The Fed's most lethal enemy during TNG

[Drunk Monkey]

during the TNG era who was the most lethal threat to the federation

[TrekWarsie]

By TNG era, I'm guessing that you actually mean pre-Dominion War. I would say that the Borg are the greatest threat, but that threat is magnified by the fact that the Federation doesn't have a competent military.

[Drunk Monkey]

By TNG era, I'm guessing that you actually mean pre-Dominion War. I would say that the Borg are the greatest threat, but that threat is magnified by the fact that the Federation doesn't have a competent military.

im thinking along the lines of TNG DS9 VOY and the TNG films sory about the misunderstanding

[RedImperator]

The only reason the Klingons and Romulans are a threat is because Federation military policy is atrocious. The Cardassians weren't a threat even at the height of TNG era idiocy; I can only assume the Federation kowtowed to them because of the influence of the doves on the Federation council. The Borg would be a serious threat if they brought any numbers to bear; otherwise, they're only dangerous for the same reason the Romulans are.

That leaves the Dominion. If the Prophets don't deus ex machina the Feds' sorry asses out of the fire, the Dominion can crush them by sheer weight of numbers. Even with the Romulans, Klingons, and Federation allied, the Dominion could still beat them if the wormhole stays open. Even a fully militarized Federation would have a very hard time against the Dominion at full strength.

[SCVN 2812]

The Borg while being deadly, don't seem to have the interest or the available resources to do the job of destroying the Federation right or immediately. Within a year of entering the Alpha Quadrant, the Dominion and their Cardassian cannon fo... allies were handing the Federation and the Klingons their asses at every turn. Up to that point the Federation had not once fought a war where the limited information available paints it as anything more than border skirmishes effecting not nearly enough of the population for anyone who wasn't directly involved to get worked up about it enough that having a few thousand people hop planets was worth peace.

The Romulans overall industrial base is dramatically smaller than the Federation's if the maps in DS9 and the Encylopedia are admissable (though size means nothing if you aren't exploiting your territory much so its not as big a factor as it could be.) The Romulans dependency on large battleships for their offensive forces means they can do massive damage using submarine style combat but once the Federation starts massing its forces around strategically important areas and using all the various anti-cloak tricks they've thought up over the years, the Romulans would have free reign to take down colonies and minor outposts but no ability to touch the Federation's major industrial and population centers without high cost.

The Klingons were too reliant on outdated ships for the bulk of their forces, even rationalizing the massive numbers of K'tingas and Birds of Prey as newer designs based on the same basic hull design, they, like the Romulans are somewhat lacking in the area of industrial might. They are far more dangerous than the Romulans though because unlike the more pragmatic Romulans, they will as often or not take suicidal risks that when they actually work, could pay off big time and there don't seem be enough of the cooler heads that will talk down the foaming at the mouth Klingons and keep them from throwing away lives, ships and fleets on unwinnable situations.

On the other hand the Dominion geared their military so perfectly towards defeating the Federation if it wasn't clear that Bugs weren't around prior to contact with the Federation, you'd have thought the Dominion had planned it that way. Huge numbers of small, fast, decently armed and most important of all: disposable and easily replaceable fast attack ships. Even after they lost their shield penetrating ability, until the Federation was able to start fielding newer designs in greater numbers, they chewed up the older Federation ships without mercy.

[Bounty]

even rationalizing the massive numbers of K'tingas and Birds of Prey as newer designs based on the same basic hull design, they, like the Romulans are somewhat lacking in the area of industrial might.

I would think that the loss of Praxis and the reconstruction of Qo'nos would have severely limited their production capabilities, even after all those years. They were almost crawling to the Federation for help after the disaster.

[SCVN 2812]

even rationalizing the massive numbers of K'tingas and Birds of Prey as newer designs based on the same basic hull design, they, like the Romulans are somewhat lacking in the area of industrial might.

I would think that the loss of Praxis and the reconstruction of Qo'nos would have severely limited their production capabilities, even after all those years. They were almost crawling to the Federation for help after the disaster.

\

The aide of the Federation may have been more humanitarianism than actual need, all we really know is that the Klingons could not afford to simultaneously maintain military parity with the Federation and save Qonos from being rendered uninhabitable. The Khitomer Accords were a show of good faith where both parties scaled back their militaries so the Klingons could salvage their homeworld without being left vulnerable to the Federation. Interestingly the Romulans did not seem to factor into the equation as a threat, even after they were found to be involved in the conspiracy to sabotage the peace process. Given just 2 or 3 decades ago they were having to buy ships from the Klingons, the Federation and Klingons even after the demilitarization may have been more than a match for the Star Empire.

This might explain why the Federation has such massive reserves of Mirandas and Excelsiors to re-activate during the Dominion War, without the threat of the Klingons there isn't as much call for new ship designs to constantly compete with the latest and greatest threats comming out of the Klingon Empire so up until the conflicts with the Tzenkethi, Talarians and Cardassians of the early to mid 24th century, there just wasn't the need for brinkmanship to motivate the Federation to keep the fleet up to date. We do see a very disproportionate amount of Excelsiors and Mirandas compared to the Ambassador and all those Galaxy kitbashes.

Assuming NCC numbers are linear, the Akira, Saber, Norway and Steamrunner would have been inspired by the Cardassian and Tzenkethi conflicts, at least if the Technical Manual's 10 year development time for the Galaxy project is to be taken seriously (and considering how long it takes in peace time for a military design to go from paper to steel, I don't think its unreasonable.)

If the Cardassians hadn't started raiding the Federation's border and massacring settlers, the Federation might not even have had the numbers of relatively modern ships that it did in the second Borg attack and the Dominion War.

[Drunk Monkey]

I fer one think the fed's are there own worst enemys the fuming deserve to be conqerd they create a majer space faring civ and they berly have a military Hell they might as well just shoot themselves

[RedImperator]

I fer one think the fed's are there own worst enemys the fuming deserve to be conqerd they create a majer space faring civ and they berly have a military Hell they might as well just shoot themselves

Are you actually drunk, or do you just type that way?

[Drunk Monkey]

Little from collum A little from Collom B

[Shinova]

If the Borg ever had gotten serious about it, I suppose they'd stomp the Federation flat in very short order.

I would personally rank the Borg as higher than the Dominion. I mean, I may be wrong but I don't think we've ever seen a single Dominion ship steamroll its way through 200+ Fed ships (First Contact?).

[Eframepilot]

Definitely the Borg. Picard flat out calls them "our most lethal enemy" in ST:FC. They could have sent hundreds of cubes through the transwarp conduit ending in Sector 001 and totally overwhelmed the Federation, but they never bothered to try. Stupid Borg.

[Batman]

Atrocious as his spelling may be, I'm with the inebriated simian.
By TNG, the Federation is easily it's own worst enemy.

[Junghalli]

The Borg. Duh! Man, how can you even compare them with the others?
The one about the Federation's stupidity being its own worst enemy has some merits, but the Borg would still beat them up even if they were competent.

[Drunk Monkey]

The Borg. Duh! Man, how can you even compare them with the others?
The one about the Federation's stupidity being its own worst enemy has some merits, but the Borg would still beat them up even if they were competent.

yea but all they have to do is replicate some M-16's and a few short soard

[Stofsk]

Little from collum A little from Collom B

The funny thing is you misspelled 'column' twice in the same sentence, two different times. That's some mindrot you're cultivating there, buddy.

[Drunk Monkey]

Little from collum A little from Collom B

The funny thing is you misspelled 'column' twice in the same sentence, two different times. That's some mindrot you're cultivating there, buddy.

well ya know what i mean so no harm

[Uraniun235]

The Dominion.

[RedImperator]

The Borg. Duh! Man, how can you even compare them with the others?
The one about the Federation's stupidity being its own worst enemy has some merits, but the Borg would still beat them up even if they were competent.

The Borg would be a bigger threat if they were closer or if the Federation was a higher priority. As long as they keep sending one cube at a time, the Federation can beat them with swarm tactics and brute force, like they did in FC. But the Borg either have their hands tied in the Delta Quadrant or just don't care enough to try harder.

[Drunk Monkey]

The Borg. Duh! Man, how can you even compare them with the others?
The one about the Federation's stupidity being its own worst enemy has some merits, but the Borg would still beat them up even if they were competent.

The Borg would be a bigger threat if they were closer or if the Federation was a higher priority. As long as they keep sending one cube at a time, the Federation can beat them with swarm tactics and brute force, like they did in FC. But the Borg either have their hands tied in the Delta Quadrant or just don't care enough to try harder.

plus if drones beam onboard they can just replicate some M-16's but un fortinitly the Fed's dont realise more hightech does not mean instant victery espeily when fighting an enimy that adapts to energy weapons life that bulets would be much more efectice for a cube beam a squad with machin guns and swords to kill the drones and then make a bomb+cube BY BY

[Shinova]

yea but all they have to do is replicate some M-16's and a few short soard

That's assuming the Borg don't simply blow up the Federation fleet within minutes of the opening shots.

[SCVN 2812]

The Dominion has the resources, the firepower and pre-Odo, the will.

The Borg have the resources and the firepower but if they can't eliminate or assimilate the Federation through elaborate plots and schemes rather than brute force, they don't seem to have the will. They may not even have the resources or firepower, and why bother even if they did? The Federation is not very special except that it has shown itself to be able to consistantly defeat them. There are races with better technology than the Feds in the Delta quadrant and the Federation's population and resources are more than matched by what the Borg can accomplish just by expanding their sphere of influence within the Delta Quadrant.

That leaves the Dominion. As soon as that wormhole was discovered, there was one thing on the Great Link's mind and one thing only: enslaving the free solids and destroying their empires before the solids did the same to them. So we know damn well they have the will and in the end, all the cubes in the galaxy don't make a difference if they aren't turned against the Federation, at least for the purposes of this discussion.

[xcr]

Well, they really should train with some kind of firearm. And even a sword is better than a useless little plastic ray-gun- and might even be useful overall given that there are so many borg that they may run low on bullets and no have a replicator handy.

[Drunk Monkey]

plus if drones beam onboard they can just replicate some M-16's but un fortinitly the Fed's dont realise more hightech does not mean instant victery espeily when fighting an enimy that adapts to energy weapons life that bulets would be much more efectice for a cube beam a squad with machin guns and swords to kill the drones and then make a bomb+cube BY BY

What makes you think they can replicate M16s (they might not have the patterns on file)? And even if they can, their soldiers wouldn't be trained in their use. And swords are also a bad idea: again, Federation men wouldn't be trained in their use, and short range is not good, and Borg do have armoured sections of their bodies. Hitting a fleshy part while surviving the cyborg's weapons would not be an easy task.

In FC the borg were wounded by a holographic thomsin so an m-16 would be incredibly leathel i belive plus they hade time sevreal years before they atacked each time in best of both world's and in FC so i dont see the problom would be

[Bounty]

In FC the borg were wounded by a holographic thomsin

"Holographic", as in, "forcefield and hologram", as in, "just another energy weapon they hadn't adapted to".

And after losing a sufficiently large number of drones from machine gun fire, the Borg could equip themselves with that ancient physical defense system called "kevlar".