Starfleet Ranks, Ships, Personnel, and Numbers

[JJohnson]

Hi everyone,

I had a few related questions as I was filling out an alternate, more military-minded Starfleet:

How would Starfleet handle Warrant Officers?
Which kinds of insignia would Starfleet Warrant Officers have, and which specialties would there be?

And just for a start, let's assume Starfleet starts with just Earth, Vulcan, Tellar, Andoria, and Alpha Centauri, with a starting population between those planets of about 35-40 billion people. How many ships would the UFP Starfleet have to patrol four sectors of space, each 20 cubic light years of space?

Let's assume NX-class (4) and NX-Refit / Columbia Class (6), Daedalus class (40), Intrepid Class (8), and other ships between 80 and 120 crew each. How many Starfleet crew and ships would the UFP want to effectively patrol its space in 2161?

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't know

 

[Tenacity]

There's never (iirc) been a mention of a warrent officer. '
Just enlisted, NCO's and commissioned officers, and the enlisted rank are unclear.

 

[137th Gebirg]

As I understand it, Warrant Officers were specialists in a particular field that few others in the main branch of the service employed. In the Korean War, for example, most of the chopper pilots were WO's, not officers, which were relegated mostly to unit command. I honestly don't know if they still even use WO's any more.

Specialists were kind of the same thing on the enlisted side, up until the past 10-20 years, they did away with all but one of the Spec grades and used it to replace Corporals for some bizarre reason. As of 14 years ago, I believe only infantry divisions continued to use the Corporal grade, but that may have been done away with since then. My knowledge on the subject may be a bit out of date.

In any case, I believe most specialized jobs in Starfleet already seem to have a standard rank/grade associated with it without adding WO's and SPEC's.

Updated with Wiki links.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think the closest we might have come to a warrant officer was an Enterprise-D female crewmember that had a single hollow pip. But then Chief O'Brien later briefly sported the same insignia for a bit, so that idea may not hold much weight.

And then propulsion specialist Kosinski in TNG's "Where No One Has Gone Before" had a rather unusual rank insignia, but it was never officially stated what rank he actually had.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I think that due to the lack of an 'up-and-out' policy, the role of "Warrant Officers & Chief Warrant Officers" is mostly filled by experienced Chiefs like O'Brien (ala Commonwealth and [current] USAF practice) rather than a seperate level of ranks (ala USA, USN/CG & USMC).

I think the closest we might have come to a warrant officer was an Enterprise-D female crewmember that had a single hollow pip. But then Chief O'Brien later briefly sported the same insignia for a bit, so that idea may not hold much weight.

IMO, that's either a retcon'd Acting Ensign pip or a placeholder for the "top half" of the NCO patch from DS9 (three stripes and one to three pips).

And then propulsion specialist Kosinski in TNG's "Where No One Has Gone Before" had a rather unusual rank insignia, but it was never officially stated what rank he actually had.

I think that's a better candidate for either "Warrant Officer" or "Civilian Specialist" (ala Burnham on Discovery, Seven of Nine could also have worn this on Voyager).

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

How many ships would the UFP Starfleet have to patrol four sectors of space, each 20 cubic light years of space?

As many as the plot requires (so probably no more than a singular hero ship with all others being days away from being useful).

Let's assume NX-class (4) and NX-Refit / Columbia Class (6), Daedalus class (40), Intrepid Class (8), and other ships between 80 and 120 crew each. How many Starfleet crew and ships would the UFP want to effectively patrol its space in 2161?

Plus however many hundreds that the Andorians, Vulcans, Tellarite, etc would have, no need to be quite so human-centric in your assumptions. By the time of the UFP formation Earth would be the most 'under developed' member world.

 

[Six of Twelve]

Speaking of pips, I've always wondered why Lt. Commanders don't put the hollow pip in the middle like how Navy Lt Commanders have the narrow stripe in the middle.

 

[Tenacity]

How many Starfleet crew and ships would the UFP want to effectively patrol its space in 2161?

there might be the factor of what could they afford in terms of operating costs.

also how much power would the founding members want the federation to have. it might better suit them to keep the federation relatively weak unless therr was a obvious emergency. only then would they hand the keys to the fleet to the federation.

 

[J.T.B.]

How would Starfleet handle Warrant Officers?
Which kinds of insignia would Starfleet Warrant Officers have, and which specialties would there be?

Don't need them. Warrant officers, as the US uses them today, is a vestige of social elitism: They basically originated as a second-class officer so nobody would think that someone who had once made his living with actual hands-on labor was on the same level as an "officer and gentleman." Most of the world doesn't use them, the youngest US service, the Air Force, has done fine without them for almost 60 years, and the only thing that keeps them around in the other services is tradition and institutional inertia. If someone is qualified and needs officer authority, give them a commission.

And just for a start, let's assume Starfleet starts with just Earth, Vulcan, Tellar, Andoria, and Alpha Centauri, with a starting population between those planets of about 35-40 billion people. How many ships would the UFP Starfleet have to patrol four sectors of space, each 20 cubic light years of space?

I don't know, it depends on a lot of things. This may be of interest, though:
http://www.naval-history.net/xGW-RNOrganisation1897.htm

There is the entire Royal Navy somewhere around the high water mark of the British Empire. That entire force protected, patrolled and policed about one-fifth of the world, and you can see how many ships were assigned to Australia, China, Caribbean etc. One thing I would point out, though, is that auxiliaries and transports were mostly hired from the civilian world back then, while in the 20th century that side of things became much more militarized. Starfleet should have a lot of transports, IMO, but nobody talks about them much these days.

As many as the plot requires (so probably no more than a singular hero ship with all others being days away from being useful).

The real answer, of course.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think the closest we might have come to a warrant officer was an Enterprise-D female crewmember that had a single hollow pip. But then Chief O'Brien later briefly sported the same insignia for a bit, so that idea may not hold much weight.

IMO, that's either a retcon'd Acting Ensign pip or a placeholder for the "top half" of the NCO patch from DS9 (three stripes and one to three pips).

It probably was meant to represent "chief warrant officer," but the only way we'd know that is from an alleged behind-the-scenes TNG memo from Rick Berman to costume designer William Ware Theiss.