[Desert Tyrant]

Say, tomarrow, you become the CinC for the entire united Federation of planets.  If you were to militarize, what could/would you do?
P.S, this IS for actual discussion, using common sense.

[Shade]

Let's see.

The first order of business would definitely be to tell the ship designers to stop fussing about with putting all kinds of fancy stuff on the ships. If the goal is military might, all the ships need are engines, weapons, armour, shields, sensors, and adequate life support and facilities to keep the crew happy. No laboratories, no panoramic-view-of-the-galaxy bars, no schools, minimal cargo bays, and definitely no nurseries. Warships should be warships.

How much more powerful a warship would a Galaxy class be if you stripped all the fluff and replaced it with extra reactors, shield generators, phaser banks and torpedo launchers?

[Desert Tyrant]

From what I gathered from DS9, quite a bit stronger

[Mefustae]

The first order of business would definitely be to tell the ship designers to stop fussing about with putting all kinds of fancy stuff on the ships. If the goal is military might, all the ships need are engines, weapons, armour, shields, sensors, and adequate life support and facilities to keep the crew happy. No laboratories, no panoramic-view-of-the-galaxy bars, no schools, minimal cargo bays, and definitely no nurseries. Warships should be warships.

They already built that: It's called the Defiant. Then you've got the Akira and Sovereign, which are likely built along the same lines. Starfleet is way ahead of you.

How much more powerful a warship would a Galaxy class be if you stripped all the fluff and replaced it with extra reactors, shield generators, phaser banks and torpedo launchers?

The Galaxy wasn't built as a warship, though. It was built for exploration and diplomacy, with just enough grunt to keep her in one piece when the situation called for it. Keep in mind she was designed during peace-time, so it's a moot point to bemoan the Galaxy as a crappy warship.

[Nuke]

id make them evil. MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Maxwell]

How would you improve Starfleet?

...Seatbelts.

It was built for exploration and diplomacy

I've always thought that was kind of silly how they try to make one ship do EVERYTHING.

In reality You would build a science ship to conduct science and use a warship for your gunboat diplomacy.
Of course that makes for horrible TV, because your cast of heroes will be running for safe harbor the moment any situation turns south.

[Shade]

I wasn't so much bemoaning the Galaxy as a crappy warship, as I was pointing out that it wasn't a true warship, but could be if you ripped out all the unimportant crap Which is important, as there aren't that many of the newer classes like the Defiant and Akira yet (as far as I know, at any rate). The Sovereign, I think, is still a victim of form over function, but I'll concede that it's much better than the Galaxy.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Another thing they should do is dig out that cloaking tech they've got in a closet somewhere, dust it off and start integrating it into their ships. We know they have it, it's been used on screen a few times, they're just keeping it locked up to please the Romulans. But if they're going to go militaristic and piss them off anyway, they might as well go for the gold and get an advantage while at it.

Developing a few specialized classes of warships would also be a good thing. Practically everything they have now is general purpose - A few standoff ships loaded up with quantum torpedoes without having to worry about close combat weapons or heavy armour could add significantly to the strength of a battle group for comparatively little cost, for example. Nothing says "Don't mess with me" quite so well as 250 quantum torpedoes all impacting within a space of 30 seconds.

Finally, they need to start putting light phasers tasked to shoot down incoming ordnance on their ships. We have fairly effective CIWS systems right now, so why not in the future?

[Mefustae]

I wasn't so much bemoaning the Galaxy as a crappy warship, as I was pointing out that it wasn't a true warship, but could be if you ripped out all the unimportant crap Which is important, as there aren't that many of the newer classes like the Defiant and Akira yet (as far as I know, at any rate).

I guess you're right. A modernization of the Galaxy, ripping out all the creature comforts for a couple dozen more weapons, would be pretty awesome. Not to mention the fact that it'd be a mite irresponsible to have families and children aboard a ship routinely going up against the freaking Borg!

The Sovereign, I think, is still a victim of form over function, but I'll concede that it's much better than the Galaxy.

Who cares? That thing is sexy!

Finally, they need to start putting light phasers tasked to shoot down incoming ordnance on their ships. We have fairly effective CIWS systems right now, so why not in the future?

Perhaps because most other races use strictly energy weapons, which can only really be countered with an energy/deflector shield. Although it would be interesting to see if a CIWS phaser system or whatever could put a dent in an incoming torpedo, or whether the glowiness for some reason precludes that option...

[Shade]

Who cares? That thing is sexy!

On this, I do agree

[StarSlayer]

Everybody grows a beard

EDIT>>In the interest of adding something useful as indicated by the next post

1) Proper starfighters and bombers with dedicated carriers

2) Refit some of the TNG era ships with Defiant or Special Voyager style armor, don't go crazy just add it over critical areas sorta like a tank with applique armor

3) Don't build your ships with long necks and warp engines on thin pylons

4) Add cloaks, might ruffle some treaty stipulations but hey, for war not for peace

5) Always have your ships operate in BattleGroups of some kind, no farting around space by your lonesome

6) Add dedicated ships for escorting your heavies, torpedo frigates, phaser cruisers ect. granted they might die quicker but they add more distractions

7) Ditch pretty windows, add more armor plate to new ships

8) Don't leave the bridge in a exposed position were anybody can shoot at it

9) Improve your ECM capabilities, jamming coms, sensors ect

10) Clone Kirk

2nd EDIT>>  I have been informed by more knowledgeable parties that they should in fact grow goatees:

[Desert Tyrant]

Everybody grows a beard

Dont troll in this topic.

[WMCoolmon]

Come now. If they got rid of all that 'unnecessary' crap, what would they do when they needed to scan for a repeating neutrino pattern to detect a ship, based on a spur-of-the-moment suggestion from a teenager, to rescue the ship's second-in-command?

And how many interesting adventures would they miss out on if the holodeck did have adequate safeguards and couldn't take control of the ship, or could be disconnected from the ship's power grid on a moment's notice?

[Mefustae]

And how many interesting adventures would they miss out on if the holodeck did have adequate safeguards and couldn't take control of the ship, or could be disconnected from the ship's power grid on a moment's notice?

"Sir, the Holoshed is on the fritz again."
"Damn. Last time that happened, I got hit with three paternity suits!"

[TrashMan]

Say, tomarrow, you become the CinC for the entire united Federation of planets.  If you were to militarize, what could/would you do?
P.S, this IS for actual discussion, using common sense.

I'd mass produce Galaxy-X class warships...

That ships truly shows just how powerfull a militarized Galaxy class can be

"RUN KLINGONS, RUN!! MWHAHAHAHA"

[NGTM-1R]

Specialization.

And Maxwell's right. Seatbelts would help a lot.

[Mars]

It drove me insane how in Next Gen EVERY show bar a few involved the Enterprise getting into some type of shoot-out... and starfleet continuing to fill the ship up with civvis.

[TrashMan]

Canonicly, the Galaxy class is the most succesfull of all Federation designs....

[Unknown Target]

Stop bringing freaking kids on warships. It's stupid.

[Desert Tyrant]

Stop bringing freaking kids on warships. It's stupid.

Change number three on my list.  First two involve retraing and reqrganising the fleet.

Canonicly, the Galaxy class is the most succesfull of all Federation designs....

More like the Miranda and the Excelsior, mainly because of age.  Granted, in this new and improved starfleet, they should be on the way out, in favor of Intrepid class light crusiers, and Akiras.

[Pyro MX]

Starfleet already has specialised warships - as mentioned before, the Defiant, but not mentioned up here unless I missed it, the Prometheus-class warship. If Starfleet wants to have better firepower, they must get that ship into mass production. I think it's powerful enough.

Also, Starfleet (more a small division of it) owns timeships, which let them do pretty nuch anything they want.

Get ablative armor plating on all ships. Also all warships should have a battle bridge (or alternate bridge) if the first one gets destroyed.

Make the warp drive ejectable, which is already done by some ship classes.

As for cloaking devices, make some kind of scanning device that is able to detect cloaked starships.

Voilà. And I'm not a fan of Star-Trek.