Aircraft carriers are supported and protected by a carrier strike group.
The issue I have is with the size.
I know that Franz Joseph’s Dreadnought Class Starship was 320 meters long, which made it 32 meters longer than the Heavy Cruiser Class Starship.
I did a quick survey of battlecruisers, battleships, and heavy cruiser classes that served in World War II.
Since we are given a length measure, I looked at the overall length of the varying classes. The smallest class is the
Mississippi-class Battleship, which was commissioned before WWI, and the
Iowa-class Battleship, which was commissioned in WWII. The difference in size is 154 meters. The largest class is not three times the length of the smallest. It's more like 1 1/3 times longer. There were ship classes of varying sizes between these two classes, and there were decades of experience building, testing, and fielding these ships in battle.
For me, I would find it more realistic if Starfleet built a ship that was somewhat larger, but not so much larger, to dwarf the
Enterprise. According to the known ship types, the
Enterprise-type starships were the largest ships in the fleet. Starfleet had to field a ship in less than a year as war with the Klingons was looming. Hypothetically, I can imagine Starfleet, after the defeat of
Narada, would take an existing frame under construction, perhaps an
Enterprise-type starship or a starship of another type that was roughly equal or a little larger in length, and converting it into a larger warship. However, I don't see them being able to convert it into the behemoth we see in the movie.
I understand from doing my researches what they were attempting to do. In WWII, there was a type of battleship called the fast battleship. An example of this was the USS
Iowa. These ships "...emphasized speed without - in concept - undue compromise of either armor or armament." (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_battleship)
250 to 275 meters
270 meters
Iowa-class Battleship (US)
262.1 meters
Admiral-class Battlecruiser (UK)
251 meters
Bismarck-class Battleship (Germany)
225 to 274 meters
246.43 meters
Alaska-class Large Cruiser (US)
237.76 meters
Littorio-class Battleship (Italy)
235 meters
Scharnhorst-class Battleship (Germany)
228.7 meters
Renown-class Battlecruiser (UK)
227.1 meters
King George V-class Battleship (UK)
200 to 224 meters
222.190 meters
North Carolina-class Battleship (US)
216.4 meters
Nelson-class Battleship (UK)
215.8 meters
Ise-class Battleship (Japan)
215.8 meters
Nagato-class Battleship (Japan)
215.1 meters
Dunkerque-class Battleship (France)
214.58 meters
Kongō-class Battlecruiser (Japan)
210 meters
South Dakota-class Battleship (US)
205.6 meters
Baltimore-class Heavy Cruiser (US)
204 meters
Myōkō-class Heavy Cruiser (Japan)
202.8 meters
Admiral Hipper-class Heavy Cruiser (Germany)
202.7 meters
Fusō-class Battleship (Japan)
201.6 meters
Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser (Japan)
175 to 199 meters
196.9 meters
Trento-class Heavy Cruiser (Italy)
196.82 meters
Queen Elizabeth-class Battleship (UK)
194 meters
Suffran-class Heavy Cruiser (France)
192.54 meters
Takao-class Heavy Cruiser (Japan)
190.27 meters
Colorado-class Battlecruiser (UK)
190 meters
County-class Heavy Cruiser (UK)
190 meters
New Mexico-class Battleship (US)
190 meters
Revenge-class Battleship (UK)
190 meters
Tennessee-class Battleship (US)
189.1 meters
Tone-class Heavy Cruiser (Japan)
186 meters
Portland-class Heavy Cruiser (US)
185.3 meters
Pennsylvania-class Battleship (US)
184 meters
Hawkins-class Heavy Cruiser (UK)
182.96 meters
Northampton-class Heavy Cruiser (US)
182.8 meters
Zara-class Heavy Cruiser (Italy)
181.2 meters
Gangut-class Battleship (Russia)
179.27 meters
New Orleans-class Heavy Cruiser (US)
178.5 meters
Pensacola-class Heavy Cruiser (US)
177.7 meters
Nevada-class Battleship (US)
176 meters
Andrea Doria-class Battleship (Italy)
176 meters
Conti di Cavour-class Battleship (Italy)
175 meters
New York-class Battleship (US)
150 to 174 meters
171 meters
Wyoming-class Battleship (US)
166 meters
Bretagne-class Battleship (France)
166 meters
Courbet-class Battleship (France)
164.6 meters
York-class Battleship (UK)
159 meters
Florida-class Battleship (US)
125 to 149 meters
127.6 meters
Deutschland-class Battleship (Germany)
100 to 124 meters
116.4 meters
Mississippi-class Battleship (US)