Editing Star Trek Starships (section)

====2350s-2400s====
*'''Galaxy class''': Picard's first Enterprise, NCC-1701-D. The grandest of Starfleet at 642.51 meters with a width of 463.73 meters. As the hero ship of Star Trek: TNG most of the feats of the Galaxy class belong to the Enterprise-D alone. It was also the first class with Saucer Separation as a standard feature: Disconnecting the upper Saucer Section from the lower Stardrive with most of its weapons. The Star Drive had a smaller Battle Bridge for this purpose. It was rarely used because the scale model created by Industrial Light & Magic was massive and difficult for filming, compared to the two smaller models. It was also the same reason Saucer Separation was never used when they logically should have been. Despite its rarity, this function inspired the creation of the "Vector Assault Mode" of the USS Prometheus and several ships in Star Trek: Online. It was also the reason it looks different in Season 3. As the four foot model was more detailed than the two and six footers. In universe: The Galaxy class is also heavily armed with over a dozen Phaser banks and two Photon Torpedo launcher. [[dakka|The latter which can be fired in automatic clusters before reloading.]] When the Android, Lt. Commander Data is at the helm, the vessel was able to pull off moves that put the Fighter Craft of other science fiction to shame. The writers seem to have forgotten this until the last episode of Star Trek: Picard or they just didn't have the budget to show it off all the time. The Galaxy's top speed is Warp 9.8(about 2450 cochranes/times speed the light) in an emergency but the safe speed they can sustain is 9.6(2017 c). Making them the fastest ships in the fleet until the anti-Borg vessels were launched. As a long range vessel with both families and civilian workers aboard. In addition to the laboratories, departments such as Sickbay & main engineering , cargo bays & holodecks typical of most Starfleet vessels. ([[PROMOTIONS|You only get one guess what some officers used the latter for]]). The Galaxy class also has a large number of recreational facilities and even schools to fill the otherwise empty space. Ten Forward at the front of the Saucer Section was exclusive to the class. It also has a Gymnasium, a Phaser Range([[Warhammer_40k|soldiers from other franchises]] [[Stormtrooper_(Star_Wars)|could use a gun range]]), at least one Barbershop, a Theater, and a Salon/Spa. On screen, only three ships were lost, the Enterprise's Stardrive was destroyed to due to some technobabble that bypassed her shields after destroying a old rogue Klingon Bird of Prey, forcing the Saucer Section to crash land on the closest planet. The Yamato was destroyed by a virus from an alien probe, while the USS Odyssey was destroyed in the Gamma Quadrant during a Jem'Hadar fighter's suicide attack. Despite these failures, nearly a dozen Galaxy-class ships served during the Dominion War of in ST: Deep Space Nine. Including the USS Galaxy(NCC-70637) itself. (You'd think they would assign a flag officer or somebody important to that one.)  Incomplete Galaxy hulls were also rushed into production and assigned skeleton crews to get them on the frontlines asap. While they lacked new weapons and fancy shit the new kids on the block had (see below). The Galaxy Wings (presumably two or more) were able to keep up with smaller vessels like the Defiant and Akira classes. The tactic seems quite effective as just two can spam Phasers like a squadron of [[A-10 Warthog]]s shits outs bullets. In ST: Picard, the Enterprise's saucer section was recovered than restored and attached to the Stardrive of the USS Syracuse by command of former Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge. After becoming head of the Fleet Museum. This resulting in ship that had two different colors and registry numbers on the Saucer and Stardrive because of its slapped together nature. Geordi obviously fixed those issues before inducting adding her to the exhibit.
**The Galaxy class also has a few variants, such as the USS Venture's extra phaser strips (a remnant of additions to the physical model for the finale of ST:TNG, aka the Galaxy Dreadnought) However the additions on the Venture herself were lost when Star Trek made the full switch to CGI. Then there is the '''Ross Class''' imported into ST: Picard from the Star Trek: Online MMO, whish was essentially a Galaxy with a "Sovereign" style glow-up to match with the later era technology, and which beta-canon sources claim that the Saucer Section has its own fully capable warp drive.
**The Galaxy class had one of the longest development times in Starfleet history, taking nearly fifteen years from the drawing board to the first ship being constructed. But Starfleet knew what they wanted and they weren't going to compromise on anything. Resulting in a bunch of smaller, Galaxy-adjacent classes that tested out various new technologies individually until they were satisfied they could be included in the Galaxy class. These classes included the '''Springfield, Niagara, Freedom, Challenger, New Orleans,''' and '''Cheyenne''' classes. Most of which showed up on screen as wrecked ships in the Battle of Wolf 359.

*'''Nebula class''': The Miranda counterpart to the Galaxy's Constitution, coming from the same development programme, but made more compact. In exchange for the reduction in scale, they have "Mission Module" pods mounted on the main hull configured with either improved sensors, extra warp nacelles or more weapons. The "combat pod" shows up the most often as we assume it was the only one with CGI models during the 90s. In extended canon, the Mission Modules also consist of an expansive medical facility, temporary housing for moving people to a colony, a massive hanger bay, or even a robust science facility. While they were introduced during "The Next Generation". Nebula's appeared during "The Dominion War" arc of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with other ship classes and ST: Voyager when they needed a Starfleet vessel.

*'''Intrepid class''':. Smaller than the Galaxy at 344 meters long, it was designed for deep space operations. The hero ship of Star Trek: Voyager, the "USS Voyager" (NCC-74656) is an Intrepid-class, while the only other named ship was the Bellerophon in one episode of the final season of DS9. The class was commissioned in 2370 and was briefly the most advanced ship of its time, until the Sovereign came around. It had bio-neural gel-packs, a secondary deflector dish, variable geometry warp nacelles, and was the first vessel to receive the class-9 warp drive (The Galaxy was first commissioned with a  class-7). Its top Warp speed factor is 9.975(5126 cochranes) though the best it can sustain without damage is 9.75(2299 c). It was also the first class to be equipped with EMH protocols. It probably would have benefited from some of the anti-Borg developments after Wolf-359 in the year 2367, though as a designated Deep Space Explorer it wasn't built as a combat ship like the others were. According to dialogue the launchers were compatible with Quantum Torpedoes though she had none herself. Despite this, Voyager carried tricobalt warheads, spatial charges, and gravimetric charges, none of which are standard armaments of Starfleet vessels. The fact that the ship had them onboard was only addressed once or twice during the show. Though lazy writing wasn't Star Trek Voyager's only problems.
**The Intrepid Class also has at least a single variant, the '''Yeager type'''. This kit-bash ship is basically an Intrepid upper hull attached to the top rare half of a Maquis Raider with warp nacelles mounted on the wings. The USS Yeager herself was stationed at DS9 alongside the USS Defiant. Though unlike the Voyager it was never shown in combat and mostly patrolled the perimeter around the station. Like the Centaur class (below) it was an emergency kit-bash class intended to fill gaps in fleet lines because of the stresses of the Dominion War in 2373. It is given specs in the DS9 technical manual and it's BAAAD, with a 1500 cochrane warp engine (see above for comparison), a single photon torpedo launcher and only Type-VIII phasers, in an era when all other "modern" vessels were being armed with Type-X as standard.

*'''Danube Class''': Smaller auxiliary "Runabouts" assigned to starbases. Unlike shuttlecraft and most fighters. They had better weapons, shields, their own Warp Drives and even had their own names and Registry Numbers. Though obviously inferior to ships of the line. There are two variants, the standard configuration and one with a roller bar. Runabouts assigned to Deep Space Nine were named after rivers on Earth. The crew also lost more than a handful during combat and accidents. After losing the USS Odyssey, Starfleet finally saw the need to assign a larger more combat capable vessel to the station. Also destroying so many of them probably put strain on the show's budget as well.

*'''Starfleet's "Anti-Borg" ships''' In the wake of Wolf 359, Starfleet ship design took a radical shift in ideology, moving away from "exploratory vessels with guns" and more towards "fighting ships that can explore". While it took a few years for all of the ships to start rolling off the assembly lines, it ended up being a huge factor in why the Federation didn't simply collapse outright when the Dominion war really got going. ''(the Battle of Sector 001 and the proper beginning of the Dominion War were both in 2373)'' It's important to note that with the sole-exception of the Defiant class, none of them were strictly considered "warships" and still came with much of the traditional package of Starfleet gear, including science and technical suites that allowed them to do other their other jobs well enough to be able to say that they weren't "military vessels" with a straight face.
**'''Defiant class''': Sisko's wrath made manifest. It's small at 170 meters with few amenities but it can hit above it's weight in a fight. This is what you get when Starfleet makes a Warship: a bunch of weapons and armor strapped to an engine. Its was the first ship to have Quantum Torpedo with two launchers dedicated to them. Another new weapon for the show was Phaser Cannons with standard issue Phaser banks along the vessel and a rear Photon torpedo launcher rounding out its firepower. Another first for Starfleet is the addition of Ablative Armor. A feature that found its way onto some of Starfleet's other ships. The Defiant's top speed at warp is a bit slower than large ships at Warp 9.5.(1894 C) though it could achieve 9.982(5940 c) when power was diverted from the Phasers. The Defiant(NX-74205) was meant to be the first of many vessels to counter The Borg threat. Before taking command of Deep Space Nine. The Sisko(as he is called by Bajor's prophets aka wormhole aliens) was assigned to the project after losing his wife during the Battle of Wolf 359 against a Borg Cube. It was overgunned and overpowered for a ship its size and nearly shook itself during its shakedown cruse. Unlike other Starfleet vessels it had no holodecks and limited space for a Sickbay. Crew Quarters are basic and shared by two people. Having only enough room for bunk beds. With the exception of the CO, whose Ready Room next to the bridge doubled as their Quarters. Even the Transporter Rooms and Mess Hall are small compared to other ships.  After the loss of the USS Odyssey on the Gamma Quadrant side of the Wormhole, Starfleet finally decided to finally stop screwing around. Allowing Commander Sisko to take her out of mothballs to search for the Founders. The Treaty of Algeron was amended to allow the Defiant and only her to have a Cloaking Device The agreement with the Romulans only specified the Gamma Quadrant's side of the Bajorian Wormhole. It should come as no surprise that they break this agreement to use it in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants quite often. During the season premier, the Defiant was only able to destroy one or two fighters before the crew was captured and bought to the Founder's homeworld. If it wasn't for DS9 Changeling main security officer tagging along. Finding out the Founder and Changeling's were one in the same. The crew probably would likely have been executed. A few episodes later, Chief Engineer Miles O'Brian was able to upgrade the Defiant to the badass fans know her to be. These flaws were also present on the alternate universe's ISS Defiant used by the Terran Rebels. They had to use an living version of Benjamin's wife Jennifer Sisko to force him fix it up for them. The USS Defiant was eventually was upgraded enough to serve as the now Captain Sisko's flagship during the Dominion War. Of course being Star Trek, Deep Space Nine solved at least one of these battles with help from the Prophets disappearing a Jem'hadar fleet to help retake DS9 because the Cardis joined the Dominion and another with solved by technobabble against automated turrets. As for being a Borg counter vessel. It only fought them once with Commander Worf in the Captain's chair in ST: First Contact. Lasting longer than the flagship in charge the Starfleet's Earth defense section . Worf ordered the helmsan to ram the Borg Cube before being saved by the Enterprise-E. It also the first and only "hero ship" to be destroyed on screen with another of the same class replacing it and rechristened with the old name and registry number on the hull. Remained from USS Sao Paulo. (NCC-75633 according to her dedication plaque. No letter added at the end. As usually was the case of a new Enterprise and other rare occurrences) As it was destroyed by a Breen dampening weapon during the Second Battle of Chin'toka along with the rest of the combined Feddie, Klingon and Romulan Fleet. The Dominion decided to find new allies after the Cardassian forces become increasingly useless, with at least half of them starting a rebellion. Most of the new Defiant's combat scenes were reused from older episodes because the budget was running out. With the exception of the Cardis turning on their old allies so they could Warp to Cardassia Prime to staredown the massive Dominion Fleet. So we didn't get to see a battle between the combined forces. As Odo convinced the Female Founder into surrendering offering to the cure them from virus they were infected with by Section 31 when after they tricked him to return to the Great Link a second time. The second Defiant itself was on display during 2041 in Star Trek Picard. Despite her official dimensions. The Defiant's size was inconsistent during Star Trek's switch to CGI from physical models during the 90s. Being nearly one fourth the size of a Galaxy Class in one episode than looking tiny next to an Excelsior class, while larger than a Klingon Bird of Prey in another.
**'''Akira class''': Starfleet's Gunboat-Carrier Hybird, yeah that's right. In addition to starting production of the Defiant class. The Feddies also made their own Carrier, than loaded them with shitloads of torpedo tubes([[dakka|15 of them!]]) and phasers on it. When pushed come to shove, Starfleet doesn't fuck around. With four shuttle bays, one on the front and three in the back. The Akiras are the motherships for all those attack fighters used by Starfleet during the Dominion War battles seen on ST: DS9. All while in the same weight and size class as the Nebula. Basically the Akira is Star Trek's version of the [[Star Wars|Star Destroyer]] or the Battlestar Galactica from the same franchise. Like many of the new ships it appears in most video games set during the TNG era. Has a similar layout to the NX class.
**'''Norway Class:''' Listed as a "Medium Cruiser" in the technical manual, with a length of 364 metres making it slightly larger than the old Constitution class, but smaller than the Excelsiors and Galaxies. Notable for being ''very'' flat, in order to reduce its profile to incoming weapons fire. Was one of those vessels that appeared in ST: First Contact and was earmarked for use in later DS9 episodes. According to the Visual Effects Supervisor, David Stipes. The files for the Norway were either lost or corrupted. So this left Video Game developers to make their own interpretations of the ship. The DS9 Technical Manual lists an evacuation capacity of 500, which Beta-canon sources say that was used to great effect as an rescue vessel, being able to beam aboard the entire crews of stricken vessels and remove them from warzones safely.
**'''Steamrunner Class:''' Another one of the catamaran designs that puts the secondary hull further back between the nacelles. Officially listed as a "Heavy Frigate" it has a length of 372 metres, making it slightly larger than the Norway, but the weapons loadout was more modest, with only two torpedo launchers and four type X phasers, instead of the listed six phasers on the Norway.
**'''Saber Class''': A budget Defiant, though marginally larger, sources differ on its dimensions, but the Technical Manual copy/pasted the figures from the Norway class, so considering this one is designated "Light Cruiser" then it's probably the smaller one. The Saber was designed so that they could produce an Escort class warship that was no-where near as resource intensive as the Defiant, yet still have a package of scientific gear to be able to fall back into peace-time roles.
**'''Sovereign class''': The class of Picard and crew's second Enterprise, 1701-E after the D was wrecked in the first TNG movie. She premiered in the second TNG movie, Star Trek: First Contact. Basically a hybrid of Galaxy and Defiant classes at 685 meters in length. (Maybe stuff from the Intrepid too, but few fans care about that). The final class to come out of the Counter-Borg initiative, which was also just in time for the Dominion War to begin. This is what happens when the Federation gets their heads out of their collective asses. Where all of the preceding ships had some particular niche, the Sovereign was designed for EVERYTHING. Allowing their Flagship and its most elite crew to have the all fancy toys the new kids get. Except phaser cannons and attack fighters but with her speed and firepower she doesn't need them. Like other new vessels the Sovereign class have both Quantum and Photon Torpedo launchers (10 total after a refit), 16 phaser arrays and Ablative Armor for when the shields went down. With a top speed of Warp factor 9.995(11515 Cochranes) and able to sustain Warp 9.99(7912c) for 36 hours. While lacking the second forward Quantum Torpedo launcher the Defiant has. It can still spam them just as fast. Maybe the Sovereign's have a higher rate of fire than the smaller ships. She also appeared in Star Trek: Prodigy with other ships from the franchise while the reunited crew in Star Trek: Picard confirmed she was "lost" sometimes after Worf become Captain of the Enterprise-E. If you're thinking about why the USS Sovereign herself didn't show up in DS9 during the Dominion War. You're probably smarter than Paramount's producers. As they thought audiences were morons who would confuse her for the Enterprise-E. The same reason no Intrepid class ships never appeared during those battles either. It would have made at lot of sense for the Sovereign (or at least the USS Galaxy) to at least be Vice Admiral Ross's flagship. However because of stupid executives fans can't have nice things and doing things that make sense is alien to Paramount.

*'''Centaur class:''' Originally a kit-bash model composed of spare Excelsior and Miranda class parts, used by the showrunners in distance shots to differentiate them from "hero" ships, made several canon appearances overall, ended up in the technical manuals, and reappeared again in ST:Prodigy. In universe; it ''literally was'' a kit-bash of spare Excelsior saucers and parts salvaged from other ships, as the desperation caused by the Dominion War meant that shipyards needed to push out as many ships as they possibly could, leading to a second-rate destroyer vessel that could simply fill fleets, armed with two photon torpedo launchers and ''Type IX'' phasers (for reference, all of the "anti-borg" ships that preceded this design had Type X). After the war the class got its own "Sovereign" style glow-up, giving it a less frankenstein-ish appearance; putting a proper deflector dish on the hull and moving the shuttlebay forward on the saucer, presumably also beefing up the systems and armament.
[[File:California class.jpg|thumb|left|350px|The Cali-class: Not flashy, but it gets' shit done]]
*'''California class''': The class of the lead ship of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the USS Cerritos Mariner and Boimler's stomping grounds. At 535.2 meters long it's not the fastest or the most glamorous ship, but Starfleet has a lot of odd jobs to do and a Cali's the ship to do them. It also has the nacelles connected to the saucer directly with engineering between them. Each vessel has different color strips on the hull to indicate their mission. Each ship is also named after a city in California. The main problem with that is your eventually going to run out of cities to name ships after a while.

*'''Parliament class''': Basically a larger version of the California class. ST:O even calls it the "Miracle Worker Surveyor Cruiser" while the former is a "Miracle Worker Utility Cruiser". Unlike the California, the Warp Engines and Deflector Dish are connected to the Saucer Section independently of each other. Shoving the Engineering haul to the lower rear. Making it look closer to the Nebula. Their typically deployed for large scale engineering projects, though we do theme carrying out other missions. Parliaments are a considered more prestigious posts among Starfleet's newbie Ensigns over the the Cali. Star Trek: Lower Decks' writers are totally not hinting at something by naming them after Canadian cities while the California uses American ones, we think.

*'''Luna Class''': The class of William T. Riker's ship, the first officer of both the Enterprise-D and the -E after his promotion to Captain, the USS Titan. If the Nebula is considered a miniature version of the Galaxy Class, then the Luna class is like a mini-Sovereign; at around 450 metres long it was considerably smaller, but with nearly the same armament and a slightly lower sustained Warp Factor. Apocryphal sources claim it was '''not''' part of the anti-borg initiative that had generated the Sovereign and had always been intended as a deep space explorer from the start (specifically for the Gamma Quadrant) and that its development was side-lined in favour of more militant ships during the Dominion War, resulting in its delayed commissioning. Despite this, it clearly took a lot of the advances from that initiative and was able slug it out with vessels over twice her size, as shown when the Titan fought three Pakled Clumpships armed with Borg technology in her first appearance on Lower Decks. It also looks much better than its successor the Constitution III. Why the designers and producers decided not refit the Luna Class and instead choose an ugly ass kitbash of the Connie or a whole new design for ST:Picard as the Titan-A/Enterprise-G. Besides nostalgia bait, we have no idea.

*'''Star Trek: Online imports''': Ships imported from the game. They were used Star Trek Picard in season two and three because fans shit on the creators for cut and pasting the Inquiry Class(which was also put into the game later on) in the last episode of season one. Many are updated designs of older vessels. However many of them at least better looking than original ships introduced in Nu-Trek. This currently includes Gagarin, the aforementioned mentioned Ross, Excelsior-II, Reliant Class (updated Miranda), Sutherland Class (Miranda Variant), the Pathfinder(updated Intrepid), Edition Class (TNG style Discovery ship) and finally the class of the Enterprise-F, the Odyssey Class. Which actually comes in three variants itself in the game. The Big-E herself was a refitted Science Star Cruiser called the Yorktown subclass. Regardless of which is chosen, an Odyssey is much larger than the Galaxy Class and is longer than the Sovereign. ST:Picard's producers gave a flimsy excuse to retire the F. Going with the worst looking ship to have the name Enterprise(1701-G) yet.