Starfleet

Starfleet is the military and exploratory arm of the United Confederation of Planets.

History
Formed in the aftermath of the Earth-Romulan War and the need for a united defensive front against aggressive foreign interstellar powers, the United Earth Starfleet, itself a merger of the United Earth Space Probe Agency and the Allied Star Force of the United States, Confederate States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia, merged with the fleets of the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Alpha Centaurans, and those of the Earth colony worlds. In 2161, Starfleet consisted of five divisions - Exploration, Science and Research, Merchant Marine, Border Defense, and Administration. Those five divisions each had a fleet emblem symbolizing the fleet whence the division came. At the start, this new combined fleet had roughly 59,930 shipboard crew, with around 1.8 million on stations and planets supporting them in the service, not to mention civilian contractors building the vessels.

For the first decade of Starfleet, most species operated on their own ships, as they were most familiar with them, but Starfleet required at least 1 of each non-Terran to work on Earth-origin vessels, as an effort to help meld the fleets together, and at least 2 Terrans on non-Terran ships. The exception to this was the Vulcans, who refused to cooperate with this, believing that Earth vessels were not conducive to Vulcan belief in non-violence, a belief that would continue until Spock joined the fleet in the 23rd century. The older ship class Daedelus was much easier to build than the NX-Class at the time, and became the backbone of the new united fleet, until retired in 2196. Newer ships would take lessons learned from this time, and beginning in 2176, Starfleet would begin using modular designs, that would soon adopt components derived from other species, making them the most easily maintained, and soon, by 2200, Starfleet ships would all adopt the Earth-derived designs of saucers/spheres with nacelles on pylons.

For the first two decades of the 23rd century, Starfleet ships advanced little until the encounter with the Klingons set off the need for rapid expansion of the fleet. Rear Admiral Franz Josef, spearheaded a new design language, advancing clean lines with improved shield grids, and modular components that allowed Starfleet to rapidly expand its fleet.

2161-2171

 * NX-Class: 16 ships
 * Intrepid Class: 18 ships
 * Daedelus Class: 80 ships
 * Ganges Class: 31 ships
 * Sarajevo Class: 32 ships
 * Neptune Class: 53 ships
 * Andorian vessels: 70 ships
 * Vulcan vessels: 40 vessels
 * Tellarite vessels: 31 vessels
 * Alpha Centauran and colony vessels: 115 vessels

2225-2245

 * Saladin Class: 8 ships
 * Ptolemy Class: 12 ships
 * Hermes Class: 10 ships
 * Virginia Class: 15 ships
 * Larson Class: 15 ships

2245-2270

 * Constitution Class: 13 ships; another 90 were built