[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

Yeah. Although there is a limit to how fast production can be increased depending on the available infrastructure. During WWII, production in the US went nuts because all of the factories already existed. Without the infrastructure in existence it's not even an option.

That's like the US Air Force saying that the Northrop Grumman and EADS can turn out tons of tankers here in the US compared to Boeing when the property to build the factory hasn't even been purchased yet, much less machinery purchased and people trained. Not to mention that the air fields and hangars have to be renovated in order support the EADS designed tanker. It's the whole carriage before the horse thing.

Another example would be the naval arms race leading to WWI. When Britain started building their new super large dreadnoughts, the Germans tried to do the same, but it caused a ton of delays in their ship building program because ship yards had to stop construction to in order to be redesigned and configured for production of larger ships. The canals in Germany had to be dredged and widened in order to permit the new ships to get out to sea.

Hmm some great refences!!

So how do you think it might have went down?

[Akula2ssn]

Well I think that by the time of the Earth Romulan war, there were probably about six or so NX Class ships (perhaps even less if the war started sooner like soon after the events in the ENT episode, "United"). I don't think that the number of ships in Starfleet was particularly large. This is mostly because of a great deal of speculation that the Federation came about as a result of a multi-species alliance during the war, and that the motions to form the Federation took place fairly soon after the war. Furthermore, considering that Earth was still very new to the interstellar community and how much the Vulcans held the back and continued to until the whole Administrator V'Las ordeal, I doubt that Earth had sufficient infrastructure to really mass produce starships in numbers like in TOS and following eras. Now if we throw in what we see from the ENT series, chances are that Starfleet made up about 25% or less of the total allied fleet involved in the Earth Romulan war.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

Well I think that by the time of the Earth Romulan war, there were probably about six or so NX Class ships (perhaps even less if the war started sooner like soon after the events in the ENT episode, "United"). I don't think that the number of ships in Starfleet was particularly large. This is mostly because of a great deal of speculation that the Federation came about as a result of a multi-species alliance during the war, and that the motions to form the Federation took place fairly soon after the war. Furthermore, considering that Earth was still very new to the interstellar community and how much the Vulcans held the back and continued to until the whole Administrator V'Las ordeal, I doubt that Earth had sufficient infrastructure to really mass produce starships in numbers like in TOS and following eras. Now if we throw in what we see from the ENT series, chances are that Starfleet made up about 25% or less of the total allied fleet involved in the Earth Romulan war.

Some more great ideas!

I can see an armada of Starfleet, Vulcan, Andorian vessels!! Cool idea!

[Damage75]

The analogy to WWII war production is one I considered as well. But where are all of the extra workers coming from?

For example, during WWII women left the home to hit the production lines left vacant by their husband soldiers. In the future, where does these extra workers come from? Women are much a part of the battle as the men.

I also can't see Earth being able to pump out 20 NX class ships in that short of a timeframe. The idea that other members of the Federation (Andorians, Vulcans, etc.) are included is a good theory. That would definitely give Earth more manpower.

But then why is it called the Earth-Romulan Wars? Shouldn't it be called the Earth-Vulcan-Andoria-Whatever Other Species-Romulan War?

I can't wait for the promised ENT books that come out next year that cover the Earth-Romulan War....we'll get alot of answers then!

[Akula2ssn]

Yeah, that's why I'm more of a proponent of around 6 NX class ships. Mass production I think is very possible. The work force probably isn't the problem, but rather the manpower to operate the ships is the real problem. Chances are, only a small percentage of the human race is even qualified for the space service in the first place.

Remember in TOS, Spock mentions in his ship-wide briefing that there were allies present in the Earth Romulan conflict. The Federation hadn't been established back then. Earth Andoria and Vulcan were still separate sovereign governments. The name Earth-Romulan conflict probably is an indicator that the that the prime players were Earth and Romulus, the ones that the conflict revolved around. Chances are pretty good that it was an Earth officer that was granted supreme authority of the Coalition forces. The war likely started out as a direct conflict between Earth and Romulus before spilling over to include the other races. I suspect this is highly likely if the Romulans did indeed view Earth as the primary threat for beginning to unite the other races back in the first Babel conference. Having failed several times in the covert approach, they probably opted for the more direct approach.

[Commodore]

The NX-class may have been considered an advanced prototype design using the latest in cutting edge Earth technology. But during the Romulan Wars, Starfleet may have had to rely on a smaller, less fancy design that could be mass-produced very quickly (like in weeks or even days) and in very large numbers (by the hundreds).

The proposed Daedalus-class might have fit that bill as a "grunt" starship, with NX-class ships serving as command vessels...

[Akula2ssn]

I think that's almost a certainty. First rate ships almost always exist in smaller numbers. Whether you're talking about battleships, battle cruisers, carriers, etc they require more time and resources to build and operate. It's rare for any class of first rate ship of the line to exist in numbers greater than half a dozen.

Of course, whether or not the Daedalus class fits the bill as a grunt ship like a destroyer, is probably open to debate.

[TM2-Megatron]

Well, the Mirror Universe had at least 9 by Season 4; probably more.

[Saquist]

Originally Posted by Zardoz

LOL...ok....

Indeed...If I had to guess Five were made...
Enterprise
Columbia
Challenger
Atlantis
Endeavor.

[Akula2ssn]

Originally Posted by TM2-Megatron

Well, the Mirror Universe had at least 9 by Season 4; probably more.

The thing is that even though we call it a mirror universe, it really isn't a complete 1 to 1 mirror. Not every event is mirrored by each universe, so I don't think we can really judge how many ships were built in the normal universe by what we see in the mirror. Considering the conflict that had taken place in the mirror universe and the nature of Earth and its relationship with the other races, the need for a much more extensive ship building program early on was certainly there, while in the case of the normal universe, things seemed to have taken place at a much slower pace.

In fact it can probably be argued that what separates the NX program in the normal universe from that of the mirror universe is that in the mirror, the NX program probably progressed at a much faster pace without much (if any) interference from the Vulcans.