"Got my eye on you..."
Personally, I hate that idea. Look up the Littoral Combat Ships USS Freedom (LCS-1) and USS Independence (LCS-2). They have a ship's crew of 50 & 43, plus mission crew of 98 & 35, respectively. The LCS seems to be the modern equivalent of what you're trying to create here.
Funny you should mention the LCS's because that was one of my inspirations as well!
I think a ship's crew of 35 is about right for what you're planning, but the MACO strike team should be a separate unit. Its size would depend on the type of mission capability you want them to have. Look at modern units: Army Special Forces (aka Green Beret) operational detachments are 12-man units; Navy SEALS Team platoons have 40 men; and standard Army / Marine infantry companies run 80-150 personnel.
I am thinking two MACO strike teams is about right, actually. "Port" and "Starboard" assault teams that have their own landing craft on stand by.
If it were my design, I'd trim the crew back to about 20-25, give or take, and have a strike unit of 24 (two 12-man teams) plus any mission specialists as needed for specific operations.
That does make more sense. If I go into far greater detail, I really do not want the ships crew to feel as if it's really separate from the MACO's themselves.
They would all basically be trained within the same structure and be utterly separate from Starfleet personnel. (Their own uniforms, more Navy in nature than the semi-NASA influence of Starfleet.)
I would consider removing the shuttle and make the ship able to land on planets (and take off again). I would also think it's too small to be of much use in a standard space combat situation against real warships, but it should have some weaponry to keep the enemy honest.
I thought about having it be a self-landing and lifting ship, but decided against it given what we "learned" in
Star Trek Beyond about ships of the era. I don't think her impulse engines have the juice to handle take off without assistance.
As far as combat, yeah. I decided to cut out torpedoes entirely. She's armed with about a half dozen pulse-plasma cannons. Similar to what NX-01 used in
Broken Bow, but probably with a little more kick. Probably used more as point defense to deflect incoming enemy projectile weapons, more than as an offensive weapon.
They could be upgraded later in their life with phase-cannons, and may have when the Romulan War really kicked off. They'd rarely operate alone in any case. Their reactors aren't nearly as powerful as something like the NX-01.
I like it!
I designed a SF marine ship for tng, a while ago, very different than this, but the mission is roughly the same
Very cool stuff bro!
It's one of those ideas that I think crops up every now and again. I like it because it offers the possibility for different ideas in design.
Got a planetary sensor array on the bottom. The dish is already mounted into the front of the primary hull, I just have the cowl covering it for now because it's ugly.
On the underside you can see two flanking launch bay hatches. They are positioned directly under the MACO barracks on the upper side of the ship. So units can rapidly deploy from the armories above into the shuttle pods for their missions.
Reworked engine configuration. Five pulse cannon mounts/hatches are in place here.
Completely re-scaled the ship to better match what I had in mind. Keep in mind that if the NX-01 is an aircraft carrier of her day, then this ship would be a submarine. Very tight quarters.
No turbo-lifts.
Bonus shot. Dish exposed. No real detail yet, but the idea is at least in place.
The dish sits right in front of the engine room, which then runs conduits to the aft of the saucer, where it will meet up with one of the NX-type accelerators and then split off to the impulse engines and finally pushed off from their into the warp nacelles.
Since these ships are designed for very short mission profiles, they tend to run the engines "hotter" than Starfleet would. This gives them a greater maneuverability.
I'm thinking three more pulse cannons on the bottom. One after, and two fore.
