being the only ship with an NX-prefix registry number that was featured heavily?

Memory Alpha has an entry for the NX class. NX-02 was the Columbia. There was supposed to be a third one planned, but it didn't appear in ENT.

The entry says: "The prefix "NX" was formerly used for aircraft registered in the United States as experimental. If the name of this class had followed the protocols of naval tradition, it would have been called "Enterprise-class," as the first ship of a new contract provides the class' name." [Which would suggest the later Enterprise was preceded by a ship called Constitution.]

The American Aviation Historical Society has further info:
http://www.aahs-online.org/articles/N-number.php
N was allocated as the letter for US civil aircraft in 1919. In 1929 various additional letter suffixes were authorised - NX was for experimental craft. Charles Lindburgh's "Spirit of St. Louis" is the best-known NX craft, and features in ENT's opening titles. HOWEVER, various letters including X were defunct by 1951.

Like the later Enterprise's NCC designation, the NX is a sentimental gesture toward the history of American aviation, which is fitting given Gene Roddenberry's military and civil flying experience.

 

[T'Girl]

The runabouts are supposedly little ships and not big shuttles. I don't believe we ever heard the class name of the runabouts.

 

[USS Triumphant]

The runabouts are supposedly little ships and not big shuttles. I don't believe we ever heard the class name of the runabouts.

The runabouts as seen on DS9 are Danube-class.

 

[Timo]

The backstage name Danube was never mentioned in dialogue - whereas a parallel reality from VOY "Non Sequitur" named this exact exterior design (but with internal innovations) the Yellowstone class in both dialogue and graphics.

NX-class is the official name, said on screen

It can be debated how "official" something said by the heroes is supposed to be. They aren't bureaucrats - they might go for nicknames even when Starfleet has more "official" ideas.

In the real world, we have nicknames that are at least as dry-sounding as "NX class". Say, "688 class" for the Los Angeles nuclear attack submarines. Or "AEGIS class" for the one and only AEGIS-equipped ship class, the Ticonderoga - until the USN and other navies built more classes employing the AEGIS system, that is.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS Triumphant]

The backstage name Danube was never mentioned in dialogue - whereas a parallel reality from VOY "Non Sequitur" named this exact exterior design (but with internal innovations) the Yellowstone class in both dialogue and graphics.

Fair enough. But based on the technical upgrades in the Yellowstone and the way the US Navy classes ships*, I think that 1. it is different enough to be a new class, and 2. it at least establishes that that general type of ship does HAVE a class. So Danube-class works for me until screen canon says otherwise. (Highly unlikely to happen, I think you'll agree.)

*I'll admit that this isn't the US Navy, and that perhaps if the 1701-refit didn't count as a whole new class of ship, perhaps the Yellowstone doesn't either. HOWEVER, the U.S.S. Yellowstone herself was still a prototype in "Non Sequitur" - when other runabouts of the type we're familiar with were already in service. The class ship is almost always the first of a class. So.... our DS9 runabout were *not* Yellowstone-class.

 

[Timo]

if the 1701-refit didn't count as a whole new class of ship

Well, certain St2:TWoK graphics called her the Enterprise class.

Since the E-A in turn was called Constitution class in yet other graphics seen in ST6:TUC, we might actually deduce that Starfleet indeed very "lightly" gives class names to minor variants. And it just so happens that the Enterprise spearheaded the variant seen in ST:TMP, while the good old Constitution was the first to be refitted to the E-A specs!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

The backstage name Danube was never mentioned in dialogue

Actually, it is, in Hippocratic Oath.

It can be debated how "official" something said by the heroes is supposed to be. They aren't bureaucrats - they might go for nicknames even when Starfleet has more "official" ideas.

Not quite. Archer calls it the NX class and he is the son of the ship's designer. T'Pol calls it NX class, and I don't see her going in for a nickname over the official name.

Also, the development and construction of the class was called the NX Project.

I think the fact that the novels have gotten so convoluted (The Andorian names and genders?

TNG Data's Day does establish that Andorian marriages consist of "groups of four" so establishing they have four genders is consistent with canon.

It just would've been nice to have a canon class name for the above ships. I mean all the starships we saw in First Contact got class names.

None of which are canon. All the class names for the ships in First Contact comes from behind the scenes sources, mainly the guys who designed them. They were never stated on screen.

 

[Timo]

Actually, it is, in Hippocratic Oath.

Oh, right. Sorry and thanks!

Also, the development and construction of the class was called the NX Project.

I'd argue it's analogous to "AEGIS Class". Systematically, it's just dull old Enterprise class, as we know Starfleet still follows that historically common practice of class naming (Neptune class, arguably Triton class). But functionally, it's the first-ever starship with the NX mission (hence the -01 number), so naturally it's referred to as the NX ship until Starfleet comes up with another class with that same mission.

Now what mission is that...? Well, it's pretty clear that NX-01 is Earth's first worthwhile interstellar explorer, earlier ships not having had the speed and range to get outside already Vulcan-explored space. And it's rather painfully obvious from his stumbling that Archer is the first explorer skipper in Starfleet. So the X could well stand for eXploration.

By the same token, yes, the Intrepid might be of NV class or something, if V stands for whatever she specializes in. Half a dozen other older classes might be of NV class, too.

Or then the first letter out of the two is a running indicator, changing from class to class: NX would have been preceded by MX. Or whatever.

Yet at some point, Starfleet stops doing that and simply slaps NCC on each and every vessel regardless of mission or design or whatever... Supposedly when it goes from United Earth Starfleet to UFP Starfleet, as the late 22nd century starships mentioned in TOS are given NCC registries in so many backstage sources and even one canon TNG episode.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS Triumphant]

NX = Naval eXperiment. And they never gave it up - Excelsior is NX-2000 before she is commissioned into regular service. As far as what is going on with "NX-class" and NX-01 and -02, I'd say:

1. Someone involved in coming up with that IRL didn't understand what they were doing. At all.

2. (Setting that aside and going back into the in-show perspective) Perhaps those ships were only referred to as "NX-Class" (not really a class, but a general designation) until they were properly commissioned, and neither Enterprise nor Columbia (nor Challenger nor Discovery??) had been. In which case, one presumes that when they eventually were, they would have been Enterprise-Class, unless....

3. They never were. They were each decommissioned as experimental models, having tested new equipment and such, until sometime between NX-03 and NCC-42 (USS Heart of Gold) one of the ships was selected as a solid enough platform to make more just like it (from the same blueprints) and was commissioned into regular service.

 

[Dukhat]

TNG Data's Day does establish that Andorian marriages consist of "groups of four" so establishing they have four genders is consistent with canon.

Not quite. All "groups of four" could mean is that four pairs of Andorians get married at the same ceremony instead of just one pair. The novel writers chose to interpret the line as meaning Andorians have four genders, but that was not specifically stated, nor do I believe that was the original intent of that line.

Well, certain St2:TWoK graphics called her the Enterprise class.

Only the Kobayashi Maru simulator room was given the designation "Enterprise class." That could mean that the simulator room was meant to represent the U.S.S. Enterprise specifically; hence the "class" name is for the simulator room, not the starship class itself.

 

[USS Triumphant]

All "groups of four" could mean is that four pairs of Andorians get married at the same ceremony instead of just one pair. The novel writers chose to interpret the line as meaning Andorians have four genders, but that was not specifically stated, nor do I believe that was the original intent of that line.

Another possible interpretation is that four Andorians do indeed marry each other, but still with the species only having two genders. So 2 male, 2 female. Or 1 male (or female), 3 female (or male). Or 4 of a kind, even - possibly males live together in houses of four, and so do females, and they only get together to procreate.

The four gender thing certainly provides something interesting to try to work out the logistics for, though. So good enough.

 

[t_smitts]

The backstage name Danube was never mentioned in dialogue

Actually, it is, in Hippocratic Oath.

It can be debated how "official" something said by the heroes is supposed to be. They aren't bureaucrats - they might go for nicknames even when Starfleet has more "official" ideas.

Not quite. Archer calls it the NX class and he is the son of the ship's designer. T'Pol calls it NX class, and I don't see her going in for a nickname over the official name.

Also, the development and construction of the class was called the NX Project.

I think the fact that the novels have gotten so convoluted (The Andorian names and genders?

TNG Data's Day does establish that Andorian marriages consist of "groups of four" so establishing they have four genders is consistent with canon.

It just would've been nice to have a canon class name for the above ships. I mean all the starships we saw in First Contact got class names.

None of which are canon. All the class names for the ships in First Contact comes from behind the scenes sources, mainly the guys who designed them. They were never stated on screen.

I believe it's generally accepted that if studio sources say something in an official capacity (like the classes of those First Contact ships), it's considered canon.

I don't recall if the name "Sovereign Class" was ever mentioned, for example, but no one questions that.

Actually, it is, in Hippocratic Oath.

Oh, right. Sorry and thanks!

Also, the development and construction of the class was called the NX Project.

I'd argue it's analogous to "AEGIS Class". Systematically, it's just dull old Enterprise class, as we know Starfleet still follows that historically common practice of class naming (Neptune class, arguably Triton class). But functionally, it's the first-ever starship with the NX mission (hence the -01 number), so naturally it's referred to as the NX ship until Starfleet comes up with another class with that same mission.

Now what mission is that...? Well, it's pretty clear that NX-01 is Earth's first worthwhile interstellar explorer, earlier ships not having had the speed and range to get outside already Vulcan-explored space. And it's rather painfully obvious from his stumbling that Archer is the first explorer skipper in Starfleet. So the X could well stand for eXploration.

By the same token, yes, the Intrepid might be of NV class or something, if V stands for whatever she specializes in. Half a dozen other older classes might be of NV class, too.

Or then the first letter out of the two is a running indicator, changing from class to class: NX would have been preceded by MX. Or whatever.

Yet at some point, Starfleet stops doing that and simply slaps NCC on each and every vessel regardless of mission or design or whatever... Supposedly when it goes from United Earth Starfleet to UFP Starfleet, as the late 22nd century starships mentioned in TOS are given NCC registries in so many backstage sources and even one canon TNG episode.

Timo Saloniemi

NX = Naval eXperiment. And they never gave it up - Excelsior is NX-2000 before she is commissioned into regular service. As far as what is going on with "NX-class" and NX-01 and -02, I'd say:

1. Someone involved in coming up with that IRL didn't understand what they were doing. At all.

2. (Setting that aside and going back into the in-show perspective) Perhaps those ships were only referred to as "NX-Class" (not really a class, but a general designation) until they were properly commissioned, and neither Enterprise nor Columbia (nor Challenger nor Discovery??) had been. In which case, one presumes that when they eventually were, they would have been Enterprise-Class, unless....

3. They never were. They were each decommissioned as experimental models, having tested new equipment and such, until sometime between NX-03 and NCC-42 (USS Heart of Gold) one of the ships was selected as a solid enough platform to make more just like it (from the same blueprints) and was commissioned into regular service.

While, I'm sure Starfleet surely must've done some exploration of some sort.

Ultimately, any speculation on the meaning of NX is just that: speculation.

While, much of Starfleet procedures and protocols seem to have been drawn from the US Navy, that doesn't necessarily mean they follow things exactly. After all, Earth Starfleet was not a military agency. The MACO's covered that.

Besides which, the navy itself has changed how it's done things over the years.

To Triumphant's points:

1. I doubt it, as most of the people who worked on making "Enterprise" had previously work on the previous series. It's quite likely a number of things changed when Starfleet transitioned from an Earth agency to a Federation one anyway.

2. I believe the "NX class" was used in reference to Enterprise even after being in service.

3. Ugh. I cringe whenever I think of the nonsense seen on the screen, which was never meant to be legible, now being visible and therefore canon. They have registry numbers on there higher than the Defiant and Voyager, which wouldn't be built for years, for goodness sake. I don't buy Enterprise and Columbia both being prototypes though.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Ultimately, any speculation on the meaning of NX is just that: speculation.

True - nothing is canon. However, my source for the meaning of the designation is various licensed or otherwise authorized materials put out after Star Trek III regarding Excelsior. So, until screen canon shows up, I'm taking it as the next best thing.

1. I doubt it, as most of the people who worked on making "Enterprise" had previously work on the previous series.

You have SEEN "Enterprise", haven't you? I mean, don't get me wrong - I liked a lot of it - but when it came to sticking to canon or even just plain what-makes-sense, it seemed like they were almost intentionally trying to stick a thumb in the eyes of the hardcore fandom. Repeatedly.

2. I believe the "NX class" was used in reference to Enterprise even after being in service.

I'm trying to remember if we ever saw the ship commissioned for service. Archer took her out for a shakedown-under-emergency-circumstances in "Broken Bow", and that seems to me how she stayed.