Gearing Up For War

[McAvoy]

I was looking at older topics but really couldn't find anything. So applogize if this has been discussed already.

Anyway, I was thinking about this. We have a general idea that many of Starfleet's ships are multipurpose at least on some degree. So I was thinking that in a time of war especially a large one like the Dominion War, that starships outfitted with exploration in mind would deactivate or remove the equipement so the energy required to run it would go to offensive and defensive systems.

Take for example the Galaxy class. Jack of All Trades ship/Master of Nothing etc. What if for war, this ship deactivated majority of it's peaceful scientific equipment or anything needed for exploration was diverted the energy into systems required for war? The big question would be if the offensive/defensive systems have ability to take additional energy or not. I wonder how much of a Galaxy class's fighting capability would improve.

[Tyyr]

You hit on the big unknown, whether or not the tactical systems can handle increased power. However you missed another detail, would they be running all their science labs and such at full power during combat anyways and is the drain of those systems significant to begin with?

To be honest, in my opinion you're not likely to see all that much extra power as most of those systems are likely off or in severely reduced power mode anyways.

[McAvoy]

That's what I am figuring. That if they do deactivate those systems, the adidtional energy would be minimal.

[Sionnach Glic]

That's a pretty good question. We know that a GCS deployed for long-range exploration has quite a bit of empty space inside her. It's conceivable that in an emergency that space could be filled up with extra shield generators, power cores, torpedoes, and other military tech. Presumably any labs and such would be left on board but in a dormant state, and all non-military personel offloaded as soon as is convenient.

Whether this could also be done for smaller multi-role ships (such as the Intrepid) is unknown, but I'd imagine its doubtful. With larger ships you've a lot of room to play around with - on smaller ships you don't, and I can't imagine any big empty spaces onboard an Intrepid or a similar ship.

We do have direct confirmation that some multi-role ships are intended to be used in combat. The Nebula has a modular weapons pod which can presumably be fixed to the ship in a short amount of time, and it's possible that the Akira was designed as some sort of mass transport vessel before the Dominion War broke out.

We do know that during the Dominion War some ships recieved combat upgrades. The GCS, for example, recieved added armour to its vulnerable neck area and (IIRC) a couple of extra phaser banks to turn the vessel into a battleship. It's possible that other ships recieved similar upgrades as well.

Also, one can assume that ships being built during a time of conflict would be declared "finished" as soon as its combat systems were completed. Science labs and other non-military equipment would probably just be shoved into storage at the construction site to be fitted once the war had ended.

In short, the answer to your question is a titanic shrug, as we've little to nothing to go on. But assuming that Starfleet operates in a competant manner (admittedly, a pretty big assumption given their past performances), then we can assume that they act in a manner similar to how I've described above.

[Lighthawk]

That's what I am figuring. That if they do deactivate those systems, the adidtional energy would be minimal.

I'd agree on that point, can you really compare the energy drain of a science lab to that of phasers and shields? If we go by the stats of the DITL site, phasers and shields are in the terawatt range. To put that in perspective, terawatts are used as the unit of measurement for the total amount of energy being used world wide today.

[Reliant121]

I find it quite likely that phasers have a maximum safe energy rating anyway. In that case, the increased power reserves would purely mean the ship can sustain fire for longer, not that the damage output would be greater.

[Graham Kennedy]

One thing Sternbach suggested back in the day was that the war era GCS builds were launching with minimal comforts. They built the power, weapon and other vital systems into them but left out the holodecks and recreational facilities, most of the crew quarters, diplomatic facilities, science labs, etc. As a result the ships were considerably easier and faster to build.

I often wondered about how they use power on the ships. When it goes into combat does the Enterprise-D really keep powering all the holodecks, science labs, replicators, etc? I'd have thought it would shut them all down and divert the power to the shields and phasers. Surely that's within their capability!

[Aaron]

You would think so, given how often we see them redirect power from random systems to other systems. The ever popular "divert all power, including life support to X.'

[McAvoy]

We have seen on a few occasions where they diverted enough power to shields or weapons past 100% at least temporarily.

The Galaxy class stripped of all her luxuries and labs replaced with systems for war would be very powerful. Though I do imagine there is a limit at least in energy reserves.

Perhaps if they disconnect all those exploding consoles you could free up some energy towards a non-exploding warp core?

[Tsukiyumi]

...free up some energy towards a non-exploding warp core?

Do they make those?


...Well, I don't recall the Defiant's ever just blowing up randomly, at least.

[Graham Kennedy]

Well if you can just transfer power around, then I don't see why getting rid of science labs and holodecks and such does any good at all. The only benefit I can see is that the ship would be lighter, and thus potentially faster and more agile. But it's not like you're ever going to make a GCS a really agile ship, no matter what you do.

[Tyyr]

It's mostly a space thing. Remove all that extraneous equipment and replace it with additional power generation, weaponry, and shielding.

[Atekimogus]

Take for example the Galaxy class. Jack of All Trades ship/Master of Nothing

Jack of all trades maybe, but I always thought that they made it pretty much clear that during TNG they also where the very best they had, so Master of Nothing seems a bit harsh to me.

You hit on the big unknown, whether or not the tactical systems can handle increased power. However you missed another detail, would they be running all their science labs and such at full power during combat anyways and is the drain of those systems significant to begin with?

Now it really has been a while but wasn't that exactly one of the points of the Cardassian two parter Chain of Command with Jellio? I really don't remember the exact conversation but I think it was about Cptn. Jellico wanting Geordi to reroute power relais to directly power phasers to which Geordi responds that science labs XYZ will loose power, to which Jellico responds he doesn't care since he is out kicking Cardassians and not doing science.

So the impression I got was indeed that a relativly huge junk of the ships power goes to sensors and science equipment and why not? We don't really know what exactly they are permanently doing in those science labs but if it is some form of high energy research etc. using high level force fields and containment fields etc. those science labs could really be more of a drain than imagined and also not easily shut down for a few moments for a short red alert (because of said assumed containment fields etc.)

As for the tactical system itself, I don't recall that their phaser ever overheated, but they ran out of power pretty often, so I guess with an assumed life span of the class of 100 years I guess they built those huge phaser arrays with a certain headroom for future power upgrades. Popping in a new warp core every decade or so seems far more easy than removing/upgrading a few thousand emitters.

[Graham Kennedy]

DATA
That is an attainable goal. But
it will require realigning the
warp coil and taking the secondary
distribution grid off-line.

JELLICO
Very good, Data.
(to Geordi)
That's exactly what I want you to
do.

GEORDI
Taking that grid off-line will
shut down the astrophysics lab,
exobiology, geological research --

JELLICO
We're not on a research mission.
Get it done in two days.

[Atekimogus]

I salute your memory or script-database

What would be interesting now is why exactly it takes two days to shut down a secondary distribution network, since turning a switch off seems not very complicated. It really is a shame we never really see what exactly they are doing in those research labs but if they are building small black holes in astrophysics and experimenting on alien viruses in exobiology I could imagine you have large energy consumers which you won't want to shut down without prior warning even during a red alert.