Well, from what I see from many Star Trek guide and narrative, the Galaxy Class Heavy Cruiser is a deep space exploration ship. It is not a warship. Even Picard claims that it is not a warship, and her weapons are intended for self defense only. But this is the contradiction of what they claims.
1. The Enterprise D is the first ship that intercept the Borg Cube when it came to invaded Federation space.
2. The Enterprise-D mission to patrol near the Romulan Neutral Zone.
3. The Enterprise-D missions also mostly to conduct gunboat diplomacy with other species on their planet.
Those are military warship specific missions in our real world.
Plus, as a deep space exploration starship, the Galaxy Class - Enterprise D specifically has the best weapon in the fleet. they also has the biggest size, the best protection, and has more weapons that the usual Miranda and Excelsior Class around.
So if the Galaxy Class really intended to be an exploration ship, why would a Hegemony Empire like Federation send their best assets to far far away from home just to explore some uncharted space, while at the same time they have only smaller, less capable ships like the old Miranda and Excelsior to protect their home? Why not just send the old Miranda, Excelsior (which are more expendable but capable to handle the mission) to explore uncharted space and keep their best weapons to protect their home?
But if the Galaxy Class Starships are a warship, then why not they said so? Or Starfleet is just a hypocritical people who want to portray themselves as peaceful entity, while actually armed themselves with teeth? Or maybe they want to copy JDF (Japanese Defense Force) idea to call themselves as a non military organization while actually they just another military oganization on our planet? Japan even call their LHD (now Aircraft Carrier) as Destroyer. And so Starfleet call their battleship as a mere Heavy Cruiser and Explorer?
1. The Enterprise D is the first ship that intercept the Borg Cube when it came to invaded Federation space.
2. The Enterprise-D mission to patrol near the Romulan Neutral Zone.
3. The Enterprise-D missions also mostly to conduct gunboat diplomacy with other species on their planet.
Those are military warship specific missions in our real world.
Plus, as a deep space exploration starship, the Galaxy Class - Enterprise D specifically has the best weapon in the fleet. they also has the biggest size, the best protection, and has more weapons that the usual Miranda and Excelsior Class around.
So if the Galaxy Class really intended to be an exploration ship, why would a Hegemony Empire like Federation send their best assets to far far away from home just to explore some uncharted space, while at the same time they have only smaller, less capable ships like the old Miranda and Excelsior to protect their home? Why not just send the old Miranda, Excelsior (which are more expendable but capable to handle the mission) to explore uncharted space and keep their best weapons to protect their home?
But if the Galaxy Class Starships are a warship, then why not they said so? Or Starfleet is just a hypocritical people who want to portray themselves as peaceful entity, while actually armed themselves with teeth? Or maybe they want to copy JDF (Japanese Defense Force) idea to call themselves as a non military organization while actually they just another military oganization on our planet? Japan even call their LHD (now Aircraft Carrier) as Destroyer. And so Starfleet call their battleship as a mere Heavy Cruiser and Explorer?