Why does Starfleet need so many different ship classes?

[Citiprime]

Starfleet seems to produce different ship classes at the same rate they change uniforms.

The real answer to this question is they have as many ship classes as the story needs to make things interesting and give fans something new to analyze, ponder, and possibly buy an Eaglemoss version of.

But does it make sense in-universe that Starfleet would have so many different starship variations, instead of just variants of a small number of mass-produced ship classes?

 

[1001001]

Moving to Trek Tech

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I expect that Starfleet could do alright with a big ship class and a smaller ship class and a runabout and that's it, just like all the other major powers. They don't really need a huge variety of ship classes. But Starfleet engineers just can't stop refining and creating and coming up with bold new ideas, and their culture gives them more freedom and resources to indulge their creativity and ingenuity. The Federation's all about diversity and their Starship designs are an important part of their branding, as it's how they present themselves to the rest of the galaxy.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Different classes for different mission profiles, much like today's Navy.

 

[fireproof78]

Starfleet seems to produce different ship classes at the same rate they change uniforms.

The real answer to this question is they have as many ship classes as the story needs to make things interesting and give fans something new to analyze, ponder, and possibly buy an Eaglemoss version of.

But does it make sense in-universe that Starfleet would have so many different starship variations, instead of just variants of a small number of mass-produced ship classes?

That have a huge variety of resources, several member worlds, and unique mission profiles. I would say it makes quite a bit of sense for them to have different components and create and click and play style system they can switch out based upon mission need, and accommodate various member species.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It may be just a matter of Starfleet policy to continually modernize the fleet. While Starfleet does upgrade some of its designs, its preferred approach might be to develop new designs more than keep older ones going. In such a case, the average life-span of most starship designs might be only 20 years or so, and long-lived designs like the Miranda- and Excelsior-classes may be far more the exception than the rule, IMO.

In contrast, Klingon shipbuilding policy may be the total opposite. Rather than build lots of new designs, they may favor improving existing ones more. That might mean that today's D7 balltlecruiser may look unchanged from one a century ago, but it could otherwise have vastly superior systems and be a totally different vessel in every way except in appearance.

I guess it could be boiled down to matter of culture.

 

[Dukhat]

Different classes for different mission profiles, much like today's Navy.

True, but Starfleet has never made a specific class for a specific mission. Take the Oberth for example. The first time we see the Grissom, she's a science vessel. But when the class appeared in TNG, it was everything from a transport ship to a supply ship. We've seen the Miranda class as a science vessel, a transport and a cargo ship. Conversely, an Oberth, a Miranda, a Constitution and a Galaxy class could all be considered science vessels even though they are different classes.

 

[shapeshifter]

Merchandising!

 

[Disposable_Ensign]

Why are there different makes of cars? or boats? or planes?

 

[C.E. Evans]

Why are there different makes of cars? or boats? or planes?

For the manufacturers to make more money!

 

[shapeshifter]

<looks at 25+ foot stack of models> Appears they succeeded.

 

[drt]

It may be just a matter of Starfleet policy to continually modernize the fleet. While Starfleet does upgrade some of its designs, its preferred approach might be to develop new designs more than keep older ones going. In such a case, the average life-span of most starship designs might be only 20 years or so, and long-lived designs like the Miranda- and Excelsior-classes may be far more the exception than the rule, IMO.

Yeah, it is only the budgetary reuse of the Excelsior and Reliant models in TNG that keeps us from the arguement that Starfleet only builds small numbers of new classes of ship. Why only "twelve like her in the fleet"? That's the most they build of any one class.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

More Ship Classes, more models to sell to fans =D

We only need to see the "Eagle Moss Star Trek The Official Starships Collection" to see how many ships you could potentially sell.

 

[Citiprime]

Originally when I posted this, I was thinking of it in terms of how procurement is done now. The US government has the biggest military budget in the world, and even with a budget that could send people to Mars, they don't really cycle through ship classes and aircraft models the way Starfleet does (e.g., the F-35 has been in development for 30 years), and I don't even think that was true during the Cold War.

However, thinking about it more, in a post-scarcity society with replicators, it might be easier to get the Federation Council to go along with letting Starfleet go nuts and build and launch whatever they want if there's no committee worried about how it fits within a budget.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's very likely that Earth isn't the only planet in the Federation Starfleet draws its resources from. In such a case, Starfleet has so many different starship classes simply because it can afford them.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

(e.g., the F-35 has been in development for 30 years), and I don't even think that was true during the Cold War.

The story behind the "F-35's development" is a bit more complicated and needs more unpacking then what can be done here on the forum. There are entire forums dedicated to the "F-35" and I can explain it better there.

But anyways that's off-topic.

 

[Imaus]

For the manufacturers to make more money!

Ford's Sloan literally pushed the yearly or so yearly car release simply to sell more Cars. There was little in the way of outright innovation, but he wanted to keep selling. So it became about Fashion than Upgrades.

In the case of the Federation, I think the Feds love to push their designs to the limit, there's a new gizmo every generation, new theory. Trying to get faster warp speeds, new reactor designs, new weapons, greater crew compliments for more multi-focused missions. They have to catch up to the Klingons, the Vulcans, other powers, the Romulans might be preparing a new fleet, they need to protect their expanding space and members, so there's drive there.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Ford's Sloan literally pushed the yearly or so yearly car release simply to sell more Cars. There was little in the way of outright innovation, but he wanted to keep selling. So it became about Fashion than Upgrades.

In the case of the Federation, I think the Feds love to push their designs to the limit, there's a new gizmo every generation, new theory. Trying to get faster warp speeds, new reactor designs, new weapons, greater crew compliments for more multi-focused missions. They have to catch up to the Klingons, the Vulcans, other powers, the Romulans might be preparing a new fleet, they need to protect their expanding space and members, so there's drive there.

I think StarFleet is given free reign to upgrade their tech consistently as long as they can show "Results".

That's why there was such a long period of time where everything was changing constantly.

It wasn't until the 24th century where they standardized on StarShips as a platform and just updated the guts with newer tech and didn't have nearly as much external modifications as in the past.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It wasn't until the 24th century where they standardized on StarShips as a platform and just updated the guts with newer tech and didn't have nearly as much external modifications as in the past.

I favored an idea that had been floating around a long time ago that Starfleet used standardized hull components for its ships during TOS, and that the Constitution- and Miranda-classes were examples of this program of fairly modular designs. Several starship classes could use the same "plug & play" saucer sections, warp nacelles, or even engineering (stardrive) sections. I think the modular hull components idea was even used by some to explain the differences in starship aesthetics between NX-01 and the century later NCC-1701 during ENT.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I favored an idea that had been floating around a long time ago that Starfleet used standardized hull components for its ships during TOS, and that the Constitution- and Miranda-classes were examples of this program of fairly modular designs. Several starship classes could use the same "plug & play" saucer sections, warp nacelles, or even engineering (stardrive) sections. I think the modular hull components idea was even used by some to explain the differences in starship aesthetics between NX-01 and the century later NCC-1701 during ENT.

Then I guess they updated the base "Plug & Play" components between TOS & TNG.