Ranking trek ships with Naval classes?

[jpch]

So many people reference ships as cruisers,warships,scouts etc...I'm just wondering if its accurate to do so. since in the navy battleships carry large capital cannons and smaller frigates only carry CIWS and few missiles while in trek all ships have almost same weapons Phasers,Disruptors and torpedoes some have more then other but nothing else is different.

Do you think its possible to label them with navy terminology?
ill give it a try tell me what do you think. and please correct any trek spelling mistakes thanks.

just to give you a few ides

Destroyer>Frigate>Corvette are small to medium heavily armed vessel with many missiles and high speed maneuverability.in combat they protect Cruisers and battleships.tho they lack long range ability and defensive power they can put holes in bigger ships.( seems like the Defiant)


Cruisers have many sub-classes and vary a lot in ability and task,tho they are medium to large sized vessels above average armaments and long range capacity and above average defenses their speeds vary depending on size and can handle most threats (seems like the Galaxy[that ship is just too weird and difficult to be classified],Intrepid)


Battleships,largest and most powerful vessels have a lot of weapons,usualy able to destroy inferior tier ships easily and shrug off most damage.(''Borg Cubes" o.o)




Naval Tiers from weakest to strongest (tho each tier serves specific use to the fleet) :

1-Scout (Hideki, Borg scout,Peregrine)

2-Science/Hospital ship (Obereth,Nova,Olympic,Raven)

3-Corvette (B'rel,Miranda,Saber,Norway,Borg probe)

4-Frigate (Centaur,Steamrunner,Dominion bug ships,Breen ship)

5-Destroyer ( Defiant,Galor,K'vort,Borg Diamond)

6-Cruiser (Constellation,Excelsior,D7,Constitution)

7-Medium cruiser (Intrepid,Nebula,Vor'cha,Keldon,Norexan)

8-Heavy cruiser (Galaxy,Akira,Ambassador)

9-Battle cruiser (Sovereign,Prometheus,De'derix,Neg'hevar, Borg Sphere)

10-Battleship (Dominion battleship,Borg Cube,Hunshock ship,Krenim time ship)

11-Dreadnought or Battleship + (Borg Tactical cube,Scimitar)

 

[sojourner]

Wow, another thread about ranking ships?

 

[7thsealord]

A couple of comments.

First, I question putting ships like the Excelsior and the Constitution in the same category. The differances in size, capabilities and tech are more than a little major.

Second, the range of sizes / capabilities we see for Science Ships makes this category almost meaningless.

Thord, what about conversions? We saw the USS Brattain, a Miranda class, roughly equivalent to the Enterprise class, that had clearly been converrted to a pure science ship (with considerably reduced crew).

If you gotta do a classification system, I suspect it might have to be at least two-tiered - one tier for hull size, then a variety of classifications and sub-classifications to cover the ship's general purpose and capabilities. KInd of like the ship classification system in 'High Guard' (the Navy book for the old 'Traveller' role-playing game).

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

^All good points. Another important thing to remember is that very few Starfleet ships are just for one thing, with a few exceptions. Most Starfleet vessels are capable of carrying out scientific, diplomatic, and tactical missions.

 

[Cyke101]

^All good points. Another important thing to remember is that very few Starfleet ships are just for one thing, with a few exceptions. Most Starfleet vessels are capable of carrying out scientific, diplomatic, and tactical missions.

Yeah, that's my primary concern with the Galaxy class in the OP. I suppose it's one thing to try and analogize modern warships with Star Trek vessels, but the Galaxy class was initially designed to be one of the most versatile ships in all of Trek -- while modern aircraft carriers are floating cities like the Galaxy class, the Galaxy is much more versatile (medical, scientific, cargo, community, diplomatic, transport, research, exploration etc. etc. ship) that matching her up with any modern warship runs into problems. And I imagine that'll be the same with many other Starfleet vessels like the Intrepid.

 

[Caliburn24]

It seems meaningless to give starships arbitrary naval analogues. We don't know the specifics of relative shield strength, relative weapon strength, relative sensor capabilities or relative details at all.

Also we don't really know specifics of Starfleet fleet doctrine. Do you need to have escorts around you larger vessels? Can smaller ships play any meaningful role in combat with ships of the line?

Any decent Starfleet admiral is going to know the capabilities of his ships beyond a mere one word designation.

And just as a sidenote, this blurring of ship types and capabilities is happening in the real world too. The USN's littoral combat ships for example switch equipment packages based on which mission they are about to do.