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Considering that the Nebula is an already aging design by the time of Nem, I'm going to go with the Akira, Norway, or Steamrunner. Starfleet seems to be moving away from the backbone ships, to more SPECIFIC ships, which isn't a completely bad idea IMO.

Umm most of the ships you just named are about the same age as the Nebula pretty much.

Cannot be........not if the Nebula TRUELY is a contemperary of the Galaxy class. Those ships seem more related to the Defient and Soverign class than the Galaxy and Nebula

Just look at the escape pods. The Nebs and Galaxies have square eps while the Sovs, Akiras, Steams, and Sabers all have triangular ones. (thats not the only reason, just the easyest one).

But there is only a decade or so between them. Which given ships last 100+ years is sweet bugger all. And since the Nebula is so large and customisable it still wins the workhorse title.

Ah I see. Makes a lot of sense.

I can accept that. But would you imagine they'd keep building them?

I'd say the Neb would be the most powerful general purpose ship built in the greatest numbers (until the Sovs start to appear in larger numbers), but as others have noted, the Starfleet of the TNG era displays a fantastic diversity. The Neb would seem to be the best bet to follow the tradition of the Connies and Excelsiors, but the Defiants would seem a natural choice to be built in large numbers as warships as well as the Akiras, while the Novas take over the mantle of the aging Oberths.

Then you still have all the others as well. I wonder if the New Orleans class will phase out as well.

I imagin they keep all ships at a low initial production until they find something that works really well, then just crank them out in huge numbers.

The days of the COnnie are over, it seems. Diversity in Starfleet's design seems to be the wave of the future.

The Nebula seems best fit for the job. Most of the other newer classes are purpose built. Most of those are purpose built for combat. A backbone ship has to be able to do everything. Maybe not be the best at everything but still able. This is the Nebula.

I'll conciede the Nebula, provided they have alot of room for continuous upgrades.

That, or they design a new Nebula type that maybe expands on the Modular mission pod idea. But only when the Nebula's have exhausted their potential for re-use.

The Neb's with all their open space shouldn't have to much trouble for upgrades. Besides, she's not really there for being best and top of the line. Spend your resources building high grade new ships like Sov, Akira, Defiant and maybe Prommie's if the project can get worked out. The tech used for the Neb's should be simple enough now that they can be mass produced. Which would help in the JoATs role that we are looking for.

Needs for a JoAT / Backbone of the fleet - ship
High numbers - We need them to be everywhere and anywhere.
Simple/Cheap to produce - Again, we'll need a lot of them.
Avg ablities for both S/E and Combat - She's the backbone of the UFP which means she doesn't know where she'll be tomorrow.