Starfleet
What most outsiders think of as the most visible arm of the UFP, Starfleet is actually a collection of the various fleets built, maintained, and operated by the Federation's member states. This allows for the faction to fly a wide variety of "iconic" Trek ships while maintaining consistencyOr not maintain consistency, in the case of the Venus fleet within each fleet. Only the Fleet Admiral has authority to issue orders to any ship (or wing) in Starfleet, and this is done rarely. More often, the Admirals of the member states will coordinate with each other so that there is little duplication of effort between the member states.
There is a consistency in ranks across the fleets, made necessary by the needs of Operation Great Justice - the rank structure can be found [[Great Justice#Operation Great Justice Grade Scale|here].
The fleets have somewhat different philosophies toward shipbuilding:
The USS Enterprise does not belong to any of the member states' fleets. It is operated directly by the Federation Council, and serves as the Fleet Admiral's flagship. (When it requires maintenance, its needs are handled by the Soviets).
There - that should explain why they Trekkies both could and couldn't build decent ships before the end of OGJ...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
What most outsiders think of as the most visible arm of the UFP, Starfleet is actually a collection of the various fleets built, maintained, and operated by the Federation's member states. This allows for the faction to fly a wide variety of "iconic" Trek ships while maintaining consistencyOr not maintain consistency, in the case of the Venus fleet within each fleet. Only the Fleet Admiral has authority to issue orders to any ship (or wing) in Starfleet, and this is done rarely. More often, the Admirals of the member states will coordinate with each other so that there is little duplication of effort between the member states.
There is a consistency in ranks across the fleets, made necessary by the needs of Operation Great Justice - the rank structure can be found [[Great Justice#Operation Great Justice Grade Scale|here].
The fleets have somewhat different philosophies toward shipbuilding:
- The Terra fleet started off building one-of-a-kind ships and facilities (including Starbase 1), and their "handicraft" mentality allowed then to build many of the franchise's more recognizable ships... once. Thus, the Terran fleet boasts one Antares-class surveyor/freighter (USS Yorkshire), one Miranda-class science vessel (USS Miranda), one Nebula-class explorer (USS Farragut), one Saladin-class destroyer (USS Tamerlane), and so on. There is still a cachet within the Terra fleet associated with service aboard a unique ship, but Utopia's mass-produced ships now outnumber the home-built craft.
- The Luna fleet is small, but only in tonnage. They have more Shuttlecraft and Runabouts in service than any two other member states' fleets, but these craft are not attached to larger ships.
- The Utopia fleet decided to work toward mass-production from the very beginning, and ran into problems creating working engines for anything larger than a Type-7 Shuttlecraft. It wasn't until the then-Soviet Air Force approached them with the designs for their Gagarin-class ship that Utopia was able to successfully mass-produce Archer-class ships. Technological advances provided by the Soviets and the Whole Fenspace Catalog have given the Utopia shipwrights the capability to produce most canon Federation ships (and supply ships to the other member states), with their two-dozen Constitution-class ships being the most popular to serve aboard.
- The Soviet fleet is a mixed bag - having been a minor faction in their own right before joining the Federation, they have a variety of ship designs that they created themselves. The Gagarin-class and the Shuttle-class are their iconic designs.
- The Venus fleet, inspired by their Crystal Millennium neighbours, are the most willing to build shipsOr, rather, have ships built for them at the Bristol shipyards from any of the races shown in any variation of Star Trek. Their fleet includes three Klingon Warbirds, two Romulan Birds of Prey, and a Cardassian Bok'Nor freighter, alongside their four Federation Intrepid-class workhorses. (During the Boskone War, they also flew a Vulcan D'Kyr "combat cruiser" and two Jem'Hadar fighters, but these were mothballed when the PEPPER limitations came into effect.)
- The Jupiter fleet has only one ship - but it's the largest ship in Starfleet: the Galaxy-class USS Yamato.
The USS Enterprise does not belong to any of the member states' fleets. It is operated directly by the Federation Council, and serves as the Fleet Admiral's flagship. (When it requires maintenance, its needs are handled by the Soviets).
There - that should explain why they Trekkies both could and couldn't build decent ships before the end of OGJ...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012