Starfleet Ship Production Capabilities

Starfleet Ship Production Capabilities by Pope Torak

The scale of Starfleet operations requires a staggering amount of infrastructure. 75% of Starfleet's personnel requirements come from operating the vast network of starbases, outposts, fleet yards, and planetary facilities. Despite the staggering requirements, this percentage understates the Starfleet personnel dedicated to support functions. Another 10% of all personnel are employed aboard auxiliary starships serving numerous infrastructure needs ranging from fuel tankers, supply transports, and maintenance tenders to the more specialized operations of the SCE. For every crew member serving on a frontline starship, there are ten others working behind the scenes to make that deployment possible.

Filling Starfleet's vast starship production needs entirely with fleet operated facilities would require an unreasonable number of yard personnel. Starfleet demand for ship building and repair are dynamic rather than fixed, from as low as a few score per year to the thousands required during the Dominion War or after the Borg Invasion of 2381. Starfleet has taken a policy of ordering most of its basic hulls and drive systems from civilian dockyards and fitting ships with sensitive technology at fleet yards, spacedocks or starbase facilities.

Fleet Yard Operations divides starship drydock facilities into five classifications depending on the maximum volume of starships supported in each facility. These range from CLass I facilities capable of building ships of up to 10 million m³ to Class V facilities with a maximum capacity of 250,000 m³. Smaller yards exist within the Federation's outer periphery, but Starfleet itself does not operate or contract smaller yards for its own production. Vessels substantially smaller than 50,000 m³ in Starfleet service are generally mass produced in enclosed planetary or starbase production facilities. Starfleet itself no longer operates dockyards of Class V size and is in the process of transfering its Class IV facilities to civilian control.

Major civilian yards in Federation space include Federation Space Systems, Salazaar Shipyards, Chiokis Starship Construction and Yoyodyne Systems Engineering. Most of these yards are designed for a mix of civilian and Starfleet orders with a heavy emphasis on Class III dockyard facilities of 1.5 million m³. Smaller yards often contain a large number of Class IV or Class V facilities acquired from surplus auctions. A handful of civilian yards have Class II facilities, typically occupied by either Starfleet orders or components for orbital habitat construction.

Starfleet operates a number of large orbital fleet yards, with most of the major production focused in the Sol, Proxima, and Tellar systems. A number of Class III facilities are located outside of major population centers, but logistical requirements of fitting out preclude decentralization of Starfleet yard facilities. The largest Starfleet Yard remains Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in Mars orbit, responsible for construction of Starfleet's largest and most advanced ship classes.

Drydock facilities assemble starship trussed frame components and external stress hulls using a combination of gamma welding and phase-transition bonding. Industrial replicators and fabricators are combined to produce structural components, while the dock enclosures are used to produce microtransporter effects necessary for phase-transition bonding. High mass components constructed of unreplicable materials like warp coils are also installed in this process, along with a temporary bridge module, basic sub-light drive coils, and a single structural integrity field generator.

Once the basic spaceframe is completed the ship is moved to a fitting out facility. These range from integrated facilities like the Class I Dockyards available at Utopia Planitia to pressurized microgravity docking bays at major starbases. A combination of high-fidelity transporters and engineering crews are used to install internal systems modules ranging from habitation units, life support systems, weapons, sensor palettes, and reactors. Fitting out can take anywhere from weeks to several months depending on ship class, payload configuration, and mission requirements..

Minor refits to a starship are conducted in similar facilities. Modular components are removed with industrial transporters or work pods, and specialist teams are called to assist in integrating new technology to the starship. Most fitting out facilities are capable of conducting limited structural repairs such as replacing exterior hull segments.

Major starship repair and refit operations require the use of full scale drydock facilities. Interior sections of a ship undergoing refit are stripped out at a fitting yard before the ship itself is towed to drydock. A combination of micro-scale transporters and work bee mounted gamma welders are used to repair structural frame components and vital systems. Major reconfigurations of external hull and replacement of warp nacelle components are also conducted during such refits. A careful quantum level survey of all ship hull components are also conducted prior to certifying the ship fit for duty.

Starfleet prefers to use their own fleet yard facilities for repairs and refits. The quantum surveys conducted during repairs and refits often reveal additional work requiring specialized expertise. Civilian yard engineers lack the experience needed to repair partially damaged spaceframes or even to spot quantum level damage structural components. As a result, they often underestimate the time and resources required to bring a starship back online. In addition, most civilian dockyards operate on a much tighter schedule for yard occupancy. A delay of as little as a week can disrupt the shipyard's operations and significantly increase the cost to Starfleet.

Starfleet starship manufacturing standards require higher resolution industrial replicators and tight tolerance fabricators than most civilian applications. Once configured for a particular ship type, replicators and fabricators can take a substantial time and resource investment to reconfigure to new designs. Most civilian yard operators will refuse contracts from Starfleet if they require frequent reconfiguration of their facilities. Many smaller operators still use older Starfleet equipment optimized for the production of Miranda or Excelsior class hull components. These yards continue to produce derivatives of older designs with updated technology. Despite the best efforts of Yard Operations Command to phase out production of these designs, the need to keep these yards in business often forces Starfleet to continue production of older hull frames.

Modern Starfleet Fleet Yard replicators and fabricators are designed with substantially greater flexibility. An integrated Class I production facility can switch rapidly between ship types and are therefore used for production of a greater variety of hull configurations and ship designs. For example, yard 37 at Utopia Planitia completed the Sovereign-class USS Gibraltar (NCC-75689) and Defiant-class USS Pactolus (NCC-76722) in 2375 without major retooling.

With the massive damage done to Federation infrastructure during the Borg Invasion of 2381, the Federation Council has requested that Starfleet Fleet Yard Operations assist in the establishing of new civilian yard facilities to support rebuilding efforts. Orders to civilian yards have decreased to free up capacity for civilian demand. Starfleet yards have also donated many of their older fabrication facilities to civilian agencies for reconstruction assistance. The donations aren't entirely driven by altruism, allowing Starfleet to increase its number of better equipped Class I facilities.

Current Starfleet Yards:

Sol System

San Francisco Fleet Yards

Earth Station McKinley

Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

Tranquility Base, Luna

Proxima/Alpha Centauri

Proxima Construction Yards

Kentaurus Fleet Yards

New Montana Experimental Yards

Other

Antares Ship Yards

Beta Antares Fleet yards

Notable Civilian Yard Contractors:

Yoyodyne Systems Engineering

Copernicus Shipyards

40 Eridani A

Federation Space Systems

Qualor II Ship Assembly Yards

Marin County Yard

Salazaar Ship Company

Gavor Ships Systems

Centauri Spaceworks

Chiokis Starship Construction

Phinda Shipyards

Procyon Imperial Fleet Yards

Other Yards

Okona Shipyards

Baikonur Cosmodome

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