Post "First Contact" Starfleet more "military"?

[JM1776]

One would think this a standard occurrence in space warfare: adversaries would seldom be technologically matched, as they wouldn't even know about each other, let alone the military capabilities of each other.

Space warfare? Yes. Trek warfare? As you yourself assert ... nope.

As for complete ignorance of Romulan combat capabilities, such would be far more likely if the UFP and Romulans did not have the Klingons, with whom it's strongly implied the Rommies retained an adversarial relationship throughout their isolation from the Federation, in common. I tend to doubt the Empire would have allowed its allies to remain entirely ignorant of Romulan developments in armament—not when they were probably eventually hoping to catch the Empire between Klingon hammer and Starfleet anvil.

Dramatic license is still very much a viable alternative.

Alternately, it may be that a relatively minute adjustment to Starfleet shields would have evened the odds immediately—as occurred with Jem'Hadar warships once the Dominion War began.

Now there's an interesting question: Did Starfleet Intelligence withhold knowledge of the shield adjustments necessary to repel Dominion polaron-based weaponry for days, weeks or even months before the conflict began, so as to goad the Dominion into attacking what they believed would be a nearly helpless adversary? Did they sacrifice a few or even a few dozen vessels in the hopes of saving thousands more?

Interesting ethical dilemma.

 

[Timo]

Well, the potency of Starfleet shields was a revelation to Weoyun in "Call to Arms", prior to which there had been no combat, at least not related to the thing later called Dominion War.

Weoyun does insist that UFP shields have "always" proven unable to resist Jem'Hadar weapons, though. He's probably referring to those vessels listed destroyed in "Jem'Hadar" and to the fates of the Odyssey and the Defiant. But none of those would be part of a Starfleet Intelligence operation to withhold information, as Starfleet Intelligence wouldn't even know about the Dominion at that point yet, and Starfleet R&D wouldn't have come up with the shield improvements.

Did Starfleet battle the Jem'Hadar between "The Search" and the declaration of war in "Call to Arms"? Not too often - "The Die is Cast" (where shields on the runabout actually held pretty well!), "Starship Down" (where the Jem'Hadar were defeated and probably never reported back), and "The Ship" (where runabout shields didn't hold). I doubt the deaths of Sisko's team in "The Ship" were the result of any sort of a disinformation campaign, and rather the result of even improved runabout shields being unable to withstand the full barrage of a Jem'Hadar combat vessel.

"Soldiers of the Empire" suggests the Klingon shields gave at least some resistance. It also mentions a stray attack on a Starfleet vessel, but in what sounds like an isolated incident which the vessel survived.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JM1776]

Did Starfleet battle the Jem'Hadar between "The Search" and the declaration of war in "Call to Arms"? Not too often ...

But certainly more than enough for the Jem'Hadar to take note of whether or not their phased polaron beams were bypassing Starfleet shields entirely, partially or instead being deflected until overwhelmed.

There is mention in latter season five, I believe, of Starfleet ships coming under attack in the weeks leading up to the war, and those ships having survived. If their shields had been in any way resistant to Dominion weaponry, well ... Weyoun Five, presumably the most well-informed Vorta in the Alpha Quadrant, would not have exclaimed, "Impossible ... Federation shields have always proven useless against our weapons"—especially since "useless" in context clearly meant "entirely ineffectual." Dominion Intelligence is not nearly so inefficient as all that. Hell, I'm sure the Jem'Hadar would have provoked a combat or two in the weeks leading up to the war simply to gather data on the state of Starfleet readiness—including defensive capabilities.


One, I think, has to assume at least one of the below:

• The information was withheld by Starfleet Command
• The discovery came only days or even hours before the declaration of war and required only minute tinkering fleet-wide
• Any Starfleet/Dominion firefight during that period consisted of a few salvoes followed by the former's rapid retreat, so as to preserve both lives and the element of surprise

I wonder if the Cardassian ships were still vulnerable to phased polaron beams. If I were a Founder or Vorta, I certainly wouldn't have given them such information; their vulnerability would have kept them far more tractable.