Border Patrol - Ships of the Line

[N1N]

Hello All! I was musing over what happens along the various borders that cover federation space and began to wonder. Does the federation have a choice ship class that you'd use to patrol their borders?

I didn't want to just say the Galaxy Class as due to TNG hero ship status, did anything and everything as far as roles are concerned.

 

[Unicron]

The Ships of the Star Fleet series has a volume around what they call perimeter action ships, which are basically fast and pretty well armed on a small hull. They're intended to be rapid response vessels that can operate on generally short term missions, and hold the line until something bigger (if needed) arrives. In some respects, not unlike how the Defiant was designed along similar lines to mainly fight a powerful enemy (the Borg).

I personally have never liked the PA designation myself, as I think the role they play is fine but it's not one that warrants its own sub category. I tend to view that role being filled by lighter designs like corvettes and destroyers, who share many of the same operational design elements. But that's just me.

 

[N1N]

I'd never heard of the 'perimeter action ships' before. Looks like in the 24th century, the Sabre class picks up that duty for the federation which would make sense I guess because of the borg threat.

 

[Forbin]

Here's the basic Akyazi as originally presented in Ships of the Star Fleet:
http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/perimeteraction_akyazi.jpg

Looks like Amazon still sells the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Ships-Star-Fleet-Akyazi-Class-Perimeter/dp/0965601617

 

[Dukhat]

If we’re strictly adhering to canon, I’d think that ships classified as ‘frigates’ (such as the New Orleans class) are probably the types of vessels best suited for border patrol duty. That might even be why ships like the New Orleans, Springfield, Cheyenne and Challenger classes were rarely seen in TNG and DS9...they were patrolling the Neutral Zone.

 

[Timo]

There is always the option that nobody patrols the borders, too. I mean, nobody ever patrolled the sea borders of the British Empire, either. It would simply have been impossible to do so. Rather, the Empire had concentrations of naval power, including home ports, replenishment stations, and then starbase-like strongholds at distant locations, such as China Station. There was little in the way of early warning, and everything worked on the basis of random inspections, random escort, and decisive retaliation if somebody dared.

Yet an enemy fleet could always sneak to within a few nautical miles of British mainland in decisive strength without being noticed - as long as there was nothing faster than a ship of the line to carry a warning... Wireless eventually changed that. But it didn't result in the Empire starting a border patrol.

Starfleet doesn't have much in the way of early warning, either: only the Dominion can monitor sector upon sector with something analogous to radar. Only isolated special areas such as the RNZ are an exception, and those, too, leak like a sieve. Tellingly, we never hear of Starfleet mounting a border patrol. Instead, we get local patrol, protection of point targets such as star systems - the biggest thing we hear of being patrolled is a "space sector" in TOS "The Menagerie", but that's a one-off!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[valkyrie013]

I think the starfleet does have patrol ships, even if the "Patrol ship" is one of the larger heavy cruisers for a time.
With a space of what? 1000 light years? that is ALOT of border, and even with thousands of ships, its a needle in the hay stack, with the stack being the size of jupiter.
So I belive that there are ships that patrol borders with neighbors that don't like us like the Romulans, Klingons (up untill the peace treaty) Tzenkethi, Breen, Tholians, etc. There are just to many planets to cover with even 1 ship for a planetary fleet, so you have 1 ship that patrols say a 10 light year border, but not really "Patroling" in the sense that they just go back and forth along the border, ships have sensors that cover light years, and there would be plenty of bouys, asteroids with sensors that would update starfleet on movements.
But space is BIG, even in trek universe, takes many hours to days to get from system to system. If you don't have any ship in the sector with in hours of being alerted to a problem, there will be a planet that payes for it. So I don't critisize the lines from TOS of, "Were the only ship in the sector/quadrant" because they probably are.
Now that doesn't mean that theres no back up, theres probably a small fleet at starbases that can be moblized to danger areas when needed.

 

[Dukhat]

There is always the option that nobody patrols the borders, too.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starship_mission_status

At least two vessels, an Excelsior class and a Nebula class, were on Neutral Zone border patrol duty in 2367.

 

[Timo]

Which is different in that the RNZ is also a zone where sensors supposedly inform Starfleet of intrusion attempts (even if not with much success). Everywhere else, penetration is supposed to take place unobserved, and reports of intruders deep inside the UFP are neither rare nor considered dubious - say, New Berlin right next to the Federation capital in "Descent"!

Kirk was also supposed to be "patrolling outposts" at the RNZ in "Balance of Terror", whatever that means. But such things only ever happen at the RNZ and at specific point targets, just as with the Royal Navy of yore...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[trekshark]

according to one of the books, Ship of the Line maybe?, the Bozeman was a border patrol ship. Even had "mall security car" lights on it LOL

 

[Dukhat]

Which is different in that the RNZ is also a zone where sensors supposedly inform Starfleet of intrusion attempts (even if not with much success). Everywhere else, penetration is supposed to take place unobserved, and reports of intruders deep inside the UFP are neither rare nor considered dubious - say, New Berlin right next to the Federation capital in "Descent"!

Kirk was also supposed to be "patrolling outposts" at the RNZ in "Balance of Terror", whatever that means. But such things only ever happen at the RNZ and at specific point targets, just as with the Royal Navy of yore...

I’m not sure where you’re getting that information from.

 

[Timo]

Uh, from the sources quoted?

The RNZ has tripwire sensors in "Face of the Enemy", and it still leaks, including in that very episode. What's unclear about that?

No other border ever stopped anybody from entering as far as we can tell, cloak or not. What's unclear about that?

No other border is ever said to be patrolled. Is something unclear about that?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dukhat]

Uh, from the sources quoted?

The RNZ has tripwire sensors in "Face of the Enemy", and it still leaks, including in that very episode. What's unclear about that?

No other border ever stopped anybody from entering as far as we can tell, cloak or not. What's unclear about that?

No other border is ever said to be patrolled. Is something unclear about that?

The only 'source' you quoted was from 'Face of the Enemy' (of which you didn't name the episode until after the fact, and it only mentions the Federation posting sensors on its border (which has nothing to do with ships patrolling the NZ, since the discussion about sensors wasn't about the NZ.) Everything else you said was just assumption, most of which had nothing to do with the topic of ships patrolling the Neutral Zone. I, on the other hand, posted an Okudagram which very clearly shows that ships do patrol the NZ.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: we have concrete evidence that the Federation at least employs both older Excelsior class ships and newer Nebula class ships as border patrol vessels. So it seems like there's no specific 'type' of vessel built especially for this duty; it appears that border patrol duty is just something that random ships happen to be given at any particular point in time.