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Why aren't there any main Federation battleships in the Star Trek universe?


All of the ships seem to have offensive/defensive capabilities as secondary considerations. The galaxy seems to be loaded with fearsome enemies and the promise of even more powerful adversaries yet to be encountered.


When a single Borg ship can wipe out an entire Federation fleet, I would expect the Federation to come up with a Battleship or Ship-Of-The-Line capable of delivering devastating firepower and multiple independent shield generators as defense. Something similar to the ship that the Dowd Kevin Uxbridge created in TNG 'The Survivors'.



(The 'Husnock' ship fires)


WORF: Shields down! Captain, they hit us with four hundred gigawatts of particle energy!


PICARD: Damage?


WORF: Superficial -- but I am having trouble reassembling the shields!


(The Husnock ship fires again)


WORF: Shields down! There is thermal damage to the hull!



DATA: The warship is in possession of enormous energy reserves. It is capable of striking us with far more powerful bursts.


WESLEY: They're maneuvering to come between the Enterprise and Rana Four.


PICARD: Number One, we have been exemplary in our patience.


RIKER: Lieutenant Worf, fire phasers on full with a simultaneous spread of torpedoes.


(The Enterprise finally returns fire)


DATA: The vessel appears undamaged. Its defenses are apparently able to absorb incoming matter and energy.


RIKER: Commence rapid fire with all weapons on full!


(The Enterprise unloads on the Husnock ship, with a nice display of at least a dozen torpedoes and a similar number of phaser blasts. The Husnock ship returns fire and numerous bridge consoles erupt in showers of sparks)


WORF: Shields are down! There is internal damage -- weapon systems control has been lost!


RIKER: Riker to Sickbay. Medical assistance to the bridge!



PICARD: Mister Crusher, move the Enterprise out of range of the attacking vessel!
- "Star Trek Canon Database (Queried By Episode 'Survivors')", stardestroyer.net



The Enterprise is the Federation's Flagship and probably the toughest they have, yet it got creamed with 3 shots and couldn't even scratch the paint of the opposing ship.



Answer




When a single Borg ship can wipe out an entire Federation fleet, I would expect the Federation to come up with a Battleship or Ship-Of-The-Line capable of delivering devastating firepower



They did. The Defiant:




Development on the Defiant began around 2366 in response to the Borg threat. Although officially classified as an escort vessel, the Defiant was nothing less than Starfleet's first design of warship; intended to fight, and ultimately defeat, the Borg.
From: "USS Defiant (2370)", Memory Alpha



However, it isn't mentioned in The Next Generation (aside from Riker's "tough little ship" one-liner in First Contact). It was revealed in Deep Space Nine’s season 3 premiere, The Search, when it was sent on a mission to find the Dominion.


When Sisko introduces it to his senior staff, O'Brien mentions that Starfleet didn't believe in warships. Starfleet's mission is one of peace, exploration, science, and general universal love and understanding. (Why yes, the show was conceived in California in the 1960s. Good guess!) It's harder to convince new species that you want to be friends if you show up in a ship capable of blowing up their planet.


Out-of-universe, the show's premise is an optimistic one about the future of humanity - it assumes we've developed the better aspects of our nature, and prospered as a result. It’s not about kicking the crap out of aliens.


(Except for the episodes — mainly in Deep Space Nine — featuring massive space battles where Starfleet kicks the crap out of aliens. They’re awesome.)


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