Where was the Enterprise during the Dominion War?

[Prax]

And it was really cheesy. Maybe cameo crossovers aren't such a good idea

Picard: "Ahh.. Transporter Room #2. This was your favorite, right?"

O'Brien: "umm.. as you say... Sir"(while he's probably thinking "God, working on this ship was boring... And this. is. awkward.")

 

[Timo]

And there should have been at least some talk about the flagship in a conflict like this war.

For all we know, there was, and the Sutherland was it.

We have zero reason to think the E-E would have been a flagship of any sort. It's not an Enterprise thing at all: the E-D is quite an exception there, in a long lineage of non-flagships.

Whether the E-E was otherwise significant to the war, we can't readily tell. Her relative badassiness factor was never quite established, her significant onscreen combat victories being "cheats" independent of her fighting prowess. But DS9 didn't really bother to make dialogue mentions of successful ships anyway - only losses were ever mentioned by name.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[HelenofBorg]

During the final battle sequence where the Federation/Klingon/Romulan fleet was engaging the enemy at Cardassia, we saw several galaxy class starships in the battle, and it's reasonable to assume that the Enterprise was amongst them. Actually it would be odd for the flagship NOT to have been involved in the battle. The probable reason they didn't bother to point out that the Enterprise was there was probably because it was irrelevant to the main story, which focused on the end of the war at this point, not on the TNG crew and cast.

 

[Henoch]

Actually it would be odd for the flagship NOT to have been involved in the battle.

Don't confuse an actual flagship (the "Flag" ship with the Admiral in command) with the most important ship/crew in Starfleet. I doubt Admiral Ross was on the Enterprise. Was he on one of the other Galaxy class ships? Probably. (I don't know DS9 lore that well.)

 

[Trekkie27]

Hmmm ... would the Enterprise have been on the final assault on Cardassia?
Well ... during the Normandy landings, none of the major US carriers were involved, and it remains to this day the largest sea borne invasion; furthermore, during the Okinawa landings, which involved more people eventually than the Normandy landings, the USS Enterprise was also not involved.
Sometimes, flagships can be elsewhere for so many reasons, perhaps as routine as being in the dockyard for maintenance.

 

[Henoch]

furthermore, during the Okinawa landings, which involved more people eventually than the Normandy landings, the USS Enterprise was also not involved.

Not involved because she was damaged and in dock for repairs. She showed up a few days late to support continued operations over Okinawa after the initial landing.

 

[kkt]

Hmmm ... would the Enterprise have been on the final assault on Cardassia?
Well ... during the Normandy landings, none of the major US carriers were involved, and it remains to this day the largest sea borne invasion; furthermore, during the Okinawa landings, which involved more people eventually than the Normandy landings, the USS Enterprise was also not involved.
Sometimes, flagships can be elsewhere for so many reasons, perhaps as routine as being in the dockyard for maintenance.

For the Normandy landings, they didn't need aircraft carrier support. They had England, which was a giant unsinkable aircraft carrier.

 

[Timo]

...It's an interesting issue in its own right. What does Starfleet need in order to win the war?

In most cases, a starship is a starship, and we see no evidence that anything special is required of one to be a "flagship" or an "escort" or anything else. Also, with all the fighting taking place at point blank ranges, pre-WWI rules apply: the side that brings in more guns wins, and the only tactic of any relevance is the one that brings as many of those guns to bear as quickly as possible.

Would the invasion of the Cardassian home system call for any specialized assets? Would ground troops be deployed from specialist starships, say, or from generic ones? Would those ubiquitous fightercraft? Would the division to bombardment and ship-to-ship fighting be made on the basis of the technical specs of the ships, or randomly on the spot?

We never hear of meaningful differences in fighting prowess between fighting starships; at most, we may learn that a certain ship type is not intended for fighting but is a science platform of some sort (but even then, she fights). We never hear of support ship types that would be needed in fighting, either - the Defiant is low on torpedoes at one point, but apart from that, it doesn't appear as if any sort of "logistics" would exist in Trek starship fights, as ships in general do not consume fuel or ammo or stores of any sort.

Crew does get consumed, though. And we hear of troop convoys. Perhaps Starfleet's best assets would be protecting these convoys, which would be the one and only logistics element that could play a role in who wins the war?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[HelenofBorg]

Don't confuse an actual flagship (the "Flag" ship with the Admiral in command) with the most important ship/crew in Starfleet. I doubt Admiral Ross was on the Enterprise. Was he on one of the other Galaxy class ships? Probably. (I don't know DS9 lore that well.)

The thing is, we don't know which ship he was on during the battle, the series didn't specify, but I think we can be confident he wasn't aboard the Enterprise or else that fact would have been made known to us. All we know for sure is that the Enterprise has been often referred to as the flagship throughout the entirity of TNG, and yet most of the time no admiral is onboard, just Captain Picard and his crew. I guess the Admiral can go onto any ship he wants to for the battle, and it would make sense if he was on a Galaxy class ship, but again, we don't know because the show doesn't say. It's more probable I feel that he was on a Defiant class ship (like the USS Defiant but not the Defiant) because during the battle scenes when he is talking to Sisko and Martok, the surrounding bridge on the screen looks far more like a Defiant class layout than a galaxy class. So I'd say he was likely oboard one of these ships, but the show never says so explicitly and it's entirely possible he was on another smaller and more maneuvarable ship. I guess on the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter which ship the admiral was on, but it would be interesting to know for sure, just for the trivia.

 

[Prax]

I just assumed the Bellerophon was Admiral Ross's flagship.

 

[PSGarak]

If I remember correctly, at the beginning of the DS9 series, O'Brien made one last visit to the Enterprise bridge.

It made sense at the beginning of the series. They were transitioning. By the Dominion War arc, DS9 had several seasons under its belt and didn't need to be relying on TNG callbacks. I honestly remain on the fence to this day about them bringing Worf aboard, although they did enough interesting things with him overall to (somewhat) land me on the side that it wasn't a terrible decision.

 

[kkt]

In navies from the 18th to 21st centuries, for a flagship you'd want a bigger than average ship, because it had to have cabins for the admiral and the admiral's senior staff, and probably a meeting room other than the captain's day cabin. And it would usually be on a large ship, the more solidly built than ever - losing the flagship would be much worse than losing a regular battleship. In the aircraft carrier era, on the carrier was a natural choice so they could communicate easily with the air wing even if there was radio interference or snooping.

 

[Timo]

I just assumed the Bellerophon was Admiral Ross's flagship.

That ship was ferrying the Admiral, along with other random folks. There was nothing to suggest the Admiral would be associated with the ship beyond that.

Sure, an Admiral might enjoy having an exceptionally nimble and respectably fast ship, qualities supposedly associated with the Intrepid class. But Ross might instead prefer something with teeth, or something with protection, or something with decent communications gear and lots of room for a staff he just never bothers to introduce to the camera.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Prax]

But Ross might instead prefer something with teeth, or something with protection, or something with decent communications gear and lots of room for a staff he just never bothers to introduce to the camera.

Sounds like the Intrepid. It's heavily armed, super duper sensors, fastest ship, lots and lots of room. It's like a Mary Sue ship, perfect for the admiral, and he appears to be in command of that mission. He's got his office right up in what could be the ready room, next to the bridge.

 

[HelenofBorg]

That ship was ferrying the Admiral, along with other random folks. There was nothing to suggest the Admiral would be associated with the ship beyond that.

Sure, an Admiral might enjoy having an exceptionally nimble and respectably fast ship, qualities supposedly associated with the Intrepid class. But Ross might instead prefer something with teeth, or something with protection, or something with decent communications gear and lots of room for a staff he just never bothers to introduce to the camera.

Timo Saloniemi

Intrepid class is well armed and fast, but defiant class even more so. Ships like Voyager were built for exploration in difficult enviornments (like the badlands, and unlike many classes of ship, it could actually land safely on a planet), Defiant class ships were built for battle. Originally Defiant class ships were designed in response to the Borg threat, but that became a less pressing matter than the Dominion.

 

[kkt]

The Defiant wasn't big enough for an admiral and staff.

 

[Timo]

I don't see how we could call the VOY hero ship well armed. None of the heroes consider her such, and the villains of Delta don't have proper points of comparison. Not that they'd much praise the vessel anyway.

We know the heroes think the ship is agile, and the fact that two helmsmen and the captain herself brag about the "stable/sustainable/top cruising speed" suggests this is a forte of the ship, too. The sensors are probably crap, since the Borg-improved Astrometrics makes all the difference.

In contrast, the Defiant is crap all across the tables. Her engines tear her apart, she can't exceed warp nine without taking the guns offline, and she lacks in onboard facilities of all sorts. Good armor helps a lot, though. Is she agile? At impulse, she can spin, but this never helps her avoid getting hit. And she's not the agile ship of choice for Starfleet to take into the Badlands - the Voyager is, despite the Defiant being right there (and free for joyrides such as the one in "Equilibrium" just one episode after her introductory two-parter). Sisko just happens to be the sort of hero to squeeze hard liquor out of that lemon...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

The thing is that The Dominion War was a DS9 story and the TNG crew were off making big screen movies while Voyager had troubles of it's own with The Borg in the Delta quadrant, using TNGs greatest enemies instead of TNG, what a twist!
JB

 

[StewMc]

During the final battle sequence where the Federation/Klingon/Romulan fleet was engaging the enemy at Cardassia, we saw several galaxy class starships in the battle, and it's reasonable to assume that the Enterprise was amongst them. Actually it would be odd for the flagship NOT to have been involved in the battle. The probable reason they didn't bother to point out that the Enterprise was there was probably because it was irrelevant to the main story, which focused on the end of the war at this point, not on the TNG crew and cast.

The Enterprise-D was long destroyed by that point, and the Sovereign class Enterprise-E had been around for a few years, so none of those Galaxys would have been the Enterprise.

 

[Prax]

At least they were able to make an Akira class for DS9's battle sequences