Cardassian Ship Technology

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

If they had the means, coudl they develope a ship as powerful as the Galaxy-class, Vorcha-class, D'drieniex-class? If so, what would it look like and how many could be produced?

[KuvahMagh]

If they had the means, coudl they develope a ship as powerful as the Galaxy-class, Vorcha-class, D'drieniex-class? If so, what would it look like and how many could be produced?

I'd say it would be similar in appearance to the Galor/Keldon but larger. They don't seem to like to reinvent the wheel, rather work with what they know works. Take their rifle for instance, its the AK-47 to the Feds M-16, it might not be so elegent but it works, how many levels do you really need?

As to how many they would build that would depend on their resources which you don't give an indication of other than 'if they had the means'. It would also depend heavily on what their needs were, who their allies were, how strong those alliances are, who their enemies are, what their capabilities might be...

[Reliant121]

They probably could, but it would be a repeat of the Kazon predator. Loads of weaker guns in a bulky and durable hull.

But it would'na be a converted freighter.

[Sionnach Glic]

If they had the means, coudl they develope a ship as powerful as the Galaxy-class, Vorcha-class, D'drieniex-class?

I'm not too sure what you're asking here. You ask could they build such a ship "if they had the means". However, if we assume they have the means then obviously they could build such a vessel.
I think you mean "do they have the means?" In which case, I'd say yes. The choose not to due to their style of combat revolving more around large numbers of small, cheap, mass producable vessels that can outnumber their oponents.

? If so, what would it look like

Presumably a scaled-up version of a Galor, I'd assume.

and how many could be produced?

This is going to be difficult to figure out, though not impossible.

First, let's assume the Cardies are going to cut the numbers of Galors and Keldons in production by half, and use those resources to build thier new battleship.

Now, the DS9 TM (non canon, I know, but let's roll with it) says the Cardies produce "63 Galor class battlecruisers [and] 15 Galor class warships" per year.
Presumably, the battlecruiser is the standard Galor listed on DITL and the warship variant is the Keldon, which GK points out is just a modified Galor.

Okay, so we have numbers. Now we need to find out how much tonnage that is.
Going from DITL's estimates, Galors mass 1,687,000 metric tons while Keldons mass 2,230,000 tons.
1,687,000 X 63 = 106,281,000 tons
2,230,000 X 15 = 33,450,000 tons
Total tonnage per year = 139,731,000

Now, if we assume that the Cardies use half that tonnage to create their new battleships, that gives us 69,865,500 metric tons. Now let's assume the Cardies' new battleship is going to have roughly the same mass as the GCS.

GCS mass = 4,960,000

69,865,500 / 4,960,000 = 14 (rounding the ridiculously small decimals down).

Therefore, by sacraficing half of their Keldon and Galor production, the Cardies could build 14 battleships annualy.

Cardie ships are usualy built for long life, so let's assume that the ship's expected hull life is 30 years (lower than DITL's estimate for either the Keldon or the Galor to reflect the difficulty in maintaining such a ship).
30 X 14 = 420

Ergo, by sacraficing half their production capacity of Galors and Keldons, the Cardies could maintain a fleet of 420 battleships.

[Captain Seafort]

I'm not at all convinced the Cardies can build ships that big. The Galor is less than a fifth of the volume of a GCS, and the Keldon isn't much bigger (say, a quarter to a third of a GCS). This despite the fact that bigger is better in Trek, as in reality - there's a steady progression in size from the Connie to the GCS, and even after the introduction of the Sov the GCS remained Starfleet's battleship of choice. If the Cardies could build a ship capable of challenging the Galaxy, there's no conceivable reason why they wouldn't, even if they did so in small numbers to allow them to maintain a large fleet.

There's also the issue of the Galor's design. It's far stronger than any Starfleet ship. This could be for one of two reasons - either they like having their ships exceptionally strong, even when it sacrifices size and power, or they need such a strong design to compensate for less advanced materials science. If the latter is true, then the Keldon is likely pushing the limit of what Cardassian construction techniques are capable of.

[Sionnach Glic]

Good point.

[Teaos]

I see no reason why they couldnt. Sure they dont but we know they are a empire with very poor resources. They seem to have made the decision to spread them around building smaller ships.

I would see no reason why they couldnt build bigger ships. But as Reliant said, they would be big ships covered in small guns, they might not have the tech to build weapons on a big scale.

[Reliant121]

The biggest guns we have seen from the Cardie's is the main phaser array on the Galor/Keldon. I imagine this thing would have a pair of these, just dramatically scaled, and then littered with lesser weapons.

[Teaos]

But can they just scale up the beam weapons? I imagin there would be technical issues doing that.

[Reliant121]

True.

[Captain Seafort]

I see no reason why they couldnt.

Other than the fact that the haven't, despite the fact that Trek ships have consistently shown a trend towards ever larger designs, strongly implying that bigger is better.

[Teaos]

I see no reason why they couldnt.

Other than the fact that the haven't, despite the fact that Trek ships have consistently shown a trend towards ever larger designs, strongly implying that bigger is better.

As i said they have limited resources, If they built bigger they would have less ships.

[Captain Seafort]

As i said they have limited resources, If they built bigger they would have less ships.

Fewer ships. Not less, fewer.

As for the point, yes, they would. That applies to any power - lots of cruisers can be built for the same resources as a few battleships. This hasn't stopped anyone building battleships.

[Teaos]

Granted you know a lot more about this than I but I bet the cost of Battleships did stop a lot of people building them in favour of cruisers.

[Captain Seafort]

Absolutely - heavy cruisers in the 1920s cost about as much as battleships did at pre-war prices, before wartime inflation, and those battleships were far more primative than their 20s equivalents.

However, this isn't something that should apply to interstellar powers. Their resources are vast. Moreover, as one of the great powers (albeit one of the weaker ones) the Cardies shouldn't have that problem. I could buy it if they didn't have many battleships, fewer than the Feds have Galaxies, Nebs and Ambassadors, but that they've never been seen to have any suggests that they're simply incapable of building a ship that big.