The New Stock Ships of the Dominion War

During the Dominion War the Federation was cut short on supplies and starships. Throughout the war many designers were called in to design a starship that took few resources and was resilient enough to fight in the most devastating war the Federation has ever seen to date. But as the months dragged on and the war continued, the designers were stuck and it was discovered that they truly could not do what was needed. But through some very innovated coincidences the designers did find a nearly unending supply of resources and equipment that would only have to be reactivated. The ever increasing Mothball Fleet!

Starfleet has been dumping its old and damaged ships into a series of junkyard for over one hundred years now and it was discovered that very few of those ships had ever been sold or stolen over that time. So these junkyards had more than enough ships, in their current configuration to have held of the Dominion for another two years. But, of course, Starfleet did not throw away a good starship for no good reason. The ships that were in the Mothball Fleet had been either so old that the parts were no longer available, and even if they were the ship would not be able to stand in the war, or were damaged beyond repair. Unlike the Enterprise in all its incarnations, these ships died a pale death. Old age and wear and tear finally did these vessels in. But the war had other plans.

Though there is no record of the Dominion ever finding out very much information about this Mothball Fleet, it is known that they never made an attempt to get at them. Maybe they should have. With the very existence of this fleet the designers for the war began to scratch their heads as to figure out how to use this new resource. The fleet was growing by the day and something needed to happen fast.

The idea of 'kit bashing' came into play when a nacelle from one ship was damaged beyond repair on a Miranda-class starship. The Yerupaja hobbled back to Starbase 375 and a nacelle was ordered from a Constitution-class ship that was in mothballs. The Yerupaja was able to get back to the battle within three days after getting the refit. With such a profound move by the engineers at the time, the designers decided to do some of their own mixing and matching.

Their first idea was a Constitution/Excelsior hybrid. The idea succeeded because the parts were able to be fused together with little effort due to the construction style and design structure at the time. Though there were a few variations made to the final design that made this ship unique, for the most part it was nothing more than a 'kit bash'. Enough were churned out to see if the concept would hold up in battle, and sure enough every last one of them did. The crews of these first ships never knew the names or serial numbers to these ships simply because they didn't have one. A name caught one throughout Starfleet honoring one of Earth's science-fiction/horror writers, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. This was shortened to the unsanctioned Shelly-class with the crews naming some of them after other works of hers. Unfortunately, none of it ever became truly sanctioned, but even Starfleet admirals have given this configuration that name.

With the success of the Shelly-class, the designers went back to the junkyard and cranked out another ship that soon became known as the Centaur-class. This ship was taken from an Excelsior-class ship that had been so brutally damaged at its secondary hull that it was simply removed. The nacelle configuration was altered to accept this and soon was up and running. The name was given from the Greek mythos of a half Terran/half horse creature. This ship did live up to that name in its design, but it also lived up to it with its swift maneuvering and rapid approach. The ship was versatile and powerful for its size.

These two ships were the most produced ships during the war that weren't new. Though the designers did come up with a myriad of other designs, some with greater effect than others, the crews of those ships didn't have the same chemistry with them as the did for the Shelly- or Centaur-class ships. When the war finally ended, the ships that survived were still in service and were being assigned new missions instead of being decommissioned and mothballed again. Though the crews of these ships didn't mind, the admiralty did have some concerns regarding this interesting situation. The Federation was producing more and more of the Akira-, Norway-, Saber-, Sovereign-, and Steamrunner-classes that these new ones were extra and in the way of "progress". The captain's and crew's got involved very quickly and Starfleet was forced by the Federation Council to come up with some sort of plan of action and an idea on what to do with all these ships. Again the original designers, kit bashers, were called in to do something with their monsters.

One of these ideas has surfaced so far. An idea to upgrade the Centaur-class to a new level of technology that would put them at par with the current production line of ships. But the design is little more than that at this time. Should these new ideas be completed, the fleet would be producing more than the five they already are that don't interfere with the Galaxy-, Nebula-, Bradbury-, Intrepid-, Defiant-, Nova-, and multitude of other designs annually. The Federation doesn't really need all this variety, does it? Starfleet has been in consideration of that very thought ever since the war ended. They were very helpful in defending the Federation, but now that there is little to defend from, other than a random, but expected Borg attack. Not much is known about what the conclusion to the Starfleet production problem will be like. But one thing is for certain, the outlook doesn't look very good for these lovable, but used ships.

To date, Starfleet is allowed a 1500 starship production budget per year. But it is only allowed to maintain a mere 10,000 for the entire expanse of the Federation. This means that after less than ten years of service, a ship is retired and decommissioned. Basically two major missions of exploration and the ship is scrap. Most of the new ships are designed to last for over one hundred years, so if Starfleet wanted to keep those ships for that long, it would have to stop production and design until the end of their life span. And that is just as likely as Starfleet retiring a ship after ten years.

The Federation Council placed those limits upon Starfleet when it first was formed nearly two hundred years ago. But since starships actually survive their missions and are designed to see more of them, these limitations are outdated and unnecessary. We will have to see how the Council and the Admiralty get along over the next few months over this issue. Be sure that it will not be a very easy ride for those involved.

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