PIC S3 Ships & Tech
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The Prometheus was built at Beta Antares Shipyards according to its dedication plaque, not Utopia Planitia.
I dunno, I 'm not sure there's much evidence that the Prometheus could have been more than a one-off. Not to say it COULDN'T, but given the only ship we see was the Prometheus, she could have been a proof-of concept and should she have been sucessful, to have entered limited production. As a more conflict-oriented ship, and given her advanced tech that we haven't really seen elsewhere, it wouldn't surprise me if the class got the chop in light of the outbreak of peace, and then the Romulan evacuation taking over the shipyards. Perhaps the Prommie herself was due to be rotated onto prime display at the museum, if she wasn't on one of the inner berths already.
Mark
Mark
I could imagine that the Prometheus was a game changer but expensive to produce and maintain due to the MVAM feature. Perhaps there were a handful. Starfleet also had Dauntless- and Protostar-class starships by the 2380s, and we didn't see any of those in 2401 either - perhaps just on different missions.
Third Perhaps (for the reply), the Prometheus was Batch 0 and the rest of the ships were not MVAM equipped, making them easier to produce. I don't see the non-NX Protostars being equipped with the same engine like the original Protostar due to what happened. Probably the second Protostar maybe equipped with the engine but the others were probably equipped as standard scout/patrol ships.
Thing is, what would be the point of a Prometheus-class ship without the MVAM? It would like building a cabriolet car that can't open its roof.
However, on the Ships of the Line website present for STO's launch in 2010, it was said engineers removed MVAM from Prometheus-derived ship classes because of technical limitations. Once the in-game mechanics had it sorted, MVAM was back for all Prometheus-type classes.
Wasn't that just called the Rabbit?
Even without the MVAM, I think the Prometheus-class would still be a viable design in its own right. While I doubt it would have three warp cores, I think it'd still would retain its quad-nacelle design as there are precedents for such ships in the fleet. Maybe a non-MVAM Prometheus-class could alternate between nacelle pairs to have a higher normal cruising speed than most vessels, who knows?
weren’t there a Prometheus or two in the small fleet at the end of voyager?
I imagine starships in Starfleet all have some sort of reasons why they were built and since the Dominion War was going, Batch 1 Prometheus could be rush builds. The ship seemed pretty tanky without the MVAM activated, so I would assume the non-MVAM Prometheus were powerful ships and the MVAM in active battles seem too complex for those settings.
Perhaps that's the Stargazer's background story: It started as the first splitting ship which kept both parts functional and could be reconnected easily, but something went wrong and the parts stayed together. Could also be why other designs like the Cheyenne and Niagara have more nacelles than seem required.
The Prometheus was seen in VOY Endgame too.
I just can't recall if it was the one or was there more.
Its hard to imagine the Prometheus would have been a one off.
If Galaxy and Intrepid classes were pushing exploration, its possible the Prometheus would have done something similar given that it was designed for deep space tactical assignments (among other things).
Given when the Prometheus was first seen (in the 4th year of VOY's yourney when the Dominion War was happening), SF would have had ample time to ramp up production during the war itself... and possibly afterwards (despite it being more combat oriented, because SF would have been motivated to replace lossses that were incurred during the war itself... and despite the fact it was designed to operate on tactical assignments in deep space, it would probably also make it a good platform to do deep space exploration as well).
The Defiant was a pure 'warship' (which also had virtually no amenities) and it was delegated to exploration duties in the GQ prior to the war as well... so, if SF could have given the Defiant such an assignment, the Prometheus (which is much larger and has a lot more amenities for the crew) would likely be able to do the same.
Even if a vessel is predominantly designed for combat, it doesn't mean it would be bad for exploration - and the Prometheus does have an advantage over other ships in its era due to being design to be the fastest at the time.
But as we learned from Prodigy, it seems that if a ship is a prototype, SF may or may not decide if a vessel will be approved as a new class of ship - depending on how well the ship performs (and the Prometheus was able to rather quickly destroy a Romulan Warbird with only 2 EMH's onboard - so, yeah, I don't think SF would want to pass up an opportunity to have such a powerful class of ships in its arsenal).
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Thought so, thanks!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Prometheus was in fact the prototype, with no alterations in registry or anything. It was an Easter egg, not scripted. IMO, it's not really indicative of anything except Starfleet rightfully emptying the stables when a Borg transwarp conduit pops into existence less than a light year from Earth, including all working prototypes.
That said, in "Prodigy", First Contact with the Vau N'akat was apparently via a Prometheus-class ship, albeit upside-down and in the form of a highly-stylized recollection. So this could be interpreted that some Prometheus-class ships were put into mainline service (or at least the Prometheus herself) and sent all the way out to the Delta Quadrant less than a decade from when Voyager plied those spaceways. If so, I'd like to think that it would mean that the ship was on a "deep space tactical assignment" per the ship's mission brief, and happened to run into the Vau N'akat a part of that mission. Being in the DQ on a "deep space tactical assignment" in turn suggests that a Prommie would have anti-Borg operations as part of the design, so it being there in the fleet for the return of Voyager seems apropos.
All told, ALL Federation ships are multi-role despite what it says on the tin... It just comes down to what context. IMO the Defiant was pressed into more scientific missions in the Gamma Quadrant because Starfleet wouldn't risk doing so with only Runabouts or the other Federation ships and freighters that characterized the exploration efforts of the early DS9 years (which all pretty much stopped after the Dominion entered the scene). Gunboat diplomacy was the order of the day, even for menial survey missions.
Mark
That said, in "Prodigy", First Contact with the Vau N'akat was apparently via a Prometheus-class ship, albeit upside-down and in the form of a highly-stylized recollection. So this could be interpreted that some Prometheus-class ships were put into mainline service (or at least the Prometheus herself) and sent all the way out to the Delta Quadrant less than a decade from when Voyager plied those spaceways. If so, I'd like to think that it would mean that the ship was on a "deep space tactical assignment" per the ship's mission brief, and happened to run into the Vau N'akat a part of that mission. Being in the DQ on a "deep space tactical assignment" in turn suggests that a Prommie would have anti-Borg operations as part of the design, so it being there in the fleet for the return of Voyager seems apropos.
All told, ALL Federation ships are multi-role despite what it says on the tin... It just comes down to what context. IMO the Defiant was pressed into more scientific missions in the Gamma Quadrant because Starfleet wouldn't risk doing so with only Runabouts or the other Federation ships and freighters that characterized the exploration efforts of the early DS9 years (which all pretty much stopped after the Dominion entered the scene). Gunboat diplomacy was the order of the day, even for menial survey missions.
Mark
Prometheus is from classical Greek so the correct plural would probably be more like Prometheis.
That would depend on if Starfleet still believes it needs a number of starships with MVAM in the fleet after the end of the Dominion War. I would think they would have other priorities. Though they still have a number of Defiant-class ships even in 2401. I would think those would be a mix of war built ships and local rapid defense forces to shore up various sectors or starbases.
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