>>Just for the sake of fairness, Federation starships (with the
>>exception of the Defiant class) are not, primarily, warships.
>
>I recognize that Starfleet doesn't believe it's purpose is to fight
>wars. However, you build a craft that has shields, miliary grade
>weapons, teach all your captains how to fight, have a security staff,
>and in general treat your crews with military discipline, you have a
>military force.
>
>That Starfleet delibritely handicaps itself in this regard is
>amazingly frustrating to me. As if you can't have warships that do
>both science, exploraration and conquest. Please.

They do, yes. Even back in TOS, the Enterprise wasn't as powerful a weapon as she could have been, because of all the space and power spent on laboratories and sensors, but she was still a capable fighting platform. My point is that Federation starships are not built solely to fight, like, say, Klingon ships. They're intended to be multirole. Of course one of those roles is combat - no one ever tried to deny that except Roddenberry in his dotage, when he got very, very weird. Starfleet aren't deliberately handicapping themselves - they're trying to expand their capabilities and be more than just a war fleet, and in that regard, I think they succeed quite well.

(Part of this is also tied into the Federation's own purpose, which is not conquest, except perhaps of a cultural nature, but communication and understanding. They'll fight if attacked, and since the galaxy is a dangerous place and battle scenes are necessary to sustain ratings, they're attacked quite often - but their mission is not to start fights, so you don't see them developing first-strike weapons, for instance.)

In later years, when the Federation finds itself involved in a number of wars through no fault of its own, Starfleet does shift its focus more toward the defense end of the spectrum, leading to things like the Defiant class. (Although they were still trying to hang onto that 'peaceful exploration' angle at some level, or they wouldn't have kept building hopelessly weenie ships like the Intrepid class... )

In the UF universe, of course, things are quite different nowadays, and getting more different all the time...

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/