Federation starship classes
The following is a list of starship classes operated by the Federation.

Appendices

Background information 
Because of the strong connotations with the real world United States Navy,  Producers Gene Roddenberry and Robert Justman (a World War II navy veteran himself) had imbued Starfleet with (The Making of Star Trek, p. 112, et al.; These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed, pp. 28-29;  see also in this respect: Aircraft carrier), it came hardly as a surprise that the  was also followed for the vessels of Starfleet. This convention has it that a class is named after the first, or lead, vessel authorized by US Congress, which is not necessarily the one first laid down, launched, completed or commissioned (formally taken into service), and after which the British Royal Navy for example name their ship classes. While not canon, it can serve as a potential real world rationale why there are  vessels with lower registry numbers than the lead vessel . Nonetheless, in his influential "The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship" article, then fan and future Star Trek  alumnus, Greg Jein, had postulated an alternative theory for the discrepancy, albeit equally non-canon.

Additionally, while it is highly unlikely that all alien races follow the same naming convention as Starfleet does – even on present-day real world Earth, the US Navy convention is far from being universal – there is a real world counterpart for this as well. The defense organization NATO uses a variant of the US/British class naming convention for ship types of their adversaries, particularly those of the former Soviet Union, who themselves classified their vessels according to project number, such as – where a Star Trek related example is concerned – their Project 705/Alfa-class submarines.

See also 
 Earth starship classes
 Federation starships
 Unnamed Federation starships
 NCC

External links 
 Star Trek Ships: Expanded - UFP: Starfleet and Prehistory at The STArchive
 

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