Now - this gives us the following pre-TOS era classes:OF REGISTRY NUMBERS AND BUDGET SHENANIGANS:
By CDRE M.J. Kozlowski, StarFleet (Retired)
From Ad Astra: The Journal of the StarFleet Historical Society
June 2294
Since the 2250s, the registry numbers of two StarFleet ships - Constellation NCC-1017 and Republic NCC-1371 - have caused more confusion, ‘urban legend’, and downright misinformation than just about any subject concerning the First Fourteen. In the following brief article, I hope to clearly explain, once and for all, why these things have sprung up and where the truth actually lies.
The problem goes back to the original founding of the Federation StarFleet (as opposed to the UESPA’s StarFleet) in the 2160s, there was considerable controversy about how many ships StarFleet would actually have once the founding ‘planetary’ fleets were eventually fully integrated. Many of the founding races had serious misgivings about a large, powerful fleet away from their direct control - a reasonable fear for many reasons. With that in mind, the StarFleet Act only authorized less than a hundred vessels total, a perfectly acceptable number for a force that was meant to be primarily scientific in nature. But for reasons less than clear, the original Act specified that ship types would be designated by registry number rather than mission - that is; ships with an NCC-1XX number would be purely scientific, NCC-2XX would be transports, and ships with a combined scientific/defensive mission would be 5XX -10XX. Although this idea made sense with a fairly small fleet, it never took into account the possibility of a major war and fleet expansion - which promptly happened with the Romulans. By the time the Second Romulan War ended StarFleet was now so big, and indeed intended for even further expansion, that the limited registry numbers allowed for by the Act were simply no longer practical or possible - indeed, some early numbers had already been reused, leading to no end of confusion.
With that in mind, StarFleet decided that the numbering system would henceforth start for all future vessels - civilian and StarFleet alike - from the last of the authorized (in 2252) Constitution class, now known as the Flight 1 Constitutions. This would be Potemkin 1711, so henceforth all new StarFleet and civilian construction would be numbered from 1712 onwards. Seemingly simple enough, but our story is just getting started.
StarFleet planners originally submitted a request for FIFTY Flight 1 Constitutions - a number regarded by budget planners as utterly insane, but later shown by history to be barely sufficient for the time. StarFleet was determined by hook or by crook to get as many hulls as possible into space, and had to figure out how - only eleven Flight 1s had been authorized, and even with routine maintenance and upkeep that would only leave five ships available at any one time, and that turned out to be a fairly rare best-case scenario. (Most Starship crews from that era, especially Enterprise, vividly remember the situation of being ‘the only Starship in the quadrant’ when an emergency arose.) A solution - though one that relied on lawmakers and budgeters to be, shall we say, less than informed about the way things worked.
At this point, two earlier vessels - Constellation 1017 and Republic 1371 - had been used as flying testbeds for Constitution systems. Constellation was an Asia class exploration cruiser (CE) and Republic had actually been commissioned as the test bed for the Valley Forge class CAs, but was not in the approved Valley Forge registry numbers. Both ships were in excellent physical condition, but were for all intents and purposes obsolete by the 2240s. However, they had been highly adaptable as testbeds, and had given no problems whatsoever in service. With this in mind, StarFleet planners brought a request to the Federation Council known as the StarFleet Development Upgrade Act of 2256. This requested further ‘test upgrades’ to Constellation and Republic in order to continually develop systems for the Constitutions as a whole. A reasonable enough request, and the Council approved it.
What the Council didn’t quite appreciate was the extent to which the upgrades would go - in fact, as one writer put it, “StarFleet jacked up the nameplates and slid a new ship under them.” Both ships were sent to Utopia Plantitia (conveniently far from possbly curious Council eyes) and essentially stripped down to their primary structural components - primary hull frame, pylon frame, strongback, keel, and secondary hull frames - and rebuilt as Constitutions. This resulted in two ships that externally looked identical to the other Flight 1 ships, but internally were a warren of oddly positioned decks, corridors, and equipment.
Asia class CE (Exploration Cruiser)
Valley Forge class CA - this may be considered kind of a proto-Constitution, only a handful built as the tech was progressing so rapidly that they were behind the curve when they were commissioned.
And at this point I'd also like to officially make canon the Texas NCC-900 class CAs (the current day Old CL). There were one hundred of these built, starting towards the end of the First Romulan War. They were the backbone of StarFleet for nearly a century until the Connies were developed, and they are still remarkable ships. Only fifty were converted to warp power, and several of these are still in service, but only one - Patton NCC-946 - is still in service as a line vessel, though more out of respect for the class' service than any current utility. (NOTE FROM MJK: keep that in mind; there may be a test later.
) There are several of the warp conversions in reserve, along with a handful of the original sub-light variants as well.
The warp conversions have been refitted as:
Exploration Cruisers
Commando Cruisers
Hospital Ships
Mine Warfare Cruisers
Escort Cruisers
The conversions retained their original NCC numbers.
It should be kept in mind that the Old CLs have two things that not even the Connies have: physical armor and a planetary landing capability..
EDIT: Prairie NCC-972 was expended during the Brain Box tests. The Exploration, Commando, Hospital and Escort conversions were renamed, superstition notwithstanding.
Mike
