Keldon-class, why didn't the Cardassian Union make more?

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

I mean, they were the first Cardie ships to be really classified as heavy cruisers. Why did they stick with the weaker Galor-class, instead of switching into full scale Keldon production?

[Bryan Moore]

Short-term memory issues amongst the writers, I'm guessing!

[Mikey]

I'd guess it was a resource a/o speed of build issue. Whatever additions were included with that little backpack, they surely cost more or took longer to make than a standard Galor-class.

[Mark]

I'm guessing it's easier to make several Galor class than one Keldon class. Like building three Nebula class ships for every one Galaxy class.

[Deepcrush]

Keldons are upgraded Galors. So its not that they weren't making more. More like they were losing them faster then they could be replaced.

[Reliant121]

It was likely more resource effective to have two Galors, and therefore a greater amount of flexibility, instead of one Keldon. The Keldon was merely a Galor with a large section of hull and a computer/sensor/weapons upgrade IIRC. It probably costs too much to be of great use.

[Sionnach Glic]

It all depends on how much the Keldon costs to construct.

[Captain Seafort]

It's possible that there's no such thing as a Keldon class ship per se, and they're simply refitted Galors. As part of the preparation for specific missions (like the TS/OO strike against the Founders) the extra firepower makes the cost of the refit worthwhile, whereas for a prolonged war it's too expensive and/or time consuming.

[Sionnach Glic]

Fair point.

[Teaos]

I'd guess they choose numbers over power.

[KuvahMagh]

I'd guess they choose numbers over power.

They seem to like the wolf-pack mentality though in this case its kind of a chicken or egg thing, do their tactics dictate their builds or do their builds dictate their tactics.

[Captain Seafort]

They seem to like the wolf-pack mentality though in this case its kind of a chicken or egg thing, do their tactics dictate their builds or do their builds dictate their tactics.

Probably a bit of both - their weak technology compared to the rest of the quadrant forced them to rely on quantity over quality, so rather than building the most powerful ships they could, they concentrated on the most powerful ships they could build in large numbers.

[Sionnach Glic]

Sounds about right.

[KuvahMagh]

Probably a bit of both - their weak technology compared to the rest of the quadrant forced them to rely on quantity over quality, so rather than building the most powerful ships they could, they concentrated on the most powerful ships they could build in large numbers.

Thats pretty much what I was thinking. Its unfortunate that we didn't see at least a few of the Keldons throughout the War, at least during the early stages. Weyoun is obviously a bad source but in the early days of the Dominion's presence he spoke about helping them to rebuild. This could have easily included a few Keldons to help them fill out their Fleet with Heavy Ships.

[Deepcrush]

Upgrades have a price tag... I agree with the Galors = numbers idea. The CU knew how to produce Galors in MASSIVE numbers. Safe bet was that the CU would rather build what they were good at vs something costly and new. Besides, the only battle they were in was a total fail for the CU.