Right. With those scanners, small profile, high speed and light crew, they'd make very cost effective scout ships. Put them on the flanks to provide Intel, integrate their sensors into fleets to boost fire control accuracy, and, should the worst happen, send them home with their detailed black box data for Utopua Planetia and Starfleet Corps of Engineers to design new countermeasures.
@@The_Viscount They could have donea hell of a lot especially given the ship itself is fairly compact and the pontoon secondary hull is mission specifics. swap that out for an AWAC suite and youv'e got an amazing fast scout ship. Have this sensor hull also have better sheilding because... just. damn. No seriously damn HELP that poor little ship. That said. Saw the secondary hull off and I would actually want one as a civie model for buzzing about. Or possibly use the secondary hull for expanded quarters or other ameneties. Sure the Oberth is a laughing stock because THEY KEEP SENDING IT INTO SLUG MATCHES... but the ship philosophy itself is a genuinely sound one. Make it fast. make its systems able to deal with non-combat hazards, AND MAKE IT FAST ENOUGH TO GET OUT OF DANGER.
During the Falklands War in 1982, the first Royal Navy vessel to meet the enemy was HMS Endurance. She was an Antarctic survey ship with very minimal armament. Yet she collected intelligence enough for the British task force to make good plans. If memory serves, she was even involved in a few special operations. Never underestimate the Oberth Class.
Indeed! A poorly armed ship in a sector of interest is still a ship that can send out a message if attacked, prompting a large response, so it merely being there is something of a deterrent!
Please remember that any Starfleet Science vessel is capable of destroying a planet. It is refrained from by Starfleet, but still a capacity they have.
In my mind the Oberth are secret badasses. Section 31 equips them with hologram and cloaking systems. If attacked they fake an explosion with the hologram and then go cloaked. Oberth's are the ultimate covert ops ship.
I really liked the Oberth class. It wasn't a combat vessel and would never be a hero ship, but what it did, it did very well. I'd really like to see more of that in Federation starships rather than the standard big saucer - engine section, twin nacelles that all other vessels seem to have. Vessel dedicated to engineering and repair, vessels for colonization, rescue ships. Ships designed to do something specific rather than a bit of everything. It would be an interesting change in direction.
@@iansze2652 one of the original ideas discussed for the irl constructions of the saber and steamrunner was as improvements on the oberth. steamrunner got a more streamlined, but heavily armoured design that minimised the secondary hull from a canoe to a pod, and then pushed it back. saber chopped the front of the canoe off and built the rest of it directly into the primary hull. Obviously, apocrypha changed them from science vessels to combat oriented vessels, but...
It _could_ be the hero ship of a 70s style story involving a small and isolated crew suffering from loneliness and madness. You could even have two antagonistic crew members who never leave their respective hulls.
I love how you basically said they’re toothless enough that the Starfleet admiralty finally felt comfortable giving civilians more than a shuttle or a freighter.
Ahh, the Oberth. A Starfleet vessel who tends to serve as the ship equivalent of a TOS redshirt. It's genuinely good to see an analysis of it that focuses on why anyone would build such a thing or be willing to serve aboard it at anything other than gunpoint. Seriously: the Federation built a ton of these things, so there must have been a compelling in-universe reason for them to do so, and that's an angle that tends to be overlooked by a lot of people.
The reason: Not every graduate from the Academy is exactly 'Enterprise material'. The Oberth class is essentially the fast-food/retail job that the graduates who just barely made it out of school.......for the fifth year in a row..........have to look forward to. 🙂
I don't know... I think we've seen more Miranda Class ships go kaboom than we've seen Oberths, and I think the Miranda would fit the "redshirt" motif much better.
The Oberth class, more than the Constitution or any other, is the _pinnacle_ of Starfleet ideology as a design. It’s barely armed, barely shielded, is designed assuming the galaxy is a friendlier place than it is, and is OP on sensors, because it just wants to get out there and _have fun_ exploring sciency stuff. Of course the Borg and Dominion convinced Starfleet to maybe at least make a ship competent in defending itself hence the Nova… you take that Oberth, give it better shields and hull, some upgraded phasers and torpedoes, and baby… you got a _stew_ goin’! 😃
I’m imagining the unused optional crew space being crammed with shield emitters and torpedo magazines during the Dominion War, but no matter how well that worked they weren’t going to have many left at the end of it.
@@kaitlyn__L Just stick a cargo pod full of torpedoes with a couple launchers in the secondary hull space and have it hang back at the rear of the battle lines launching torpedoes constantly.
Honestly the fact that Starfleet even NEEDED that wake up call is a failing. I mean, HOW many wars have they already fought by then? Seriously, they NEVER learn their lesson
The Oberth class ship Pegasus (From TNG episode "The Pegasus") had the weapon systems that were used on the Enterprise-D. Not to mention Admiral Erik Pressman used it to (illegally) test a prototype for a Federation cloak. Just so happened this was the ship Riker served on after graduation from Starfleet.
The Treaty of Ageron , which is the real world equivalent of the US signing a treaty with Russia not to develop or use Stealth technology or risk all-out war, is unenforceable without betraying the Federation and Starfleet and opening them up to massive enemy incursions. You would have to tell the Romulans, and all else concerned, about and let them in on your tech, even tech designed to counter Cloaking technology. Imagine the US Military having to let Russia in on every step of developing the various stealth aircraft and warships in the US arsenal. The Treat of Algeron is all around a fail of good diplomacy and maintenance of the Federation's internal and external national security, while also undermining Starfleet's readiness and able to defend the Federation, her territories, allies and interests. Adm Pressmaan did test the phasing cloak illegally. This being the fault of the Treaty that shows just how stupidly the Federation gives away advantages, and sovereignty as a nation, on the flimsiest of excuses to avoid -war- not upsetting their neighbors. The only reason it came to the events of "The Pegasus" is because Picard and Riker literally betrayed Starfleet by surrendering to the Romulaans where they simply could have sneaked away under cloak. If you are not caught there is no crime. And all the Romulans would have are hearsay deductions. And even just retriving teh CLoak could have been done with out even saying a word about what it was, simply by "Gosh! the writers HAD to say nope we can't to that" drilling their way out. ITS AN ASTEROID IS IS NOT GOING TO COLLAPSE IF YOU DRILL YOUR WAY OUT!!! The Cloak is removed from the Ent-D, after the incident and stowed away by Top. Men. Adm Pressman walks away having done his job and Picard and Riker don't have to spend the next several seasons watching the butts that the Admirality does not come in to punish them. This just in case you were wondering why the Picard, who likely was on a fast track to becoming as admiral, thus his captaincy of Starfleet's Flagship, was on generally good terms with the Admirality, being friends with a lot of them, until after "Thee Pegasus". Only politics and overtly wish fulfillment by the writers saved Picard an Riker from being kicked out of the Fleet for Rank insubordination, Violation of the chain of command (and YES! Pressman was NOT the only admiral involved here), Violation of Starfleet security and betrayal of Federation Sovereignty. This is why Picard was run ragged, put back in command right after 1) having [done horrible things to him] by the Borg and 2) after being tortured and broken by Cardassians (for the Lulz apparently) all while NEVER being promoted until the VERY end of his career.
Why? It was testing new weapons systems. Do you know which ship had the first AEGIS Combat System and Mk 41 Vertical Launch System in the US Navy? Not the modern and fast USS Ticonderoga or USS Arleigh Burke. It was the USS Norton Sound… a seaplane tender built in 1942. Turns out that having an old and otherwise valueless ship to modify and test systems in a permissive environments while not drawing from operational ships is the best way to develop new technologies.
I love how no one fears Starfleet's war canoe. Some times all you need is just a ship and not the biggest one. Even the US navy has ship that don't really fight out in the thick of it. If any thing they do S&R, damage control, not all jobs in a war are to fight.
I had fun playing around with an Oberth in STO that had the Imperial Rift set, because the pre-fire animation before the mycelial rift opened was larger than the ship itself. *lol*
Ah, the Oberth. Actually, it's one of my favourite ships. Why? Because *it makes sense.* Every time someone brings up an Oberth at Wolf359, I have the same argument. "Why would it be there?" "In range, great sensors to feed to other ships, makes sense to have it protected but scanning...." "But it got blown up!" "So did every other ship bar one, so...." "But why not have more Galaxy Class'?" "Manpower, expense, size of the galaxy they're exploring...." As much as the Oberth is considered a "Death Trap," it could be crewed by 5 men as a skeleton crew and provided large sensor suites and *decent* (not great, mind) shielding and the power to run. People say "why would anyone ever serve on an Oberth?!" Well, A) duty, B) close to home system, C) assignments in interested scientific fields, D) relatively safer systems since you arent front-line nor considered a combatant....need I go on? It's not conceivable *every* StarFleet ship have the *best* warp drives, highest speeds, best shields, 100 phaser strip's and 60 photon/quantum launchers....come on. And those flaws in the design and make-up of StarFleet is what keeps it semi-grounded so we can actually see ourselves and aspire to it.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Wolf 359 was less about quality and more about quantity. The question to Oberth or Springfield was Yes. The Springfield is the better ship.
@@matthewday7565 It's actually a fantastic spacemagic ship. it's weapons are shit, but has excellent shields and is really nippy. makes a great control craft for solo play, and excellent debuffer for team play, where your teammate's can take the flak... just like the oberth's seen at w359 and sector001 would have done
@@viciousyeen6644 if you take out the engine between the nacelles you have the space trucker Ptolemy class I'm just going off of memory do correct me if im wrong it is from the old trek .
Oberth was always my Favorite. I think because it was such a departure from the previously seen (on screen) ships. I think the model builder intended it to be larger than 120M that someone tagged it with. The upper dome of the saucer had two rows of windows in it which are the same as those on the Refit Constitution and Miranda Class starships. I guess if you had the ability you could bases on window size calsulate the actual size of the entire ship. Which to me implies a much larger vessel. I also think that the lower pontoon or pod was actually unmanned with access via the pylons but generally not occupied. It housed the main deflector (behind a protective cone like the nose of an aircraft) sensor arrays, large mobile computers for processing data. In the upper section was the saucer and engineering hull (the flat section behind the saucer) between the Nacelles.
The Oberth makes perfect sense for Starfleet in the era. The UFP had expanded a lot and there was a lot of territory inside the borders that wasn't fully explored. A small ship with great sensors that could be produced in quantity could do that job as well as fulfill many other roles inside the borders of the UFP. The problem was Starfleet never built enough ships like the Mirandas to be the sort of first response ships the UFP needed. So inevitably something bad would happen and some starbase commander would send the closest starship which was an Oberth with orders to do their best until help arrived.
Every time I see an Oberth-class, I'm reminded of how much I adore it's successor, the Nova-class. The fixed triangular primary hull, the notched section bearing a second deflector dish, the sleek drive section and nacelles - I feel like it combines a lot of the most visually appealing aspects of Starfleet ship design with none of the oddities. I can't help but imagine a Lower Decks style sequence in which a designer is intensely tapping away at a console with a slightly unhinged expression, similar to one of those early writing scenes from Death Note. The image shifts to the display itself, the finalized schematics of the Nova-class. The scene then abruptly cuts to the designer watching the first ship of the line being completed at the Utopia Planisha fleet yards, eventually breaking into maniacal laughter like an anime villain. "Our opus shall outclass the Oberth in every way imaginable! They may have stolen nearly every innovation the team made to use on other projects but we succeeded regardless! Now begins the age of the NOVA!!"
This is literally what the Blue Ridge Class command ships do in the US Navy. They are old (the oldest vessels in the navy), slow, and very lightly armed. But they are the flagships. It’s weird how both Star Trek and Star Wars have flagships/command ships as the biggest and most powerful ships. I guess maybe this comes from the Age of Sail when First Rate ships like HMS Victory were flag ships and maybe up to WWI with HMS Lion and HMS Iron Duke.. but it makes no sense in an era of coded radio communications. The flagship should be well equipped with C3I facilities and far away from the actual battle.
I love little eggships with their little eggsploratory mission roles and their little neat nacelles and their nice (I would only assume) complement of utility runabouts On second glance, I hate that the upper and lower hulls have no central connector and the sheltered space doesn't seem to be used for anything. It could be a tit docking area and there's no clear reason not to have at least a couple of support structures that would allow crew to pass between the hulls without going all the way to the outer beam area
It just struck me that the huge hollow area could be there to insert mission-specific modules that fill in those missing decks, and we only ever see examples of a ship currently without.
I've always had a soft spot for the Oberth since TNG and the TNG era card game. I just really like the lesser known ships and underdogs like the Akula/Apollo Refit "Destroyer" from the TMP era. And the New Orleans ever since seeing the tiny thumbnail image of it in the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
@@davidburton4582 Just thought that science track students would end up on an Oberth to get practical training, Command and tactical would go to an Akira, and Engineering to a California. Or the ever versatile Meranda class. Oberth just seemed like a specialist craft to send new crews to for training.
I remember back in the 1980s playing the Star Trek RPG, and in the campaign my friend was running the Federation had had to resort to converting some of their Oberth ships into torpedo boats. Most of the secondary hull science and cargo space had been ripped out to make space for a second warp core and multiple torpedo launchers and torpedo magazines. It had a total of 8 torpedo launchers. 3 forward, 2 port, 2 starboard and 1 aft.
Happy New Year Ric! Thx for this video - I've always imagined the Oberth exactly like you described her: a capable smaller vessel, purpose built for specific tasks within the science field. =)
"It really has no place in large scale battles...even in emergencies" Mid 24th century Starfleet Admirals;...huh, what? Looking at you Hayes and Hansen!!!
It's an oddball of a vessel, to be sure. It's unusual looking, but I can't bring myself to call it 'ugly'. It always catches my eye for some reason and I can't look away. It's so different from standard Trek designs, yet not, yet it is. And to really hammer it home: the unique look makes sense given it's mission profile. Oh, Oberth.
I had no idea how else to mention this to you, so I thought commenting on the most recent video would maybe work. There are some fighters / shuttle sized ships in the last episode of prodigy season 1 that look a lot like the 3rd type of fighter you unlock in the PS1 game Star Trek: Invasion. To my knowledge, that's the first time they (or something like them) had been made canon, and I absolutely love it. I lost my mind when I saw those beauties, game from my childhood that no-one knows about given a nod by a truly loving set of producers.
Initially, when I heard that Oberths had been at both Wolf 359 and Sector 001 during Borg invasions, I couldn't understand why Starfleet would think that an Oberth-class starship would a ship to use, considering how limited in defensive capabilities, including shielding, the class was by comparison to other classes. The only thing I could ever gather was, like you said, that they were there only as data collectors that collected various readings of the Borg during the battles. But then I thought more on the subject and thought that it might have been possible that since the Nebula-class ships that were present had been set for combat operations, the Oberth-class could have taken on an electronic warfare mode, perhaps sending false readings to Borg sensors with the hope of giving Starfleet a better edge against the intruders. As seen in DS9's showing of the Battle of Wolf 359, when Sisko enters his quarters to rescue his son and wife, we see an Oberth destroyed, indicating that it apparently got too close to the cube. If the Oberth served an electronic warfare role, it would explain why the one at Wolf 359 got too close, as it needed to move in and out of the Federation armada in order to create false sensor readings, such as creating starships that weren't actually there or starships that weren't where they were in reality.
It would have been neat to see this design fleshed out more; more variants, and a more realistic design for things like the turbolifts. If it had beefed up shields and ditched the sensor pod for a torpedo magazine, this would have made for a fun Defiant precursor.
I dig this channel, I have now subscribed :) Also, thank you for helping me love the detail of Dr. T'Ana from Lower Decks mentioning her time on a F*****g Oberth class even more, that show has blown my mind with how much love and detail that has been put into it so far.
I remember back in my childhood, playing Starfleet Academy, this ship was available to be used in the main campaign and let me tell you, *IT WAS HELL.*
So effectively, it's the California class of the late TOS Era. Its meant for second contact..not first. I hate the flack this ship gets because it's purpose is clear. It was never meant for combat plain and simple. And given where it's core is, it makes since it could be one shotted. However I do think the ship was upgrade for combat duties when the tech improved, but it was probably more used as a gun boat for planetary defense and then as a last resort as we do see one in First Contact.
I've been working on a story that takes place on an Oberth class. Thank you very much for this video. It's given me a lot of useful insight into the class that I can definitely use!
my headcanon is that in battles against Borg, The Oberth's role is to stay at the periphery and use their sensors to scan for weaknesses in the Borg defenses, and coordinate information across the fleet since the ships up close may become distracted once they engage. And borg being practical will see them as a low threat initially. Unfortunately what seems like periphery doesnt always stay that way and they end up too close to the fight. But with a small crew it is seen as a risk worth taking.
I expect construction of new Oberths likely ended around the 2310's, not 2360's. They simply had so many of them in service by then that there wasn't a need for any more. They were easily upgraded (as Excelsiors and other ships of their era were designed to be) and thus they were somewhat updated as time went on. The Nova class was built to replace them after Starfleet's mothballed stockpile of Oberths was depleted during the Dominion War.
They could’ve swapped the mission pod for a specific war role in the dominion war. Like big sensors, Communication Jammers, Big Torpedo launchers or giant phaser lances
Hmm... I'd say the Oberth acts as a coordination ship, kinda like AWACS planes in modern combat. Help "paint" targets for long range torpedo barrage, do recon against enemy lines, but if needed you COULD fit it with a dozen VLS cells and use it behind main line to just saturate enemy lines with bombardment torpedoes.
I honestly would like to see a Lower Decks-esque comedy series about the crew of an Oberth-class getting into death-defying hijinks while doing surveys, experiments, transports, battlefield scanning, etc. Each time, the ship would come close to completely exploding; and each time, the crew would pull some technobabble out of their overworked fabricators so that only _Most_ of the ship explodes. xD
Thank you for the respectful breakdown of the Oberth class (although that ending was hilarious)! I'm a big fan of the channel! God be with you out there everybody! ✝️ :)
It's one of my favorite ships. However, I want to say that I've read a scaling study that stated that the pylons weren't thick enough to fit even a one-man turbolift car. My head canon is that a tube simply descends from the primary to the secondary hull to facilitate turbolift service. This is both technically possible, and solves any scaling concerns.
Honestly, I do think a few Oberths being assigned to major engagements, (Battle of Wolf 359, Battle of Sector 001, etc), especially against new/novel opponents would make sense; they can record/scan as much data as possible, with minimal crew, and relay that data to either a command vessel for additional information to win the battle, or for after action reporting/data analysis. (The key is being at the edge of the battle (or further away), and keeping that warp engine ready to engage the second the adversary glances their direction.) (Heck, even something like the Battle of the Bassen Rift- having powerful sensor suites available to coordinate with the combat ships might've been helpful.)
I wouldn't even say it's a good scout. Can't report back if its gets blown up. The only reason it exists en masse in universe is that it's easy and fast to make, i.e. cheap. The problem is that Starfleet doesn't know to use it all that well due to their doctrine of spreading their fleet too thin to reinforce each other. "We're the only ship in range." An Oberth and a Miranda class would actually work reasonably well under budget, but the Miranda ALSO does the same kind of job the Oberth typically does, so it's better just to go with a Miranda-class.
Why would it be blown up? They rarely enter combat. They have advanced shielding against natural phenomena. Plus, they can run really fast for six hours.
To me, the ship had three roles. One was infrastructure and the other was scientific and the last was transport. Once retired, two classes replace them, the Nova class did the scientific and transport duties while the California class did the infrastructure part.
I would take my T1 Oberth into STFs in Star Trek Online and did pretty well. Ended up buying the T6 version, and kitbashed it to look like the Original one. It’s a tough little ship.
There is one place they could have in combat: flying bombs. Load them up with quantum torpedo warheads and fling them at a Borg cube at maximum warp. The cube will be dealt with rather swiftly...
It's amazing they crammed any weapons on it at all. It seems arming notcombatant ships is pretty common given the size of space, but we can't expect much from a literal science ship.
The Oberth class was intended to solidly go where many men had gone before, to chart, check, and clean up after all the boldly-going folks who'd long since boldly gone somewhere else.
Way I see it, it does what it needs to. A small minimally crewed Science vessel that flees danger if needed, but is still armed and shielded just enough to attempt to defend it’s self if needed or aid a fleet in combat if needed to be mustered with one in an emergency.
Head canon says the reason for the split saucer / star drive is to keep things hermetically and mechanically isolated. Research and experiments take place in the saucer section, isolated from interference from the star drive and minimizing the risk of biological cross-contamination. It was actually more common to "beam" between the two sections, thereby passing through the bio-filters, rather than using the secondary turbolifts.
As per my comment on the galaxy class: The Oberth has a lot of wasted potential in its design. Given most of the ship is in the primary hull and the secondary being a mission profile sort of affair? Being able to detatch the pylons in favor of hulls for specific specializations would be amazing. For example: A secondary hull that offers a second powerplant with ACTUAL USEFUL SHIELDING, communications gear, added sensors, and use it like an AWACS plane in modern combat as a way to extend the fleet's communications and vision while possibly also providing more detailed sensor data that tougher ships can exploit. Or a dedicated cargo pod to take advantage of the Oberth's speed. And on and on. One could even pair these with 'unattached' Galaxy saucers for in-system warpless ships that do attendent work around starbases and starfleet aligned worlds both to keep up a fleet presence, and as a way to have them in storage without having boneyards. The neat thing though is taking advantage of the fact Galaxy saucers can mantain an active warp bubble (and simply lack the capacity to create one.) Exploit that by way of mcguffin devices that can generate a warp field (much like that one episode in TnG where they tried to have a wave cgi thing do that, and it inevetably went wrong.) Why not scale that back so you don't need a station on the other end to stop it. Just pulse to start the Galaxy saucer wit hthe oberth hull so you have a way to get between federation stations? It's not glamorous but it would be a reliable way to get from A to B, and narritively there would be tension in the idea that 'what if something happens along the way' While realistically these sort of warp pnumatic trails wouldm ostly be for safe routes anda few ships on standby as sortof internal coast guard. Having a galaxy saucer means these ships aren't defensless so can hold out until they get a tow.
@@gmradio2436 Not to be a smart ass but ...Yes. The Oberth ahs so much wasted potential. hell, the show runners had SO MUCH wasted potential based on the concept of kitbashing and modularity.
@@singletona082 Mathematician's answer. Nice. The Oberth may seem to have wasted potential, but remember the role it was built for, and the state of the fleet at the time.
@@gmradio2436 Well I'm not just pulling this out of my rump either. The show runners made extensive use of kitbashes, literally in many cases pre CGI involving using off the shelf kits, to pad out background details. Imagine having an in universe explaination for having the sort of modularity that would make that practice easier. imagine what you could sell. Not just ship kits but the base ship and the differing modules to slap onto it to make that YOUR ship. All to save money on creating visually distinct ships.
@@singletona082 You are expecting a lot from a low budget show. TOS had to be saved from the cutting room floor by Lucy from I Love Lucy. Modular model kits were far down the priority list.
I would love to see a new version of it but better armed. I think the design is really iconic and it's size is reasonable. I know there is the Nova-Class but i think there should be a new Oberth-Class
There's nothing with a ship not really having defenses and being focused on scientific research. Ships like that are needed. They're not supposed to get involved in military confrontation. If there's a danger, you send them in with an escort.
My favorite Enterprise was the Constitution refit, and my favorite overall is the Excelsior class. It looks like a huge Cadillac with art deco styling.
It was a highly utilitarian ship. And I am sure if Starfleet had modified it properly, it would have been a decent small destroyer, but that wasn't a priority for Starfleet when it was in service. Long live explodium!
It's excellent little vessel considering how old it is. Excellent warp drive, state of the art censors, easy on the resources, and a versatile shield systems for just about any natural space situation. I'd actually love to see these in action for science or rescue missions. I imagine these unique traits would give it a variety of abilities that our typical favorites don't have.
The Oberth Class being able to match the speed of a Blockade Runner (NOT Orion) or Fast-Attack patrol ship combined with their size and maneuverability is why they were in service for a century. We can also thank this "death trap" for a great deal of stellar cartography and logged spacial anomalies, gas and dust clouds and nebulae occupying the Alpha Quadrant including those dangerously close to the edges of either neutral zone (pre-Khitomer Accords). -Commander Thad Knightley, Stellar Cartography, USS Bounder's Folly, NCC-082891
I would watch a Trek show set on an Oberth vessel. Maybe in the 2280s so we can get a series in the cool Maroon uniforms like when the Enterprise C showed up in TNG.
🖖😎👍Very nicely well done and very well executed and informatively explained in every detail way shape and format provided on this vessel to you on all of the subject matter on the design, functions,duties and missions of the Oberth class starship's indeed Sir!,👌.
I think I had one of the better laughs in the last while, when someone stated what the T6 Oberth-Class on Star Trek Online should have as a Starship Trait. Captain's Discretion: Your warp core breach explosion on death deals 5 times normal damage and is 5 times larger.
My head-cannon command (e.g. what I would have if I was in this universe) is a Frankenstein'ed Orberth, that was salvaged by civilian science organisation and upgraded/repaired using whatever else was in the scrapyard of decommissioned tech. I always liked the shape, I liked the mission profile of investigation, and I thought it had potential as a easily automated aka civilian-crewed ship that Starfleet wouldn't have completely gutted for "Security" All that being said, I could never find a definitive answer for size/layout (are the pylons wide enough for decks, is the horizontal section tall enough, etc) so I took a LOT of liberties. I gave her better nacelles and moved the (bigger) core to 2* hull so she could go faster in a straight line and have the power to escape blackhole gravity. The bridge module is moved 1 deck deeper into the saucer and aft ("you ever notice how federation ships put a nice big bull's-eye for where to kill their captain?") with a holotank in the centre for a more decentralised command style. Bigger computer core required for the upgraded sensors and this holo-tech. Anyway, this ship class is my guilty pleasure, and if USS DaVinci can be a Sabre and awesome, I see no reason why I can't have an Orberth
I wonder what the Mirror Universe used the Oberth for. As a Space/Ground bomber? Light Carrier for planetary oppression, similar to the Galactic Empires Quasar Fire class Carrier?
I felt like such a bad ass back in the day when I used an Oberth in Star Trek Star Fleet Academy on SNES, and I managed to take out a Constitution in the flight simulator mode 😎
@@marshallhuffer4713 so then this video's timeline fir the introduction of the class is *way* off. He says it was introduced during the so-called "Lost era" and it clearly wasn't.
@@vic5015 he said it was introduced at the same time as the Connie refit and the Excelsior. It even uses the nacelles from the unused Excelsior study model
My Star Fleet science captain has this ship on Star Trek Online along with the Wrath of Khan uniform and hand phaser for authenticity. It's a tough little ship at least it is in my hands, I have made my shields tough to compliment the ships already great shield abilities.
I like the Oberth class, and I don't care what anyone says about it. Not all starships have to be warships, especially in classic Trek. There is so much more to the Federation than just battle prowess.
I can see the Oberths being used in larger battles as a logistics center in the back ranks, scanning enemy vessels, the environment of the solar system itself, coordinating the fleet, etc. They'd definitely have their uses. I always thought it was an ugly class though. It doesn't make any sense within the Starfleet aesthetic. I'm glad the Nova replaced it.
I enjoy the propriety of the delivery on this channel If I didn’t know any better I’d say this guy was in charge of QA at Utopia Planitia from the late 2280’s until 2367 or so 😂
If you have artificial gravity and you're not landing the ship on a planet, then what exactly forces you to align the gravity in the pylons with the rest of the ship? Rooms there could just as easily be a tall straight stack of spaces as it is one large flat open floor.
The video was incredibly kind to the ship, but even then I couldn't help but chuckle at the footage of the ironically named "U.S.S. Fortuate" exploding.
It always performs poorly in combat, but the moment you're in a fight and there hasn't been an Oberth around to give you intel, you'll _feel it._
Right. With those scanners, small profile, high speed and light crew, they'd make very cost effective scout ships. Put them on the flanks to provide Intel, integrate their sensors into fleets to boost fire control accuracy, and, should the worst happen, send them home with their detailed black box data for Utopua Planetia and Starfleet Corps of Engineers to design new countermeasures.
@@The_Viscount They could have donea hell of a lot especially given the ship itself is fairly compact and the pontoon secondary hull is mission specifics. swap that out for an AWAC suite and youv'e got an amazing fast scout ship. Have this sensor hull also have better sheilding because... just. damn. No seriously damn HELP that poor little ship.
That said. Saw the secondary hull off and I would actually want one as a civie model for buzzing about. Or possibly use the secondary hull for expanded quarters or other ameneties.
Sure the Oberth is a laughing stock because THEY KEEP SENDING IT INTO SLUG MATCHES... but the ship philosophy itself is a genuinely sound one.
Make it fast. make its systems able to deal with non-combat hazards, AND MAKE IT FAST ENOUGH TO GET OUT OF DANGER.
@@The_Viscount So... AWACS?
Well that changes in sto with t6 Grissom class starship
I can see them being priority targets for Romulan captains. They have trouble with normal Starfleet sensors. Kill the specialist. Blind the enemy.
During the Falklands War in 1982, the first Royal Navy vessel to meet the enemy was HMS Endurance. She was an Antarctic survey ship with very minimal armament. Yet she collected intelligence enough for the British task force to make good plans. If memory serves, she was even involved in a few special operations. Never underestimate the Oberth Class.
Indeed! A poorly armed ship in a sector of interest is still a ship that can send out a message if attacked, prompting a large response, so it merely being there is something of a deterrent!
Please remember that any Starfleet Science vessel is capable of destroying a planet. It is refrained from by Starfleet, but still a capacity they have.
What does that rightly have to do with a fictional science vessel?
@@Adarkane325xi Use your imagination.
@@gilanbarona9814 Hmm, nah.
In my mind the Oberth are secret badasses. Section 31 equips them with hologram and cloaking systems. If attacked they fake an explosion with the hologram and then go cloaked. Oberth's are the ultimate covert ops ship.
That would actually work lol. That's a neat idea.
And then what? What are they gonna do after cloaking other than run away?
@@OmniGundam777 change transponder signature, then uncloak pretending to be another ship warping in
@@OmniGundam777 what exactly do you think "covert ops" means? The goal is subterfuge, not open conflict.
@@Thuazabi yeah but they already got spotted.
I really liked the Oberth class. It wasn't a combat vessel and would never be a hero ship, but what it did, it did very well. I'd really like to see more of that in Federation starships rather than the standard big saucer - engine section, twin nacelles that all other vessels seem to have. Vessel dedicated to engineering and repair, vessels for colonization, rescue ships. Ships designed to do something specific rather than a bit of everything. It would be an interesting change in direction.
Starfleet Engineering designed the California Class to be an Oberth that could defend itself
@@iansze2652 one of the original ideas discussed for the irl constructions of the saber and steamrunner was as improvements on the oberth. steamrunner got a more streamlined, but heavily armoured design that minimised the secondary hull from a canoe to a pod, and then pushed it back. saber chopped the front of the canoe off and built the rest of it directly into the primary hull. Obviously, apocrypha changed them from science vessels to combat oriented vessels, but...
It _could_ be the hero ship of a 70s style story involving a small and isolated crew suffering from loneliness and madness. You could even have two antagonistic crew members who never leave their respective hulls.
I love how you basically said they’re toothless enough that the Starfleet admiralty finally felt comfortable giving civilians more than a shuttle or a freighter.
Nothing is Toothless given enough Knowledge, elbow grease, Latium and Access to a black market…..Or a half way decent Ferengi.
@@bully056 cough-spacemagic-cough
@@bully056 Make a bet with Sisko or O'brian and they'll turn an Oberth into a warship people will beterrified of.
@@singletona082 O'Brian: "Starfleet won't give us any weapons for this project."
Quark: "I have this cousin..."
Ahh, the Oberth. A Starfleet vessel who tends to serve as the ship equivalent of a TOS redshirt. It's genuinely good to see an analysis of it that focuses on why anyone would build such a thing or be willing to serve aboard it at anything other than gunpoint.
Seriously: the Federation built a ton of these things, so there must have been a compelling in-universe reason for them to do so, and that's an angle that tends to be overlooked by a lot of people.
The reason: Not every graduate from the Academy is exactly 'Enterprise material'. The Oberth class is essentially the fast-food/retail job that the graduates who just barely made it out of school.......for the fifth year in a row..........have to look forward to. 🙂
I don't know... I think we've seen more Miranda Class ships go kaboom than we've seen Oberths, and I think the Miranda would fit the "redshirt" motif much better.
The Oberth class, more than the Constitution or any other, is the _pinnacle_ of Starfleet ideology as a design. It’s barely armed, barely shielded, is designed assuming the galaxy is a friendlier place than it is, and is OP on sensors, because it just wants to get out there and _have fun_ exploring sciency stuff.
Of course the Borg and Dominion convinced Starfleet to maybe at least make a ship competent in defending itself hence the Nova… you take that Oberth, give it better shields and hull, some upgraded phasers and torpedoes, and baby… you got a _stew_ goin’! 😃
I’m imagining the unused optional crew space being crammed with shield emitters and torpedo magazines during the Dominion War, but no matter how well that worked they weren’t going to have many left at the end of it.
@@kaitlyn__L Just stick a cargo pod full of torpedoes with a couple launchers in the secondary hull space and have it hang back at the rear of the battle lines launching torpedoes constantly.
@@KertaDrake Hmm... The Star Trek version of artillery!
Honestly the fact that Starfleet even NEEDED that wake up call is a failing.
I mean, HOW many wars have they already fought by then? Seriously, they NEVER learn their lesson
The Oberth is beautiful, like Fine China, and just as fragile.
I hope this video... _explodes_ in popularity.
Indeed, considering it's hull is made out of explodium. A disrupter set on stun could destroy it.
The Oberth class ship Pegasus (From TNG episode "The Pegasus") had the weapon systems that were used on the Enterprise-D. Not to mention Admiral Erik Pressman used it to (illegally) test a prototype for a Federation cloak. Just so happened this was the ship Riker served on after graduation from Starfleet.
It had type X phasers? Highly doubt it.
@@cosmoray9750 spam reported
The Treaty of Ageron , which is the real world equivalent of the US signing a treaty with Russia not to develop or use Stealth technology or risk all-out war, is unenforceable without betraying the Federation and Starfleet and opening them up to massive enemy incursions. You would have to tell the Romulans, and all else concerned, about and let them in on your tech, even tech designed to counter Cloaking technology. Imagine the US Military having to let Russia in on every step of developing the various stealth aircraft and warships in the US arsenal.
The Treat of Algeron is all around a fail of good diplomacy and maintenance of the Federation's internal and external national security, while also undermining Starfleet's readiness and able to defend the Federation, her territories, allies and interests.
Adm Pressmaan did test the phasing cloak illegally. This being the fault of the Treaty that shows just how stupidly the Federation gives away advantages, and sovereignty as a nation, on the flimsiest of excuses to avoid -war- not upsetting their neighbors. The only reason it came to the events of "The Pegasus" is because Picard and Riker literally betrayed Starfleet by surrendering to the Romulaans where they simply could have sneaked away under cloak. If you are not caught there is no crime. And all the Romulans would have are hearsay deductions. And even just retriving teh CLoak could have been done with out even saying a word about what it was, simply by "Gosh! the writers HAD to say nope we can't to that" drilling their way out. ITS AN ASTEROID IS IS NOT GOING TO COLLAPSE IF YOU DRILL YOUR WAY OUT!!!
The Cloak is removed from the Ent-D, after the incident and stowed away by Top. Men. Adm Pressman walks away having done his job and Picard and Riker don't have to spend the next several seasons watching the butts that the Admirality does not come in to punish them. This just in case you were wondering why the Picard, who likely was on a fast track to becoming as admiral, thus his captaincy of Starfleet's Flagship, was on generally good terms with the Admirality, being friends with a lot of them, until after "Thee Pegasus".
Only politics and overtly wish fulfillment by the writers saved Picard an Riker from being kicked out of the Fleet for Rank insubordination, Violation of the chain of command (and YES! Pressman was NOT the only admiral involved here), Violation of Starfleet security and betrayal of Federation Sovereignty. This is why Picard was run ragged, put back in command right after 1) having [done horrible things to him] by the Borg and 2) after being tortured and broken by Cardassians (for the Lulz apparently) all while NEVER being promoted until the VERY end of his career.
@@vic5015 there’s no way... Type VII’s or VIII’s max!
Why? It was testing new weapons systems.
Do you know which ship had the first AEGIS Combat System and Mk 41 Vertical Launch System in the US Navy? Not the modern and fast USS Ticonderoga or USS Arleigh Burke.
It was the USS Norton Sound… a seaplane tender built in 1942.
Turns out that having an old and otherwise valueless ship to modify and test systems in a permissive environments while not drawing from operational ships is the best way to develop new technologies.
I love how no one fears Starfleet's war canoe. Some times all you need is just a ship and not the biggest one. Even the US navy has ship that don't really fight out in the thick of it. If any thing they do S&R, damage control, not all jobs in a war are to fight.
People like talking tactics, logistics may win wars, but not as fun.
I like the idea of this ship. The Ship itself being ontop and having a pod under it with the mission stuff, like science labs etc
I had fun playing around with an Oberth in STO that had the Imperial Rift set, because the pre-fire animation before the mycelial rift opened was larger than the ship itself. *lol*
That's one scary Oberth
I thought all the animations were bigger! 🤣
Put it an a shuttle.
@@gmradio2436 It scales down for shuttles, but it is still bigger! To be fair, ship beam arrays don't scale down for them though.
@@berthulf Ran the Vault with it equipped. Lost sight of my shuttle. Do not fire superweapons indoors.
Ah, the Oberth. Actually, it's one of my favourite ships. Why? Because *it makes sense.*
Every time someone brings up an Oberth at Wolf359, I have the same argument.
"Why would it be there?"
"In range, great sensors to feed to other ships, makes sense to have it protected but scanning...."
"But it got blown up!"
"So did every other ship bar one, so...."
"But why not have more Galaxy Class'?"
"Manpower, expense, size of the galaxy they're exploring...."
As much as the Oberth is considered a "Death Trap," it could be crewed by 5 men as a skeleton crew and provided large sensor suites and *decent* (not great, mind) shielding and the power to run. People say "why would anyone ever serve on an Oberth?!" Well, A) duty, B) close to home system, C) assignments in interested scientific fields, D) relatively safer systems since you arent front-line nor considered a combatant....need I go on?
It's not conceivable *every* StarFleet ship have the *best* warp drives, highest speeds, best shields, 100 phaser strip's and 60 photon/quantum launchers....come on.
And those flaws in the design and make-up of StarFleet is what keeps it semi-grounded so we can actually see ourselves and aspire to it.
You would be fun to debate. Actual reasons and arguments. To bad I agree with you. Good presentation. Have a nice day.
I can't help but feel a Springfield-class or similar, could have done the job too, though, with somewhat increased survivability.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Isn't the Springfield a later generation of ship?
@@gmradio2436 Yes, but I meant to serve in a role like at Wolf 359, specifically.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Wolf 359 was less about quality and more about quantity. The question to Oberth or Springfield was Yes.
The Springfield is the better ship.
Personally, I always had a special liking for the Oberth class. I think it did it's role very well, which was largely unseen and under appreciated.
The most legendary ship. Glad they finally made a T6 version of it on STO. Lol!
What does it do to enemies, destroy them by exploding all over them?
@@matthewday7565 Explodium can be even more deadly than corbomite.
@@matthewday7565 It's actually a fantastic spacemagic ship. it's weapons are shit, but has excellent shields and is really nippy. makes a great control craft for solo play, and excellent debuffer for team play, where your teammate's can take the flak... just like the oberth's seen at w359 and sector001 would have done
I really think that Lower decks would have been served very well in an Oberth class .
Well, the California class does look more like the Archer class. But I could totally see a modernized version of the oberth in a role like that!
@@viciousyeen6644 if you take out the engine between the nacelles you have the space trucker Ptolemy class I'm just going off of memory do correct me if im wrong it is from the old trek .
The Cerritos' chief medical officer, actually served on one for 7 years, in fact...
@@antwan1357 also play some rock and roll music or country music on the PA speakers.
@@chrissonofpear1384 ...to her *colorful* acclaim.
Oberth was always my Favorite. I think because it was such a departure from the previously seen (on screen) ships. I think the model builder intended it to be larger than 120M that someone tagged it with. The upper dome of the saucer had two rows of windows in it which are the same as those on the Refit Constitution and Miranda Class starships. I guess if you had the ability you could bases on window size calsulate the actual size of the entire ship. Which to me implies a much larger vessel. I also think that the lower pontoon or pod was actually unmanned with access via the pylons but generally not occupied. It housed the main deflector (behind a protective cone like the nose of an aircraft) sensor arrays, large mobile computers for processing data.
In the upper section was the saucer and engineering hull (the flat section behind the saucer) between the Nacelles.
The Oberth makes perfect sense for Starfleet in the era. The UFP had expanded a lot and there was a lot of territory inside the borders that wasn't fully explored. A small ship with great sensors that could be produced in quantity could do that job as well as fulfill many other roles inside the borders of the UFP. The problem was Starfleet never built enough ships like the Mirandas to be the sort of first response ships the UFP needed. So inevitably something bad would happen and some starbase commander would send the closest starship which was an Oberth with orders to do their best until help arrived.
Just got a T6 fleet Oberth. Love the ship.
Every time I see an Oberth-class, I'm reminded of how much I adore it's successor, the Nova-class. The fixed triangular primary hull, the notched section bearing a second deflector dish, the sleek drive section and nacelles - I feel like it combines a lot of the most visually appealing aspects of Starfleet ship design with none of the oddities.
I can't help but imagine a Lower Decks style sequence in which a designer is intensely tapping away at a console with a slightly unhinged expression, similar to one of those early writing scenes from Death Note. The image shifts to the display itself, the finalized schematics of the Nova-class. The scene then abruptly cuts to the designer watching the first ship of the line being completed at the Utopia Planisha fleet yards, eventually breaking into maniacal laughter like an anime villain.
"Our opus shall outclass the Oberth in every way imaginable! They may have stolen nearly every innovation the team made to use on other projects but we succeeded regardless! Now begins the age of the NOVA!!"
The Oberth class is like the Starfleet version of the McDonell-Douglas DC9, perfectly capable but deep down you worry about it.
I could honestly see Startfleet turning the secondary hulls of these ships into torpedo boats or using these frames as haulcraft.
In a large scale battle, I can see the Oberth's sensor systems being used for scouting and coordination purposes.
I found the cloaked Romulan. Fire at ...
This is literally what the Blue Ridge Class command ships do in the US Navy.
They are old (the oldest vessels in the navy), slow, and very lightly armed.
But they are the flagships.
It’s weird how both Star Trek and Star Wars have flagships/command ships as the biggest and most powerful ships. I guess maybe this comes from the Age of Sail when First Rate ships like HMS Victory were flag ships and maybe up to WWI with HMS Lion and HMS Iron Duke.. but it makes no sense in an era of coded radio communications. The flagship should be well equipped with C3I facilities and far away from the actual battle.
@@calvinnickel9995 Might be a hold over from WW2 Pacific.
Starfleet's version of the PBY Catalina?
@@mikespangler98 It fits.
I always wanted to see a Oberth story where they're always out-gunned but never out smarted. Sort of like it was the Doctor as a star ship.
I love little eggships with their little eggsploratory mission roles and their little neat nacelles and their nice (I would only assume) complement of utility runabouts
On second glance, I hate that the upper and lower hulls have no central connector and the sheltered space doesn't seem to be used for anything. It could be a tit docking area and there's no clear reason not to have at least a couple of support structures that would allow crew to pass between the hulls without going all the way to the outer beam area
Smaller support structures make it easier to detach in an emergency.
My face is a tit docking area.
It just struck me that the huge hollow area could be there to insert mission-specific modules that fill in those missing decks, and we only ever see examples of a ship currently without.
@@SoranoGuardias I'll support your smaller structures in an emergency
I've always had a soft spot for the Oberth since TNG and the TNG era card game. I just really like the lesser known ships and underdogs like the Akula/Apollo Refit "Destroyer" from the TMP era. And the New Orleans ever since seeing the tiny thumbnail image of it in the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
This class of ship is perfect as a training vessel for command track students and engineering students.
I think that is a joke.
@@gmradio2436 if you wish to take it as a joke, you’re free to do so, but I am quite serious about it because it’s a light ship and perfect for that.
@@davidburton4582 Just seemed odd to put engineers and command staff on a science vessel.
@@gmradio2436 if you noticed, I put them as students and not actual crew members on a ship like that.
@@davidburton4582 Just thought that science track students would end up on an Oberth to get practical training, Command and tactical would go to an Akira, and Engineering to a California. Or the ever versatile Meranda class. Oberth just seemed like a specialist craft to send new crews to for training.
In Beta cannon there are Oberth class variations like a gun boat, Corsir, and rescue and medical vessel.
I remember back in the 1980s playing the Star Trek RPG, and in the campaign my friend was running the Federation had had to resort to converting some of their Oberth ships into torpedo boats. Most of the secondary hull science and cargo space had been ripped out to make space for a second warp core and multiple torpedo launchers and torpedo magazines. It had a total of 8 torpedo launchers. 3 forward, 2 port, 2 starboard and 1 aft.
The oberth was always one of my favorite non-standard starship designs.
Happy New Year Ric! Thx for this video - I've always imagined the Oberth exactly like you described her: a capable smaller vessel, purpose built for specific tasks within the science field. =)
"It really has no place in large scale battles...even in emergencies"
Mid 24th century Starfleet Admirals;...huh, what?
Looking at you Hayes and Hansen!!!
I suppose they couldn't really be picky when the Borg were about to come knocking though.
It's an oddball of a vessel, to be sure. It's unusual looking, but I can't bring myself to call it 'ugly'. It always catches my eye for some reason and I can't look away. It's so different from standard Trek designs, yet not, yet it is. And to really hammer it home: the unique look makes sense given it's mission profile.
Oh, Oberth.
What a beauty of a ship! 💗
I enjoy using the T6 oberth class in STO to troll in fleet actions. Made a DPS build that slaps.
I had no idea how else to mention this to you, so I thought commenting on the most recent video would maybe work.
There are some fighters / shuttle sized ships in the last episode of prodigy season 1 that look a lot like the 3rd type of fighter you unlock in the PS1 game Star Trek: Invasion. To my knowledge, that's the first time they (or something like them) had been made canon, and I absolutely love it. I lost my mind when I saw those beauties, game from my childhood that no-one knows about given a nod by a truly loving set of producers.
Initially, when I heard that Oberths had been at both Wolf 359 and Sector 001 during Borg invasions, I couldn't understand why Starfleet would think that an Oberth-class starship would a ship to use, considering how limited in defensive capabilities, including shielding, the class was by comparison to other classes. The only thing I could ever gather was, like you said, that they were there only as data collectors that collected various readings of the Borg during the battles. But then I thought more on the subject and thought that it might have been possible that since the Nebula-class ships that were present had been set for combat operations, the Oberth-class could have taken on an electronic warfare mode, perhaps sending false readings to Borg sensors with the hope of giving Starfleet a better edge against the intruders. As seen in DS9's showing of the Battle of Wolf 359, when Sisko enters his quarters to rescue his son and wife, we see an Oberth destroyed, indicating that it apparently got too close to the cube. If the Oberth served an electronic warfare role, it would explain why the one at Wolf 359 got too close, as it needed to move in and out of the Federation armada in order to create false sensor readings, such as creating starships that weren't actually there or starships that weren't where they were in reality.
Respect the Captain who has the balls to fight the Borg Cube in an Oberth.
It would have been neat to see this design fleshed out more; more variants, and a more realistic design for things like the turbolifts.
If it had beefed up shields and ditched the sensor pod for a torpedo magazine, this would have made for a fun Defiant precursor.
I love the Oberth; It exemplifies the word "plucky"!
I dig this channel, I have now subscribed :) Also, thank you for helping me love the detail of Dr. T'Ana from Lower Decks mentioning her time on a F*****g Oberth class even more, that show has blown my mind with how much love and detail that has been put into it so far.
Still, warp 9.6 - really?! I rather doubt it.
And with those titchy nacelles, too.
I remember back in my childhood, playing Starfleet Academy, this ship was available to be used in the main campaign and let me tell you, *IT WAS HELL.*
So effectively, it's the California class of the late TOS Era. Its meant for second contact..not first. I hate the flack this ship gets because it's purpose is clear. It was never meant for combat plain and simple. And given where it's core is, it makes since it could be one shotted. However I do think the ship was upgrade for combat duties when the tech improved, but it was probably more used as a gun boat for planetary defense and then as a last resort as we do see one in First Contact.
I wish we'd seen more ships with the design aesthetic of the Oberth. The main hull is like a sleek mini-Miranda!
I've been working on a story that takes place on an Oberth class. Thank you very much for this video. It's given me a lot of useful insight into the class that I can definitely use!
The Oberth-class is named for German physicist and engineer Hermann Oberth who is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.
my headcanon is that in battles against Borg, The Oberth's role is to stay at the periphery and use their sensors to scan for weaknesses in the Borg defenses, and coordinate information across the fleet since the ships up close may become distracted once they engage. And borg being practical will see them as a low threat initially. Unfortunately what seems like periphery doesnt always stay that way and they end up too close to the fight. But with a small crew it is seen as a risk worth taking.
I expect construction of new Oberths likely ended around the 2310's, not 2360's. They simply had so many of them in service by then that there wasn't a need for any more. They were easily upgraded (as Excelsiors and other ships of their era were designed to be) and thus they were somewhat updated as time went on. The Nova class was built to replace them after Starfleet's mothballed stockpile of Oberths was depleted during the Dominion War.
They could’ve swapped the mission pod for a specific war role in the dominion war. Like big sensors, Communication Jammers, Big Torpedo launchers or giant phaser lances
Hmm... I'd say the Oberth acts as a coordination ship, kinda like AWACS planes in modern combat. Help "paint" targets for long range torpedo barrage, do recon against enemy lines, but if needed you COULD fit it with a dozen VLS cells and use it behind main line to just saturate enemy lines with bombardment torpedoes.
An Oberth with a Miranda-style weapons pod would be really cool to see some day.
I honestly would like to see a Lower Decks-esque comedy series about the crew of an Oberth-class getting into death-defying hijinks while doing surveys, experiments, transports, battlefield scanning, etc. Each time, the ship would come close to completely exploding; and each time, the crew would pull some technobabble out of their overworked fabricators so that only _Most_ of the ship explodes. xD
Thank you for the respectful breakdown of the Oberth class (although that ending was hilarious)! I'm a big fan of the channel!
God be with you out there everybody! ✝️ :)
“It was probably on an Oberth class, until it exploded” lol that line really got me.
It's one of my favorite ships. However, I want to say that I've read a scaling study that stated that the pylons weren't thick enough to fit even a one-man turbolift car. My head canon is that a tube simply descends from the primary to the secondary hull to facilitate turbolift service. This is both technically possible, and solves any scaling concerns.
It was a daring (if ill-thought through) decision to supplement the Oberth's defenses with an explosive-reactive engineering section.
Honestly, I do think a few Oberths being assigned to major engagements, (Battle of Wolf 359, Battle of Sector 001, etc), especially against new/novel opponents would make sense; they can record/scan as much data as possible, with minimal crew, and relay that data to either a command vessel for additional information to win the battle, or for after action reporting/data analysis. (The key is being at the edge of the battle (or further away), and keeping that warp engine ready to engage the second the adversary glances their direction.)
(Heck, even something like the Battle of the Bassen Rift- having powerful sensor suites available to coordinate with the combat ships might've been helpful.)
I wouldn't even say it's a good scout. Can't report back if its gets blown up. The only reason it exists en masse in universe is that it's easy and fast to make, i.e. cheap. The problem is that Starfleet doesn't know to use it all that well due to their doctrine of spreading their fleet too thin to reinforce each other. "We're the only ship in range." An Oberth and a Miranda class would actually work reasonably well under budget, but the Miranda ALSO does the same kind of job the Oberth typically does, so it's better just to go with a Miranda-class.
Why would it be blown up? They rarely enter combat. They have advanced shielding against natural phenomena. Plus, they can run really fast for six hours.
I booted TNG movies out of my head canon. But to be fair to Oberth class it seems to do as well as a Galaxy class against a single bird-of-prey.
How is a powerful long range sensor system bad for scouts?
To me, the ship had three roles. One was infrastructure and the other was scientific and the last was transport. Once retired, two classes replace them, the Nova class did the scientific and transport duties while the California class did the infrastructure part.
I would take my T1 Oberth into STFs in Star Trek Online and did pretty well. Ended up buying the T6 version, and kitbashed it to look like the Original one. It’s a tough little ship.
There is one place they could have in combat: flying bombs. Load them up with quantum torpedo warheads and fling them at a Borg cube at maximum warp. The cube will be dealt with rather swiftly...
Kind of like a Kamikaze starship. Cool!
Holdo Maneuver.
Honestly i actually liked the Oberth despite its flaws but luckily it is replaced by the Nova class because it offers more crew safety
It's amazing they crammed any weapons on it at all. It seems arming notcombatant ships is pretty common given the size of space, but we can't expect much from a literal science ship.
The Oberth class was intended to solidly go where many men had gone before, to chart, check, and clean up after all the boldly-going folks who'd long since boldly gone somewhere else.
Way I see it, it does what it needs to. A small minimally crewed Science vessel that flees danger if needed, but is still armed and shielded just enough to attempt to defend it’s self if needed or aid a fleet in combat if needed to be mustered with one in an emergency.
Head canon says the reason for the split saucer / star drive is to keep things hermetically and mechanically isolated. Research and experiments take place in the saucer section, isolated from interference from the star drive and minimizing the risk of biological cross-contamination. It was actually more common to "beam" between the two sections, thereby passing through the bio-filters, rather than using the secondary turbolifts.
As per my comment on the galaxy class: The Oberth has a lot of wasted potential in its design. Given most of the ship is in the primary hull and the secondary being a mission profile sort of affair? Being able to detatch the pylons in favor of hulls for specific specializations would be amazing.
For example: A secondary hull that offers a second powerplant with ACTUAL USEFUL SHIELDING, communications gear, added sensors, and use it like an AWACS plane in modern combat as a way to extend the fleet's communications and vision while possibly also providing more detailed sensor data that tougher ships can exploit.
Or a dedicated cargo pod to take advantage of the Oberth's speed.
And on and on. One could even pair these with 'unattached' Galaxy saucers for in-system warpless ships that do attendent work around starbases and starfleet aligned worlds both to keep up a fleet presence, and as a way to have them in storage without having boneyards.
The neat thing though is taking advantage of the fact Galaxy saucers can mantain an active warp bubble (and simply lack the capacity to create one.) Exploit that by way of mcguffin devices that can generate a warp field (much like that one episode in TnG where they tried to have a wave cgi thing do that, and it inevetably went wrong.) Why not scale that back so you don't need a station on the other end to stop it. Just pulse to start the Galaxy saucer wit hthe oberth hull so you have a way to get between federation stations? It's not glamorous but it would be a reliable way to get from A to B, and narritively there would be tension in the idea that 'what if something happens along the way'
While realistically these sort of warp pnumatic trails wouldm ostly be for safe routes anda few ships on standby as sortof internal coast guard. Having a galaxy saucer means these ships aren't defensless so can hold out until they get a tow.
Is this about the Oberth class or ship design theory?
@@gmradio2436 Not to be a smart ass but ...Yes.
The Oberth ahs so much wasted potential. hell, the show runners had SO MUCH wasted potential based on the concept of kitbashing and modularity.
@@singletona082 Mathematician's answer. Nice. The Oberth may seem to have wasted potential, but remember the role it was built for, and the state of the fleet at the time.
@@gmradio2436 Well I'm not just pulling this out of my rump either. The show runners made extensive use of kitbashes, literally in many cases pre CGI involving using off the shelf kits, to pad out background details.
Imagine having an in universe explaination for having the sort of modularity that would make that practice easier. imagine what you could sell. Not just ship kits but the base ship and the differing modules to slap onto it to make that YOUR ship.
All to save money on creating visually distinct ships.
@@singletona082 You are expecting a lot from a low budget show. TOS had to be saved from the cutting room floor by Lucy from I Love Lucy. Modular model kits were far down the priority list.
I love these videos. I hope you do one on the crossfield class!
I would love to see a new version of it but better armed. I think the design is really iconic and it's size is reasonable. I know there is the Nova-Class but i think there should be a new Oberth-Class
I like that you and lore Reloaded are largely on the same page about these things
There's nothing with a ship not really having defenses and being focused on scientific research. Ships like that are needed. They're not supposed to get involved in military confrontation. If there's a danger, you send them in with an escort.
I think it would interesting to have a show based on this ship.
My favorite Star Trek ship design.
Admiral Hale's Oberth-class USS Fortunate. An apt name, considering that it is fortunate to survive any encounter in that Admiral's fleet...
My favorite Enterprise was the Constitution refit, and my favorite overall is the Excelsior class. It looks like a huge Cadillac with art deco styling.
It was a highly utilitarian ship. And I am sure if Starfleet had modified it properly, it would have been a decent small destroyer, but that wasn't a priority for Starfleet when it was in service. Long live explodium!
Admiral Duval: You either surf or fight!
Oberth: -surfs-
It's excellent little vessel considering how old it is. Excellent warp drive, state of the art censors, easy on the resources, and a versatile shield systems for just about any natural space situation. I'd actually love to see these in action for science or rescue missions. I imagine these unique traits would give it a variety of abilities that our typical favorites don't have.
The Oberth Class being able to match the speed of a Blockade Runner (NOT Orion) or Fast-Attack patrol ship combined with their size and maneuverability is why they were in service for a century. We can also thank this "death trap" for a great deal of stellar cartography and logged spacial anomalies, gas and dust clouds and nebulae occupying the Alpha Quadrant including those dangerously close to the edges of either neutral zone (pre-Khitomer Accords).
-Commander Thad Knightley, Stellar Cartography, USS Bounder's Folly, NCC-082891
Finally an answer to how they hell they get from top deck to engineering without a neck.
I would watch a Trek show set on an Oberth vessel. Maybe in the 2280s so we can get a series in the cool Maroon uniforms like when the Enterprise C showed up in TNG.
🖖😎👍Very nicely well done and very well executed and informatively explained in every detail way shape and format provided on this vessel to you on all of the subject matter on the design, functions,duties and missions of the Oberth class starship's indeed Sir!,👌.
A scout, training, science or personal transport, never should be put into a hostile situation.
I think I had one of the better laughs in the last while, when someone stated what the T6 Oberth-Class on Star Trek Online should have as a Starship Trait.
Captain's Discretion: Your warp core breach explosion on death deals 5 times normal damage and is 5 times larger.
Suicide Voth ship builds?
My head-cannon command (e.g. what I would have if I was in this universe) is a Frankenstein'ed Orberth, that was salvaged by civilian science organisation and upgraded/repaired using whatever else was in the scrapyard of decommissioned tech. I always liked the shape, I liked the mission profile of investigation, and I thought it had potential as a easily automated aka civilian-crewed ship that Starfleet wouldn't have completely gutted for "Security"
All that being said, I could never find a definitive answer for size/layout (are the pylons wide enough for decks, is the horizontal section tall enough, etc) so I took a LOT of liberties. I gave her better nacelles and moved the (bigger) core to 2* hull so she could go faster in a straight line and have the power to escape blackhole gravity. The bridge module is moved 1 deck deeper into the saucer and aft ("you ever notice how federation ships put a nice big bull's-eye for where to kill their captain?") with a holotank in the centre for a more decentralised command style. Bigger computer core required for the upgraded sensors and this holo-tech.
Anyway, this ship class is my guilty pleasure, and if USS DaVinci can be a Sabre and awesome, I see no reason why I can't have an Orberth
I hope we get an updated one with a new design like the pathfinder
I wonder what the Mirror Universe used the Oberth for.
As a Space/Ground bomber?
Light Carrier for planetary oppression, similar to the Galactic Empires Quasar Fire class Carrier?
How about a prison transport for death row inmates 😉
I felt like such a bad ass back in the day when I used an Oberth in Star Trek Star Fleet Academy on SNES, and I managed to take out a Constitution in the flight simulator mode 😎
Um, wasn't the USS Grissom from Star Trek III an Oberth?
It was.
@@marshallhuffer4713 so then this video's timeline fir the introduction of the class is *way* off. He says it was introduced during the so-called "Lost era" and it clearly wasn't.
@@vic5015 he said it was introduced at the same time as the Connie refit and the Excelsior. It even uses the nacelles from the unused Excelsior study model
@@kaitlyn__L - Okay, but how do you explain the three-digit registry numbers?
My Star Fleet science captain has this ship on Star Trek Online along with the Wrath of Khan uniform and hand phaser for authenticity. It's a tough little ship at least it is in my hands, I have made my shields tough to compliment the ships already great shield abilities.
I like the Oberth class, and I don't care what anyone says about it. Not all starships have to be warships, especially in classic Trek. There is so much more to the Federation than just battle prowess.
Personal head canon, the big bang was created by a time travelling Oberth class as part of an experiment.
I can see the Oberths being used in larger battles as a logistics center in the back ranks, scanning enemy vessels, the environment of the solar system itself, coordinating the fleet, etc. They'd definitely have their uses.
I always thought it was an ugly class though. It doesn't make any sense within the Starfleet aesthetic. I'm glad the Nova replaced it.
Reminds me of Vader's Tie Fighter.
Fantastic video!!! Well done!!! 🥳🥳🥳
Miranda: I’m the redshirt of the fleet.
Oberth: Hold my beer.
I enjoy the propriety of the delivery on this channel
If I didn’t know any better I’d say this guy was in charge of QA at Utopia Planitia from the late 2280’s until 2367 or so 😂
If you have artificial gravity and you're not landing the ship on a planet, then what exactly forces you to align the gravity in the pylons with the rest of the ship? Rooms there could just as easily be a tall straight stack of spaces as it is one large flat open floor.
Wow, you actually had some good things to say about the deathtrap - I mean Oberth class! I'm impressed. You get a like. :)
Fantastic as always, Can you do a video on the Nova class pls ?
Nice humble little ships, just bimbling along doing science and making maps.
Happy New Year from Canada! 🇨🇦 :D
The video was incredibly kind to the ship, but even then I couldn't help but chuckle at the footage of the ironically named "U.S.S. Fortuate" exploding.