I've been doing some pondering about ship purposes and designs and I started looking at the Aerie/Raven. I've got both the original deckplans and the salightly modified version done by Owen with the shuttlebay. I'm looking at the Aerie like a modern day coastal patrol vessel. Small crew, moderate weapons with a pretty broad range of duties. Ant-smuggling/piracy, Escort, Courier, Patrol, Surveillance, Survey/Science, search/rescue and training. Basically the big brother too runabouts. Where runabouts are slow with limited range, the Aerie is faster and with much longer range capabilities.
The ship itself is supposed to be modular and both starfleet and civilians use it. The current configuration would be the civi/science version. I'm thinking for the patrol type vessel their wood be some slight module reconfiguration.
I would think the science labs that are kept would be configured too a generic configurable type lab. With extra quarters being plugged in, a brig/security complex, and upgraded phasers. I would think they would install a EMH as well.
So there you have it, my thoughts on what a ST coastal patrol type vessel. If anyone has any thoughts, please share them.
