USS

USS or U.S.S. was a prefix used before the names of some sea-faring ships and spacecraft. The abbreviation has been used to stand for "United States Ship", "United Space Ship" and "United Star Ship". The prefix was first used on Earth by the United States. Its use has been continued by the United Earth and the United Federation of Planets.

History
As shorthand for "United States Ship," the US Navy used the USS prefix on the hulls of various sea ships and aircraft carriers, including: USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and USS Monitor (ironclad). 

Some early spaceships from Earth, such as the USS Enterprise (XCV 330), also placed the USS designation on their hull. 

Starfleet used the "USS" designation on certain computer graphics for United Earth starships, such as the  and the. However, they did not label the hulls of the starships and the ships were not commonly addressed with the prefix. 

On Federation starships operated by Starfleet, the "USS" prefix was more prominently featured on the hull of the ship and as part of the starship's official title. USS was referred to stand for either "United Space Ship" or "United Star Ship." This designation was used as early as 2167 on the starship, the USS Essex. 

The same practice was also continued by the Federation in the alternate reality after the timeline was disrupted by the temporal incursion of the Romulan Nero.

Background information
The Star Trek pitch by Gene Roddenberry refers to USS as "United Space Ship".

The first spaceship from Earth known to use USS was first shown in in the picture of the USS Enterprise (XCV 330) on display in the recreation deck of the refitted USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). The placement of a desktop model of this craft in suggests the ship predates United Earth, so the USS designation may have still meant "United States Ship" at that point in history.

Shortly before Star Trek: Enterprise began its initial airing, Rick Berman implied that was purposefully without the "USS" prefix because it wasn't a Federation starship. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 134, p. 13) The use of USS by Starfleet before the formation of the Federation was only seen on a computer graphic in the Enterprise episode. This graphic had both the Enterprise and the designated with the USS prefix, which may have been a mistake on the part of the graphics designers, as neither ships' hull designation used "USS".

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