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Why does the Federation never seem to have any ships located near its most important asset, Earth?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - only one ship near Earth, and it's in drydock

TNG "Best of Both Worlds" - Only the Enterprise is in a position to intercept the Borg cube before it reaches Earth. Picard and crew delay the cube long enough for Starfleet to assemble a pitiful 40 ships to confront it (pitiful if they actually have thousands at their disposal, that is).

DS9 "The Changing Face of Evil" - Someone correct me if I have the wrong episode, since I'm relying on Startrek.com for verification, but apparently the Breen successfully attacked Starfleet Headquarters. Even in wartime, Earth apparently has no defensive fleet.

Starfleet is A) stupid, and/or B) under-equipped for its size.

Even if they have thousands of weapon-capable vessels they will either have most of them off exploring, or at the front-lines during war (Ex/A).

And of course they may not have multi-thousand ship fleets (Ex/B).

DS9 "The Changing Face of Evil" - Someone correct me if I have the wrong episode, since I'm relying on Startrek.com for verification, but apparently the Breen successfully attacked Starfleet Headquarters. Even in wartime, Earth apparently has no defensive fleet.

They did have a fleet protecting the Earth area (the third fleet) and the breen attack fleet was destroyed after getting off a few shots at SF HQ but their cloaking devices allowed them to bypass the defenses and get off a few shots before SF could respond.

Also in ENT "Expanse" Starfleet had a reasonably powerful group of ships defending Earth that were quickly able to attack and defeat an eary type of Klingon Bird of Prey which ambushed Enterprise.

Oberleutnant wrote:Also in ENT "Expanse" Starfleet had a reasonably powerful group of ships defending Earth that were quickly able to attack and defeat an eary type of Klingon Bird of Prey which ambushed Enterprise.

Which means that in Enterprise they were smarter than in TNG.

WTF!

Now that Starfleet is building warships instead of "armed explorers and luxury liners", perhaps we'll see a change in their defensive posture. Groups of 3-4 Defiants would be almost ideal for system defense duties--the small size isn't a big issue, since they won't be out on their own for months at a time, and they pack a lot of firepower. A bit expensive, though--I have to wonder how, on one hand the Federation can claim that there is no money or wealth, and on the other, complain that the Defiant is too resource intensive to build in large numbers.

Perhaps we'll also see old Miranda, Excelsior, and Ambassador refits assigned to system defense duties while they're being phased out--it makes more sense to do that then to send them all to the breakers and have spare starship crews with nothing to do.

Oberleutnant wrote:Also in ENT "Expanse" Starfleet had a reasonably powerful group of ships defending Earth that were quickly able to attack and defeat an eary type of Klingon Bird of Prey which ambushed Enterprise.

That may be because of how short a time it now takes for someone to travel from Earth to Klingon territory. What something like 4 days at warp 5?

Ted C wrote:Why does the Federation never seem to have any ships located near its most important asset, Earth?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - only one ship near Earth, and it's in drydock

TNG "Best of Both Worlds" - Only the Enterprise is in a position to intercept the Borg cube before it reaches Earth. Picard and crew delay the cube long enough for Starfleet to assemble a pitiful 40 ships to confront it (pitiful if they actually have thousands at their disposal, that is).

DS9 "The Changing Face of Evil" - Someone correct me if I have the wrong episode, since I'm relying on Startrek.com for verification, but apparently the Breen successfully attacked Starfleet Headquarters. Even in wartime, Earth apparently has no defensive fleet.

Actually I think that the ships from around Earth were sent to Wolf359 to stop the Borg, but that obviously failed. And if you watch BoBW you will see the Borg destroy the Mars defence drones, so there was still something in system.

Ted C wrote:Why does the Federation never seem to have any ships located near its most important asset, Earth?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - only one ship near Earth, and it's in drydock

TNG "Best of Both Worlds" - Only the Enterprise is in a position to intercept the Borg cube before it reaches Earth. Picard and crew delay the cube long enough for Starfleet to assemble a pitiful 40 ships to confront it (pitiful if they actually have thousands at their disposal, that is).

DS9 "The Changing Face of Evil" - Someone correct me if I have the wrong episode, since I'm relying on Startrek.com for verification, but apparently the Breen successfully attacked Starfleet Headquarters. Even in wartime, Earth apparently has no defensive fleet.

1. Yeah, that was stupid.

2. Earth ships were sent to Wolf 359. And remember, it was peace time, and the Federation is spread across 8,000 LY, so its not easy. A starship travelling at warp 9 can traverse 1000 LY in one year.

3. They did have a defense fleet, and they destroyed the Breen fleet. ABut, agreed they should never have been able to get near Earth. Breen do not have cloaks.

Also in ENT "Expanse" Starfleet had a reasonably powerful group of ships defending Earth that were quickly able to attack and defeat an eary type of Klingon Bird of Prey which ambushed Enterprise.

Please shutup please, some people have not seen that episode. For example, ME.[/code]

3. They did have a defense fleet, and they destroyed the Breen fleet. ABut, agreed they should never have been able to get near Earth. Breen do not have cloaks.

Yes they do we are told this in "Hero worship", the Breen entry in the STE makes mention of it and it is the only thing that makes sense considering the Breen where able to snak across the Federation in wartime and get a sneak attack on Earth.