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Hi all,

The idea of the Defiant carrier popped back into my head. I made a VERY poor drawing of what I am thinking about. I ran a search over m old posts and am copying the text from one:

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I believe I mentioned supercarriers once before. I still think that is a great way to go. A problem with the Defiants and Akiras is their long haul functunality. They are not good for outer system service simply due to their interiors etc.

If you want to carry the Def/Aks internally, the carrier would have to be the size of a Kazon Predator for Defiants, but bigger for Akiras, possibly the size of a Dominion Dreadnaught. The obvious problem with a relatively hollow craft of that size would be intergety in battle and self defence.

I believe I previously stated that a craft that would be a spine with the Defiants and Akiras attached externally would be the easiest to make, by far. A carrier of this design would have the powerplant and living quarters centralized, and the shields and weapons of the attached Def/Aks would provid additional weapon and defensive capibilities. This would make the carrier much cheaper and easier to build. Plus, the Def/Aks could be launched much faster.

I would think that it would be rather easy to make one of these spine carriers, about 1000M long. This could hold 18 Defiants rather easily. (5 end to end on the 12 and 6 axis, 4 along the 3 and 9 axis, staggered for room)

Two version could be created. One would be tactical. The central carrier would basically be two things, a warp core and very powerful engines. This would simply be designed to get the warships to where they need to be FAST! The other could be more perminant, like our aircraft carriers. This would simply add additional living quarters for the crews. More space, more comfort. This version could cruise around the outer systems without worry about the crew having issues.

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This POOR POOR picture shows What I mean. The circles are defiants attached to docking struts on the skin of the carrier. The tube/body of the carrier itself could be as thin as possible in the tactical version, but thicker in the version that would include crew quarters.



In this setup you could hold the 18 Defiants 5/4/5/4. It would enable you to partol distant areas utilizing the crew quarters on the carrier to keep crew moral higher and more comfortable. Then when needed, you could deliver 18 Defiants to a battle/region at one time, all 100% rested and 100% ready to fight.

Thoughts?

Good idea, considering the size of the Defiant class. Could improve the scetch, but I am sure I could not do any better.

You said the Akira was small? The Defiant could fit inbeteen the Akira's nacelles. Now there's a thought. Use the Akira to carry a Defiant around and preform their own varient of the MVAM. Except they are both clearly fully operational ships so they wouldn't suffer some of the Prometheus' weaknesses.

ChakatBlackstar wrote:You said the Akira was small? The Defiant could fit inbeteen the Akira's nacelles. Now there's a thought. Use the Akira to carry a Defiant around and preform their own varient of the MVAM. Except they are both clearly fully operational ships so they wouldn't suffer some of the Prometheus' weaknesses.

The Akira is small enough to be considered as a carrier base craft. However, as it is much larger than the Defiant I did opt to go with the Defiant class for the example of this carrier.

ChakatBlackstar wrote:You said the Akira was small? The Defiant could fit inbeteen the Akira's nacelles. Now there's a thought. Use the Akira to carry a Defiant around and preform their own varient of the MVAM. Except they are both clearly fully operational ships so they wouldn't suffer some of the Prometheus' weaknesses.

That's not bad, but considering the nebulous "science" of warp field dynamics in 'Trek, I could only imagine how that would wreck the parent Akira's warp field and FTL ability.

Mikey wrote:

ChakatBlackstar wrote:You said the Akira was small? The Defiant could fit inbeteen the Akira's nacelles. Now there's a thought. Use the Akira to carry a Defiant around and preform their own varient of the MVAM. Except they are both clearly fully operational ships so they wouldn't suffer some of the Prometheus' weaknesses.

That's not bad, but considering the nebulous "science" of warp field dynamics in 'Trek, I could only imagine how that would wreck the parent Akira's warp field and FTL ability.

I think the warp field is more like a bubble if I remember correctly so it might be possible to keep the Defiant class ship inbetween the nacelles and keep it inside the bubble.

Probably. I just remember hearing things about how certain geometries, etc., affected warp dynamics. Also, there's Roddenberry's rule of being able to draw an unobstructed line between the nacelles.

Mikey wrote:Probably. I just remember hearing things about how certain geometries, etc., affected warp dynamics. Also, there's Roddenberry's rule of being able to draw an unobstructed line between the nacelles.

Which is violated by the Aurora in TOS itself.

http://www.ditl.org/index.php?daymain=/ ... ip.php?209

Are we sure those were wqarp nacelles? (just asking)

Yes it was. RL - it was just a quick mod of an already-extant model ("The Tholian Web.") In-universe... yeah it was a violation. Doesn't mean that the rule wasn't there, though.

Mikey wrote:Yes it was. RL - it was just a quick mod of an already-extant model ("The Tholian Web.") In-universe... yeah it was a violation. Doesn't mean that the rule wasn't there, though.

Oh? I would rather think that it does mean exactly that.

That rule was made after TOS to invalidate the Original Series Technical Manual due to the author having a fallout with Roddenbary.

ChakatBlackstar wrote:That rule was made after TOS to invalidate the Original Series Technical Manual due to the author having a fallout with Roddenbary.

Absolutely correct. GK - my apologies, the rule was perhaps not, in fact, in place at the time of "The Way to Eden." It would be in place, however, for a Defiant-class transport ship.

And this rule is actually secondary to my mai point, which is that most of TNG and later 'Trek placed an emphasis about warp field dynamics, which seem to rely a great deal on geometries and structural designs.

PS:

Oh? I would rather think that it does mean exactly that.

Only if we disallow for the fact that the Aurora was truly a product of budget a/o creativity constraints.

Doing the Fleet Strenght thing, this carrier would bring about 28,500 units to a battle.

I'd say replace the Defiant types with a bunch of fighters. We know that a handful can take down a Galor.