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Krissy Phaserman

Sovereign Class

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Okay, Supposedly, the Soveriegn class is the largest ship in Starfleet. In terms of Overall length, that is entirely accurate. The class is 685 meters long, from the front of the bow to the aft end caps on the warp nacelles. She's also 240 meters wide, and depending on who you believe, either 24 or 29 decks tall (Memory Alpha says there was a refit that extended it to 29 decks tall), and she masses, according to memory alpha, 3,205,000 metric tons. However...

 

The Ambassador class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) measured 526 x 325 meters, and massed 3,710,000 metric tons. More than half a million metric tons more, dispite being 160 meters shorter. The Galaxy class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C measures 641 meters long, and 475 meters wide (Her saucer is wider than the original enterprise was long), and tips the scales at nearly 5 MILLION metric tons. When I put a picture of a Soveriegn class starship next to a Galaxy class, I expected to see the ships as quite similar. The Galaxy class DWARFS the Sovereign class. While the difference in overall length is basically negligable (44 meters), what becomes evident is that the Galaxy class is STILL the big dawg in Starfleet. Don't get me wrong, I like the Soveriegn class, but the comparison of the two is like comparing a Corvette to a Silverado. Both look nice, but one's a sports car and the other is here for some work.

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It doesn't help that if you remove the nacelles from the Ent-E, she's barely over 500 meters.

 

But whoever said the Sovy is the largest in the fleet?

Edited by WishfireOmega

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The impression I got from First Contact was that not only was she brand new, but she was supposed to be the big dawg. Also, the trend with the Enterprise was always the new class is bigger than the last one.

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Well, La Forge said that the Enterprise-E was the most advanced ship in the fleet, not the biggest. I personally think the Enterprise-E is a much more balanced looking starship than the Galaxy class. The Soverign Class was built at the height of the Dominion War, a time when science vessels weren't that important. I would imagine that a Sovereign could do science missions, after all, several episodes of DS9 has the Defiant doing research and scientific missions, and that's a warship.

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Yeah, the Sovies were war-time designs. They had to build a ship big enough to handle the most advanced warp cores and other power generators in order to produce the most power for weapons and shields, and at the same time the ships had to be small enough not to provide a large profile to aim at. And since space is three dimensional, they had to make sure that the ships' profiles were as small as possible from all angles. That's why they were smaller than the Galaxy-class. (Seriously, with such a huge saucer, they might as well paint a bull's eye on it.)

 

Not to mention that as war ships, rather than family ships, they were able to cut down the size a lot by removing most of the extra living space, and the class-rooms.

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True...I don't know how much the Dominion War influenced the initial designs, though I'm sure the Borg threat had alot to do with it. However, the Dominion threat did lead to what appeared to be come major weapons upgrades on the Soveriegn class. in FC and Insurrection, we saw 2 total torpedo tubes being used. In Nemesis, there were at least 6 used (three forward, three aft), though two of them were visible in FC. If I had to classify the Soveriegn class as a warship, the term "Cruiser" would fit. I don't know that it is powerful enough to be a battleship, but it's a close call.

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According to www.memory-alpha.org the Sovereign class is a heavy cruiser. Constitution, Ambassador and Akira classes also share the term. An Excelsior class is considered to be an explorer, as is the Galaxy class.

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I can understand Constitution and Ambassador class---the term changes with each new generation. But the Akira class doesn't deserve the term Heavy Cruiser. It doesn't pack the firepower of the Soveriegn. It may have more torpedo tubes, but Soveriegn does have it beat, presumably, in carrying capacity and phaser armament

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I doubt that. Even if it did, yes, that's a hellatious rate of fire (if each tube can, say, fire off 5 torpedo bursts like the Enterprise E's can), but look at the layout of the Akira class, it wouldn't have a whole lot of space to store the photon torpedoes. I could see it as an Attack or Strike Cruiser, designed for quick attacks (Perhaps working with other fast ships, like we saw in VOY: "Ship in a bottle" working with Defiant class starships) and then fading back as the heavier ships come in and attack.

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True...I don't know how much the Dominion War influenced the initial designs, though I'm sure the Borg threat had alot to do with it. However, the Dominion threat did lead to what appeared to be come major weapons upgrades on the Soveriegn class. in FC and Insurrection, we saw 2 total torpedo tubes being used. In Nemesis, there were at least 6 used (three forward, three aft), though two of them were visible in FC. If I had to classify the Soveriegn class as a warship, the term "Cruiser" would fit. I don't know that it is powerful enough to be a battleship, but it's a close call.

 

I don't think the design were a direct result of the Dominion War, though I'm fairly certain that the designs were built with the potential Dominion threat in mind. IIRC, the Sovereign design came before the Dominion War, but after their presence (and hostility) was discovered.

 

I'm not too sure that the Borg were in mind, though. After "The Best of Both Worlds," the Borg became a negligable threat. It was for that reason that the Defiant-class was abandoned. Also, since they brought the Defiants back for the Dominion threat, it lends credence to the idea that the Sovies were built with the Dominion threat in mind.

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I did read somewhere that the designer of the Sovereign class had in mind that it would be the replacement of the Excelsior class. If you look at it, the Sovereign does look like a streamlined version of the Excelsior.

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according to the audio commentary on FIRST CONTACT by Ronald Moore (current brain behind the new Battlestar Galactica) they asked for a more "muscular" design for the Enterprise-E, since the "D" just doesn't look very formidable.

 

As for me...I'll take The LEXX. :blink:

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I've always taken into consideration that in TNG, the 1701-D being the Federation Flagship, the Galaxy Class would always be the largest

designed starship, so the 1701-E being comparable to the Galaxy Class in length, i'd say deserves the right of being called a "large" starship..

Edited by Ian Wood

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As I've said before, the Galaxy class is a much more well rounded ship in terms of science and exploration. The Galaxy had a huge stellar cartography lab, dedicated science stations on the bridge, and many more other labs, like cybernetics and critical care, that were shown. I can imagine that the Sovereign and Galaxy work together. The Sovereign class scouts ahead, and if a hostile alien race shows up, can deal with it. The Galaxy can sweep in behind and use its more developed sensor system and research the finds that the Sovereign comes across.

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I always heard that the Galaxy class was the largest in volume and mass, and the Sovereign was the longest and most advanced.

 

yeah thats what i always thought...

 

and i always thought it was a ship with big guns designed for exploration, not a ship like the defiant that was designed for war...

Edited by Smith

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I always heard that the Galaxy class was the largest in volume and mass, and the Sovereign was the longest and most advanced.

 

yeah thats what i always thought...

 

and i always thought it was a ship with big guns designed for exploration, not a ship like the defiant that was designed for war...

 

From what I've read since my last post, that's all correct.

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That she does. The Galaxy class was used during the Dominion War as a Big Gun ship in fleet engagements, because of it's size, defensive strength, and relatively potent offensive punch (Even though the significantly smaller Intrepid Class does outgun it.) The Soveriegn class looks to me like a quiet admittance from Starfleet that a large, powerful, battle-ready ship is needed, but they were reluctant to give up the scientific aspects. The Soveriegn's design does reflect the traditional definitions of a Cruiser: Large, sleek, fast, and packing serious firepower.

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