Order of Battle...

[Cyke101]

The Galaxy class could be a fairly decent carrier. It has several shuttlebays and its main bay is fairly large, you could fit probably a fairly reasonable number of fighters in.

I believe you're right. The Enterprise-D brought DS9 their original runabouts. Now, I dunno if they were all stored in her main shuttlebay or had one in each bay (the math, I cannae do!), but a runabout is roughly twice the mass of a fighter... I would imagine that would mean a Galaxy class could carry at least six fighters, probably more if the other shuttlebays are used.

Ya, but the federation really needs to have a pure carrier to really be a carrier. It would be interesting if they build a ship like that and I hope if they do it does not look like the BSG ship.

If they did, it should be hmmm five times longer then the USS Enterprise E

I agree with Robot Elf, it doesn't have to be longer, as the Galaxy and the Sovereign already have that going for them. Rather, I imagine that all the Galaxy would need is some modification -- it's already got the internal space. If a Galaxy is fitted for wartime, it doesn't need so many observatories and science labs. It's been said that the Galaxy has modules that can be exchanged depending on the need of the its main mission.
All that space can go to building additional hangars and shuttlebays, I would imagine.

Same deal with the Nebula, whose top module comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and purposes. I don't think it would be too hard to design a fighter-carrier add-on for the ship. Also, if the original plans for the Akira come through, the top rollbar itself serves as a pure shuttlebay like a carrier, with the rear of the rollbar as the Entrance and the front as the Exit.

 

[Jono]

^ Never heard that the rollbar was at one point meant to be a shuttlebay rather then having the torp launchers.

 

[Cyke101]

^ Never heard that the rollbar was at one point meant to be a shuttlebay rather then having the torp launchers.

According to Alex Jaeger, the rollbar was to have both launchers and the shuttlebay, as a hybrid gunship/carrier/cruiser. It could have been a carrier, but we never see it in operation as such on the screen, so interpretations and personal continuities may vary.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Akira_class

 

[Jono]

^ The only thing on MA's page attributed from Jaeger just states the number of launchers and the shuttlebays, with one at the front and one at the back. It doesn't specify locations for the bays or launchers.

I've seen a drawing by Jaeger of the Akira that places a shuttlebay at the rear of the saucer, which would suggest in the quoted section on MA he is referring to the saucer when talking about the locations of the shuttlebays.

 

[Cyke101]

^ The only thing on MA's page attributed from Jaeger just states the number of launchers and the shuttlebays, with one at the front and one at the back. It doesn't specify locations for the bays or launchers.

I've seen a drawing by Jaeger of the Akira that places a shuttlebay at the rear of the saucer, which would suggest in the quoted section on MA he is referring to the saucer when talking about the locations of the shuttlebays.

I suppose I myself would've placed it on the rollbar because it seems so auxiliary otherwise and the best way to have one long tube across the ship with an entrance and exit way (to me, at least). In any event, though, it still shows that *someone* in the creative department thought about a carrier of some sort already.

 

[mic of orion]

^ What do you mean by "large fighters", "small warships" and "capital warships"?

capital ships are warships like cruisers, large destroyers, battleships and son forth... Large fighters are anything smaller than say 150m


Corvettes, large gun boats and fighters fall in this distinction.

 

[GabeHimself]

Not necessarily- if she gave the order- have all the Cardassians exterminated, and it went out, I'm not sure that means that the message only made it to Cardassia Prime. If it had, then Cardassian wouldn't be in such a big mess, it would only need to pull a few more resources from each planet. A lot of death nevertheless, but it wouldn't be as big of an issue, I wouldn't think.

The last episode is pretty clear that the communications/power went out immediately after she gave the order. Garak's casualties seem to come exclusively from Cardassia Prime. Homeworlds have more people than colony worlds. If your homeworld is gutted, you're screwed. If not, then the Federation would shrug if Earth got assimilated.

 

[kv1at3485]

Small problem: Earth is the homeworld of one member species.

Although at this tech level being screwed simply because one loses billions of people seems unlikely, regardless of where they live. It's more likely to result from the gutting of the command and control personnel and organizations.

So if gutting Earth screws the Federation, that would mean the Federation has a very powerful centralized bureacracy.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Not necessarily- if she gave the order- have all the Cardassians exterminated, and it went out, I'm not sure that means that the message only made it to Cardassia Prime. If it had, then Cardassian wouldn't be in such a big mess, it would only need to pull a few more resources from each planet. A lot of death nevertheless, but it wouldn't be as big of an issue, I wouldn't think.

The last episode is pretty clear that the communications/power went out immediately after she gave the order. Garak's casualties seem to come exclusively from Cardassia Prime. Homeworlds have more people than colony worlds. If your homeworld is gutted, you're screwed. If not, then the Federation would shrug if Earth got assimilated.

Oh, without a doubt the worst of the damage would've been on Cardassia Prime. But the Dominion ships in the fleet that received those orders certainly have subspace communications; they could easily have relayed the orders.

 

[Jono]

The last episode is pretty clear that the communications/power went out immediately after she gave the order. Garak's casualties seem to come exclusively from Cardassia Prime. Homeworlds have more people than colony worlds. If your homeworld is gutted, you're screwed. If not, then the Federation would shrug if Earth got assimilated.

While a homeworld might have the largest single population centre it is possible that it could be a fraction of the total species population, with the bulk spread around the stars.

Given the amazing number of human colonies we've seen in Trek and how quickly we procreate (its possible that the 9 billion humans on Earth are outnumbered by 20 - 30 billion elsewhere (random number). So the destruction of Earth might not really mean much in terms of the survival of the species. Given Earth's importance as a political, military, academic centre of the Federation the loss would be a huge psychological blow to the Federation. Plus add to that if Earth flew so would Mars probably and it seems to hold the largest military shipyards in the Federation.