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The ships won't be stopped completely. They'll be stopped relative to one another. IE, both ships can be traveling at warp 7, but compared to each other they'll be stopped.

And that's how you can refuel ships on the fly. Hook them up to some sort of universal hose system, pump in what can be pumped in, beam over (or shuttle over) what needs to be beamed over.

Have two or three such tenders accompanying the fleet, with one back at base ressuplying while the other hangs out with the fleet, and you've got an almost constant source of fuel and spare parts for any fleet on the front lines.

And, of course, the only other alternative would be to remove warships from the frontline and send them back to ressuply stations elsewhere.

Rochey wrote:And that's how you can refuel ships on the fly. Hook them up to some sort of universal hose system, pump in what can be pumped in, beam over (or shuttle over) what needs to be beamed over.

Hmmm... might just be possible, since we can do that right now with jets in flight...

Rochey wrote:And, of course, the only other alternative would be to remove warships from the frontline and send them back to ressuply stations elsewhere.

Which, as I mentioned, is no alternative at all during wartime.

How big would these tenders be? For fleet in the hundreds, those tenders would be running back and form at refueling stations constantly. Even if you make one the size of a Galaxy and mostly made up of fuel, you would be only be able to fuel perhaps a few dozen ships before you start to run low. That and they're downright huge ships, and great targets.

However, it is the lesser of two evils. I would far rather do that than have to send half my fleet back to a nearby base when it needs it.

How often they need to be refueled is another issue. We know the Defiant is short ranged. We know the Galaxy can do a 20 year war without refueling, presumably the Nebula as well. Probably all of the bigger classes would take years to run out of fuel. So, perhaps refueling a ship isn't really a issue except for the smaller ships.

Which is why the smaller ships can just feed off of the GCS and Nebula.

Deepcrush wrote:Which is why the smaller ships can just feed off of the GCS and Nebula.

So remains the question I asked a while ago, are the Galaxys equipped to do that? Does the TNG TM say anything about it?

We've seen ships resupply off of each other. By shuttle or transporter or just bring a hose...

McAvoy wrote:How often they need to be refueled is another issue. We know the Defiant is short ranged.

No, we assume the Defiant is short-ranged. It's a reasonable assumption, but we have to be careful not to forget that it's an assumption, not canon.

We know the Galaxy can do a 20 year war without refueling, presumably the Nebula as well. Probably all of the bigger classes would take years to run out of fuel.

What? Where did you get that idea from?

What would need to be transferred between ships for refuelling - other then antimatter? Did we ever get a concencus on wether or not Torpedoes could be replicated?

Also. would it be possible to physically attacth a Defiant to a Galaxy class and have the Warp Field of the Galaxy Class ship encompass both ships? I seem to remember a Warp Field being extended, but I couldn't say in what episode.

In The Wounded, Picard threatens to tow the Phoenix back to dock (IMO, he should have relieved the entire command crew and sent a crew from the Enterprise to bring the Phoenix back, but thats by the by). This suggests to me that tractoring at warp is possible - would that be a safer method or keeping 2 ships stationary relative to each other, or would simply matching Warp Speed be better.

Again, I can't remember the episode, but I'm sure we've seen energy being trasferred by beam between two ships in TNG. Granted, transferring Anti Matter is a different matter indeed.

kostmayer wrote: Also. would it be possible to physically attacth a Defiant to a Galaxy class and have the Warp Field of the Galaxy Class ship encompass both ships? I seem to remember a Warp Field being extended, but I couldn't say in what episode.

They did it in the episode where Q was turned mortal as punishment (can't remember the name) and they were trying to stop a moon falling on the planet. They extended a warp field through the moon to reduce it's mass.

Lighthawk wrote:

kostmayer wrote: Also. would it be possible to physically attacth a Defiant to a Galaxy class and have the Warp Field of the Galaxy Class ship encompass both ships? I seem to remember a Warp Field being extended, but I couldn't say in what episode.

They did it in the episode where Q was turned mortal as punishment (can't remember the name) and they were trying to stop a moon falling on the planet. They extended a warp field through the moon to reduce it's mass.

No idea, though, if that would allow actual propulsion.

kostmayer wrote:Again, I can't remember the episode, but I'm sure we've seen energy being trasferred by beam between two ships in TNG.

The one with the alien babies living in the core of the Romulan ship. That was more like a jump-start, though; I don't think it would apply to actually increasing reserves.

Captain Seafort wrote:

McAvoy wrote:How often they need to be refueled is another issue. We know the Defiant is short ranged.

No, we assume the Defiant is short-ranged. It's a reasonable assumption, but we have to be careful not to forget that it's an assumption, not canon.

We know the Galaxy can do a 20 year war without refueling, presumably the Nebula as well. Probably all of the bigger classes would take years to run out of fuel.

What? Where did you get that idea from?

My mistake we assume the Defiant is short ranged.

I actually pulled that twenty years out of thin air. It's actually 7 years at Warp 6 according to TNG TM. Naturally, much less if they go higher in speed. Normal dueterium load is 62,500 m^3 BTW. So, The Galaxy class will go through at Warp 6 ~24.5 cubic meters of dueterium a day, or slightly more than a cubic meter an hour based on the 7 year figure.

Also, the technical manual also states that "a full load of deuterium is rated to last approximately three years." Page 69. Which probably means normal usage, of going faster than Warp 6 on average.

There are also thirty antimatter storage pods but no figures on much is used or how long that lasts. I assume though, it probably will last probably as long as the deuterium if not less.

Mikey wrote:No idea, though, if that would allow actual propulsion.

True, but it shows that you could at least do that much, so the idea can't be shot down outright.

McAvoy wrote:

Captain Seafort wrote:

McAvoy wrote:How often they need to be refueled is another issue. We know the Defiant is short ranged.

No, we assume the Defiant is short-ranged. It's a reasonable assumption, but we have to be careful not to forget that it's an assumption, not canon.

We know the Galaxy can do a 20 year war without refueling, presumably the Nebula as well. Probably all of the bigger classes would take years to run out of fuel.

What? Where did you get that idea from?

My mistake we assume the Defiant is short ranged.

I actually pulled that twenty years out of thin air. It's actually 7 years at Warp 6 according to TNG TM. Naturally, much less if they go higher in speed. Normal dueterium load is 62,500 m^3 BTW. So, The Galaxy class will go through at Warp 6 ~24.5 cubic meters of dueterium a day, or slightly more than a cubic meter an hour based on the 7 year figure.

Also, the technical manual also states that "a full load of deuterium is rated to last approximately three years." Page 69. Which probably means normal usage, of going faster than Warp 6 on average.

There are also thirty antimatter storage pods but no figures on much is used or how long that lasts. I assume though, it probably will last probably as long as the deuterium if not less.

Bear in mind that the Technical manuals are not canon material.