Starfleet


Comparison with the ‘Culture’ and Star Trek’s ‘Federation’

Although the “United Federation of Planets” appears more
like a conventional Federal State, aspects of it regarding
its charter and the operation of its “Starfleet” are very
similar to that of Contact and Special Circumstances in the
‘Culture’ novels. In fact, Contact is more of a fleet than
Starfleet is, albeit with presumably a much smaller
Intelligence and Ground Forces division besides the fact
that virtually all of its personnel are space-based.

Starfleet is directly answerable to the Federation Council,
an executive body
(or more of a diplomatic-military Chiefs of Staff if you will)
which deals with alien/ “foreign” affairs in the same way
a high-level meeting of Minds does. This is appointed
by (and effectively acts as the cabinet of) the elected
Federation President. The term “Federation Council” also
refers to its Legislative Body, who’s members are elected/
appointed by member planets.

Those officers referred to as Admiral in TNG-era episodes
almost always have three stars on their necks while ‘Admiral
Riker’ in “All Good Things” has four. I am assuming ‘Admiral’
refers to a ‘three star’ Admiral similar to the one-to-five
star system in the U.S army, with one and two star Admirals
having, as title at least, the ranks of Rear and Vice Admiral
as both these ranks are at least mentioned on occasion, while
‘Admiral Riker’ is, presumably, a member of Starfleet Command
at this period.

The Head of the Fleet is mentioned in the ‘Kirk’-era movies,
presumably this rank only exists during wartime and during
the time of hostilities with the Klingons. Similarly, the
rank of Commodore/’Fleet Captain’ does not appear to exist
in the TNG-era, presumably for similar reasons. In the case
of several captained starships operating together, Starfleet
apparently has regulations for these occurrences.

The Culture has no real Admirals or Captains (apart from
the sentient ships which make up its “fleet”) but human
“Referrers” are somewhat equivalent to both Intelligence
Heads and Admirals. With effective shared ranks, the crew
of a GCU (or similar vessel) are all “Commanders” as are
SC operatives, crew-civilian liaison officers aboard
Systems Vehicles are equivalent to Lieutenant, SC Drones
could be considered as being at Lieutenant Junior Grade
and Culture Mercenaries Warrant Officers.

It is also interesting how the events in Deep Space Nine
and, to a lesser extent, Voyager, concern the
(development of)
the Galaxy’s humanoid population as did the events
surrounding the Idiran-Culture War in “Consider Phlebas”;
that Q, if not the Continuum itself is a kind of anti-Mind,
having aims and objectives more or less opposite
to the Culture’s ‘Minds’
(see “Excession” and “Look To Windward”) ;
and that the results of both the Idirian-Culture War and
the Q Civil War was that six stars went nova. Also, if
Q was/were to simply try to wipe out humanity
(as they have an apparent fear of being
overtaken by a superior humanity in the future),
this may be either impossible considering all the
colonies and ships in existence, which could all produce
more ships and colonies, and that a single Q can only
move smallish objects like starships through time or
space not whole planets; or would backfire, causing
humanity to develop much quicker in the direction
(the)
Q
(Continuum)
fears
(which would be similar
to the aims and tactics of the Shadows in Babylon 5).

It may be practically impossible anyway for a sufficiently
advanced civilization to attempt to conquer or wipe
out a sufficiently undeveloped civilization as elements
of the former could aid elements of the latter
(for example through sabotage)
in a much more effective way than the target civilization
ever could do in defending themselves on their own. This does
give some reasoning to interstellar wars always being between
states at similar strengths, levels of development and
technical capacity.


Full Rankings

1. Federation President
(elected)
+ Executive Body Federation Council
(appointed)
2. Legislative Body Federation Council
(elected)
3. Judiciary
4. Other Executive Civilian Bodies
5. High-level Federation Civilian Staff and Advisers
(i.e. Ambassadors etc)

Commissioned/Command Officers Starfleet

6. (wartime only) Chief of Staff/Head of Admiralty [*****]
7. “Starfleet Command” Admirals [****]
8. Admiral [***]
9. Vice-Admiral
10. Rear-Admiral
(or “One Star Admiral”)
11. (during Kirk era/war footing with Klingon Empire)
Commodore
12. Captain
13. Commander
14. Lt-Commander
15. Lieutenant
16. Lt [Jnr Grade]
17. [Bridge] Ensign

Non-commissioned Officers and Personnel

1. Chief Warrant Officer
2. Warrant Officer
3. Crewman
4. Cadet

Starfleet also has several “non-fleet” divisions, some
presumably headed by an Admiral, although it is mentioned
that
(Commander)
Dr Crusher was promoted to head Starfleet
Medical
(presumably she was promoted to Captain, making
the rank of Commodore,
present during Kirk’s period, non-existent);
medical, intelligence, engineering, ground and naval
forces, Judge Advocate General, R+D, Starfleet Academy
and Headquarters staff, as well as Starbase personnel.

Also, below rank of Captain, Command Personnel
(red uniforms)
outrank Operations/Engineering/Security Personnel
(mustard/yellow
uniforms)
of the same rank, who in turn outrank Medical/Science
Personnel
(blue uniforms);

Such that:

For command purposes aboard a base or starship, a
Lieutenant at Junior Grade in Command outranks a Full
Lieutenant in Engineering
(or Operations or Security),
who, in turn, outranks a Lieutenant Commander in the
position of Science or Medical Officer. All are then,
in turn, outranked by Lieutenant Commanders
from Science/Medical, Engineering and Command.

Speculated and equivalent divisions

Colonel “Groundpounders” equiv. Lt-Commander

(command) >

Major “Groundpounders” equiv. Lt-Commander

(operations/engineering) >

W.O. [Chief] > Lt [Jnr Grade]

(command) >

{Lieutenant (operations/engineering) >Lt-Commander

(science/medical) >}

Warrant Officer > Bridge Ensign >

{Lt [Jnr Grade]

(operations/engineering) > Lt

(Sci/Med) >}

Sergeant “Groundpounders” > Academy Cadet [1st Class] >

Crewman [1st Class] >

Corporal “Groundpounders” > Academy Cadet [2nd Class] >

Crewman [2nd Class] >

Private “Groundpounders” > Academy Cadet [3rd Class-

passed first year] >

Crewman [3rd Class] >

Cadet “Groundpounders” > Freshman Cadet


Extent of the Federation

The Farpoint Station is described as being on the planet
“Deneb 4”, which marks a point past which marks the
unexplored region of the Galaxy. The Deneb star is 1600
light years from Earth, which considering its location
[towards the Galactic Core along the Sagittarius
Arm (away from what is presumably termed the ‘Beta Quadrant’
of the Galaxy)]
makes sense in the plot for TNG. Debeb 4 is probably around
3100 light years away from the Neutral Zone so the bulk of
the United Federation of Planets probably covers a volume
of 3000 to 2000 to 1500 cubic light years
(probably a similar size as the Romulan
Star Empire),
with some member planets being 8000 light years distant
from each over.

A Starship probably operates on two-three years of
anti-matter fuel for its Warp Drive, this probably
amounts to a maximum 4500 light years of continuous
travel before refueling.

http://www.chronology.org/grafix/b5-galaxy-hi.jpg

Early History of the Federation

Or more particularly, important events in Terran
history described/mentioned in TOS, TNG and Voyager,
some of which are then contradicted in “Enterprise”.

I think these events
(dates are estimates based on
statements by different characters)
should be considered canon, the main reason being
that the Prime Directive is at least as old as Starfleet,
the establishment of which was apparently the result,
and aim, of the Federation Charter. In Archer’s
(apparent)
time, the United Earth Space Probe Agency would be in
existence, but not Starfleet as its aims, as stated,
are coincident with that of the Federation.

The United Federation of Planets
(WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED AFTER THE TERRAN-ROMULAN WAR)
is probably not a unified economic body, although, at
least by the 24th century, Starfleet does operate a kind
of internal Command Economy and the UFP does appear to
use currency of some form for dealing with non-Federation
trade issues. Each planet has its own, more or less
utopian, economic system, however interplanetary travel
requires either ownership of or booking passage with a
private vessel of some kind or being involved with
Starfleet or the Federation in some official way.
For example, in the Voyager episode “Non-sequitor”,
Harry Kim has to steal the ship which he designed in
the alternate reality to return to Voyager-he has no
money but interstellar transport is not free.

20th century
1998: NASA launches Deep Space One

21st century
c.2030: Fusion Power developed on Earth
Period of New United Nations, the Bell Riots
[Presumably post-Eugenics Wars?]
and the extinction of Humpback Whales

c.2035-2055: Mankind begins to seriously explore
the Solar System
Some of these missions, although unknown at the time,
bring humans into contact with Non-Terran agencies

2053: World War Three-limited nuclear exchanges
between various [post-state?] factions

2062: Zeframe Cochrane’s first Warp Flight
First Contact with the Vulcans
In later years, Cochrane and others migrate to a
planet orbiting Alpha Centauri

2079: (Presumably final)
Period of the Post-Atomic horror and Colonel Green
(according to Spock, Data, Picard and Archer)

2085: UESPA launches several unmanned interstellar probes
(according to Janeway)
[So much for the Vulcan’s mentoring!]

c.2090-2145: Several dozen colonies are established in
different Solar Systems
by Humans

22nd century
2110: Establishment of first Mars colonies
c.2155: Terran-Romulan War
(duration unknown)
Establishment of Romulan Neutral Zone
(according to Spock)

c.2170: Establishment of UFP, the Federation Charter
and Starfleet
(various sources, before events below according to Q)

>.2185: New Earth Economy
(according to Tom Paris)
established
End of poverty on Earth and the elimination of
Earth-based currencies follows

23rd century
2218: First contact with Klingon Empire leads to decades of conflict
with the Federation

c.2254: Launch of ‘Constitution’-class “Enterprise”
c.2266: UESPA still final authority on which Kirk bases his captaincy
Approx. 5% of Galaxy explored at this time

2286: Disaster on Earth narrowly averted when an alien probe attempts
to contact the now long-extinct Humpback Whales

2293: Khitomer Accords
First Peace Treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire

24th century
c.2354: Cardassian War
2263: 9% of Galaxy explored
2264: First contact between a Starfleet Vessel and the Borg
2367: Treaty between UFP and Cardassian Union leads to rebellion by (former-)
Federation colonists, who call themselves the Maquis, who reject the terms of the treaty
2370: 13% of Galaxy explored

2371: Voyager lost in Badlands tracking a Maquis vessel
2374-2376-Dominion War