Scifi-Meshes.com - View Single Post - A Fleet Flagship Command Bridge

chrisweuve · 02-13-2008, 03:12 AM

Okay, there is no reason to think Starfleet would adopt an early 21st century USN approach, but let me offer a some context.

On a modern USN vessel, say, a destroyer or cruiser, you have the bridge (technically, the pilot house) from which the ship is conned and maneuvered, and the Combat Information Center, from which it is fought. The more senior officers are in CIC, and when General Quarters is sounded, the CO and lead Tactical Action Officer are both in CIC and the XO is on the bridge. If there is some sort of command staff aboard (a destroyer squadron commander and his staff), they will be running their own battlewatch out of CIC also. (Much easier on a cruiser, which has an extra set of screens just for that purpose.) The DESRON staff fights the battlegroup (it gets complicated in their is a carrier near by -- let's assume not), and the CO fights his ship.

Okay, on an aircraft carrier it's even more complicated. The Combat Direction Center (also called CIC until a few years ago) usually has the following:
-- a Tactical Action Officer and assistant, who are defending the carrier;
-- a DESRON staff, who are responsible for surface and subsurface warfare; and
-- a flag staff, who are fighting the battlegroup.
(We're going to ignore the air wing and the air warfare commander who is out on the cruiser.)

The flag staff have their own space, the Tactical Flag Command Center. The ship and the DESRON split CDC about 50/50, with their own sets of displays, etc.. There is no real advantage to them sharing the room. To make matters even more complicated, the DESRON commander and his staff -- just like the admiral and his staff -- are tenants onboard, not ship's company, and the DESRON at least gets all of his enlisted support from the ship's company.

So, what's this have to do with _Star Trek_?
1) In short, the thing that has always struck me about ST is how simplistic the command and control arrangements are.
2) More importantly, different command functions tend to have different rooms when possible. Given how wasteful ST starships are when it comes to space, I would expect that to hold for them, too.

Note, though, that with a little forethought, the extra command space might simply be the emergency bridge, assuming they could get away from the somewhat silly tendency to use the viewscreen as a window and start using it to display useful data. (That goes for the bridge, too.)

02-13-2008, 03:12 AM	#12 (permalink)
chrisweuve SFM Nugget Realname: Christopher Weuve Join Date: Feb 2007 Age: 43 Posts: 7	A few thoughts Okay, there is no reason to think Starfleet would adopt an early 21st century USN approach, but let me offer a some context. On a modern USN vessel, say, a destroyer or cruiser, you have the bridge (technically, the pilot house) from which the ship is conned and maneuvered, and the Combat Information Center, from which it is fought. The more senior officers are in CIC, and when General Quarters is sounded, the CO and lead Tactical Action Officer are both in CIC and the XO is on the bridge. If there is some sort of command staff aboard (a destroyer squadron commander and his staff), they will be running their own battlewatch out of CIC also. (Much easier on a cruiser, which has an extra set of screens just for that purpose.) The DESRON staff fights the battlegroup (it gets complicated in their is a carrier near by -- let's assume not), and the CO fights his ship. Okay, on an aircraft carrier it's even more complicated. The Combat Direction Center (also called CIC until a few years ago) usually has the following: -- a Tactical Action Officer and assistant, who are defending the carrier; -- a DESRON staff, who are responsible for surface and subsurface warfare; and -- a flag staff, who are fighting the battlegroup. (We're going to ignore the air wing and the air warfare commander who is out on the cruiser.) The flag staff have their own space, the Tactical Flag Command Center. The ship and the DESRON split CDC about 50/50, with their own sets of displays, etc.. There is no real advantage to them sharing the room. To make matters even more complicated, the DESRON commander and his staff -- just like the admiral and his staff -- are tenants onboard, not ship's company, and the DESRON at least gets all of his enlisted support from the ship's company. So, what's this have to do with _Star Trek_? 1) In short, the thing that has always struck me about ST is how simplistic the command and control arrangements are. 2) More importantly, different command functions tend to have different rooms when possible. Given how wasteful ST starships are when it comes to space, I would expect that to hold for them, too. Note, though, that with a little forethought, the extra command space might simply be the emergency bridge, assuming they could get away from the somewhat silly tendency to use the viewscreen as a window and start using it to display useful data. (That goes for the bridge, too.)