In the embers of the dominion war

[Reliant121]

do the feds have any true military facilities?

I don't know... but considering the strategic value of the wormhole, and what five guys with a toolbox were able to do to DS9, I'm fairly certain they could do something pretty amazing with a Starbase.

A Starbase in itself would probably be a much more effective defensive facility than DS9. After all, the Federation hardware can't have integrated with the Cardassian OS particularly well (supposition, admittedly). Even constructed a series of defense platforms similar to the Cardassian ODP's (without the ridiculous power generator flaw) would definitely help defending the wormhole.

[Mark]

Which makes me wonder why they never towed a fully armed and functional Starbase out there to replace the Cardie Station as DS9. The Cardie station being Bajoran could have been put back into Bajor orbit for planetary use.

[Reliant121]

1) The Bajoran's would not like it because it gave them power. Think about it, one of their space stations (admittedly under administration by the UFP) is on what was at the time the most important junction in the alpha quadrant. It's significance is two fold, especially for Bajor: 1) Trade. The amount of trade going through there would certainly have assisted Bajor in developing an economy. 2) Tactical importance. The Bajoran's have control of one of the greatest tactical choke points in the Galaxy. Power, power, power.


And 2) it is possible that Starfleet wanted to save resources for another project. An already existing station means resources are saved, by renovating the station instead of building an entirely new one. However, i dont think that was a great choice.

[Mark]

Both good points....but if a Starbase WERE deployed (even alongside DS9), if the Bajorans decided to boot the Feds from the system, Starfleet would have just pulled the station with them during the withdrawal. And it would have provided an even greater amount of firepower, especially if it was modified for maximum tactical ability.

[Captain Seafort]

How exactly do those who are proposing this move expect Starfleet to drag a multi-million/multi-billion ton object at warp speed?

[Mark]

With tugs I would guess. How else are Starbases deployed?

[Tyyr]

In pieces or built on site would be my guess.

[Captain Seafort]

With tugs I would guess.

The biggest ship we've seen a tug pulling is an Excelsior. Most Starbases dwarf even a GCS.

How else are Starbases deployed?

I don't expect they're "deployed" anywhere - they're probably constructed in situ.

[Sonic Glitch]

With tugs I would guess.

The biggest ship we've seen a tug pulling is an Excelsior. Most Starbases dwarf even a GCS.

Just because we've only seen them tug an Excelsior, doesn't mean they can't tug more. Different types of Tug exist in the modern day yes?

[Tyyr]

Tugging an Excelsior and tugging a star base are about as analogous as pulling a John boat out of the river and thinking you could pull the U.S.S. Ronald Regan out the same way.

Of course that ignores a big point. You'd have to design the starbase to be "tuggable". If it's not you'd just rip out a chunk of the starbase once you latched on the tractor beam.

[Lighthawk]

We've had the Starbase tow debate at least twice that I'm aware of. I think the only concensous we managed to come to is that we don't know enough to say whether it is or is not possible.

[Deepcrush]

Rather then tug, it's just easier to build one on site. Send a fleet, stocked with resources and then leave the supplies and the engineers to do their work. Come back a year later with station crew , extras and you're done.

[Reliant121]

I had always imagined that Starbases were constructed on site. At the very least, I would imagine that some stations are modular; constructed at a factory and then assembled by construction ships on site.

[Mikey]

Towing a starbase just seems... unfeasible.

*EDIT* Thinking about it now, I think it seems fair to say that one tug ain't gonna do the trick. So, you have a group of tugs all remora-ed onto a starbase. Now if there is even a tiny deviation in course from one tug to the other - that is, they all don't remain PERFECTLY parallel - you tear a giant hole in the side of the starbase.

[Deepcrush]

Yeah, I think its safe to say its better to build it on site.