How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platform?

[Dayton3]

Given the ease in which a Galaxy class ship can detach the saucer and given that the engineering hull is a complete starship in its own right, would it be cost effective for Starfleet to maintain a dedicated weapons platform that could replace the regular saucer in time of war?

In just minutes you could have the regular saucer detached and replaced with a platform that could be carried into battle with hundreds, if not thousands of torpedoes, pulse phasers, and all other sorts of weapons.

The platform could even be outfitted with larger impulse engines than the regular saucer to increase sublight manueverabilty.

 

[Deks]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

You mean that SF constructs another Galaxy class saucer section that would hold weapons and nothing else?
Specifically in times of war?

The Federeation doesn't have that many wars really.
They are more peace oriented and building a dedicated weapons platform that would be held for times of war ... seems a bit impractical.
Most of the time, they wouldn't be utilized to begin with and it would be viewed as a waste of resources really.

I think it would be more practical to make another re-fit of the Galaxy class star-ship by adding warp capability (another warp core and nacelles) to the saucer section along with 2 more additional torpedo tubes.
Adding more torpedoes to the ship is easy and storing them on a vessel such a Galaxy class saucer is not that problematic.

They can always convert several crew quarters as torpedo storage areas, connect them to the torpedo tubes and you essentially get another 250 torpedoes for the saucer section.

They could also add several deploy-able pulse-phasers to the mix (but not too much).
It could be done if they wanted to make it slightly more combat ready.
The Venture type refit (nacelles receiving phaser-strips on the top section) coupled with some minor interior changes to accommodate more torpedoes and another warp core into the saucer section sounds more than enough for the Galaxy class.
And when separated, they sections become their own ship so they can easily engage multiple targets and divide their firepower in different directions.

 

[msbae]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Or, Starfleet could just build more Defiant and Prometheus class warships while giving older designs better weapons. That's the most practical option.

 

[hellsgate]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Dayton: I have something like that. A Rapier-Class gunship saucer section & a Sovereign-Class secondary/engineering hull with Intrepid-Class nacelles on the secondary/engineering hull. The DAIKYU-CLASS dreadnaught / borg-buster, the flagship of the S.C.E.'s "Frankenstein Fleet".

http://www.angelfire.com/ak4/startrekfanfiction/Vessel.html

 

[JuanBolio]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

That's an idea, and possibly workable. However, the Galaxy class is already formidable enough to destroy a planet as it is. Given the incredible destructive yield of Starfleet's weapons, I'm not sure how much more is needed. The thing already carries 12 or so type 10 phaser banks and 250 or more photon torpedoes.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Yeah someone should photoshop some idea up?

 

[Wingsley]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Or, Starfleet could just build more Defiant and Prometheus class warships while giving older designs better weapons. That's the most practical option.

I would think that for all the construction work and material it would take to build a weaponized replacement saucer for a Galaxy-class starship, Starfleet could build at least half-dozen Defiant-class escorts (each with ablative armor all around, plus each having their own warp drive to boot) and need less personnel to fly them and maintain them. The Galaxy-class ship (unmodified) could be useful in hauling personnel in large numbers to a trouble situation, while the Defiant squadron could handle any confrontations.

Why bother maintaining an extra saucer? The Defiant-class ships could always be docked or used as tactical training ships when not needed for combat.

That would seem to be a more logical and practical approach for Starfleet to take.

 

[backstept]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Dayton: I have something like that. A Rapier-Class gunship saucer section & a Sovereign-Class secondary/engineering hull with Intrepid-Class nacelles on the secondary/engineering hull. The DAIKYU-CLASS dreadnaught / borg-buster, the flagship of the S.C.E.'s "Frankenstein Fleet".

http://www.angelfire.com/ak4/startrekfanfiction/Vessel.html

frakkin' ugly kitbash

 

[Dayton3]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Or, Starfleet could just build more Defiant and Prometheus class warships while giving older designs better weapons. That's the most practical option.

Why the assumption that Defiant or Prometheus class warships would be more efficient or cheaper to build?

Size matters little.

 

[Wingsley]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

It isn't just size; it's the volume of material needed to build, and the construction effort, and the upkeep.

Besides, six Defiants have be more effective than one Galaxy, no matter how modified it could be for combat. That's six more targets for a potential adversary to worry about.

 

[Solariabsg25]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Problem is, it wouldn't take minutes to replace the saucer. You'd have to pull the Galaxys out of the front-line to transfer to a starbase where the "combat-saucer" is stored. Then the civilians and non-essential personnel would need to be transferred to the starbase, with additional engineering/tactical personnel transferred to the ship, then the saucers exchanged, then the ship would fly back to the front-lines.

You would also need to build dozens of saucers for each Galaxy, as of course who would the war be against? The Cardassians? The Romulans? The Klingons? The Borg? Or a myriad of other races. Saucers would have to be stored on all the borders, and you would need to keep the extra personnel required at these bases, unused for months or even years at a time.

Then, there are reportedly only 5 Galaxy-Class starships (though there appeared to be a few more constructed by the time of the Dominion War). That would mean a huge amount of resources dedicated to a relative few starships to create a few "uber-ships". The problem with uber-ships is they become phaser-magnets.

Increasing the firepower by a vast amount will not mean you can increase the shielding, and that's not taking into account the extra power-requirements that all these weapons will require. The warp-core will probably not be able to cope with the added workload, and you'd need additional power reactors in the saucer, reducing the weapons load. You also have to consider that the saucer on the Galaxy Class contains most of the living quarters and essential systems like sickbay, so the space you can use for additional weapons will be further restricted.

Starfleet would be best off constructing Akiras, Steamrunners, Nebulas and other ships that could be used on regular patrols and other non-war missions.

 

[kv1at3485]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

And yet another overcomplicated method to get griss into the mill. This sort of effort is best put into building a fleet of Combat Units ("smallest viable warships"), and leaving things like the Galaxy at home when the shooting starts.

 

[nx1701g]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

I too think that it would be more effective to build Defiant and Prometheus class vessels. They require a lower crew compliment (Defiant had 49 people at most in one episode, the Prometheus could be operated with as few as 4 people if memory served), have extremely capable weapons, and they were capable defensive platforms.

Plus, if you go by some of the noncanon entries in the novels, this has been attempted with the Nebula Class. This was used to explain the dorsal pod as being mission configurable.

 

[Tigger]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

Perhaps Star Fleet was considering such a thing during the latter stages of the Dominion War, but there is no way this would be something they would do as a contingency plan.

More likely, what would happen is they would pull the GCS units back towards the home dockyards and spend the effort on boosting the EPS system and reactors to ensure the ship had more power to drive her existing weapons and shields longer and more effectively in a combat situation.

 

[Timo]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

I'm with Dayton3 on this one. The Galaxies already represent the cream of the cream of Starfleet, and are a major investment.In times of war, they should be given the absolute maximum of fighting potential.

Moreover, they are built with this bit of modularity to begin with. While other multimission starships would need to return to dock for lengthy refitting to the latest military standards when war broke out, a Galaxy could simply undock a saucer and receive a "fighting top", thus being among the first ships to reach the battlefields in fighting trim.

IMHO, it would be very cost-effective to prepare just one fighting top per Galaxy to wait for times of war. Reaction time would be a non-issue: the Dominion War took about two years to get started. The fighting tops would not be there for dealing with the occasional enemy encounter in deep space. They would be there for the day when the Federation decides there will be major war in the next six months.

Dedicated fighting vessels would be a poorer investment. In peacetime, they'd be useless. And they'd take time to build if you only opted for them during wartime. A fighting top for a Galaxy or a Defiant would be a lesser misinvestment when sitting idly than an entire warship, even a small one, would be.

The fighting tops would be for the biggest ships only, of course: from certain ship size down, it would begin to make less sense to put a major chunk of fighting gear in a separate module, as there would begin to be intolerable duplication of systems for the ship and the module: you don't pack a warp drive -less Defiant onto a Defiant and call it a module. But you could very well pack a warp drive -less Defiant onto a ]Galaxy as a combat booster, an easy means of adding pulse phasers and q-torp launchers very quickly.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[jgdst]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

I think people have lost sight of a very important issue.

Who wants to be anywhere near a warp core carrying hull with 1500 quantum torpedo warheads when it blows up? They'll have to invent a new word for 'collateral'

And that's before the stardrive section even begins to kerplode.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

I think people have lost sight of a very important issue.

Who wants to be anywhere near a warp core carrying hull with 1500 quantum torpedo warheads when it blows up? They'll have to invent a new word for 'collateral'

And that's before the stardrive section even begins to kerplode.

What makes you think quantum or photon torpedo warheads even have the abilty to "cook off" (prematurely detonate due to external damage).

And if those warheads were vulnerable to cooking off, I doubt it would matter much whether it was 20 torpedos blowing up or 2000. The results would be pretty much the same to the ship in question.

 

[Tigger]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

With the original plan for the GCS to be well out in and even beyond the Federation Treaty Zone, if a serious and large threat loomed against the Federation, would the GCS even be able to return in time?

 

[Deks]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

I think people have lost sight of a very important issue.

Who wants to be anywhere near a warp core carrying hull with 1500 quantum torpedo warheads when it blows up? They'll have to invent a new word for 'collateral'

And that's before the stardrive section even begins to kerplode.

What makes you think quantum or photon torpedo warheads even have the abilty to "cook off" (prematurely detonate due to external damage).

And if those warheads were vulnerable to cooking off, I doubt it would matter much whether it was 20 torpedos blowing up or 2000. The results would be pretty much the same to the ship in question.

Agreed.
Besides, there are people living in the stardrive section of the Galaxy class which also contains a warp-core/2 torpedo tubes ready to be filled with 250 photon torpedoes and the main deflector dish.
It doesn't really matter one way or the other.
People are expected to be at their posts in times of battle and would evacuate the vessel if the situation becomes dire.

 

[Starlock]

Re: How About Replacing the Galaxy saucer with dedicated weapons platf

This sounds like a fun idea.

Of course, if I really wanted to get nasty in a sneaky kind of way, I'd outfit a standard Galaxy class saucer "Q-Ship style". That is with all sorts of concealed weapons which can be extended from the hull as needed.

For example, take into consideration those two enormous elevator shafts which run from the top to the bottom inside the saucer on each side. All that unused open space.

You could fit quite a bit of hardware in there. Think of a giant module or so which is "plugged" into the shaft. Just open up the outer hatches and let the fun begin!