How Many TOS Constitution Class Ships *Can* There Be?

[Solariabsg25]

The Trek universe is hard to keep straight. In TNG, Shelby states it will probably take a year to get Starfleet back up to scratch after the losses at Wolf 359. By the Dominion War, it appears the Federation are losing about that number of ships in an average week (at the Second Battle of Chin'toka the alliance lost 311 ships, including Klingon and Romulan forces, but that does mean in probability that's AT LEAST 100 Federation ships in this single engagement).

In the Wolf 359 continuity, then yeah a possible total build over the decades of 20-30 Connies, with perhaps a maximum of 15 being in service at once is quite probable. In the Dominion War continuity, then that number does seem rather small.

We also have the problem that in TOS the Starfleet is almost certainly smaller than in the later shows, and by TUC and the Khitomer Accords they are actually planning to reduce the size of Starfleet. But when we get to TNG it's larger again so there's a lot of chopping and changing as to how big the Federation and Starfleet is supposed to be.

 

[Darkwing]

I lean to the FASA version of Starfleet. They had Military Ops Command, Galaxy Exploration Command, Colonial OPs, etc. They also had Constitution Class Command, which was renamed to Galaxy Class command for TNG RPG. I refer to it as Independent Duty Command.
Basically, most Constitutions are outfitted for military duty or exploration, or whatever, and have smaller crews (Pike's 200 vs. Kirk's 430), combined with a homeport, set sector to patrol, and limited duration deployment. Depending on the era and the budget, 10 - 20 ships are in the IDC, and have 5-year missions that can take them anywhere, and have them perform any mission in any branch. Such ships have fewer, but more sophisticated weapons, more sensors, larger crew, etc.
So FJ's fleet can exist, and Kirk's Enterprise can still be one of only a dozen (or Baker's Dozen, depending on your interpretation). Of course that does leave the question of "which 12 or 13?"
And I explain the Constellation, et all, as Aridas does - refits to current tech. Constellation was a Horizon that got refit to eventually Constitution / Achernar spec. Excalibur (1664) was a Baton Rouge refit to Constitution, and after Ultimate Computer, the contracted replacement for the name (1705) could finally be built and commissioned.
Hope this is helpful.

 

[publiusr]

I like Aridas work.