Which ship could become the backbone of the Modern Starfleet

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

?

With the Miranda's, Excelsior's, etc. reaching the end of their service lives, what ship in the Federation Starfleet could become the new backbone? Nebula-class? Ambassador-class? Galaxy-class? Akira-class? Steamrunner-class? Norway-class? Defiant-class?

[Teaos]

Modern starlfeet has diversified a lot more than they used to. But due to its nature the Nebula would be the most prolific followed by the Akira, they both can handle a wide range of jobs.

[Lazar]

Probably the Nebula, because of its numbers and its robust multi-mission profile.

[Aaron]

Modern starlfeet has diversified a lot more than they used to. But due to its nature the Nebula would be the most prolific followed by the Akira, they both can handle a wide range of jobs.

I can understand the Nebula but we literally know nothing about the Akira other then it has a lot of torpedo tubes.

[Teaos]

And a supposedly big hanger.

[Lazar]

Not only a torpedo wank, but a shuttle wank to boot.

[Bryan Moore]

My vote is Nebula, though with everything that went on in the Destiny books, I'd think it'll be a whole new class of something to be built.

[Lt. Staplic]

I'm going to say the Intrepid... it's a small well armed fast vessel, I see it being produced in large numbers along with the Nebula

[Deepcrush]

I agree with the Nebula class. There really isn't anything the Nebula can't do to some degree.

[JudgeKing]

The Nebula, Luna, and Intrepid class ships would probably be the backbone of the modern starfleet. The Nebula because of its extensive versatility. The Luna because of its extreme speeds, and the Intrepid because can easily be mass produced.

[Teaos]

I imagin the Nova will be the mist prolific, small, cheap and can do all the trash missions you cant waste a Nebula on.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'd say the Nebula class, for reasons already pointed out.

[Captain Seafort]

I can see the Nova becoming the new Oberth, but that hardly makes it the "backbone" of a fleet. Given Starfleet's obsession with jack of all trades ships, the best bet would be the Nebula, as others have said - it's a powerful warship, but still has good scientific capabilities. If they decide to go for a more combat-orientated design, it would probably be the Akira as the most prolific of the FC designs.

[Schrodinger's Hat]

I've gotta say, I don't think the modern Starfleet is going to have a backbone in the way it has in the past. Not for the next few decades, at least. Over the years, the traditional approach for Starfleet shipbuilding has been to construct large multirole vessels like the Constitution-, Excelsior-, and Galaxy-classes. These ships have formed the core of the fleet while the backbone, the real workhorses have been smaller versions built along the same lines. Lately, though, starting with the Defiant-class and continuing through the Intrepid- and Nova-classes, we've seen a push toward a larger number of smaller specialist ships.

The Defiant's specialty is obvious. Sisko says it himself in her first appearance: she's a warship in everything but name. Intrepid can hold her own in a fight, but it's not what she was built for, not by a long shot, and Nova's an Oberth on crack. Certainly the old multirole ethic remains a force in Starfleet ship design, but mostly the newer vessels seem to be targeted at specific jobs with everything else being an afterthought almost. I think we'll see ships like the Defiant-class taking the lead in perimeter defense. Intrepid-class ships will probably be at the forefront of the exploration effort with Nova-class vessels making follow-up visits to do the real, in-depth research on the Intrepid's more fascinating discoveries. I think that the workhorse roles that traditionally went to ships like the Miranda- and Excelsior-classes are going to be broken up across the specialty ships now entering service.

That said, I like the Nebula-class as a concept. The idea of the modular equipment pod is something that fascinates me. At the same time, though, she's still a very large ship and a large investment in resources to build and operate. For that matter, the pod represents a very small portion of her volume. I think it'd be interesting to take this concept even further. Perhaps a ship built along the lines of the Prometheus-class might be an interesting experiment. Unlike Prometheus, though, the idea wouldn't be that she'd split up in combat. Rather, I'm thinking a ship whose core, permanent components are the powertrain - warp drive, impulse drive, and fuel - stuff like crew quarters, recreational and medical facilities, and a bridge and that's it. Everything else comes in the form of quickly and easily removable sections. You fly her into spacedock, separate the mission-specific facilities, attach new ones, and fly out with a completely different ship ready for a completely different mission. One moment, she's a warship. The next she's a science vessel. Maybe after that she becomes a medical ship.

[Graham Kennedy]

I rather like the modular concept for the future Galaxy replacement in the TNG TM. An engineering hull and then almost the entire saucer comprising ten modular pie-slices which can be swapped out as needed. I imagine each slice would have basic accommodation and support facilities along with considerable "mission space" which could comprise all sorts of things. Adding different slices would allow you to vary the optimisation of the ship considerably. It's way more flexible than the Nebula concept.