StarShip Classifications in your Head Cannon!

List the StarShip Classifications in your Head Cannon along with Time Frame, roles, size of fleet, state of universe, etc.

e.g.:
Cruiser
Frigate
Battle Ship
etc.

 

My "head canon" parallels the game Star Fleet Battles, based on TOS/TAS. Going from biggest to smallest:

Battleship -- this is a beast. Four engines and a ton of weapons. In the game's lore, only the Klingon B-10 was ever constructed, with many delays and cost overruns. Everyone else designed one, but nobody could afford to build it.

Dreadnought -- a true heavy-hitter, with thee engines and half-again more weapons than a cruiser. Many were converted to Heavy Carriers with a boat load of space fighters / attack shuttles. These never fought alone, but rather lead a battle fleet of ten to twelve other ships. The Klingon C-9 outclassed the Fed DN so much, they had to upgrade it to the DNG.

Heavy Battle Cruiser -- a maxed-out cruiser, attempting to cram a Dreadnought's weapons onto a cruiser hull. The Federation had four nearly-identical versions, swapping out the weapons on the goose-neck (a pair of photons / plasma torps / missiles [called "drones" in the game] / or phasers). The Klingon C-7 is a near-perfect warship.

Heavy Cruiser / Battle Cruiser -- Our favorite ship. The cruiser is a perfectly-balanced work-of-art capable of handling any mission that comes its way. Of course, the Klingon D-7 (and the earlier D-6) is a fair match to the Constitution-class starship. There was a Command Cruiser version with extra C4I facilities.

New Heavy Cruiser -- based on the War Cruiser below, this was a cheaper / faster-built ship of the line with most of the wartime capabilities of the all-purpose Heavy Cruiser.

Light Cruiser -- basically, three-quarters of a Heavy Cruiser, also an all-around balanced ship. The Federation design pre-dated the saucer ships but was solid enough it served well into the General War, often as a carrier escort or commando troop transport.

War Cruiser / New Light Cruiser -- a cheaper Light Cruiser with reduced peacetime capabilities. Many variants including carriers, escorts, and scouts (see below). It's a toss-up as to whether the Klingon D-5 or the Fed NCL is the best in class.

Destroyer -- half of a Heavy Cruiser. The Federation's Saladin-class is affectionately known as the Lollipop due to the top silhouette (one engine and a saucer). Many were built as Electronic Warfare ships, aka Hermes-class "Scouts", with powerful sensor/scanners that doubled as jammers. Also, many were converted to Carrier Escorts to protect the flattops.

War Destroyer -- The Federation needed a better / cheaper ship in the Destroyer role (which used the same size saucer as the CA/CC), so they made a whole new design. This freed up the slipway needed to build more CA/NCL. Of course, there were scout and escort varients.

Frigate -- a third of a cruiser. Used as a screen for the main war ships. Often converted to carrier escorts, also converted to scouts and supply / transport ships. The Klingon F-5 is either the game's biggest Frigate or smallest Destroyer.

Cutter / Corvette -- The smallest independent warship. For the Federation, this was the main Police Force boat (not part of Star Fleet -- think US Navy/Coast Guard relationship). The Klingon E-4 and E-3 were originally convoy escorts and later used as carrier escorts; the G-2 was their police boat.

Gunboats / Fast Patrol Ships -- about 35 meters long with a tiny crew, these were flying weapon platforms. They were too small to operate in deep space without a PF Tender, typically a converted CW. Usually deployed as a flight of six, it was a cheap way of adding a dreadnought's firepower into the battle. The Federation did not use Gunboats but rather developed some of the best fighters in the known universe.

Fighters / Attack Shuttles -- one or two-man combat shuttles, typically in squadrons of six fighters, the cruiser-base carriers usually carried 12 while the dreadnought-based heavy carriers had 24.

 

For me, Earth’s Starfleet has its origins in NASA, so it's more about humans living in Outer Space than it is about warring with aliens. From a human perspective, war is outlawed on Earth and space is mostly empty, so our ships up among the stars are about exploration, science, transportation, colonization, etc. Our classifications reflect that non-belligerent intent, even as they're armed as well or better (thanks, science) than those of enemy empires. No battleships, attack cruisers, warbirds, or imperial star-destroyers among the Starfleet classifications.

Cruisers: the largest ships
Frigates: midsize ships
Corvettes: smaller ships

Scouts: small recon vessels
Escorts: as close to warships as Starfleet gets
(I think it's also important to remember that a lot of fighting is done by automated weapons platforms and drones. I don't see this any different as "the ship will clean itself." Changes are coming to the real world, and I think our art should reflect that.)

I kinda like the idea of a Clipper or Cutter or Schooner for a really fast ship, just to add some more nauticalia in there. Though I don't take any of this too seriously...a lot of these terms were created to classify ships with certain numbers of masts and jibs.

Tugs, Tenders, Tankers, Transports, Freighters, Factory Ships, Science Vessels, Colony Ships...there are a lot of others to consider too, beyond fighting ships.

And we should remember that Bird-of-Prey, Warbird, Marauder, Battlecruiser, Attack Cruiser, Cube, Tactical Cube, etc are all also classifications of ship, not individual classes themselves. I wonder if there are any Orion galleons out there...

Could there be an analog to a submarine for Trek ships? A subspaceine?

If you're interested in classifications, I highly recommend Jackill's Ships of the Fleet books. They have a lot of unusual ones.

 

The classification scheme presented in the Ships of The Starfleet books and the Federation Reference Series work best for me. Detailed enough to manage a large and diversely-purposed fleet, but avoiding some of the nonsensical BS I've seen in some other fandom works like Jackill's

 

How so?

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Also something to remember is that ships may be reclassified during their lifespan. An Excelsior Class may be a heavy cruiser when it’s first built but considered a regular *cruiser by the time of the Dominion War, or be used to haul cargo as the U.S.S. Hood mostly did.

In “Yesrerday’s Enterprise,” the E-D was referred to as a battle cruiser. Is this because its insides were different, regardless that the same model was being used, or do the Klingons refer to it using their own classification scheme?

*cruiser can be synonymous with starcruiser, like ship can be synonymous with starship. I wonder if battlecruiser can be synonymous with battle starcruiser or battlestar lol

 

One bit of nonsense can be found on Memory Beta. Look at the information about the Saber-class ship. They list it as having three configurations: Light Cruiser, Destroyer, and Frigate. How can one ship fall into three different size categories?

 

Beta is a Treklit wiki, right? Are they merely noting what was presented in different Trek books? Or do they do creative work themselves?

 

Certain authors / story lines are in different novel universes? Parallel worlds / Multiverse?

 

Well, let's just pick one general type of ships: Frigates. In SotSF we get three classifications: Frigate (FR), Heavy Frigate (FH), and Fast Frigate (FF). Sensible, manageable, and yet broad enough to encompass a number of possible designs.

Now let's turn to Jackill: We get Frigates, Heavy Frigates, Medical Frigates (shouldn't this just be a Hospital Ship?), Assault Frigates, Attack Frigates, Strategic Frigates, and Tactical Frigates!. Setting aside the insane level of micromanagement that this implies, WTF is the difference between a Tactical Frigate vs. a Strategic Frigate!? (And then there is the book Starfleet Prototype which has most of the above and adds the idiotic "Dreadnought Frigate" - apparently designated such because it has three nacelles*. And this is just frigates. Jackill also hands us at least six different types of Destroyer and a myriad of cruiser designations.

*=because ANYTHING with three nacelles is a dreadnought, I guess.

 

I kinda like how descriptive Jackill's are. All the ships are variants and contemporaries of one-another. They're different for a reason, so if they'd like to specify what that is for us... What's the difference between a tactical and strategic frigate? It says it in the book, and I don't remember. What do the ships themselves look like? Maybe the tactical one is more of a fighter and the strategic one is more if an overseer, with anti-jamming communications abilities and holographic displays of the battlefield?

We're talking about a highly sophisticated far-future Federation that has diverse needs spread across many thousands of ships and lightyears of space. It's probably very easy for them to build or refit or send specific ships to different jobs. And, like mentioned, I kinda like how the diverse classifications might help umbrella the many diverse fan and canon designs into different categories, even if they're too plentiful to recall right now. After all, a "tactical star-frigate" is still a frigate. (And really, I don't take any of these too seriously, as they're bound to change with the next line of dialogue.)

I like Jackill's use of "dreadnaught" to identify the heaviest versions of a type of ship. I understand why the extra-nacelled frigate, with the larger star drive section, and the larger shuttlebay, and whatever else would be described as the dreadnaught of its Reliant-looking configuration.

In Trek, the ships get larger but the configurations stay the same. The Galaxy Class is the same shape as the Constitution Class. You can call them each heavy-cruisers of their eras (which I prefer), or you can call the Connie a "Starship" (as it was in TOS) and the Galaxy an "Explorer" (as it was in the TNG Tech Manual)....and the Excelsior a "Battleship" (as its classified in some places), and the Enterprise-H a "Galactic Cruiser" and the Enterprise-I a "Supergalactic Starcruiser," etc etc, 'til your nose is bleeding, meanwhile they're all the same configuration, only bigger. Plus, the Connie is no longer called a "Starship" because the word is now synonymous with ship or space ship, and the Connie did do "Exploring," so sorry, Galaxy.

 

I tend to stick with the Federation Reference Series (FRS) / Ships of the Star Fleet (SOTSF) system for most uses in a peacetime Federation setting, save for the nomenclature "Destroyers" which I don't think is in keeping with the quasi-military/peace-keeping philosophy exemplified by Starfleet in TOS & TNG. I tend to think of those vessels as either Escorts (which is what a destroyer typically functions as), Patrol Combatants (vessels well inside Federation space serving interdiction surveillance roles, with limited range and maneuverability), or tasked as Scouts (like the USS Revere from TMP, which in turn is from the Tech Manual (one of the Saladin class Destroyer / Hermes class Scout designs). Keeping in mind that Naval ship classification nomenclature is flexible and is more of a functional descriptor, rather than an absolute designation, a vessel may start off as a Explorer (as is the case with the TNG Enterprise-D), be refitted as a Heavy Cruiser for a part of its career (as I imagine many Galaxy class ships were during the Dominion War), and then end up in a Dreadnought configuration (like the TNG future Enterprise-D from "All Good Things"). That's my two cents.

 

The problem I see with ship classifications is that many ships are multifunction and multirole and military designations don't say a lot about a ship other than its military role, which is in most cases secondary to primary roles of exploration. In exploratory function what is meant by heavy cruiser, or frigate? Is a general purpose explorer the same as a heavy cruiser, or can a frigate be a general purpose explorer too? If the Galaxy and Constitution classes are a heavy cruiser general purpose explorers, is the Intrepid class a general purpose exploratory frigate? Or a dedicated science vessel frigate? Dedicated science vessel cruiser? What information should the classification present so that you have an idea about the ship's purpose and capability?

 

The problem with Exploration Designations is that most of StarFleet are different variations of "Multi-Function All Purpose Explorers"

Size determines how many different type of scientific missions can get done and at what rate, thats it.

It also determines the capacity of your Engineering, Hospital, Diplomacy, and Surveillance capabilities.

 

Easily enough - the very same thing happens in the real world, too, chiefly because there is no such things as a "size category" any more. That is, the western navies stopped believing in those soon after WWII, instead designating their ships after their missions. Take a NATO warship, any warship (other than flattop), and you can freely call it Destroyer, Frigate, Corvette or Cruiser, depending on whom you ask and what this generic ship of a couple of thousand tons is supposed to do. A delightful example of the confusion is the tiny D'Estienne d'Orves, whom the French called either Corvette or Aviso, but gave a F-for-Frigate pennant code anyway.

I'm rather fond of the idea that the typical starship is but a shell. What gets embarked for a specific mission dictates the ship type: under the command of Pike in "The Cage", the starship was a humble Sloop, with just 200 crew and logistics modules for supply runs. But under Kirk in TOS, the starship was a Cruiser, with 400 crew to operate a broad set of research and combat modules...

Bigger ships don't represent bigger mission classes. They just have potential to become a broader variety of mission classes.

Timo Saloniemi

 

For me, the Military Designation is separate from it's Civilian one.

 

I follow SFB/Starfleet Command also, mostly because I was the most impressed by how it filled out starfleet. Those military categorizations also effectively described the capabilities of the ship in scientific and patrol duties- ie Cruisers are the most balanced of the fleet. Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers have more weaponry, but also more amenities due to their bulk and size. Klingons refer to the Enterprise-D as a Battleship, the refit as a Battlecruiser, et all.

I also think ships get re-designated as they get older. Excelsior started life as a Dreadnought on the boards, got downgraded to a battlecruiser when she had sister ships, and by the 24th century she's just a heavy cruiser.

Same thing with Mirandas. They begin as New Heavy Cruiser replacements for the aging Constitution/Enterprise class, get overproduced and end up in the 24th century as mere frigates. As (cold) wartime classes oddly they end up being more viable and long-lived than the 24th century replacements which were either too optimistic in their capabilities or too watered down for peacetime roles to be as long-lived.

 

Here's my take, at least for the TOS era.


Dreadnoughts - Starfleet only has a very few of these vessels, say 3 to 6, they are very expensive to build and operate so they are usually kept in semi-ready reserve. They can be made ready to go on duty in about a month. They're about the same size as the Enterprise but with all the science labs and most of the creature comforts removed and replaced with heavier shields and weapons systems. As they usually have a supporting squadron of lesser vessels they are a Commodore's command.

Heavy Cruisers - Starfleet's main class of heavy combatant, they are the Queens of the Fleet with the greatest range and the optimum combination of scientific and combat capabilities. Still expensive, but far more useful in general than the Dreadnoughts, Starfleet would have anywhere from 10 to 20 of these in operation. Usually a senior Captain's command.

Light Cruisers - The Fleet’s Princes and very similar to the Heavy Cruisers but with less range and firepower, Starfleet builds these in greater numbers, about 25 to 50, and they often fill in for the Heavies closer to home. The smallest of the capital ships, a Captain's command.

Frigates - Returning to their 18th century position in the "Order of Battle" they are the standard "do everything" ships. Starfleet would deploy about 40 to 80 of these particularly during wartime. The frigates have a long range, nearly equal to the Heavy Cruisers, they tend to be more maneuverable than the bigger ships and are often faster in terms of emergency burst speed. But they are armed with fewer weapons and their shields are only of moderate strength. Usually a junior Captain's command.

Destroyers - Although optimized for combat to a certain extent, Starfleet's destroyers are another "do everything" design that is deployed in substantial numbers, probably 100 to 200 or more. They have high combat speeds, although they trade off considerable cruising range to achieve them, moderate shields, moderate phaser hardpoints and multiple torpedo tubes combined with a small to moderate complement of torpedoes. Their science facilities are rudimentary compared to those aboard a Heavy Cruiser but acceptable for their usual missions. Generally considered a Commander's command but it is not that unusual to see a Captain in command of one, particularly if it is the lead ship of a squadron.

Scouts - Well shielded and only lightly armed, usually not even mounting torpedo tubes, but with science facilities nearly the equal of those found on Heavy Cruisers and the best sensors systems available, the Scouts are the eyes and ears of Starfleet. There wouldn’t be a huge number of them probably no more than 40 or so. Unless operating deep within the Federation these ships are always escorted but the information their sensors gather and feed to their escort make the pair an extremely effective combination. Normally a Lieutenant Commander's command.

Corvettes - A very small ship designed as a patrol and anti-piracy vessel probably the most common Starfleet vessel with perhaps as many as 250 in service. They usually mount a pair of light phaser banks and a single torpedo tube; their science facilities consist of a single generalist lab. They are not particularly fast but they are highly maneuverable. A Lieutenant Commander or senior Lieutenant's command with a crew complement of about 35.

 

2593. State of the universe: The civilized worlds of the Milky Way Galaxy are basically divided between the Federation (roughly 55%), the Typhon Pact (40-ish %), and the League of Independent Worlds (About 4%). The Prime Directive was greatly weakened by a series of court decisions, legislation, and regulation about 50 years ago, and decisions in the Federation government are increasingly made behind closed doors by the power elite, which seems to be dominated by Betazoids, Trill, Denobulans, and Vulcans, rather than by anything approaching a democracy or a republic. Senior ranks in Starfleet are also increasingly dominated by those four species, especially in positions that control actual military force - the only human in command of any of the two most powerful classes of vessels is Commodore Sara Chandler of the USS Triumphant.

Andor left the Federation 10 years ago and is in talks to join the Typhon Pact, which from an outside view, has become a better alternative for individual liberties and rights than the Federation, though this would be scoffed at by most inside the Federation, who still talk their standard, traditional lines about peace and cooperation and the subtle positions that imply human cultural and moral superiority and a galactic manifest destiny. The Borg joined the Federation, making large concessions in their mode of operations in order to secure Federation assistance against a much larger threat the entire galaxy is facing.

Now, the ships, from biggest to smallest:

Farship - Aurora-Class - utilizing technologies from many Federation contributors, but mainly from the Borg and the Voth, these are huge, mostly spherical mobile starbases, diplomatic, exploration, and colonization platforms, large enough to hold 72 starships of Excelsior-class or smaller, plus many, many more shuttles, workbees, fighters, and other support ships, a standard crew complement of around 8,000, and a volunteer civilian population numbering in the tens of thousands who are housed in a large civilian area that even has its own city government for internal matters. Reasonably well-armed and shielded (comparable to late-season DS9), but mostly relies on starship support and its ability to bug out quickly for defense. One of only two types of vessels outfitted with Sidewarp Drive, capable of transporting the ship across vast, intergalactic distances very rapidly (3 weeks to Andromeda). 3 have been constructed and launched - USS Aurora, USS Origin, and USS Unimatrix. Contact has been lost with Origin, she is feared lost, and construction of additional Farships is in review to attempt to determine the cause and prevent future occurrences. Command of a Farship is given to a member of senior Admiralty with extensive experience commanding starships AND administrating starbases.

EPPs ("Enhanced Projection Platforms", because it sounds more subtle and in line with Federation principles than Superdreadnought) - Indomitable-Class - armed to the teeth with a standard crew complement of over 5,000 and two shuttlebays each capable of docking one of the old Constitution-Class starships if they were emptied of their usual complements of shuttles, fighters, workbees, etc. Outfitted with two Slipstream nacelles, two (experimental, smaller) Sidewarp engines, and two *additional* inboard Slipstream nacelles on the saucer section. Mission profiles include transport of high ranking Federation officials when travelling to potentially risky places, courier and support runs for Farships, border patrol in heavily contested regions, and visiting member worlds that are thinking of leaving the Federation to show them how important they are (and if they also happen to be a bit intimidated, that works, too). There are 13 in service (a number chosen as part of honoring the Enterprise name - which shows you how deeply the politics goes into decision making), including USS Indomitable (NCC-170101), USS Triumphant (NCC-170110), and USS Enterprise (NCC-170100 - out of sequence but held for the Enterprise). Command of a Superdreadnaught is given to a Rear Admiral, but convention has again come to be to refer to a Rear Admiral in command of a starship or starbase as "Commodore". The Executive Officer billet is a Flag Captain's assignment, and these ships have a dual-deck bridge with an upper deck for fleet command and a lower deck for local ship command.

PPs ("Projection Platforms", NOT "Dreadnoughts" ) - a variety of classes built with the primary purposes of defense/battle and border patrol. Heavy automation and limited mission profiles mean that standard crew complements are generally low - 150 is typical. These are the billets of Flag Captains - captains who have seniority and would potentially be assigned to command task groups.

Explorer - a variety of classes built for exploration and for performing research and other functions in areas where contention might be anticipated, such as defending an outpost while under construction, making adjustments to border sensor arrays, anti-piracy operations, troop transport, and analyzing spatial anomalies near Andor. Moderately armed, armored, and shielded - three of these would be considered approximately a fair fight against a PP. Standard crew complement is generally 500-1000, but can rise as high as 4,000 depending on specific class and mission profile.These are generally the billets of Captains with a previous ship command under their belt.

Cruiser - a variety of classes (including the venerable Excelsior-class, STILL, downrated from its old Heavy Cruiser role and refit again) that serve as the workhorses of the Federation: research and sensor data updates well inside Federation borders, internal transport of important people, tractor recovery of disabled starships and space transports, customs and ship inspection, and primary system defense forces. Generally, standard crew complement is 150-200, but can rise as high as 750 depending on specific class and mission profile. These are the billets of new Captains or, occasionally, a Commander whose star is rising quickly.

Escort - a variety of classes built to act as armed escorts for larger vessels, both Starfleet and otherwise (colony ships, transports, Farships, task groups, ships transporting important personages, etc). Small, but heavily armed and armored and very maneuverable, with crew complements generally under 80. These are the billets of Commanders and occasionally, Lt. Commanders.

Transports/Carriers - a handful of classes built to maximize internal volume to act as hospital ships, troop transports, cargo transports for sensitive cargo, fighter craft, etc. Very large vessels, but minimal armaments and crew - though they are usually outfitted with decent to superior armor and shielding. Hospital variants can be the billet of anyone who has passed Starfleet Command Training, which is usually (but not always) at least a Lt. Commander. Troop transport command is often assigned as a mission, when need for such transport arises, and generally to an officer that outranks the troops they will be carrying - such ships are generally used for cargo when not pressed into service for troop transport. Fighter carriers are usually the billet of a Captain or Flag Captain with previous starship command experience, and their exec is generally also a Captain - the Wing Commander for the fighter complement. And a cargo transport can be commanded by any commissioned officer, even an Ensign (although it would be considered an unusual honor for an Ensign to be given a command billet, intended by a senior officer to accelerate their later career), as the crew is generally non-commissioned, and no flag decisions are expected to be required.