We recently got an extended look into the ships of Starfleet Command as it enters the
25th century.
And there’s a few interesting details here.
The first is that Starfleet appears to have abandoned the so-called “copy and paste
fleet” we previously saw respond to the Romulans over Coppelius.
Or maybe it was just a massive coincidence that every ship that arrived just happened
to be from the same class.
Regardless, Federation fleets are looking much more diverse.
We can start with the Sovereign-Class of exploratory cruiser of which the Enterprise-E was a member.
The presence of 2 Sovereigns in this fleet alone, gives some pretty good evidence that
the class has entered mass production.
Likely following the same trajectory as the Galaxy Class which expanded from 6 initial
starships, to maybe as many as hundreds.
Next, we have the Akira Class which was the foundation of Federation fleets during the
Dominion War.
A quarter century old at this point, but that’s still relatively young in Starfleet terms.
The same can’t be said for the Excelsior Class, roughly 114 years old at this point,
but it has aged tremendously.
Now it should be noted that Starfleet does use the Excelsior chassis as the basis for
other classes of starship, but as far as I can tell, this is not only a stock Excelsior,
but the USS-Excelsior itself NCC-200.
That might make it the longest serving Starfleet vessel in history.
Interestingly, the prows of its nacelles glow red now, so it probably underwent some kind
of refit there at least.
Now those are some pretty well known classes of starfleet ships, either for their widespread
use or famous exploits, but now we get to some lesser, likely newer types of vessels.
The first is the Inquiry-Class, the same class that was exclusively present over Coppelius.
The class has been described as the “fastest, toughest” ship in Starfleet, but seems to
have taken a backseat here.
But we also have the Luna Class, which until now, had only been seen in a more animated
parallel reality of some kind.
If we take this as a rule, it’s likely that the Parliament Class, Obena Class, California
Class and others all exist in the prime timeline.
Front and center we have the lead-ship of the Stargazer Class.
Seemingly named that very deliberately because it’s 4 nacelles are very reminiscent of
Constellation Class of which the original Stargazer was a member.
It’s very likely the newest Federation ship in service, and incorporates technology derived
from that of the Borg.
That lead ship by the way, is just the USS-Stargazer, not the Stargazer A, and does feature a new
registry number.
I can only guess as the internal politics of Starfleet Command that resulted in this
decision.
The next four ship classes are also very interesting in that they originally appeared in an alternate
reality and now make their debut in the “prime timeline”.
There is the Southerland-Class, which is either an entirely new design, or a heavily modified
“Nebula Class” altered to the point where it requires a new designation.
It was likely named for the USS Sutherland, a Nebula Class vessel that helped expose the
Romulan involvement in the Klingon Civil War of 2368, and later participated in the Dominion
War.
Next we have the Gagarin Class, named for, and sharing the same basic layout as the USS
Gagarin, a Shepard Class starship lost in the Klingon-Federation war of 2256-57.
This would be the 24th century interpretation of that initial design, in the same way the
Stargazer Class is a modernization of the Constellation Class.
And the same might be true for the Ross Class, which seems to be a modernization of the Galaxy
Class featuring several components brought over from the Sovereign Class.
This is probably named after William Ross, the most
famous starfleet Admiral of the Dominion War.
This takes us to the Reliant-Class and perhaps, a bit of a melancholy.
This is certainly named for the USS Reliant, a Miranda-Class ship that was destroyed after
its capture by Khan.
The implication seems to be that the Reliant Class, is either a very heavy refit or complete
replacement of the Miranda, which had faithfully served Starfleet for well over a century.
While they were clearly outmatched by the era of the Dominion War, it will take a long
while before a Federation fleet without one, doesn’t feel just a little strange.
So that takes us through all of them.
Not only are Starfleet armadas more diverse, but there’s some interesting implications
of other ship classes that might be out there.
Hopefully though, the Prime Reality does a better job of naming them, the full designation
of the Gagarin for example is the Gagarin Class Miracle Worker Battlecruiser, which,
I mean where do you begin with a name like that.
Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see even more of the 25th Century Federation Starfleet,
but until this, this has been a Templin Dispatch.