2.36 Starfleet

The Federation Starfleet is an extraordinary organization dedicated to exploration, diplomacy, research, and defense. Although its mission includes military elements vital to the Federation’s survival, Starfleet does not primarily consider itself a military organization in the 20th Century sense of the term. Think of a cross between the US Coast Guard, NASA, and Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso.

In the wake of the devastating battle with the Borg at Wolf 359 (seen in The Next Generation episode “Best of Both Worlds Part II”), Starfleet embarked upon a major effort to rebuild the lost fleet. A significant aspect of the new ships were a new class of mid-sized vessels, of which Voyager is one. Most of these new ships were relatively small when compared to the previously-seen Galaxy class Enterprise. It is important that despite its smaller size, the new Voyager be seen as the latest in technological development.

Ship Nomenclature: “Starship” is the generic term used by Starfleet for most of its interstellar spacecraft. We recognize several different categories of starships.

Starship Class Nomenclature: Starfleet uses the old naval custom of naming a class of starship after the first ship built of that type. For example, Voyager is an Intrepid class Starship, presumably named after the USS Intrepid, which would have been the first starship of that type built. The USS Stargazer, (Picard’s former ship) was a Constellation class starship, while the original Enterprise (commanded by Captain Kirk), was a Constitution class vessel. Other starship classes include the Nebula class (one of the newest ship types, this was first seen as the USS Phoenix in “The Wounded”), the Ambassador class (first seen as the old Enterprise-C in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”), the Excelsior class (first seen as the Excelsior in Star Trek III), the Oberth class (the science ship Grissom), and the Miranda class (first seen as the Reliant in Star Trek II).

Ship Registry Numbers: Starfleet ships are identified by a registry number, such as Voyager’s NCC-74656. Most current Starfleet vessels have five-digit registry numbers, such as the USS Yamato, which was NCC-71807, or the USS Hood, NCC-42296. The latest Starfleet ships now have registry numbers in the 74000 range. Most Starfleet operational vessels have the characteristic “NCC” prefix, although some experimental ships have an “NX” designation. Additionally, we assume that various non-Starfleet vessels under Federation jurisdiction will have other prefixes (such as NAR-18834). Note: the Enterprise was a special case in that Starfleet choose to honor the original Enterprise by continuing to keep its number in service, simply adding a new letter suffix to each new ship bearing the name. The Enterprise is probably the only Starfleet vessel with a letter suffix in its registry number.