What comes after NX class?
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Depends on how you look at it. There are three main ways to classify a ship class. First is the project name/theme, second is the first ship of the class's name, and third is the first ship's registry. For instance, the Iroquois class destroyer can also be referred as the Tribal class or as the 280s. The queen elizabeth class carries are still commonly called CVF and Los Angeles class subs are also called 688s.
NX-class, NX-01 class, and Enterprise-class would all be acceptable.
Yep, it was NC from the FAA aircraft registration and an extra C from CCCP (in honor of the Soviets). At least, that's been their official story for a long time.
I know United Earth Starfleet doesn't use the same rules as the later Federation Starfleet, but when ENT first aired, I do admit to thinking it odd that the Enterprise was the NX01, yet the Columbia wasn't referred to as the NCC02.
As for ships after the NX and Daedalus classes? Kelvin class, maybe? :P (dodges rotten tomatoes)
As for ships after the NX and Daedalus classes? Kelvin class, maybe? :P (dodges rotten tomatoes)
The U.S.S. Kelvin wasn't seen in service until 2233 -- 82 years after the launch of the NX-01 in "Broken Bow." So I imagine it would have taken at least until the 2200s to launch whatever class the Kelvin belonged to.
I always wondered if there was a NX-00--an unnamed, pre-Warp 5 prototype ship that was more of a "proof of concept" vehicle like the Space Shuttle OV-101 Enterprise.
It is not exactly rare to build two prototypes, with ships on Earth it's usually too expensive but seeing they seemed to be basically testing every system on these ships, it might make some sense.
^ Yep. There were also NXes Beta and Delta, but for some reason, no NX Gamma. 
I know about the NX-Alpha and the experimental warp engine ships that followed it, but I was thinking of a test vehicle for the NX-class design itself. If there was a NX-00, it could have been an actual (albeit minimally-equipped) NX-class ship and limited to test/training flights in the same way OV-101 was.
And then after those ships were commissioned there would have been an:
NX-03 Challenger
NX-04 Discovery
NX-05 Endeavour
and so forth...
NX-03 Challenger
NX-04 Discovery
NX-05 Endeavour
and so forth...
^ In the novels, that's pretty much it. All NX-class ships are named after shuttles. Apart from NXes 01 and 02 which we already know of, NX-03 is Challenger, NX-04 is Discovery, NX-05 is Atlantis, and NX-06 is Endeavour.
Unfortunately...
Unfortunately...
During the Earth-Romulan War, all are destroyed except Enterprise and Endeavour 
The funny thing is, I always thought the "Scout-class vessel" line was meant to refer to the Grissom (This was obviously before TNG's canon use of the term "Oberth"). When Chekov states that he thought he saw it and then it disappeared, I was under the impression that he caught signals from the Grissom before it was destroyed. And it's not like Kirk blurts out, "A Scout-class vessel? You mean a Klingon Bird-of-Prey?" when Chekov makes this statement.
Now, to answer the OP's question, "What came after the NX-class?"...well, nothing, as far as the Earth Starfleet is concerned. In TATV it was implied that new warp 7 vessels had been built to replace the NX class, but since it was the birth of the Federation, those ships were Federation Starfleet ships, whatever class they were. It implied that there were no NY or NZ class ships built, since those are Earth Starfleet monikers. Whatever ships were used in the Romulan War that we never saw in ENTERPRISE are completely unknown, unless you want to count the aborted Star Trek: The Beginning script (which I don't), but again the implication from TATV is that the NX class ships were what the Earth forces used during the war and became obsolete after the war and before the founding of the Federation. So those warp 7 vessels are the NX-class's only known immediate descendants.
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Chekov didn't seem to be thinking so. If he had spotted the Grissom, he shouldn't have been surprised, not even if said Grissom strangely became invisible after a brief while. Instead, he expressed surprise at finding a "scout class vessel" next to the Genesis planet.
Kirk said "Could be the Grissom", in an unconvincing tone of voice, as if rationalizing that Chekov could have mistaken the Grissom for a scout class vessel, but deep down thinking that this would be an unlikely mistake to make - presumably because the Grissom wasn't anything like a scout class vessel in reality.
Really, on Earth it's too expensive to build even a single prototype. I can't think of any prototype ship in naval history: every time one was able to cough up the dough to build a warship, she was either intended to see real action just like the other ships in the expected production run, or then was an one-off experimental vessel that was never intended to be the prototype for any sort of production.
It's only in aeronautics that the companies and air forces are able to experiment with prototype aircraft whose main and perhaps only purpose in life is to test the production methods and the concept before series production begins. I find it difficult to think that Earth Starfleet could afford to operate in this manner. OTOH, I can easily see Earth Starfleet building experimental one-offs - yet "NX class" doesn't seem to fit that bill, because this class was produced in some numbers and apparently was always intended to be thus produced.
At least such ships were being designed or envisioned. We don't know whether that project succeeded - and we only know that NX-01 was retired at that juncture, not that all earlier UESF types (including possible successors to the NX class) would have been outdated and dumped from the UFP SF strength.
Until we see the Romulan War on screen, we can't really say if it's "realistic" for UESF to fight that war with the NX ships on the forefront. If the war were relatively small, then perhaps, and even probably. But if it were anything like the Dominion War, and the Romulans already packed thousands of ships, then it doesn't seem likely that UESF shipbuilding would have stagnated on the NX level, or that NX would have remained a prime asset...
Timo Saloniemi
A lot of these designs came before ENT and were designed to follow the eveloution from the early official non-canon models like the old Romulan ship and the Valient to the Daedelus class of early Starfleet. According to TOS the Earth-Romulan War was supposed to be more like a nuclear war in space and these vessels were an attempt to follow that design. They are trying to incorporate ENT into the concepts but of coarse having some difficulties.
I've noticed that the main difference in how you and I think is that you tend to think more figuratively, while I'm into more literal interpretations of things. Not to say that either one of us is right or wrong, but when Chekov states he thinks he sees a scout-class vessel, and then Kirk pipes up "could be the Grissom," to me that means the Grissom is a scout-class ship, and he wasn't referring to the BoP. As a matter of fact, at this point nobody even knows there's a BoP out there, so why would Chekov or Kirk assume so?
As for the Romulan War, based on the snail's-pace of NX class production, I doubt Earth would have had enough of them to make an effective battle fleet. So there's two options: use whatever older ships are lying around, or construct a lot of smaller, faster, easier-to-produce ships, which might be the origin of those warp 7 ships Reed was referring to. This was always my main problem with ENTERPRISE, that the Earth Starfleet seemed to have virtually zero ships in service right before a huge war with an alien race with superior technology, and yet the humans came out the winners.
I would love to see the Romulan war on screen at some point, but I doubt it'll ever happen.
Why did they probably look like that? To look like some intentionally ugly FASA designs that were intended to look primitive but certainly weren't the only possible way an early ship looked?
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