Starship Platform Lifespans

[publiusr]

Whatever is left of old TMP-era starship hulls might be merged for a larger platform.

If I were to try to rescue a still-stranded Voyager, I’d not only send the newest and fastest but something modular…Horta crew…with proven, long lasting tech.

More than four nacelles, something that can be shed…ring/nacelle hybrid.

That would accompany Voyager back as spare parts…evac…maybe left behind as an automated explorer…anti-Borg suicide ship.

Once it is gone, the TMP era ships are no more.

 

[Ithekro]

Some of the new ships seem to be based on new ideas for ship design (better warp dynamics and such). Most the ship ships seem to have that shovel saucer from 2370 until much later on. If there is a new warp hull styling or something to deal with the issues that resulted in the "Warp Five" speed limitations that were ignored not long after they were introduced. Voyager I guess had a design that was considered "environmentally friendly" and Starfleet went with that for a time.

Add to this new computer systems that might have been difficult to retrofit to older hulls. While some of it worked, other stuff just couldn't be backdated. The fleet by 2400 seems to have abandoned most pre-2370 designs and the new ships all push Warp 9.99 or something like it is nothing special. The Galaxy-class was bleeding edge tech in 2364 at Warp 9.6 with reports of Dominion War era Galaxy-class ships being refit to make Warp 9.9 for a little bit of time. If the Q stuff is to be believable, it is possible to refit a Galaxy even more (three nacelles and add ons) with a reworked warp scale to keep up. But she's still an old ship and likely outdated by 2390s standards, much less 2402 when the last known Galaxy gets retired. There could be more out there with whatever systems they got. Or they could have all been refit to Ross-class specs. That we don't know. One thing I do know from watching the shows is that the Galaxy-class has at least one glaring design flaw. The Saucer section not being independently warp capable. There are speculations that it could if it could somehow generate a stable warp field with its two impulse units and maintain low warp speeds, but otherwise why have a ship specifically designed for deep space exploration that is supposed to be well outside Federation space, not have a warp drive on its huge saucer shaped lifeboat?

 

[Vagabond Elf]

From a production point of view, I get it. New series, new movies, new designs. People want to see cool new starships. But in universe....
I'm still toying with the idea of a fanfic set right after Nemesis, exploring at the edge of known space with a Galaxy class starship that is updated with the latest tech. Because that just makes sense to me really.

That's more or less my take these days. In my headcanon, TOS era starships are limited to the Connie, Saladin, Larson (FASA), Ptolemy, TOS-Miranda, and Derf (FASA) hullforms as full starships, plus the Antares-type freighters, SFB-style small freighters, and TOS-R's "Medusan" ship as civilian/auxiliary vessels, and Starfleet Museum's Capella-class as a small patrol corvette. If a ship is needed for a specialist role, it gets built in one of those hulls. TMP gets an even shorter list, with things like the Ptolomies and Larsons not having TMP style variations and most auxiliaries becoming an Oberth variation.

For the shows, I've settled into a Macross approach, and don't try to make things make sense between two different series except sometimes TNG and DS9, since those were in overlapping production and made at least some effort to work together.

 

[FreddyE]

Heck, Picard S3 implies that the Galaxy-class is completely outdated by this time, only 35 years after their initial launch.

Which makes no sense at all and shows that someone in the writers room did not do his / her research. According to the TNG Technical Manual (which is not hard to come by) the Galaxy Class was constructed for a useful life of at least 100 years.

 

[Kount Korbula]

expected useful life vs what actually happens often ends in a revising of plans. real life shows us that sometimes ships don't meet their expectations, or even if they do, new events supercede them. one class is obsolete as soon as it launches and others are resilient and adaptable enough to serve for decades.

 

[StarCruiser]

HMS Dreadnought - commissioned in 1907...scrapped in the early 1920's. Obsolete before World War I was even over.

 

[Mage]

Which makes no sense at all and shows that someone in the writers room did not do his / her research. According to the TNG Technical Manual (which is not hard to come by) the Galaxy Class was constructed for a useful life of at least 100 years.

expected useful life vs what actually happens often ends in a revising of plans. real life shows us that sometimes ships don't meet their expectations, or even if they do, new events supercede them. one class is obsolete as soon as it launches and others are resilient and adaptable enough to serve for decades.

If I recall correctly, and I am going against my earlier posts because I just remembered, some sources said that the Galaxy class project took almost two decades from start to finish. So yeah.... By the time the USS Galaxy and the first two or three ships in the class finished their shakedowns and served some time, it's quite possible tech has evolved quite a bit.

 

[David cgc]

My interpretation/head canon was that the Enterprise-D had vintage computers and software since its various pieces hadn’t been in service since the ‘70s, and that the other Galaxies had finally gone out on their ten-year missions and weren’t going to be recalled for an air show.

 

[FreddyE]

By the time the USS Galaxy and the first two or three ships in the class finished their shakedowns and served some time, it's quite possible tech has evolved quite a bit.

Makes sense...because I vaguely remember them getting a new more modern warp core mid-show (third season possibly?)

 

[valkyrie013]

The 2 decades thing does make sense. Its not 2 decades for "the next class" its 2 decades for the next heavy exploration cruiser. So think of, Excelsior class, Ambassador class. those probably had the same length of design time, incorporating new technology, probably the first vessel in a new generation of vessels that incorporate new technology from the ground up instead of tacked on.

Designed for a 50 year life, but some ships last longer or shorter, as the saying goes ,its not the years, its the mileage, so by 2401, there are probably still Galaxy class ships out there doing there job, with some having been destroyed, decommissioned, but a number being refitted and still serving after 40 years. There not the bell of the ball anymore, probably still seen as "luxury" for its size.

Then some ships may leave "Starfleet" and be given to member planets for there own fleets or defense, exploration etc. Species X may join starfleet and have similar goals, but some goals on defense or exploration may not be a priority for starfleet, so they use there own ships, or ships donated to do there own thing. and if a war or other thing happens, they can be recalled.

That was kinda my head cannon on DS9 on why they had so many excelsiors and mirandas, there all member fleet ships being recalled for war use.

Looking at a "refit" there are many kinds of refits, Carriers do a "refit" after every deployment, fixing broken things, installing new tech etc. that takes like 6 months. then there's the bigger "refits" refueling the nuclear engine, or installing a new island like the Enterprise.
So for Starfleet ships, they may have a 5 year "refit" that they bring them in, do depot level maintenance, replace some stuff, but generally a refresh and check, maybe take a couple weeks, maybe a month.
Then there's the 10 year "moderate" refit, new systems integration, any big things, couple months,maybe 6.
Then theres a 20 year "Major" refit, change out warp coils, stem to stern inspection and redo, that takes like a year.
Very rarely its a "keel up" refit like the TOS Enterprise.

Ships can last for quite a while with some upkeep.

 

[publiusr]

Ships can last for quite a while with some upkeep.

Like this real world Excelsior:

Russian rescue ship Kommuna - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Still looks futuristic.

Elon's floating Starship could have used this. The (former) Volkhov is over a century old and is still in service.