Is the Akira Class a carrier or not?

[AslanC]

I really really need to know.

If it isn't, what the heck is that divet in the front for?

Color me confused.

[Cmdr. Maddox]

as far as I know the akira is same sort of carrier.
But it is not designated for!
so if you need it use it as carrier if not it is only a warship!!!

[Evan van Eyk]

this front thing is actually the shutle hangar. However there is no evidence that it is actually a carrier. Actually I never liked theidea of Starfleet carriers, because that would not fit the overall idea of exploration. However the Akira-Class may have a larger shuttle deck, which may be used as hangar for the fighter. For more info on carriers download the wonderful Dominion War Sourcebook in the Computer Core, there are stats for the fighters...

[Dan Gurden]

Yep the divet at the front is indeed a shuttle-bay/flight deck. and unofficially this flihgt deck does indeed run as a through-deck from the rear of the saucer to the front...

As to whether its a carrier.

Canon; No. There are no carriers in Starfleet. Neither are there any fighters. Except when they are there! Dont ask.

But at the end of the day. What do YOU want it to be. for me its a cruiser with a large flight deck capacity, in wartime it can serve in a carrier role, but in peacetime it doesn't need to. But for many others its a carrier pure and simple with all the accompanying fighter squadrons.

Which do you need it to be?

[Phoenix]

During war-time call it a 'Strike-Carrier', during peace-time a 'Planetary Survey Cruiser'. In all honesty, it might be a ore hauler, with plenty of cargo shuttles- for all the canon info we really know about the ship.

Myself, I keep it as a light Carrier- used as a heavy patrol-type ship when out of combat. "OK gentelmen, we have a sector to scan and a day to do it in. Deck officer, replace the weapons with the heavy sensor units."

[qerlin]

I know Jaeger designed her to be a carrier, but the official size stats make her forward bay too small to launch the Peregrines...so unless you use the smaller ones from the video games, I don't think it would work.

I have them designated 'assault cruisers' -- they can carry fighters, have a massive shuttle bay, but the fighters have to be launched and retrieved from the aft doors, which are easily big enough to handle the vid game fighters, but the Peregrines are too tall (unless the wings retract or fold like the old Corsairs.)

As for the 'divet' -- I think, if it's not a launch area (it should only be about 5m high, one deck height max) -- it's probably some kind of bad-ass targeting sensor array. Personal opinion.

So no...we don't consider her a dedicated carrier platform.

[Ramage]

Personally I am trying to understand the need for a carrier in the Star Trek universe. It would seem that small ships could do little or nothing against larger vessels (can't carry weapons strong enough to breach the shields) and I have never seen any evidence of fighter craft.

Then again, I suppose they could be used more or less as carriers have been used in the past few years -- as another base for sending in power against ground (read: planetside) targets...

Thoughts?

[Chris Landmark]

Well, we do see (some) fighter craft durring the Dominion War. They would actually serve a tactical purpose in screening the big ships from those dangerous little Jem'Haddar Attack Craft, something they would be more evenly matched with. So I can see a justification for the existence of fighters.

And if you have fighters, you're going to need something to base them on, because they are not designed for independent operation of more than a day or two (that's what shuttlecraft or runabouts are for). If the battles in the Dominion War are all taking place just a short warp flight away, then the fighters could be based on a planet or station of some sort. If it's going to require more than a few hours travel time, you'll probably need to base them off a ship. What candidates do we have for this?

Unless we're only sticking one fighter per shuttlebay on ships like the Galaxy and Excelsior (and granted the small number of fighters we see, this could be sufficient), the Akira class seems the most likely suspect. It's got lots of shuttlebay doors which could potentially be connected by a large hangar area, allowing it to service a squadron of fighters. Even if it doesn't have a through-deck it would be able to carry more fighters than any of the other starships we see.

Final analysis: yes, the Akira could very well be a carrier, if you leave aside the problems of fitting fighters through those rather small forward doors (explain it away by folding the wings in or just ignore size issues entirely in the honored Trek tradition ).

I would personally prefer to think of her as a cruiser with extensive small craft support facilities, which in time of war makes an ideal platform for delivering a fighter squadron. I will certainly be using her that way in my games. If you like my argument, feel free to do the same.

-Chris Landmark

[RMercer]

Originally posted by Ramage
Personally I am trying to understand the need for a carrier in the Star Trek universe. It would seem that small ships could do little or nothing against larger vessels (can't carry weapons strong enough to breach the shields) and I have never seen any evidence of fighter craft.

Then again, I suppose they could be used more or less as carriers have been used in the past few years -- as another base for sending in power against ground (read: planetside) targets...

Thoughts?

The UFP doesn't really "need" a carrier, except during an actual shooting war (i.e. Dominion War). I CAN think of situations during normal operations where a large complement of shuttles (larger than a GCS would carry) would be useful (evacuating a base or colony in a location where transporters cannot be used or doing a detailed search of a large asteroid field, carrying a large volume of non-transporter capable material). It would have been useful to have an Akira along with the E-D to evacuate the colony in the episode where the Sheliak (sp?) want to colonize the planet and the E-D can't use transporters because of the hyperonic radiation.

According to the available evidence, fighters can be effective against capital ships, in numbers (and accompanied by their own capital ships).. we see shots from fighters penetrate the shields of Cardassian ships in the DW battles in DS9.. and they also carry photorps. Wouldn't want to be one of the fighter crew, though.. their life expectancy must be real short.

Given the wide range of capabilities against planetary targets and substantially greater toughness of capital ships, I don't see a good reason to use fighters against planetary targets.. too easy to lose the fighters and the capital ship would do a better job. And if the capital ship can't survive getting close to the planet, there is no way the fighters are going to make it on their own.

[qerlin]

Originally posted by Chris Landmark
...if you have fighters, you're going to need something to base them on, because they are not designed for independent operation of more than a day or two (that's what shuttlecraft or runabouts are for)... yes, the Akira could very well be a carrier, if you leave aside the problems of fitting fighters through those rather small forward doors ...personally prefer to think of her as a cruiser with extensive small craft support facilities, which in time of war makes an ideal platform for delivering a fighter squadron. -Chris Landmark

I actually think a refit of the Galaxy or Nebula would work very well as a heavy carrier. Put a set of launch doors forward in the dish, land 'em through the big door aft of the bridge. The saucer in those ships is mother-huge -- more than large enough to turn into a through-deck carrier.

[Greg Smith]

Originally posted by Ramage
I have never seen any evidence of fighter craft.

In DS9 "Sacrifice of Angels" Sisko orders his fightes to harass the Cardassian cruisers in an attempt to get them to break formation. We clearly see them doing this on screen.

Fightes show up in several other fleet scenes during Dominion war episodes, but never more clearly than here.

[REG]

Well, if you're gonna have fighters, you might as well have a carrier to replenish the ammo (i.e. pho-torp or q-torp) and repair damaged fighters.

The Akira spaceframe allow it to be a strike carrier and yet can be configured to a cruiser just by welding bulkheads to the spaceframe for added quarters, labs, storage bays, on the flight deck/shuttlebay level.

[Chris Landmark]

Originally posted by qerlin


I actually think a refit of the Galaxy or Nebula would work very well as a heavy carrier. Put a set of launch doors forward in the dish, land 'em through the big door aft of the bridge. The saucer in those ships is mother-huge -- more than large enough to turn into a through-deck carrier.

That is certainly true, and you could probably put a whole wing of fighters on something like that, which would come much closer to a true carrier than the Akira ever could. But we've got even less evidence for the existance of that sort of carrier (i.e. none at all) than we do for the Akira as a launch platform (i.e. slim and anecdotal).

So the Akira still tops my list of likely suspects.

That and I've got a character who just begs to be made a squadron leader...

-Chris Landmark

[AslanC]

The problem is the Federation Peregrine fighter as seen is DS9 may be just way too big to fit inside the Akira.

But that is a whole other issue.

[qerlin]

Originally posted by Chris Landmark


That is certainly true, and you could probably put a whole wing of fighters on something like that, which would come much closer to a true carrier than the Akira ever could. But we've got even less evidence for the existance of that sort of carrier (i.e. none at all) than we do for the Akira as a launch platform (i.e. slim and anecdotal).

So the Akira still tops my list of likely suspects.

That and I've got a character who just begs to be made a squadron leader...

-Chris Landmark

Well, we've got a lot of designs running around the board we haven't seen; I figure a modified Nebula's no great stretch.