How Big is Our Fleet

The following is a study of the construction of Humanities space craft industry.

The Drop Ships

This class refers to the craft which are mostly used to go from Earth into orbit. They may or may not continue on to more distant locations like the Moon or Mars. The constant up and down through the atmosphere does present issues that ships who spend most of their time in space do not worry about.

1. Skylon - built in Europe starting in 2002.
A cross between air-carft-space-craft, it flies to orbit rather than rockets its way there.  Its engines are optimized for this role. There are 2 main ship yards, each able to simultaneously build 3 craft.
There is also a design and testing yard for new development.
In 2012 the S-mk 4 entered service as a heavy hauler.

2. Venture Star - built in USA starting in 2003.
A general use, single stage to orbit, rapidly reusable rocket that can glide to landing. It also has good space flight abilities, better than the Skylon in a wide range of situations. There are 4 main ship yards, each able to build 4 VS-minis & 2 VS-max craft at a time.
Major updates to the craft were made in 2014 but their roles remained the same.

3. The X-66 - built for the UN-EDF starting in 2006.
This air-space fighter is based off the VS-mini. It is admittedly not the best design for air or space combat, but it aims to do both jobs on the cheep. There are 2 yards in the USA producing it, there are also 6 other yards world wide building it under supervision. Data for production numbers is classified, although there was talk of a minimum of 20 craft / year entering service. 

4. The Mule - built by UN-space dev. starting in 2010.
The first of the ISO-hallers, it is made to take standard sized 9x20ft cargo containers from earth to orbit. Taking some of the best features from Skylon while using more advanced "alien" teck than the VS-type craft. There are 4 yard locations; Panama, Australia, Korea, Germany, each has a minimum of 4 unit capacity. Near each of the yards is also a major space port / shipping port.  As of 2020 the Mule became an open design for any Nation or Corporation to imitate. Construction per craft is an average of 4 months. Thus a yard with a 4 unit build capacity could turn out 12 craft / year. Although usually the number will be less. 

5. The Falcon -  

The main shuttle craft for the UN-space service.  It is made to fit in any starchip hanger bay.  A small craft with limited cargo capacity; 2 crew + 4 passengers and about 800lbs of luggage.  There are 10 factories dedicated to Falcon production.

6. The Condor -

The larger shuttle craft of the UN-space service. It is made to transport a 10man squad and their mission equipment. The same 10 factories that made the Falcon also build the Condor. 

The Space Only Ships

  These craft are intended to work  mostly in space. Their atmospheric ability is limited or nil.

1. The Egallax - built by NU-space dev. stating in 2008.
It is made to fill a similar roll as the Mule, having the ability to hall an ISO pod. The entire cockpit assembly can be jettisoned and act as an escape pod, a feature that was adopted by the Percheron. The only yard building them is on the Moon, it has a capacity of 8 simultaneous builds.

2. The Percheron - built by UN-EDF starting in 2012.
The space patrol and rescue craft. It is intended for low intensity combat not real war. Built at both Luna and Titan yards, each having a 6 craft capacity and 2 ship repair docks.

3. The Star-Bold - built by UN-EDF starting in 2022. 

A fighter built for space use only, The SB-1 has a crew of 2 and acts as flight command unit. SB-2 are drone craft and have no crew support at all. In size they are about the same as a Falcon shuttle craft.

4. The Astro -M-  built by Rock Hopper Corporation starting in 2009.
A large mining ship of about 50,000 tons. Built at Luna yard, there are usually 2 under construction at all times.

5. The Defender - built by UN-EDF starting in 2018.
A big bad system defense ship of about 100,000 tons (size of an aircraft carrier). In addition to the many guns and missiles, it also holds 4 flights of Star-Bolt fighters.   Originally built at the Luna yard, the Defender M2 starting 2024, was also built at Titan base. Each yard has a 2 ship capacity for building and a 1 ship repair dock.

FTL ships

These are the star ships, with the very complicated hyper space systems. All are able to land on a planet, although the big ones have very poor agility.

1. The Ranger - built by UN-space dev. starting in 2014.
The fantastically durable and triple redundant, expect the unexpected, exploration craft. With a mass of 2,000 tons. It has a crew of 6 + 4 passengers.  There are 4 yard locations; Mexico, Spain, Russia, India, each has a minimum of 4 unit capacity. (note than all ships must be bi-lingual with English as the second language)  There is also the UN-EDF armed Ranger yard in Canada.

2. The Outreach - built by UN-space dev. starting in 2022.
Bigger and more versatile than the Ranger, with a mass of 4,000 tons. It has the same crew of 6, but can carry 10 passengers (usually a research team or security squad).  There are 3 yard locations; USA, Argentina, and Luna, each with a capacity of 3 units.
Because of the open license, there are also several national yards building the ship and its variants, the China yard is massive with a capacity of 8 simultaneous builds.

3. The Saber - built by the UN-EDF starting in 2022.
The main type of warship it has a mass of 6,000 tons. A crew of 12 + 10 space marines. The yards building it are expansions of the Ranger facilities, located in Mexico, Spain, Russia, India, and Canada. Each with a minimum capacity of 2 units. Also there are yards at Luna and Titan bases.

4. Olympic -

This is the main type of colonial transport, with a mass of 8,000 tons, It usually has a crew of 12 + 50 passengers and about 1000 tons of cargo. There is also a dedicated construction variant that helps set up new outposts.

5. The Resolute - built by UN-EDF starting in 2028.
What do you get if you strap 2 Outreach class ships together and put a big rail gun down the middle?  You get this 10,000 ton warship.
Details are classified.

6. Ramfahrzug "Star Wagon" - built by NewHorizon starting in 2030.
These small civilian ships  of 1000 tons, are produced at the European space yard. 

How many is that ?

If we consider the Ranger's first generation as being from 2015-2020,with all 4 yards building at max capacity (not including the Canadian site) we get a total of 160 ships. The armed ranger program would have produced about 40 ships, however the number is classified.
When the big improvement in Hyper Field tech happened in 2022, most of these old Rangers were but on the market as replacements became available (between 2023-2029) That is over 100 ships the UN was selling off at reasonable rates.

Another example; the X-66 VS-Fighter, an Earth to Orbit interceptor,  with a minimal production run of 20 craft / year, starting in 2006. If assume the craft from the early years have been retired from active duty to a training role, as often happened, we can look at the Block 2 craft from 2010-2020. There would be at lest 200 of them.
The actual number is much higher. According to UN-EDF asset acquisition, Each nation producing the X-66 retains control over 50% of the units, so long as they agree to work under EDF direction. From 2010-2020 the USA provided an average of 10 new craft per year to the EDF, while other nations usually provided 4 to 8 craft per year.

The Saber class with a max construction rate of 12 ships / year, starting in 2022, has its focus split between pure warship and armed explorer. As of 2024 the official numbers were 6 warships and 4 explorers per year being built.

The Colonizing Effort.

Starting in 2022 the Outreach class of ships began to be built at a rate of 10 per year from UN owned ship yards. Other nations began in 2024, after the design proved functional and a few variants were tested out. By 2030, the UN's fleet of various ships built off the Outreach design numbered 80. While the total of other similar big ships was 30.




A foot note of interest;

"The Story of Willow Run" explains the company's role in producing the Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. Production rates were so great at the plant that a new B-24 rolled off the production line every 55 minutes.
The main structure of the Willow Run bomber plant, had 3,500,000 square feet of factory space, and an aircraft assembly line over a mile long. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world.
They even had a training school for the huge number of employees that needed to be taught fast all about building the aircraft. It offered 50 subjects.  The factory ran on 2 x 9 hour shifts each day the down time being used for clean up and maintenance of the machines. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zukteYbGQ

The point here is an example of what Humans can do when they feel it necessary.
Thus the above numbers of space craft produced should not be seen as large.