18 Galaxy Class Starships: Part One
How many Galaxy Class Starships did Starfleet and the Federation build?
The question of how many Galaxy Class Starships seems to be on that has perplexed the Star Trek Fan community for sometime, with many arguing its highly complex, or is it?
I set out in the past year to analyse every data point, on screen event and original documentary evidence to find how to best answer this question and avoid the many pitfalls that have occurred from Star Trek The Next Generation, through Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
I have attempted to answer: How many Galaxy Class Starships were built by using a complex set of datasets programmed into Excel, planning software and timeline charts to provide what I believe to be the most accurate answer and try’s to navigate issues. Many questions spawn with how many Galaxy Class Starships are seen within Deep Space Nine Episodes that focus on the Dominion War, and the final episode of Voyager.
IMPORTANT: to that end, this task was to only marry the 1991 Star Trek The Next Generation Technical Manual (TNGTM) with what has been seen on screen from Season 1 of Star Trek The Next Generation through to the last episode of Star Trek Voyager; ‘Endgame’. It is not my place to argue about registry numbers, configurations, equipment and so on. Rather, as I have always maintained, to support the TNG TM.
This is the result:
I summarise that the Federation/Starfleet built 18 Galaxy Class Starships.
Discussion points:
The TNGTM states a 9 year, one after another build for the first batch of Galaxy Class Starships. This alludes to the complexity and size of the ship including the creation of parts.
The only way to deliver sufficient hulls for DS9 is that:
Per TNGTM manual which is set in early 2366, Starfleet decided to order the next six, based on the success of the six already commissioned.
Note YAMATO was destroyed by something that would have destroyed any ship and not reflective of the class.
Operational feedback clearly convinced them to build more.
The events of Wolf 359 did not result in the cancellation or change of orders as this was placed before those events.
Starfleet decided to order Six more ships before the destruction of ODY and ENTD and therefore any fears over the class that may have arisen.
That Batch 2 ships build times were reduced by 45% is reasonable yet it would be disproportionally to reduce build times based on experience and build many at the same time. (Authors note: also it makes no difference to the final numbers)
Batch 3 ships were built at the same speed as batch two, as further reducing build times of a ship of this size is unreasonable, although per the TNG Tech manual, you can argue that experience of the previous 12 ships mean’t Starfleet could build more ships at once (6 months apart) and considering the losses from W359 which impact Batch 3, than the order for Batch 2.
That TNGTM states 9 years to build the first batch frames the time to develop and build ships. This would suggest ships seen later in Star Trek, like in First Contact are more a product of ‘Q Who’ events (2365).
This layout ensures that sufficient hulls are pressed into service for the ‘Dominon War’ incomplete. Neatly this suggests that the Galaxy’s that feature in VOY ‘Endgame’ are Galaxy Class being fitted out that were ‘War’ Galaxy’s and therefore unfinished. Hence their easy of proximity to Earth.
Interesting to note that more Galaxy Class Starships were completed than originally thought when the events of the Dominion War took place. It would suggest 4 were rushed into some form of acceptable use.
A ship lost at Wolf 359 still does not work as it would undermine numbers of ships seen in DS9.
There is some ‘wiggle’ room in this to make 3 extra ships available in rudimentary form for DS9, meaning 15, rather than 13 were available. However considering the state of the Federations shipyards and the development of parts spread throughout the Federation it seems best to keep the number to ‘on screen’. Arguably many of the same ship are seen in different DS9 episodes.
GCP’s hypothesis points:
To keep ‘on screen’ correct, this implies that USS Venture is unique. It would be a good point to argue she is the first hull to be modified post Wolf 359 (kneejerk reactions included) for new weapons testing. However, as the numbers seen on screen are standard configuration it seems to suggest that system changes and upgrades were mostly internal in the end. This is supported by Star Trek TNG and Generations. I’d recommend Hull 9 or 10.
“Galaxy Wing’s” referenced in Deep Space Nine, refer to squadrons led by a singular Galaxy Class. Two of the ships hitting the same target, the two fleets mentioned by the operational Admiral (Sisko) support this.
I have not named the ships, even some confirmed as what hull they are becomes irrelevant in this format. I would suggest strong candidates include Magellan and Challenger. It maybe wise to consider that at least each first ship of the batch be named after a ‘Galaxy’.
It’s likely that other ships in the Galaxy Family, like the Nebula were built in greater numbers. This mirrors the Constitution-Miranda setup.
Key takeaways:
I’d argue 18 is the perfect number. These ships are not common and nor need to be. That all of the class was ordered before the Dominion War, shuts down misguided arguments the class was a failure, just that Starfleet naturally moved on after the War. Perhaps they assigned the Galaxy’s back to the exploration role and other ships took on tasks Starfleet felt were more pressing. This would pay homage to the task they were designed to excel at. 15 ships by the time of Star Trek Nemesis is a good number of a class, a class should that be kept rare, unique and for the best of the best to crew.
In all I have tried to make the TNG TM work with onscreen and this is what works. If more were built, I will leave to the minds of fan fiction but I hope and I believe this number is reasonable. Not ignoring that other ships in the family were built.
As this is part one, and many thousands of datapoints were used to generate it, I will consider it a living document. I will explore more of all of this in a future post to expand on it all.