The Future of the Romulan Empire

[Mikey]

I can easily see the same with Starships; we often hear of ships in duress suffering structural integrity problems, even with SIF fields helping out. The wear and tear must add up over decades.

That is true but maybe such things as microscopic fissures, fatigue of material etc. isn't such a big deal for a culture manipulating objects on a molecular level on a regular basis. Now I have no idea about the welding techniques they use but I always imagined that they just fuse two objects (hull plating for example) seamless together either via replicator, transporterbeam...whatever and the same could probably used to deal with fissures in the structure.

Hmmm... I see your point, but even elemental materials, that haven't undergone any processing, will degrade under stress.

[McAvoy]

I can easily see the same with Starships; we often hear of ships in duress suffering structural integrity problems, even with SIF fields helping out. The wear and tear must add up over decades.

That is true but maybe such things as microscopic fissures, fatigue of material etc. isn't such a big deal for a culture manipulating objects on a molecular level on a regular basis. Now I have no idea about the welding techniques they use but I always imagined that they just fuse two objects (hull plating for example) seamless together either via replicator, transporterbeam...whatever and the same could probably used to deal with fissures in the structure.

I always thought that the much older vessels for example the older Excelsiors or Mirandas would have undergone their repsective SLEP (Service Life Extension Program) which may have fixed any lingering structural weaknesses. Not all of them of course. I also think that any structural weakness that cannot be fixed but still doesn't warrent a decom, can be enhanced by the SIF. Additional power can be diverted somewhere else or even with newer technology.

Just my two cents.

[Deepcrush]

But to what point is it better to just stop upgrading the ship and build a new one... thats the question for the New Starfleet. They've got a fleet of older ships, some of which can be heavily upgraded and some of which can't. They also have a whole new market of newer and more powerful designs.

[McAvoy]

Who knows. Probably why they still have older designs flying around in space. It's not that unheard of to hang onto a ship well beyond it's service life. Best example is the Enterprise herself (CVN-65). There is a reason why she is nicknamed Ghettoprise.

[Deepcrush]

Who knows. Probably why they still have older designs flying around in space. It's not that unheard of to hang onto a ship well beyond it's service life. Best example is the Enterprise herself (CVN-65). There is a reason why she is nicknamed Ghettoprise.

She also carries more aircraft then any other carrier.

Beyond that, yes. You would want to keep the older ships out as long as possible until their replacements can be built or until they just can't serve anymore.

[Reliant121]

this is just a personal thing, but I'd rather use the raw materials required for upgrading, say an Excelsior to NEM level technology to partly build a new ship. I'd far rather have a Prometheus and a Excelsior, over an upgraded Excelsior.

[Mikey]

Indeed. But I think McAvoy's point is that there's no reason not to keep an Excelsior (for example) serviceable while you're waiting for a run of newer models.

[Reliant121]

To a point. There's going to be a point in time where the Excelsior class is just so old, fragile and dilapidated that it's preservation is pointless, purely for the fact that the inferior technology will make it a cakewalk for any of the other powers.

[Deepcrush]

With the Lakota upgrades we've seen. The Excelsior can last for some time. Though, IMO, as little more then a patrol ships and training vessels.

[McAvoy]

I agree. But for some reason if we go by registry, Excelsiors were being built well into the mid 24th century. Hell the 42xxx ones, could be newer than the Ambassador class. But that is of course if the registries are going in chronological order. So the Lakota could be only 30 or 40 years old.

[Reliant121]

But at what cost? The Upgrade to the Lakota itself must have been pretty costly. Whats better? A Lakota, or a Defiant + an Excelsior?

[Deepcrush]

But at what cost? The Upgrade to the Lakota itself must have been pretty costly. Whats better? A Lakota, or a Defiant + an Excelsior?

Or better yet, a Defiant with an Excelsior with whatever upgrades they can manage on the run. If they don't have to put into Spacedock then you get both ships.

[Reliant121]

Upgrading an Excelsior on the go, fine. But I seriously doubt you could do anything more than a few software upgrades, and a few basic hull changes, but anything that changes weapons or the structure, I imagine, would require a spacedock.

[Captain Seafort]

Here we go again...

They might be able modify their existing weapons by swapping out a few minor components on the fly but ripping out all their weapons, phasers and torp launchers, along with all the associated power distributions systems, and replacing them would require a starbase, if not a full shipyard.

[Deepcrush]

If you can do it on the run then you might as well. However, I wouldn't waste the space in the fleet yards. I'd rather be turning out Defiants, Sovs and Akiras then wasting room repairing old work horse ships.