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I had an idea one time ..... what if Starfleet had managed to obtain the use of a Cardassian vessel instead of a space station? Maybe a Galor class vessel modified with Starfleet technology to become a Federation starship, albeit of a Cardassian shaped vessel, in an effort to gain knowledge of Cardassian technology and maintain the Cardassians' advantage of having a highly maneuverable starship.

For all you know they have all the knowledge they need for a Galor. They did fight a war with them so they,could have salvaged wrecks or capture one.

Also it seems like Starfleet sensors are powerful and detailed enough to scan enough of the ship to figure it out.

In any time did DS9 ever show that the station was too advanced for Starfleet but just compatiblility issues?

Also it is one ship out of thousands. A ship with their own analogue.

McAvoy wrote:For all you know they have all the knowledge they need for a Galor. They did fight a war with them so they,could have salvaged wrecks or capture one.

Also it seems like Starfleet sensors are powerful and detailed enough to scan enough of the ship to figure it out.

In any time did DS9 ever show that the station was too advanced for Starfleet but just compatiblility issues?

Also it is one ship out of thousands. A ship with their own analogue.

True.

Except for a prohibitively specific and extraordinarily short-term assignment, I can't for my life figure out a decent or even plausible reason for Starfleet to operate a Galor.

In WW2 the Allies had basically every Axis vehicle, tank, plane etc (save maybe the Me 262). And the Axis the same. They were never operated against their original builders (save for maybe some spy type missions). THe Germans didn't field a group of Shermans, the Americans never fielded a group of Tigers. Etc.

However...

Had either side captured an intact aircraft carrier or battleship... I could see that being a different story.

Frankly, I see the Galor as more of a Tiger tank than a battleship. The Galor was about 1/3 the strength of a Galaxy. It is basically the same as a classic/regular Excelsior. It should fall to an Intrepid or a Steamrunner. In the end, they really are not all that impressive as a main ship. The only reason for any level of success in their numbers. (much like the Sherman I supposed)

I just do not see a reason that the Federation would retrofit a Galor for real use. It would just seem like a lot of trouble for little reward.

Something like a Dominion battleship or dreadnaught on the other hand...

Even a Dominion battleship or battle cruiser I cannot see them fielding in a battle or a war unless it was really going bad for them.

In fleet actions where ships are numbered in the dozens or hundreds, even a extremely powerful ship won't make that much of a difference. Unless it is a Borger Cube that Starlet managed to figure out to get its max potential put of, then that is a different story.

A Gator would be a ship that is just tucked away in some station where tests is performed on it. In fact probably the best thing a Gator can be is scrap or parts for DS9

Jim wrote:In WW2 the Allies had basically every Axis vehicle, tank, plane etc (save maybe the Me 262). And the Axis the same. They were never operated against their original builders (save for maybe some spy type missions). THe Germans didn't field a group of Shermans, the Americans never fielded a group of Tigers. Etc.

The Germans did, however, field huge numbers of captured Czech and French tanks. They were mostly in secondary roles, as gun tractors and the like, but the Czech-origin PzKpfw 38(t) was used as a front-line vehicle up to Barbarossa.

Had either side captured an intact aircraft carrier or battleship... I could see that being a different story.

Waste of time. Any captured warship would need to be repaired before it was useful, and for something the size of a carrier that would be unachievable due to the completely different design - all the spare parts would have to be custom-manufactured, which would be a massive drain on the supply of parts being produced for the existing fleet.

Frankly, I see the Galor as more of a Tiger tank than a battleship.

I'd put them in the upper end of the destroyer bracket. They're effective and powerful ships, even if they can't cope with the Federation's capital ships one-on-one.

I just do not see a reason that the Federation would retrofit a Galor for real use. It would just seem like a lot of trouble for little reward.

Agreed. They might send a captured one out on a few patrols to see how she handles under normal (rather than trial) conditions, but no more than that.

Captain Seafort wrote:

Jim wrote:In WW2 the Allies had basically every Axis vehicle, tank, plane etc (save maybe the Me 262). And the Axis the same. They were never operated against their original builders (save for maybe some spy type missions). THe Germans didn't field a group of Shermans, the Americans never fielded a group of Tigers. Etc.

The Germans did, however, field huge numbers of captured Czech and French tanks. They were mostly in secondary roles, as gun tractors and the like, but the Czech-origin PzKpfw 38(t) was used as a front-line vehicle up to Barbarossa.

Had either side captured an intact aircraft carrier or battleship... I could see that being a different story.

Waste of time. Any captured warship would need to be repaired before it was useful, and for something the size of a carrier that would be unachievable due to the completely different design - all the spare parts would have to be custom-manufactured, which would be a massive drain on the supply of parts being produced for the existing fleet.

Frankly, I see the Galor as more of a Tiger tank than a battleship.

I'd put them in the upper end of the destroyer bracket. They're effective and powerful ships, even if they can't cope with the Federation's capital ships one-on-one.

I just do not see a reason that the Federation would retrofit a Galor for real use. It would just seem like a lot of trouble for little reward.

Agreed. They might send a captured one out on a few patrols to see how she handles under normal (rather than trial) conditions, but no more than that.

So even if they were to capture a Galor .... ?

If they were to capture an intact Galor, chances are that they'd do what any rational power would do - hand it over to R&D, find out any secrets it might harbor, and reverse-engineer any bits of tech that may happen to differ from UFP technology. Not refuel it, crew it, and ship it out as a D-E.

They might send it out on a few missions in the same way the RN commissioned HMS Graph.

Captain Seafort wrote:They might send it out on a few missions in the same way the RN commissioned HMS Graph.

I can't say as I see any need for such. Perhaps to "shake it down" as it were, to see the real-world capabilities and tendencies of such a craft, but I honestly don't see the point of using it as an actual group element.

About the only mission I'd see for such an aquisition is a "sneak behind the lines" type of affair. They might be able to penetrate defences and attack some strategic target before anybody realised what they were up to.

Beyond that, yeah, it's a "feed it to the R&D boys" deal.

Mikey wrote:

Captain Seafort wrote:They might send it out on a few missions in the same way the RN commissioned HMS Graph.

I can't say as I see any need for such. Perhaps to "shake it down" as it were, to see the real-world capabilities and tendencies of such a craft, but I honestly don't see the point of using it as an actual group element.

That was the point - a combination of showing off the newly-acquired toy for propaganda purposes and seeing how the boat behaved in realistic conditions, especially things like what performance was like at the end of a long period at sea.

In Enterprise they used one of those Suliban cell ships, but those are more like shuttles in size.

I wonder what happened to the Bird of Prey at the end of Voyage Home. I would think they could get it out of the SF Bay rather easily.

Jim wrote:In Enterprise they used one of those Suliban cell ships, but those are more like shuttles in size.

I wonder what happened to the Bird of Prey at the end of Voyage Home. I would think they could get it out of the SF Bay rather easily.

They definitely salvaged it. Studied it more throughly and either threw it in some mothballs fleet, scrapped it or gave it back to the Klingons for their recipe for Tribble soup.