dominion war galaxy class ships

[Richard Baker]

From what I remember, a lot of the Galaxy class ships we saw in the Dominion was were incomplete- they had hulls, weapons and engines, but most of the interior was empty space. Starfleet did not need completely built and crewed vessels- it needed a lot of big weapons platforms as fast as possible. Even the completed ships like the Enterprise had some empty, unfinished areas for future expansion.

I would have liked to have seen some Star Drive only ships in the fleet, but they would be confusing to some casual viewers and lacked the visual impact of a complete Galaxy class ship.

We spent years watching just one ship do great things, then we see a shot of the entire fleet and see a large number of these ships which we already knew were powerful and the mind just goes "WOW- they are going to really kick some ass"

I do think that the battle fleet editions of the saucers were substantially less massive than the 1701-D they did have two huge phaser arrays with almost 360 degree coverage- very handy in battle. I would have liked to have seen some addional weapons pods added to ships as well- if he Dominion War was as desperate as described Star Fleet would be using every trick in the book to gain any tiny advantage.

 

[Shikarnov]

That seems like a long time for such a technologically advanced society. Even the biggest ships today don't take that long to construct. Is it possible that the 13 years referred to is the total time from development to launch?

The manual details 20 years, starting with the Galaxy Class Project being approved in 2343, and ending with the Enterprise being commissioned in 2363. The first years are spent on additional research, design, and testing. Fabrication of particular parts begins in 2348. But it's in 2350 that the construction appears to begin.

First frame members gamma-welded in Utopia Planitia ceremony. Warp nacelle shells under construction; coils remain in test phase. Impulse components test-fit within frame at midyear. Computer core framing underway. Habitat modules test-fit. Phasers and photon torpedo assemblies under construction.

The Galaxy is commissioned in 2357, with the Enterprise being declared deep-space worthy two years later. Then shakedown cruises, and so on.

In fact, reading more carefully through the whole timeline (which I should have done the first time), there were a number of problems, particularly with the Enterprise, thus delaying its commissioning.

So I guess your point is a good one, and my estimates are off by half. From the first welding to the commissioning took only 7 years for the Galaxy. So after refining the construction process, amping up mass production, scrambling to beef up the fleet before and during the war, and excluding all the nice-to-haves, they could really bang them out in 1-2 years, as opposed to the 2-3 I originally thought. And maybe faster.

But still, I think the question remains valid as to whether Galaxies make good investments of time and materiel when compared to other classes (be they cruisers like the Sovereign, or fighters/escorts like Defiant).

 

[USS KG5]

But still, I think the question remains valid as to whether Galaxies make good investments of time and materiel when compared to other classes (be they cruisers like the Sovereign, or fighters/escorts like Defiant).

Well assuming they are in production (and why not, still a fairly new design) then the decision is not whether to keep building them or not, but whether to build them or build nothing for a bit while the line is reconstructed and the people retrained, then build something else in their place.

We don't know for example that you could build 12 Defiants concurrently with the same people as 1 Galaxy, I would expect not, as they would still have the same number of difficult components, and cramming those into smaller units in a smaller space might be a lot tougher.

Added to that, sure a Defiant is more bang for her size than, well, anything else in the fleet, but also is a lot less use. She can't evacuate threatened colonies, transport troops, offer repair facilities and engineers to other ships, provide a large hospital facility, have enormous cargo space...

 

[Shikarnov]

Well assuming they are in production (and why not, still a fairly new design) then the decision is not whether to keep building them or not, but whether to build them or build nothing for a bit while the line is reconstructed and the people retrained, then build something else in their place.

We don't know for example that you could build 12 Defiants concurrently with the same people as 1 Galaxy, I would expect not, as they would still have the same number of difficult components, and cramming those into smaller units in a smaller space might be a lot tougher.

Added to that, sure a Defiant is more bang for her size than, well, anything else in the fleet, but also is a lot less use. She can't evacuate threatened colonies, transport troops, offer repair facilities and engineers to other ships, provide a large hospital facility, have enormous cargo space...

More good points. I guess from the perspective we see on the show, it's easy to think of the war as being exclusively combat. But you're absolutely correct in noting the need for varied types of vessels for multiple types of missions. Thanks.

 

[Solariabsg25]

The Galaxy Class ships were an extremely tough frame. Look how long the Odyssey survived at a time when Federation shields were completely ineffective against the Dominion polaron beams, and in fact if not for the Jem'Hadar suicide-run then she may even have been able to recover and make it back to the wormhole and DS9.

It's completely possible that as the Dominion War geared up and civilians started being left behind from starships as they engaged in proper combat roles, it may have been that the saucer sections underwent modification with enhancing the phaser arrays.