The 300(ish) metre klingon bird of prey

[Granitehewer]

ok i have some slight issues with its low ditl index, this isn't to decry grahams' hard work or judgements, and i'm sure that many people here take it as gospel, often the fleet strengths and ditl indexs have been used in debates here, with the same veracity as cannon.
In 'Yesterdays Enterprise' and 'Redemption', we've seen the klingon battlecruiser B.o.P's in combat, against a Galaxy class, and against a Vor'Cha, accordingly.
In the both cases, the birds of prey survived multiple impacts from their opponents, and inflicted considerable damage, in the former episode, the enterprise D was destroyed, and in the later episode, the Bortas would have been destroyed, had it not been for the intervention of Kurn.
Does anyone here think that the 325m B.o.P should have a slightly higher rating?

[Lazar]

I've always had trouble accepting the idea of having two different ships of wildly differing sizes that look exactly the same. (By the way, there's a dead link at the end of this page.)

[Sionnach Glic]

I can buy the idea that they just enlarged a smaller design. I can see them doing it if they really needed a bigger ship, but didn't have any at hand and couldn't spend time designing a completely new class.

[Lazar]

It's just an instance where I can't suspend my disbelief that far - I mean, why would all the hull features be identical? The disruptors, the torpedo launcher, all the little ports and things on the hull? The basic design of the BOP - internal warp engines, movable wings with mounted disruptor cannons - just seems to make total sense for a small vessel, and no sense at all for a large vessel. I think the explanation is that they just got really reckless with their scaling (or, you could say, their choice of model), because they didn't want to make the BOPs seem tiny in comparison with the GCS or D'Deridex.

I think that if they wanted some kind of reliable light cruiser, they should have used the K'T'Inga instead. This would be roughly the same size as the upscaled BOPs, and the model was actually designed to be a 250 meter long ship.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

I can buy the idea that they just enlarged a smaller design. I can see them doing it if they really needed a bigger ship, but didn't have any at hand and couldn't spend time designing a completely new class.

As has been said before, this would only be so on the outside - the entire interior would still need to be redesigned. In reality, you might expect the exterior to reflect the design of the interior at least as much as the opposite.

[Mikey]

I see what you're saying about the minutest details, but the idea of scale-up design certainly doesn't bother me for the Klingons as much as it would for the UFP. Klingon industry seems to be about production rather than innovation, and a scale-up of a proven design is a very expedient way to accomplish that.

[Granitehewer]

but what about its ditl strength index?

[Lazar]

You can't expect us to stay on topic for... one whole post!

[Captain Picard's Hair]

I'd guess the scaled-up wingtip disruptors are pretty powerful, since they are as big as the warp nacelles would be on a typical ship of the size.

[Mikey]

but what about its ditl strength index?

The index is an estimated guess anyway, and comprises a gestalt of different factors - even a ship with very powerful weapons wouldn't score great if it had weak shields, or maneuverability, or...

[Granitehewer]

explains the 18,909 score of the borg sphere despite having a torpedo strength of 2....ahem, but the bigger birds of prey have in episodes in which they are non-static shown better than capital ship maneuvrability, the ability to shrug off capital ship weapons fire, and potent weapons, esp in those episodes i cited.

[Reliant121]

This may just be my guess but Klingons throughout history (Apart from the Negh'var) have preferred fast, maneuverable ships to make lightning fast passes then withdraw, and make it again. They dont sit and slug it out. BOP is the perfect essence of it. Maybe they preferred a faster warship.

[Mikey]

If they scaled up thrusters, SIF, etc. commensurate with the rest of the ship - PLUS had that much more space and warp core output available for shields, it would conveniently explain the effect you observed.

That, or writer's fiat.

[Coalition]

I see what you're saying about the minutest details, but the idea of scale-up design certainly doesn't bother me for the Klingons as much as it would for the UFP. Klingon industry seems to be about production rather than innovation, and a scale-up of a proven design is a very expedient way to accomplish that.

For outside appearances yes, but the internal structure will have problems with that. Double the length, width and height, and the mass will be ~8 times higher. However, since structural strength is only based on cross section, the structural members will only be 4 times stronger. That means it will only have half the maneuverability, or structural strength has to double in the meantime.

Also, mere scaling up means that Klingons have to use ladders to do maintenance on stuff near the ceiling, while the Captain looks funny in his outsized chair. The interior will have to be redone as well.

Personally, I'd see it as the Bird of Prey is the classic Klingon ship, what has helped them win 'honor and glory' for centuries, and they are not going to give up that image. They may change the interior, but the outside will always be the classic ship.

[Lazar]

Personally, I'd see it as the Bird of Prey is the classic Klingon ship, what has helped them win 'honor and glory' for centuries, and they are not going to give up that image. They may change the interior, but the outside will always be the classic ship.

I just can't buy it - it's too absurd. (And why would the Klingons be concerned with esthetic sentimentality?) I mean, we've had other scaling discrepancies without positing the existence of differently-sized identical-looking ships. Of course, I would reiterate that any time they had to drastically upscale a BOP in order to make it look less puny, they really should have just used a K'T'Inga.