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how big is starfleet?

Its possible that some of the races that join the Federation during the 23rd century and early 24th century want to be more proactive than those that had joined in the 22nd century. Thus more crews for more ships as the 23rd century comes to a close and more and more expansion of the fleet by the mid-24th century. This also might be helped by the prolonged Cardassian Conflict in the Post-Klingon Cold War era, and various races in that direction (relative to the Core Federation Worlds) wanting to do something.

It could also be the transition from the former local powers space forces integrating into Starfleet over the course of the 23rd century that eventually expands the fleet, as the independent forces complete their mergers. Thus instead of UESPA providing a lot of the manpower and ships for Starfleet, the Andorian Imperial Guard, Vulcan Expeditionary Group, and other such groups dissolve or become integrated fully into Starfleet by the 24th century, thus what was once four or more lesser interstellar space forces that worked under the Federation banner, becomes one single unified Starfleet under the Federation banner. Thus instead of Starfleet (majority humans) having say 1500 ships in the mid-23rd century, you get Starfleet (No clear majority) with tens of thousands of ships from all the races by the early to mid-24th century, and as those ships get replaced, you get more and more of the starships we are use to seeing by the 2370s.

Plus it is possible that Earth was leasing starship designs to allied powers and building Miranda and Excelsior-class vessels for planetary forces before said forces fully integrated into Starfleet.
 
Its possible that some of the races that join the Federation during the 23rd century and early 24th century want to be more proactive than those that had joined in the 22nd century. Thus more crews for more ships as the 23rd century comes to a close and more and more expansion of the fleet by the mid-24th century. This also might be helped by the prolonged Cardassian Conflict in the Post-Klingon Cold War era, and various races in that direction (relative to the Core Federation Worlds) wanting to do something.

It could also be the transition from the former local powers space forces integrating into Starfleet over the course of the 23rd century that eventually expands the fleet, as the independent forces complete their mergers. Thus instead of UESPA providing a lot of the manpower and ships for Starfleet, the Andorian Imperial Guard, Vulcan Expeditionary Group, and other such groups dissolve or become integrated fully into Starfleet by the 24th century, thus what was once four or more lesser interstellar space forces that worked under the Federation banner, becomes one single unified Starfleet under the Federation banner. Thus instead of Starfleet (majority humans) having say 1500 ships in the mid-23rd century, you get Starfleet (No clear majority) with tens of thousands of ships from all the races by the early to mid-24th century, and as those ships get replaced, you get more and more of the starships we are use to seeing by the 2370s.

Plus it is possible that Earth was leasing starship designs to allied powers and building Miranda and Excelsior-class vessels for planetary forces before said forces fully integrated into Starfleet.
That’s a pretty good answer because 24th century federstion seems more like one unit than 23rd century federation
 
I generally think of the 2370 numbers as being about 20 million individuals serving with about 60% of them being human. About 10,000 ships; that's not including Runabouts, but it does include some scout ships smaller than what we normally see. Even with those numbers, most people in starfleet don't actually serve on starships, but rather stations and planets, especially enlisted personnel.

2260s would be about 1500 ships, and about 80% human.
You k or I always wanted to see a show in late 2100 to early 2200s because starfleet would be small ,even compared to TOS starfleet, I mean it’s practically unexplored
 
The novelverse has the USS Titan as the first diverse nonhuman dominated ship. It only took 200 years . Other in universe reasons why Kirks ship is 99% human are explained as well.
 
I prefer to think the nonhumans were "off stage" and a large number of humans were aliens who at a distance appear human.
Well we never saw all 430 of them, but McCoy's racial insults imply Spock is the only alien in TOS and all the movies, except TMP, didn't even try to reflect the UFP among the crew or the admiralty
 
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Well we never saw all 430 of them but McCoy racial insults imply Spock is the only alien in TOS and the all the movies except TMP didn't even try to reflect the UFP among the crew or the admiralty
I'm not sure how that implies anything other than McCoy liked to pick on Spock.
 
I'm not sure how that implies anything other than McCoy liked to pick on Spock.
So McCoy is Vulcanphobic or Starfleet Medical assumes human anatomy is the default which makes the organisation look even more speciest. Imagine a real life army/navy/air force/NASA medical doctor or staff acting as if a human with melanin was abnormal and always commenting on it negatively.
 
I prefer to think the nonhumans were "off stage" and a large number of humans were aliens who at a distance appear human.

As early as the first season of TOS there were planets with natives who looked like Earth Humans and specifically white or Caucasian Earth Humans, whose planets were not said to be Earth colonies, for example Miri's planet and Eminiar VII. Thus the Star Trek universe is apparently full of aliens who for some reason appear to be Human. I call them exo-Humans.

And there is no way of telling how many Star Fleet characters might be such exo-humans. So possibly a significant percentage of Starfleet members might be exo*Humans instead of the Earth Humans that they appear to be.

Well we never saw all 430 of them, but McCoy's racial insults imply Spock is the only alien in TOS and all the movies, except TMP, didn't even try to reflect the UFP among the crew or the admiralty

I'm not sure how that implies anything other than McCoy liked to pick on Spock.

If those hypothetical exo-Humans that might conceivably be a significant percentage of Starfleet members have the same environmental requirements, the same biochemistry, and the same anatomy as Earth Humans, Dr. McCoy might think of them as the same species as Earth Humans even though they apparently evolved independently.

Thus there could be other aliens aboard the that Dr. McCoy thinks of as his fellow humans and so is not speciest against the way he sometimes seems to be against Spock.
 
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If you take your modern Trek with the old, Discovery answered this. 2257 Starfleet consists of around 700 ships, and Section 31 has a fleet of... wait for it... "more than thirty"
 
"There are 7,000 active ships", to be sure, as per "Perpetual Infinity". And as per Number One's recent graphic, the hero ships are surrounded by some 27-28 ships. Alas... I was certainly expecting, well, a couple more!

Timo Saloniemi
 
"There are 7,000 active ships", to be sure, as per "Perpetual Infinity". And as per Number One's recent graphic, the hero ships are surrounded by some 27-28 ships. Alas... I was certainly expecting, well, a couple more!

Timo Saloniemi
One of us has the wrong number of zeroes.
 
Yup. Control (in the holographic guise of first Burnham, then Pike) in "Perpetual Infinity" uses three of them.

It's a big number, but it doesn't appear to be a false one. I mean, the captured Leland might wish to humor the mad AI even if it sprouted nonsense, but I don't quite see why the AI would wish to use a wrong number.

Timo Saloniemi
 
But so are most of the 7,000, because it would otherwise be statistically untenable to have no NCCs higher than 1701 (okay, 1764 if you must) in evidence.

S31 is decidedly part of Starfleet, at least in the context Control is referring to. Their ships not only count, they are the very thing Control is talking about! The argument is about ships blindly obeying Control's commands, and the S31 vessels are the ones doing that at that particular moment...

Timo Saloniemi
 
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