TOS's Starfleet Starbase/Starship Deployment

[C57D]

In my TOS world the Starship 12/13 are the largest, most powerful, elite crewed multimission "super"ships. But below them are 20 or so mid sized dedicated scout/explorers, 30 or so mid sized dedicated destroyer/warships and then myriad small customs cutters/convoy escorts/patrol ships. So it's maybe not a case of "the only ship in the sector" as the "only ship that is equipped to deal with this situation in the sector".

 

[johnnybear]

Before Errand of Mercy the Federation had the run of the galaxy as it were but after negotiations broke down the Klingons decided to spread their forces throughout the cosmos and make their presence known! Even after the Organian peace treaty was signed they still carried on their 'exploration' of the stars despite that not being their way according to Kirk!
JB

 

[Henoch]

Before Errand of Mercy the Federation had the run of the galaxy as it were but after negotiations broke down the Klingons decided to spread their forces throughout the cosmos and make their presence known! Even after the Organian peace treaty was signed they still carried on their 'exploration' of the stars despite that not being their way according to Kirk!
JB

The Klingon came out of nowhere; up until the EOM episode, we never knew they existed. After that, they were the cosmic rivals to the Federation. The Gorns were a one-and-out (the costumes were too expensive). Miscellaneous bad guys on planets were either left alone, isolated or absorbed into the Federation. The Romulans were a mixed bag and for some reason, Roddenberry decided that the Romulans weren't going to be the big bad guys on the block, rather, the Klingon were the new Soviet empire to have in our new cold war (easier make up and uniforms?).

The Romulan Empire and Federation relations certainly evolved (reinvented) over only three TOS episodes: "Balance of Terror" in S1; "The Deadly Years" in S2; and "The Enterprise Incident" in S3. In BOT, the Romulans at first look like pre-WWII Germany, beaten and isolated after WWI. Romulus and Remus are isolated from the rest of the galaxy where Outposts are strung around the small RNZ to watch them due to a 100 year old treaty with United Earth (not the Federation).

Captain's Log, stardate 1709.2. Patrolling outposts guarding the neutral zone between planets Romulus and Remus and the rest of the galaxy, received emergency call from outpost 4.

SPOCK: Referring to the map on your screens, you will note beyond the moving position of our vessel, a line of Earth outpost stations. Constructed on asteroids, they monitor the Neutral Zone established by treaty after the Earth-Romulan conflict a century ago.

They developed the military ability to launch sneak attacks, similar to pre-WW2 Germany naval technology with submarines targeting shipping at sea. The end result is that the old Earth Outposts are proved to be vulnerable, but the "Federation" military starships are superior.

Now, the Federation (not just United Earth) must deal with the Romulans who are wanting to nullify the old treaty and start expansion ("all we want is breathing room"). The wise commander sees the real picture: the once, mighty Romulan Star Empire nearly destroyed by the United Earth and now isolated on its only two planets. Even after a hundred years of internal wars to consolidate one party rule on Romulus and Remus, they are still no match with the United Federation of Planets.

Next, the Romulans have a large space zone with a RNZ in TDY. After BOT and EOM, did the Federation re-negotiate the Romulan/Federation borders in an appeasement policy? They probably sent peace Ambassadors such Sarek, or heaven forbid Fox, in which the Federation abandons the old RNZ Outposts and further abandons claim to 1/4 of known space to the Romulans establishing a new RNZ to avoid interstellar war. This new RNZ literally redraws the map to reflect later non-canon star charts showing a large Romulan Star Empire. After all, with the Fed's vast technological superiority in starships, how much trouble can the inferior Romulans cause?

Lastly, in TEI, we find the Romulans in Klingon D7's giving them state-of-the-art FTL ships with improved cloaking devices to boot. They now have the military technology to go forth and conquer this vast new territory. The Romulans apparently are quite happy (or busy) establishing (conquering) their new Romulan Empire while the Federation sits neutral on the side lines for the next century until TNG. One hundred year anniversaries must be in vogue in Romulan culture.

It seems that the Romulans are now more related to 1960's China, and the Klingons are now the Soviet Union. TEI clearly shows a cold war environment with "Mission: Impossible" spy vs. spy activities (next sound stage over, you'd think they could get a few recycled scripts from there ). FC, APLW and EOT show the Klingons involved in proxy wars to get around the Organian Peace Treaty.

Bottom line in TOS, the Federation is not at war with any known threats, so, a large military buildup is not necessary (because treaties work...).

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I've always thought that the "only twelve like it in the Fleet" when refering to the Starship (laterly the Constitution)-class was more about their rarity rather than the overall size of the Fleet. Like in the RW, the CO of the USS Seawolf (SSN-21) might comment that there are "only three like it in the Fleet" to an impressed commentator, which would technically be true, but says nothing on the existence of some 30 older LA-class SSNs, over a dozen newer VA-class or a similar number of larger OH-class SSBNs or the hundreds of ships of other types in the inventory.

 

[Henoch]

I've always thought that the "only twelve like it in the Fleet" when refering to the Starship (laterly the Constitution)-class was more about their rarity rather than the overall size of the Fleet. Like in the RW, the CO of the USS Seawolf (SSN-21) might comment that there are "only three like it in the Fleet" to an impressed commentator, which would technically be true, but says nothing on the existence of some 30 older LA-class SSNs, over a dozen newer VA-class or a similar number of larger OH-class SSBNs or the hundreds of ships of other types in the inventory.

I don't read it that way. A Starship is a Starship, and they are meant to be something special. Only 12 of them (Season 1 at the time of TIY) is my thought. Based on series observations, all other "Starships" look like the USS Enterprise (such as the seen Constellation, Lexington, Hood, Excalibur, Potemkin, Exeter, Defiant, and probably the unseen Intrepid, Yorktown, Carolina, but unclear that Republic, Farragut are still in service. ("Constitution" is a retcon and could be NCC-1700, but I don't buy it.) Commodore Stone put up a Star Ship Status list of 10 USS Numbers (no names) on the wall in Season 1, and we never see any other Starships lost up to this point, so, Stone's list may be incomplete, or they launched two more Starships between Court Martial (production order #15 or Stardate 2947.3) and Tomorrow is Yesterday (#21 or Stardate 3113.2), or maybe Kirk was also counting two unfinished under construction.

Are there lesser ships like Survey Vessels, Transports, Cargo Vessels, Science Probes, Freighters? Yes, probably many, but none are Starships. Example of one such lesser vessel: survey vessel SS Beagle; small class four star drive vessel; crew of forty seven; commanded by Captain R M Merik. Another was: the multi-mission cargo/transport/science probe vessel Antares; crew of twenty; commanded by Captain Rampart. The SS Deirdre was a Federation freighter; maximum speed Warp 2. There is no TOS evidence of class ships like Destroyers, Scouts, Dreadnoughts.

 

[MAGolding]

On-screen TOS evidence is thin, so, you make what you can with it. Does Starfleet seem small? I think it is. Maintaining a fleet of space assets is "expensive", so, we can assume "limited" especially in peace time. This makes a Starship (i.e. TOS/Enterprise) very important and special; one of twelve-ish; not one of a hundred/thousand. How many Starbases and Starships does the Federation really need. Kirk said, "We're on a thousand planets and spreading out." So, for sizing purposes, the Federation encompasses around a thousand planets. Even with 17 Starbases or sectors, that's about 60 planets per Starbase/Sector. Most of the planets would be considered internal and only the systems on the outskirts would need routine Starship protection. I see about the last outer 20% diameter of the Federation shell needing protection, or about 1/2 the volume of star systems, or ~500 system. This equates to about 50 star systems per Starship if 12-ish on duty. I think that is a reasonable number. During TOS, Enterprise only visits several Federation planets per year, mostly due to trouble. Some planets only get visits once every year to several years based on several episodes. Add in space exploration and diplomatic missions near the boundary of the outer shell and we have the Starship mission.

If an advanced industrialized planet in the era of TOS has an ability to build and operate starships equivalent to the ability of of a major power on 20th century Earth to build and maintain a capital warship, then each advanced industrialized planet in the Federation in the era of TOS was capable of building and operating several starships at a time. Twelve top of the line warships seems very, very few for a United Federation of Planets.

So perhaps what made starships in general, or the twelve like the Enterprise in particular, special was that they were top of the line warships combined with 14 science labs with the finest equipment and computers and scientists to do research, combining the research abilities of surveys ships and science vessels with the firepower of space battleships or heavy cruisers to defend themselves if attacked by hostile aliens on the frontier.

So maybe the Federation had a bunch of other space heavy cruisers for defense without the science labs and research facilities, and thus possibly having smaller saucer sections for smaller crews.

Starfleet would have one or more central fleets of those heavy cruisers and smaller ships to respond to threats.

Starfleet would probably also have many space heavy cruisers and smaller ships in mothballs ready to be manned with crews of starfleet reservists activated in time of emergency.

And each of the main member worlds of the Federation - possibly every single full member of the Federation - could have its own defense fleet of heavy cruisers and smaller vessels, some fully manned full time and others in mothballs ready to be manned by reservists activated in time of emergency.

And each of the main planets of the Federation probably had a solar system defense system of gigantic ray guns, photon torpedo tubes, and force field generators for its solar system, and/or a similar planetary defense defense system for the planet itself. Those systems would probably be designed to withstand attacks by the combined Klingon and Romulan fleets.

In Star trek: The Motion Picture when V'ger reaches Earth:

CHEKOV: All planetary defence systems have just gone inoperative.

And it is quite possible that Starfleet Command was mainly relying on Earth's defense systems to protect against any possible V'ger attack, since Earth's planetary defenses would be designed to withstand attack by several times the combined forces of the total Romulan and Klingon fleets. Sending the Enterprise to meet and investigate V'ger would be more or less of an afterthought, in order to do every single thing possible to investigate and if necessary eliminate all threats to Earth.

So movies where the Enterprise is the only starship in range to handle a problem would not be movies where Starfleet Command left Earth undefended, since the defenses of Earth might be more powerful than all the ships in Starfleet combined.

 

[Henoch]

So movies where the Enterprise is the only starship in range to handle a problem would not be movies where Starfleet Command left Earth undefended, since the defenses of Earth might be more powerful than all the ships in Starfleet combined.

Good point. Earth has a planetary defense system fully operational in TMP era, which means it was already built years earlier. Though never mentioned during TOS, each main star system most likely has planetary defenses, and probably some sort of in-system defense fleet (hence the need to send a Starship out-system). In-system ships are not long duration nor science vessels. As you say above, The Enterprise is special due to both best defensive capabilities and best scientific capabilities in a long-duration platform that can go to the source. Starfleet also has a "fleet" of smaller science/survey vessels which they send to planets once a Starship first checks them out to be safe and worth further study.
From Obsession:

SPOCK: Our scanner survey was correct, Captain. There it is. Pure tritanium.
KIRK: Fantastic. 20 times as hard as diamond.
SPOCK: Twenty one point four times as hard, to be exact.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Spock. (into communicator) Scotty, you can mark this vein as confirmed. Inform Starfleet I recommend that they dispatch a survey vessel immediately.​

 

[Timo]

No, first Kirk was responding to a distress signal from the Constellation; he didn't just stumble upon it.

?

What I mean is that he stumbled upon the distress signal - nobody else seems to have gotten it. Yet the DDM's jamming effect is fairly local. Why is Kirk almost on top of the Constellation yet requires a special IFF signal within the SOS to realize that it's the Constellation, and not, say, the Potemkin? This doesn't work well with a model where Starfleet has specific preassigned operating areas for its starships.

Nothing here indicates that Kirk was not looking for the Exeter. The fact that Kirk says she was patrolling in this area six months ago and hadn't heard of any trouble does not mean Starfleet didn't send Kirk to find the Exeter after she failed to report. At worst case, Enterprise was assigned to pick up the Exeter's patrol area since she went missing.

It is true we never learn why Kirk would go to Omega - to look for a missing starship in all the likeliest places in a long row; to get the data that a previous ship had failed to deliver, even though a starship skipper is permitted to skip or reshuffle missions and not report back regularly; or perhaps to "patrol" in the sense of checking whether there were Klingons there now even though a check six months ago and perhaps another twelve months ago had revealed none.

But we get a heavy load of expository dialogue, which would be completely out of place if the heroes really were assigned the task of finding Tracey.

Also, Tracey may have been out of contact with Starfleet for as little as one week, and probably not the full 6 months as some may assume in the worst case. Here's how it more likely occurred: Exeter patrolling the area for the last 6 months; Exeter did not report any trouble in the area in routine contacts with Starfleet over these 6 months; Exeter failed to check in with Starfleet one or two weeks ago; Starfleet cannot raise Exeter on subspace radio; Starfleet orders Enterprise (from the adjacent patrol area) to investigate and/or take over her patrol area; Enterprise quickly finds Exeter (it's not like it was hiding). Much more plausible than randomly stumbling over the Exeter.

This certainly works - except the dialogue suggests the stumbling is random, or else it would be more of the "mission accomplished" nature than of the "look, something - a ship - it's the Exeter - you know, the one that was patrolling here - but I thought there was no trouble" nature. I mean, it's not even of the "cabbagehead" tradition where a suitably ignorant party is brought in to serve as a stand-in for the audience; they could have had somebody like McCoy come up and Kirk explain to him that their SAR mission, perhaps recently on back burner, has now come to a close, but instead they parade the entire bridge crew as if they had no idea what to expect and would derive no satisfaction from their findings.

Omit the teaser dialogue and the mere week-long silence becomes attractive as a model. Although even then it undermines the idea of Tracey going native and/or resorting to extreme measures, instead of merely hiding in the woods for the short while before a more or less scheduled pickup.

In general, the TOS teasers involving fellow starships work by the "Look, there's X all of a sudden!" or "Look, there's a ship, I wonder which one it is" model. None suggest that Kirk would have access to a database that would tell him the exact whereabouts or assignment of another starship. The fate of the Exeter, the mission of the Intrepid, the distress of the Constellation, the disappearance of the Defiant... These are discoveries our heroes either make on their own in situ or achieve through outside effort such as a Starfleet hail, not through browsing available records themselves. Which is good and well! After all, Kirk himself is economic with explanations or reports, so rarely contacting Starfleet for permission or even information that the contact in "Balance of Terror" really stands out as a piece of tension-heightening political intrigue. It would only make sense for all starships to operate like Kirk's, perhaps going missing for months on a completely impromptu self-assignment. As in "Paradise Syndrome", say...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Henoch]

Earth Spacedock probably existed during TOS. In ST:TVH, Spacedock had six ships inside. I wouldn't count the prototype experimental Excelsior as existing back during TOS, but there were two Starships (one new TMP design and one old TOS design) and three smaller spaceships (smaller saucers with two engines directly mounted to the saucer, sort of like the Saladin-Class but with two engines because GR said ships have two engines and not one). For TOS near-Earth defense, the home fleet could be two Starships (one top of the line, and one older design) and three smaller space craft (destroyer, scout classes). The top of the line Starship and maybe one or more the smaller craft would be able to deploy at a moments notice, while the remaining craft may take time to recall crew and power up. The low number of defense ships in Earth port is supported by ST:TMP where only Enterprise was close enough and technically capable to respond to the crisis.

 

[Timo]

OTOH, the two movies could both present special cases, "special days" for Starfleet.

In ST4:TVH, Starfleet has just been through an alert status involving Earth, and supposedly has had many of its ships disabled in related action - naturally, a repair facility (if we assume Spacedock be one, and DSC now reinforces that idea) would be choking on ships on such an occasion. In ST:TMP in turn the lack of alternatives to the half-baked Enterprise seems to worry most of the heroes, with only Kirk remaining calm, perhaps suggesting this is not the normally expected state of Starfleet.

Is there any support to the idea that Spacedock Earth would be a Starbase, BTW? The connection is never made in dialogue, just like there is no dialogue connection between "just twelve" and "starship", but is this somehow implied nevertheless? In its only onscreen appearance, in DSC, Starbase 1 is its own separate entity, even if closely associated with the Sol system. No suggestion is made of a "Starbase Earth" or "Starbase Zero" existing, while "Earth bases" exist in plural and supposedly aren't spatially proximal to Earth as such.

Structures similar to Spacedock are used as starbases - but then again, the spaceframe of a small relay station may be a starbase on occasion, too...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Henoch]

I see Starbases as planet-based entities with some sort of orbital spacedock or space station. The orbital facilities take care of ships in orbit, and the ground facilities take care of everything else. A solo space station is never a Starbase, as see in The Ultimate Computer and K7 in The Trouble With Tribbles. The only example of a Starbase in TOS is Starbase 11 in both Court Martial and The Menagerie. Putting Starbases on planets with breathable atmospheres is the same reason you build air/sea bases on islands; you can't sink an island. Space-based bases are just too vulnerable to attack or natural disasters.

 

[yotsuya]

The way I've been thinking about it stems from the uniform insignia controversy. The only way I can make sense of it (other that assuming uniform errors one way or the other) is that each insignia represents a different fleet command. That would make a total of 4 that we see (including the Defiant from IAMD). Each fleet would have its own command staff (and it would make sense of the rank Fleet Captain and Commodore). So while each starship would have an area when it goes out, that could easily but up against the patrol are of another starship (with how often they get into trouble they may not be completely alone in an area). The Enterprise deals with the loss of 4 other ships while out on patrol, not counting TUC. The Enterprise ends up going back to starbases, which would be forward bases of operation and we see most of them being planet based, so they are likely on established frontier colonies. How they are numbered may be as they were established. But like in the US navy, the starbases don't seem to be linked to the command structure that Kirk is operating under anymore than a US navy ship is linked to the ports it calls at.

As for the number of ship, that is not the total number of ships built, that is that total at the time Kirk is talking. So in early season 1 there are 13 starships in the fleet. Then we have some destroyed. Then we have a new ship crop up in season 3 with a name not on the list - Defiant. With the higher registry it has been given, it appears to be a replacement ship. So how big is the fleet supposed to be. These ships are 20 years old (The Menagerie established that the Enterprise is more than 13 years old) and it is hard to imagine, especially with the what we learn of the Republic and Farragut, that none of the ships were destroyed before the series. We don't know how many new ships are being built or what other ships have been destroyed. So the number Kirk cites is rather nebulous for how many starships the Federation usually has.

In keeping with the Hornblower nature of Star Trek's origins, I see a starship as the Trek equivalent of a Man-o-war - a first rate ship of the line. Commanded and crewed by the best in the feet. They are at the top of a fleet of hundreds. The series hints at this with all the other ships that are mentioned. So scouts, destroyers, frigates, freighters, all make up the larger fleet, but it is the starship that takes the lead role in fights and exploration. That is why we see 5 gathering in TUC - war games. None were probably far from their patrol area.

The way I take the the FJTM is that his lists are the ideal orders and reality wasn't so clean. He has 4 destroyed ships replaced, but replacements would take time (if the Ent D took 10 years to build the TOS Ent should take around 5), so those replacements would come online AFTER TMP. And considering just during the episodes we have they lose 5 ships, and there have been 13-20 years since the Enterprise was launched (second of the class), there likely was a previous order for replacements. Carry it through with the Federation Class Dreadnought, the Excelsior Class, and the Constellation Class, and the Constitution Class is no longer top of the line and no longer such a prestigious assignment so Starfleet orders a bunch for more support roles (we don't see them because they don't get built - they do the Miranda Class instead). And there is a competition for what ship will be the new starship (my bet is late 23rd to early 24th century the Excelsior Class is the Starship, the Constellation Class fills in just below that and the Federation Class doesn't go further than a handful of ships.

I take a clue for the registries from how the Navy did things. The old Enterprise was not the 60th aircraft carrier built and the new Enterprise will not be the 80th. In the middle there were at least 10 cancelled carriers that were assigned numbers that were not reused. So for me not every registry number equals a ship. To me they are a construction contract and they get assigned as needed and used as needed. So the 1600 and 1700 numbers make sense if the Constitution Class had a few 1700 and they really liked the design so they took a few contracts that they were going to cancel and change the design to Constitution Class. That accounts for all the oddball registration numbers for the entirety of Star Trek. Some are in clumps and some are widely spaced. For the Excelsior Class you have 2000, 2544, 2541, 14232, 14598, 42768 (they kept ordering more and the numbers kept skipping up to the current order slot. It also accounts for Grissom. It is a scout like the Hermes class, but a completely different design (as in Starfleet ordered 50 scout ships, built 30, changed the design and built some more).