After reading much of this thread . . . I gotta say I don't think you can say Star Trek "cannon" with the " ..."
Just follow SFB, it makes more sense
Yeah, the feds name ships after the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.
LOLz . . . us naming the Federation Flagship (a BB) the
USS Strom Trumond had nothing to do with SFB, the strategy behind picking a repugnant name is to make people want to kill you and be overly aggressive. Why else would I fly the
USS Bill Clinton?
Anywhoo . . . the SFB explanation as to what happened to the Constitution class . . . Keeping in mind that this is my own retarded way of reconciling SFB and Trek history (NOT cannon regarding ships, just events). This isn't tough to do as there really isn't much that conflict.
The Early TOS stuff lines up fine. First contact with the Gorns, Organian treaty, etc . . .
ST TMP takes place in 2271 . . . right before the start of the General War . . . right before the Organians disappear . . . also helps explain why the Feds got the sh*t kicked out of them for a few years in the General War.
Late 2271 . . . Organians disappear, Klingons invade the Federation.
TWOK takes place in 2285 . . . After the GW was concluded. It's never explained on screen what happened during those years (books smooks, they hold as much "cannon" weight as one of my bowel movements). It makes total sense that Kirk and the Enterprise fought in that war, on the Klingon front, the ship being refited a few times and by TWOK was a CX.
ST3, 4, and 5, and concluded by like 2287? Giving time for one more 5 year mission before ST6 in 2292.
ISC "conquest" was like 2285ish to 2292ish . . . but really didn't really involve the Federation. At that point they'd probably be happy to sit back, f*ck holo-hookers, drink root beer, and like some Frogs patrol their borders for them.
ST:6 took place 2292 and ends with formal peace and a pseudo alliance with the Federation and Klingons.
The Andro wars happen after that, at that time though Kirk is out of the picture.
So . . . back on topic . . . WTF happened to the Constitution class?
The Federation has X number of Shipyards capable of cranking out Heavy Cruiser hulls. As per F&E they could crank out 4 Heavy Cruiser hulls per year at full production. The Constitution hull (F-CA through F-CX) would have been standard in thous shipyards until something better came along. Once we get into the 2290s and the bugs are kicked out of the Excelsior class (doesn't really jive with SFC/SFB but I've taken so many liberties already so what's a few more?) that class would be built in those shipyards.
So simply it was replaced. The ones in service would stay in service for a long time as these ships were meant to last forever. There would be refits, etc . . . but no new Connies would have been built after the 2290s.
TL:DR: Just make sh*t up, there is no ST "cannon" as none of the writers bothered to keep track of this mess.