Star Trek: Starship Design In A Distant Future

A Miranda Class starship from Star Trek Online

Star Trek: Starship Design In A Distant Future

Maybe there's a reason for the rhyme

I once heard someone say that the Defiant class ships were the first real warships that the Federation ever made. I always thought that idea was awfully short sighted, either by the person that said it or by the Federation itself if indeed true.After all, the Federation was around long before the Defiant class came to being, surely the would have had more warship designs over the years.

In the Star Trek lore we know that Starfleet’s primary mandate is to explore the galaxy, but it is also charged with the protection of Federation sovereignty. As a result, it has been the first line of defense in many interstellar wars and conflicts. I believe that the Federation’s ship designs have always reflected that dual purpose need, with consideration given to the likely mission profile the class is going to take on. I also believe that the Federation would have had to have had more designated warship classes that predate the Defiant.

Variations in starship design are as numerous as the stars in the sky, but there are some very common themes that seem to be present, and if the design is looked at in the context of it fitting a mission profile then it starts to make sense as to why it looks the way it does. I mean apart from the fact that it’s a work of fictional and looks cool.

For the sake of this post, let’s identify the common mission profiles that starships are used for. There will be some overlap as Federation vessels are always overpowered and versatile, so this is certainly not a clean separation. There might also be some that are escaping me at the moment, but let’s stick with what I have thought up. Basing ship design on mission types is also not an exact science, so there will be exceptions like in the TNG episode Yesterday’s Enterprise where they call the Enterprise D a battleship, but I think for the most part this will hold true. I believe the most common mission profiles are as follows:

• Exploration
• Scientific & Research
• Combat

Two Constitution Class starships flank a Galaxy Class in Star Trek Online. 

Exploration

When we are talking about exploration vessels in Star Trek, there are some significant commonalities that just can’t be ignored. It dates back to the design of the original Enterprise captained by Kirk. Kirk’s ship is a Constitution class cruiser, and when it was built was considered to be gigantic and very powerful. Exploration ships are often large because they have to be away from home for years at a time so would need space for extra consumables and living space. Kirk’s Enterprise was working a 5 year deep space mission when we were first introduced to it.

The constitution class is a good showcase for an exploration ship; the saucer section resting on top of the drive section, with the warp nacelles angled upwards. The bulk of the weapons systems sit on the underside of the ship giving the forward firing arcs a more downward advantage. This means that for this style of ship to be in a fight it has to expose it’s underbelly a bit to bring the bulk of its weapons to bear.  Fighting in this way also places the warp nacelles away from the action in a head to head engagement which makes a lot of sense because if a nacelle fails the crew is essentially stranded. This also means that if it wanted to make a less threatening appearance during a first contact situation it would only have to tip its nose down a bit, and the bulk of the weapons are pointed away from the other ship almost like a knight greeting you with his visor up and his sword sheathed.

This styling is again repeated in later ships. The Excelsior, Proxima, Ambassador and Galaxy classes are all designed the same, to name a few. Each one is designated primarily as a long term explorer. It’s true that these ships have served as the ‘heavies’ in fleet actions, but that often requires some refitting according to the lore.

A Constitution Class and a Nebula Class

Scientific & Research

Here I think we will see the most crossover and diversity. Remembering that Starfleet’s primary mandate is to explore the galaxy, in times of peace every one of their ships are given some measure of scientific equipment just like they are all given powerful weapon. We also don’t know of many ship classes that are labeled as being primarily science based. I think it’s more common for ships to be outfitted with a science package than having ships set apart for scientific advancement.

That said, we do know of some that are primarily meant for science missions. The Oberth Class is one that was first shown to us in the movies. They are small vessels with poor tonnage and limited firepower. Others that would fall into this grouping would be the Nova and Nebula classes; the Nebula class being a poster child for versatility as it is shown also hosting a weapons pod in place of its sensor array. Federation ships that would fall under this category seem to be incredibly diverse in design. We’ve seen ships with nacelles angled upwards, and with them angled downwards. We’ve seen ships that follow the Constitution’s design with the saucer section on top, and some as the complete reverse. We’ve seen one, two and 4 nacelle craft in the Apollo, Nova and Constellation classes.

The real world explanation would be that they conform to the desires of the show’s creators, and that is really boring. An in-universe explanation could involve the idea that there is no ‘right’ configuration for a science mission in general and that all the different ones we have seen over the years are based on the equipment they carry and the job they perform.

A ship out of time, An Akira Class flies escort for the USS Enterprise

Combat

In combat ships we also see a lot of diversity, but not as much as with the science designated craft. Here we can also see somewhat of a consistent theme: nacelles angled down. Of course not in every case, but in many of them the weapons on the topside of the ship and the nacelles are again positioned in the opposite direction to keep them out of the way and protected. This way that knight we were talking to earlier might as well just have his sword in hand. To show the point I’m actually going to point towards the Miranda class. Ha, I can just hear all the other fans out there yelling ‘have you lost your mind? The Miranda is a science vessel!’ Just hear me out now.

Yes, the Miranda was introduced to us as a scientific vessel, but that designation never did make much sense to me. If it’s designed for science than why was it used actively on battlefields? Two such ships were assigned to defend the USS Defiant’s flanks as the fleet executed Operation Return to take back DS9. Then there’s the USS Reliant’s engagement with the Enterprise, a much larger, more powerful ship. Now Khan did use some trickery to bring the mighty Enterprise to its knees, but it also did put up a pretty good fight despite being shorter than the other combatant and having much less crew when they went head to head.

A Galaxy Class and a Cheyenne Class orbiting Earth Spacedock

Also in the specialty we can see the addition of more warp nacelles, just like with the science vessels. A good example of this is the dreadnaught designation where a third nacelle is added to the ship. As it turns out, most ship classes can be given the dreadnought refit; we’ve seen quite a verity of them from Constitution to Galaxy classes. This addition, along with the extra weapons I’m sure it comes with does make a lot of sense. As mentioned earlier, in deep space a functioning warp drive is vital. If it gets damaged it will take years to get anywhere meaningful, and the captain of the ship had better start praying that it can be repaired somehow. In the Star Trek expanded universe it is explained that a ship needs at least 2 nacelles to create a stable warp bubble. This does seem to hold up across the board, except for the early Apollo class which only had one. We also have seen four nacelle designs in the Prometheus class, the Cheyenne, and the Constellation classes. During their time these vessels were able to put up a decent fight as well.

Also in this group we find vessels that are so outside of the norm, you have to wonder what changed so much in the technology. Ships like the Saber, Defiant and Steamrunner classes are designated lighter warships, but do not follow the idea of nacelles down, but they also do not have the same restrictions on weapon arks. You could say that where the knight had his sword in hand before, now the sword is pointed at your belly no matter where you move.

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