Ship Class Types

[VulcanMindBlown]

Usually, I don't go for Memory Beta or any of the other Star Trek wikis (though they do have a lot of information clickable in one place!) Memory Beta didn't have the star ship class types. Can you guys find anything? Almost any source will do....

An example would be the scout class or the heavy cruiser class...

 

[Finn]

Are you asking for a list of starship classes?

 

[Jedi Marso]

Do you mean ship classes or ships classed as Starships?

 

[TommyR01D]

The original Enterprise was Constitution Class, the B was Excelsior Class, the C was Ambassador Class, the D was Galaxy Class and the E was Sovereign Class.

Voyager was an Intrepid Class, the Defiant and Prometheus were their own class starters, the Equinox and Rhode Island were Nova Class, the runabouts were Danube Class, the Grissom and Tsiolkovsky were Oberth Class, the Reliant and Saratoga were Miranda Class. The Farragut and T'Kumbra were Nebula Class.

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

He's referring to the type for each class ships...such as destroyer, battle cruiser, explorer, etc.

There isn't a actual section page at Memory Alpha for Starship types....

If you go here: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Federation_starship_classes

Click one of the ones in the type list there (for example: destroyer), once there...scroll to bottom, you see a box there that says starship types which shows you the list.

 

[Spot261]

The more extensive stuff like that tends to be fan based and thus non canon, what we actually know based on onscreen comments is limited and often contradictory.

If you are want something speculative based on pretty tight canon observations this may be a good place to start:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/

Or for something much more imaginative (brilliantly so in my view) but deviating quite far from what we see on screen:

starfleet-museum.org

this may also help:

http://www.st-minutiae.com/

but it really is the tip of the ice berg, the online ST community is huge, but a fair bit can be reached via links from those places, including us!

 

[Finn]

There were also some old trek tech manuals that did this for the TOS era (Including the movies) back in the 90s or so.

 

[Dukhat]

There are only a few canon references to ship types. Like someone above said, most "naval" designations are fan made.

The only canon ones I can think of:

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701: Heavy Cruiser

U.S.S. Grissom: Scout

U.S.S. Drake: Light Cruiser

 

[Timo]

Whether the Grissom was a scout, or could have been mistaken for a scout, is not completely clear from the ST3:TSfS dialogue.

In TNG dialogue, there are also the never-seen frigates Thomas Paine and Renegade, and the cruiser Tripoli. The very much seen USS Hathaway is called a star cruiser. But that's about it for TNG. DS9 and VOY add very little, although the former establishes the Defiant as an escort, introduces the Danube class of runabouts, and makes ambiguous references to "destroyer wings".

Apart from those, there are ubiquitous references to transports, science ships, supply ships and surveyors, but those aren't very specific. Indeed, all of the above have been used for the Oberth class design! (Those, plus "shuttle"... Probably in the sense that a Boeing 737 can be a "shuttle" from Washington to Baltimore.)

The rest of the dialogue refers to civilian or alien vessels in a hodgepodge of ways including a few "naval" designations like battleship, battle cruiser, destroyer and frigate. Yet all other "naval" designations we could actually associate with Starfleet (UFP or Earth) come from written sources, a precious few of which have been onscreen computer readouts that probably weren't even meant to be readable to the audience.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Finn]

Also, those designations may change for the same ship. To Archer, a Miranda probably would be a heavy cruiser ...

 

[Dukhat]

Whether the Grissom was a scout, or could have been mistaken for a scout, is not completely clear from the ST3:TSfS dialogue.

True, since its obvious function was a science vessel, not a scoutship. But Chekov does say "scout class vessel" and Kirk immediately thinks it could be the Grissom.

In TNG dialogue, there are also the never-seen frigates Thomas Paine and Renegade, and the cruiser Tripoli. The very much seen USS Hathaway is called a star cruiser. But that's about it for TNG. DS9 and VOY add very little, although the former establishes the Defiant as an escort, introduces the Danube class of runabouts, and makes ambiguous references to "destroyer wings".

Yes, I forgot about the frigate and cruiser appelations, which were (along with the light cruiser Drake) naval terminology used in the first season of TNG and then quickly phased out (kinda like the commodore rank.) Maybe Roddenberry didn't like the use of military terms. That's one reason why old RPGs like FASA, with its abundance of military-styled ships, weapons, etc. lost their license not long after TNG went into production.

Apart from those, there are ubiquitous references to transports, science ships, supply ships and surveyors, but those aren't very specific. Indeed, all of the above have been used for the Oberth class design! (Those, plus "shuttle"... Probably in the sense that a Boeing 737 can be a "shuttle" from Washington to Baltimore.)

In that last case, I'm pretty sure it was a matter of the script writer and the VFX people not being on the same page. I'm sure the writer envisioned a shuttlecraft docking in the shuttlebay, not stock footage of the Oberth class Cochrane sitting in front of the Enterprise.

 

[Annorax849]

There's also the Defiant having the official status of "Escort ship."

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

He's referring to the type for each class ships...such as destroyer, battle cruiser, explorer, etc.

There isn't a actual section page at Memory Alpha for Starship types....

If you go here: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Federation_starship_classes

Click one of the ones in the type list there (for example: destroyer), once there...scroll to bottom, you see a box there that says starship types which shows you the list.

Thanks, I'll take a look and give my feedback when I have time.

The more extensive stuff like that tends to be fan based and thus non canon, what we actually know based on onscreen comments is limited and often contradictory.

If you are want something speculative based on pretty tight canon observations this may be a good place to start:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/

Or for something much more imaginative (brilliantly so in my view) but deviating quite far from what we see on screen:

starfleet-museum.org

this may also help:

http://www.st-minutiae.com/

but it really is the tip of the ice berg, the online ST community is huge, but a fair bit can be reached via links from those places, including us!

Okay, I did have a look at the Ex-Astris-Scientia through a Bing search, but it didn't look like it had what I wanted. I could check again.

 

[Spot261]

Thanks, I'll take a look and give my feedback when I have time.



Okay, I did have a look at the Ex-Astris-Scientia through a Bing search, but it didn't look like it had what I wanted. I could check again.

Thanks, I'll take a look and give my feedback when I have time.



Okay, I did have a look at the Ex-Astris-Scientia through a Bing search, but it didn't look like it had what I wanted. I could check again.

another possibility:

http://www.ditl.org/

 

[C.E. Evans]

There's also the Defiant having the official status of "Escort ship."

In another navy, it might have been classified a destroyer.

 

[Arpy]

There's no official system.

Half the on screen classifications are either contradictory or from other powers (i.e. if the Klingons describe at Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser (seemingly the most popular classification for the Enterprise) as a battlecruiser, or the Tholians do as a battleship, then which is it?).

Different publications (official and unofficial) will use different systems. Jackill's is one of the more elaborate ones I've seen.

I'd love for them to use both more futuristic terms and old fashioned ones. They have cruisers (for larger ships) and frigates (for mid-size ships); why not corvettes (for smaller ships) and clippers (for faster ships)?

Also, is an Excelsior still a heavy cruiser if by the 24th century it's just used for cargo runs? Is the (fan ship) Federation Class dreadnought still a dreadnought when it's dwarfed by later cruisers?

 

[C.E. Evans]

Also, is an Excelsior still a heavy cruiser if by the 24th century it's just used for cargo runs?

The DS9 Technical Manual classified it as an explorer. I think that term basically goes towards any long-range vessel bigger than a heavy cruiser, IMO.

 

[Arpy]

The DS9 Technical Manual classified it as an explorer. I think that term basically goes towards any long-range vessel bigger than a heavy cruiser, IMO.

Yeah, there you go. So at the time of all the Enterprises' construction, they were probably tasked to be explorers, but what to all those evidently still active ships do in the 24th century? Do you just have countless waves of explorers running past each other to see who can go out the fastest, for the longest, to accomplish the most, and half the fleet is just kicking the [space]dust? I think maybe ships should go through refits and be reclassified as newer tech comes out making them superfluous.

And maybe it would explain some of the contradictions...the Constellation Class maybe was first built as an explorer then relegated to star cruiser.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Yeah, there you go. So at the time of all the Enterprises' construction, they were probably tasked to be explorers, but what to all those evidently still active ships do in the 24th century? Do you just have countless waves of explorers running past each other to see who can go out the fastest, for the longest, to accomplish the most, and half the fleet is just kicking the [space]dust?

Explorers are likely multipurpose ships with longer operational ranges than smaller ships. Exploration (which could also include scientific investigations, tactical reconnaissance, & even long-range patrol) may be their primary mission, but definitely not their sole purpose. When not investigating something unknown, explorers probably are assigned a variety of tasks in their the theatre of operations, including some fairly routine transport missions if they are only Starfleet ship in their sector. Explorers may also be ideal for search & rescue missions in the more distant reaches of Federation space given their size and speed, IMO. When necessary, explorers may also represent the Federation in a dispute with another nation or intercept hostile forces lurking at the Federation's gate.

 

[Timo]

We don't know whether combat/multipurpose ships in Starfleet follow a hierarchy of designations, from least to most prestigious/capable - but the mention of both "heavy" and "light" cruisers might suggest such a thing. Classically, then, the lower end of this hierarchy axis would feature the canonically (if seldom) mentioned frigates and destroyers, plus possibly corvettes and the like, while the higher end might feature the new category explorer (which as far as onscreen material goes refers exclusively to giants like Galaxy).

Yet we never learn of any ship being promoted or demoted along such an axis. Yes, an apparent combat/multipurpose ship from the TOS movies, the Miranda, is considered a supply ship a century later - but that's not a demotion along the prestige axis, that's a change of roles. Besides which, we never learned what the Miranda was called back in the TOS movies...

It might make sense to declare a 200m heavy cruiser from the 2190s a mere light destroyer in the 2350s if it happens to continue service for that long. It's just that we never see or hear it happening.

Timo Saloniemi