Star Trek Starships

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This page is about the Starships in Star Trek. In short, Star Trek starships are a key part of the franchise. They are both Iconic and without them, our brave space explorers would have no means to Trek about the Stars.

Systems

Drives

Unlike other franchises, the vessels in Star Trek have three different types of engines. Warp Drives, Thrusters, and Impulse Engines. The main means of FTL travel in Star Trek is the Warp Drive, which distorts space-time around the ship, forming a bubble around it. Anything within that bubble can move along at superluminal speeds. In order to keep the crew from being turned into flesh paste, ships also have "Inertial Dampening Fields".

Roughly speaking, by the late 2370s, Starfleet ships could keep up a pace of about 1,000 times the speed of light (given that it would take Voyager about 70 years to cross about 70,000 light years) and could sprint faster still.

For STL travel, Impulse Drives are used. These work on a broadly similar principle to Warp Drive, but don't need Antimatter Reactors to work. In a Pinch, they can work as a low-end Warp Drive. Most of the Impulse is used for inner solar systems and planetary orbits.

Thrusters are mainly used for maneuverability, while moving while inside or docking with Starbases/Spacedocks. Some vessels have Thrusters that allow 600 meter plus ships to pull off feats typical of space fighters in other franchises. Something more commonly seen in the post-TNG era. This is actually somewhat realistic. As there is little to no atmosphere in space to provide resistance, the primary limiting factor to your speed is the output/specific impulse or your engine, fuel reserves and "How many G of acceleration until the humans turn into chunky pasta sauce", with a secondary concern of when the hull it self will fail but generally the organic part is the weakest link of a ship. For the sake of simplicity. We'll assume that Inertial Dampening Fields are on during emergency and combat maneuvers too. However, said feats are mainly exclusive to Federation vessels such as the Galaxy and Sovereign classes. On the other hand, since Feddie Engineers have a large enough reputation to have memes about them in the universe. Even by factions they fought against. Such as "one of those famed Starfleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators, " coined by one of the Dominion's Vorta commanders. Maybe they are nearly just that good.

Weaponry

Energy weapons are the backbone to virtually every faction, with phasers (a type of phase laser) being the most common type due to their flexibility, ranging from hand-held pistols to ship guns, with Starfleet as the main users. Disruptor weapons, which use energy fields to disrupt molecular bonds, are also common, due to Klingons and Romulans using them as their main type of weaponry. Plasma weapons are rarer for their instability, which makes them viable only for short-range attacks or as projectile weapons. Other more exotic forms of energy weapons exist, such as Polaron-based. Projectile weapon also exists as torpedoes, and sometimes missiles, with variable yield energy-based warheads, while large bore slug throwers like rail-guns are very rare.

In Star Trek, even handheld weapons such as Type 2 phasers (i.e., the most common full-size handgun) are absurdly powerful. As it has sixteen settings ranging from knocking out a human adult in one shot to outright "vaporizing" them, or rather jumpcutting them to oblivion. Vaporizing that much mass requires the energy to power or destroy a small city, maybe larger, so many fans say that they have some exotic nuclear disruption force/NDF effect. Obviously, rifles such as the Type-3 Phaser are even better. In a pinch, personal Phasers and Disruptors can be overloaded on purpose to use as makeshift grenades. As for why they don't do that more often. Special effects eat into the budget, and like IRL militaries, most non-civilian vessels store their own dedicated explosives.

The Federation's own ship-mounted weapons are just as crazy. Even on the "low end", the stun setting used by the first Constitution-class Enterprise to knock out an entire city block of people would require an absurd amount of energy. On the higher end, they are able life wipe entire worlds (Starfleet's General Order 24) or used to drill into the mantle or cores of planets. While still being capable of being used like Autocannons against other vessels. During the TMP era, i.e., after 2270. Starfleet changes their phaser banks by tying their power directly the ship's Warp Core. Turning them offline while moving at Warp speed. Energy beams/bolts would be less effective during FTL regardless. A decent tradeoff for nearly unlimited "ammo". As long as the primary reactor and the internal coolant remain operational.

Being able to drill into planets is one of the reasons super weapons(besides the budget) are so rare in Star Trek. There is no need for super weapons when a single vessel can just drill into the center or teleport Photon or Quantum Torpedoes, Antimatter warheads, or any other kind of explosives into the core. By the 24th century, as seen in Star Trek 2009, even civilian mining companies have access to ship-mounted mining equipment capable of destroying a planet. If you see this as a problem. That's what the movie was about, plus a Romulan civilian ship stealing both Borg and Federation technology, then accidentally ending up in the past. The script just calls it a "Plasma Drill". Spock's Red Matter(the source of the mentioned time travel) from the same film is one of the few actual super weapons in the franchise. Originally, Red Matter was supposed to create an artificial Black Hole to save Romulans from the impending Supernova of its home star (he failed obviously, or there wouldn't be a movie.) It's also not the first time something meant for peaceful purposes was repurposed as a weapon of mass destruction. The Genesis Device from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan being the most famous example.

It's also worth noting, that discussions about power of Star Trek weapons are still going on. Counter-arguments (e.g. there, there and there) say that Phasers can't penetrate dense materials with good electric and thermal conductivity (metal, actinides, futuristic materials like neutronium). While everyone are unarmored and non-augmented, it works fine - but so much as Flak Armor equivalent would make target practically Phaser-proof. Ship-mounted Phasers are a lot stronger, but still struggle with ship hulls - anti-matter and photon torpedoes, which have no such problem, are a lot stronger. Most weapons in Star Trek have absolutely awful ergonomics; as if proper stocks, trigger guards and sights are LosTech. Over 75% of types of weapons are missing: no tanks, no artillery, no anti-tank weapons, no armor, no NBC protection, etc, but again Star Trek is mostly a TV show so parsing what is actually missing vs what is too expensive to put on screen is sometimes quite an argument.

• Found some wargear. Yes, many things are missing - but some just got found. Like grenades, combat knifes, guns with proper ergonomics, armor suits, etc. Too bad, that characters act as if they were on extremely strict budget restrictions, being unable to afford any of that - despite living in post-scarcity economy, where replicators can print nearly anything for free.
  • For example, there were Stun Grenades - capable of knocking multiple people out in single blast. Plus, weak Worfzooka munitions and Phaser Carbine grenade launcher munitions could be turned into hand grenades, a-la Khattabka.
• It's really hard to determine, how strong armor penetration of Phasers is. Some explain that Phasers can't penetrate thin metal crates (as seen in many scenes) - while others claim that Hand Phasers and Disruptors easily penetrate tritanium armor and hand shields, though polarized tritanium stops them (but they say so without any source, calculation, or scene example). Both have their reasons, and both are hard to verify or object because everyone in Star Trek are unarmored and unaugmented. My guess, is that phaser pistols can't penetrate WW2 steel breastplate; tritanium and polarized tritanium suits effortlessly deflect most small-arms fire; heavy alloys, force-fields and tank-like cybernetic augmentations make you pretty much invulnerable.

Misc

Matter-antimatter reactors are the main type of energy source for ships to keep functioning, all ship systems, including Warp Drive. Energy shields are the mainstream form of ship protection from weapons, objects, and other hazards. Cloaking devices exist, but are mostly relegated to Klingons and Romulans due to intergalactic treaties. There are some examples of Federation-made stealth systems - but due to treaties, those are kept in secret and used mostly by special forces; on the other hand, personal cloaking devices for infantrymen are legal.

Ships by Faction

Needless to say, a series about flying around the galaxy in Starships has a lot of different classes. This is not a comprehensive list; for that, go to Memory Alpha, but here are some of the more prominent ship classes.

One of the things most scifi fans will notice is that, unlike other space opera franchises. It is the lack of fighter craft. While they do exist and are rarely used. During the production of the Star Trek movies, their NASA advisor told them that anything a fighter could, a missile can as well and possibly better. Not to mention cheaper, limiting space fighters to base defense, recon duty (aka patrol ships), or supporting larger vessels. Sometimes auxiliary vessels, such as Shuttlecrafts and Runabouts are used in place of fighters. Smaller vessels are portrayed realistically, as a small volley of energy beams will disable or straight up destroy them.

United Federation of Planets

For brevity's sake this shall also include pre-Federation United Earth ships.

Most Federation ships seem to be used by Starfleet. Their combined Exploration/quasi-military arm. With only Vulcans still confirmed to have their own fleet in the late 24th century. Starfleet ships as a rule have a distinct Saucer/Engineering/Nacelles look to them, with some variants on that theme. Unlike other ships in Star Trek. Starfleet vessels have visible registry numbers. NCC is used for mainline vessels, while the NX is the designation slapped onto experimental ships such as pathfinders. Usually given to the first ship of a new class. (like the Excelsior below) Though some have their registry switched to NCC once they become ships of the line. While most are built in numeric order. A few like the Enterprise (NCC-1701) themselves are given the names of older vessels with a letter at the end. (i.e. like the 1701-D). On the bridge, just about every Starfleet also has a Dedication Plaque. In addiction to the name, registry number, launch date and shipyard their built at. Each has the names of Production Team members on them as a way to honor those who worked behind the scenes.

2150s

The Enterprise NX-01: boldly going, if a bit clumsily

• NX Class: Earth's first Warp 5 spacecraft, allowing it to really make itself known on the local scene first with the Enterprise (NX-01). 225 Meters long and 136 meters across at the saucer. Had a couple of phase cannons, photonic torpedo launchers and grappler launchers for towing things while defensively it has armour that it could magnetize to make it stronger. Captain Archer set out in it, used it to stop the Xindi and it saw service in the Earth Romulan War. It originally had a similar shape to the Akira class, but later got an engineering hull put on it's underside. Apocryphal sources also later name it the "Columbia class".
• Intrepid Type: the first class to bear the title before Voyager would come on the scene more than a century later. In the show it was designed explicitly to not be the hero ship; armed the same way as the NX class, but with a blocky look that made it appear to be far less advanced. Beta-canon sources claim this ship was produced simultaneously to the NX class, but did not benefit from any of the attention that was lavished onto the Warp 5 program, resulting in an overall inferior vessel. Other sources claimed that for the resources to make an NX, you could make two Intrepids, or even three Daedalus', showing just how strapped Starfleet was during the Earth/Romulan war.
• Daedalus class: A ship about 140 meters long with a spherical saucer section with the deflector dish and a bottle shaped engineering section that most likely saw use in the Earth/Romulan War as an even cheaper alternative to the NX/Intrepid classes.
  • Not much is known about the Daedalus class in universe as all we've seen of it is a few shots here and there and originally IRL it was kind of a in-joke. Some guy with the Deep Space Nine looked up the old concept art for the Enterprise, thought it was neat and made a model of it called the USS Horizon (NCC-176) that showed up in the background of the show here and there. Nerds being Nerds, they took note of this and it caused a bit of a kerfuffle with fans when the NX-01 did not look like it.

2200s-50s

• Walker Class: Briefly the "hero" ship of Discovery with the USS Shenzou taking centre stage for the first few episodes. The class was already showing its age by the time of its reveal, with only a Warp 6 engine, while sporting phase cannons AND phasers at the same time, serving to only highlight the transition between the ENT era and the TOS era.
• Constitution class: Pike/Kirk's Enterprise(NCC-1701) and the Federation's main exploratory ship of its day, entering service around 2245 and was explicitly designed for those "Five Year Missions" and was therefore intended to have the best of everything on board. At one point Kirk mentions that there were only thirteen built, though that may have increased later. 288.6 meters long, had a crew of 400. It was listed in setting as originally having a design endurance of eighteen years, therefore after twenty-five years of service, the 2270s TMP era gave it a service extension refit that increased her length to 305 meters, rearranged a lot of their internals (so much so that Admiral Kirk got lost in the corridors) as well as providing an increase in both speed and firepower. It also looks much better as well. Kirk's first Enterprise served at least another fifteen years, and was considered an "old" and outdated design by the time it got destroyed. Kirk then got a second Constitution (NCC 1701-A) that saw him out another seven years until the class was decommissioned.
• Crossfield Class: Officially designated as a Science vessel, it was designed as a test-bed for Spore Drive technology that could allow a ship to move 90 light years in 1.3 seconds. Sporting a very unusual ring design rather than a true saucer, contrasted with a triangular secondary hull, the design harkens back to original concept art from an unscreened Star Trek: Phase II. Technologically, the Spore Drive was considered a failure, but the class continued in service even after the loss of the USS Discovery, with several showing up later in SNW.

2250s-2350s

• Miranda class: The light cruiser to complement the heavier Constitution; smaller, presumably cheaper, and evidently very easy to modify for non-standard equipment, additionally, according to some nerds on the internet, despite being smaller, it actually has more available internal volume than the Constitution class, making it a more efficient use of resources. Also unlike the Constitution, these ships served well into the 24th century. Where they are destroyer-sized vessel compared to other ships. While TNG still used the model from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. During Deep Space Nine, the Field Grills aka blue strips on the Warp Nacelles were also changed from black to depict them being upgrades over the older vessels. The Miranda Class at the time of the Dominion War was the most common vessel in Starfleet. So many of them were destroyed during the CGI battles. It also had at least two variants with out the roller bar. The Soyuz class had a different bridge and replaced the bar with sensor bods. All other versions except the upgraded Miranda seemed to have been retired after The Battle of Wolf 359 or before the Dominion War.
• Oberth Class: Tiny vessels at only 140 metres long, with 13 decks and a very unusual set-up where the saucer was only connected to the secondary hull by two thin pylons. They had almost no defensive capabilities at all and were used almost exclusively for science and survey missions, though one was used as an illegal test-bed for Federation phase cloaking technology. Also had the rather unique distinction of being a class that was also designated for civilian use outside of Starfleet, with SS Vico NAR-18834 being presented in the shows. They tended to get into trouble a lot and most of their appearances on screen end up with them getting destroyed. Not that they were unsuccessful, as the design carried them through from the Search for Spock set in 2285 all the way through to their last appearance in Star Trek Generations set in 2371.
• Excelsior class: The first ship of its class(NX/NCC-2000 USS Excelsior) began its life as an ambitious engineering prototype for Transwarp drive that fell short of expectations. Eventually, it matured into a VERY long lived multirole cruiser on account of the studio model still being around for TNG and DS9. Canonically, this class was in service for about a century up to the end of the Dominion War. Starting out as a Battlecruiser at its introduction to a Light Cruiser in the late 24th century. The Excelsior herself served with distinction under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu. The former helmsman of the original Constitution-class Enterprise. Too bad she was only seen in action twice. Though the ship did make a big impression during her appearance in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. There are at least two versions of the Excelsior class. Three if you consider the TNG era ship a variant as well. As like the Miranda the CGI artists just adjusted the color of the Nacelle Grills to blue. The second type Enterprise-B/Lakota, first seen in Star Trek: Generations, has extra impulse engines on the saucer section with a wider Stardrive. The Lakota also had Quantum Torpedoes, according to dialogue. This subtype didn't appear again during the jump from physical models.
• Constellation Class: Originally designed specifically for one episode where the Enterprise-D would face off against a vessel from an older era, the showrunners decided not to have a Galaxy class completely outperform a Constitution on screen, so we ended up with this. In universe, the Constellation was said to have entered service around 2278, so it existed alongside more storied classes, and was designed for deep space exploration and defensive patrols. Notable for its four warp nacelle design and VERY thick saucer section which accommodated for its shuttlebays to be dispersed around the circumference of the hull rather than in the rear. Beta-canon sources explain that it had the ability to "warp coast", whereby they only used a pair of nacelles at any given time, and switched them over mid-transit while they heated up, allowing for much greater endurance at warp rather than pushing for top speed.
• Ambassador Class: Designed by the showrunners to bridge the gap between eras from the Excelsior class to the Galaxy class, and the influence shows. As a "flagship" class it was designed to have the best of everything on board, with the Enterprise-C coming from this class. As an unusual development in Starfleet, it was one of the first classes that actually permitted families to travel on board with the crew, with the apparent provision that the crew-member in question had served at least six months time.

2350s-2400s

• Galaxy class: Picard's first Enterprise, NCC-1701-D. The grandest of Starfleet at 642.51 meters with a width of 463.73 meters. As the hero ship of Star Trek: TNG most of the feats of the Galaxy class belong to the Enterprise-D alone. It was also the first class with Saucer Separation as a standard feature: Disconnecting the upper Saucer Section from the lower Stardrive with most of its weapons. The Star Drive had a smaller Battle Bridge for this purpose. It was rarely used because the scale model created by Industrial Light & Magic was massive and difficult for filming, compared to the two smaller models. It was also the same reason Saucer Separation was never used when they logically should have been. Despite its rarity, this function inspired the creation of the "Vector Assault Mode" of the USS Prometheus and several ships in Star Trek: Online. It was also the reason it looks different in Season 3. As the four foot model was more detailed than the two and six footers. In universe: The Galaxy class is also heavily armed with over a dozen Phaser banks and two Photon Torpedo launcher. The latter which can be fired in automatic clusters before reloading. When the Android, Lt. Commander Data is at the helm, the vessel was able to pull off moves that put the Fighter Craft of other science fiction to shame. The writers seem to have forgotten this until the last episode of Star Trek: Picard or they just didn't have the budget to show it off all the time. The Galaxy's top speed is Warp 9.8(about 2450 cochranes/times speed the light) in an emergency but the safe speed they can sustain is 9.6(2017 c). Making them the fastest ships in the fleet until the anti-Borg vessels were launched. As a long range vessel with both families and civilian workers aboard. In addition to the laboratories, departments such as Sickbay & main engineering , cargo bays & holodecks typical of most Starfleet vessels. (You only get one guess what some officers used the latter for). The Galaxy class also has a large number of recreational facilities and even schools to fill the otherwise empty space. Ten Forward at the front of the Saucer Section was exclusive to the class. It also has a Gymnasium, a Phaser Range(soldiers from other franchises could use a gun range), at least one Barbershop, a Theater, and a Salon/Spa. On screen, only three ships were lost, the Enterprise's Stardrive was destroyed to due to some technobabble that bypassed her shields after destroying a old rogue Klingon Bird of Prey, forcing the Saucer Section to crash land on the closest planet. The Yamato was destroyed by a virus from an alien probe, while the USS Odyssey was destroyed in the Gamma Quadrant during a Jem'Hadar fighter's suicide attack. Despite these failures, nearly a dozen Galaxy-class ships served during the Dominion War of in ST: Deep Space Nine. Including the USS Galaxy(NCC-70637) itself. (You'd think they would assign a flag officer or somebody important to that one.) Incomplete Galaxy hulls were also rushed into production and assigned skeleton crews to get them on the frontlines asap. While they lacked new weapons and fancy shit the new kids on the block had (see below). The Galaxy Wings (presumably two or more) were able to keep up with smaller vessels like the Defiant and Akira classes. The tactic seems quite effective as just two can spam Phasers like a squadron of A-10 Warthogs shits outs bullets. In ST: Picard, the Enterprise's saucer section was recovered than restored and attached to the Stardrive of the USS Syracuse by command of former Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge. After becoming head of the Fleet Museum. This resulting in ship that had two different colors and registry numbers on the Saucer and Stardrive because of its slapped together nature. Geordi obviously fixed those issues before inducting adding her to the exhibit.
  • The Galaxy class also has a few variants, such as the USS Venture's extra phaser strips (a remnant of additions to the physical model for the finale of ST:TNG, aka the Galaxy Dreadnought) However the additions on the Venture herself were lost when Star Trek made the full switch to CGI. Then there is the Ross Class imported into ST: Picard from the Star Trek: Online MMO, whish was essentially a Galaxy with a "Sovereign" style glow-up to match with the later era technology, and which beta-canon sources claim that the Saucer Section has its own fully capable warp drive.
  • The Galaxy class had one of the longest development times in Starfleet history, taking nearly fifteen years from the drawing board to the first ship being constructed. But Starfleet knew what they wanted and they weren't going to compromise on anything. Resulting in a bunch of smaller, Galaxy-adjacent classes that tested out various new technologies individually until they were satisfied they could be included in the Galaxy class. These classes included the Springfield, Niagara, Freedom, Challenger, New Orleans, and Cheyenne classes. Most of which showed up on screen as wrecked ships in the Battle of Wolf 359.

• Nebula class: The Miranda counterpart to the Galaxy's Constitution, coming from the same development programme, but made more compact. In exchange for the reduction in scale, they have "Mission Module" pods mounted on the main hull configured with either improved sensors, extra warp nacelles or more weapons. The "combat pod" shows up the most often as we assume it was the only one with CGI models during the 90s. In extended canon, the Mission Modules also consist of an expansive medical facility, temporary housing for moving people to a colony, a massive hanger bay, or even a robust science facility. While they were introduced during "The Next Generation". Nebula's appeared during "The Dominion War" arc of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with other ship classes and ST: Voyager when they needed a Starfleet vessel.

• Intrepid class:. Smaller than the Galaxy at 344 meters long, it was designed for deep space operations. The hero ship of Star Trek: Voyager, the "USS Voyager" (NCC-74656) is an Intrepid-class, while the only other named ship was the Bellerophon in one episode of the final season of DS9. The class was commissioned in 2370 and was briefly the most advanced ship of its time, until the Sovereign came around. It had bio-neural gel-packs, a secondary deflector dish, variable geometry warp nacelles, and was the first vessel to receive the class-9 warp drive (The Galaxy was first commissioned with a class-7). Its top Warp speed factor is 9.975(5126 cochranes) though the best it can sustain without damage is 9.75(2299 c). It was also the first class to be equipped with EMH protocols. It probably would have benefited from some of the anti-Borg developments after Wolf-359 in the year 2367, though as a designated Deep Space Explorer it wasn't built as a combat ship like the others were. According to dialogue the launchers were compatible with Quantum Torpedoes though she had none herself. Despite this, Voyager carried tricobalt warheads, spatial charges, and gravimetric charges, none of which are standard armaments of Starfleet vessels. The fact that the ship had them onboard was only addressed once or twice during the show. Though lazy writing wasn't Star Trek Voyager's only problems.
  • The Intrepid Class also has at least a single variant, the Yeager type. This kit-bash ship is basically an Intrepid upper hull attached to the top rare half of a Maquis Raider with warp nacelles mounted on the wings. The USS Yeager herself was stationed at DS9 alongside the USS Defiant. Though unlike the Voyager it was never shown in combat and mostly patrolled the perimeter around the station. Like the Centaur class (below) it was an emergency kit-bash class intended to fill gaps in fleet lines because of the stresses of the Dominion War in 2373. It is given specs in the DS9 technical manual and it's BAAAD, with a 1500 cochrane warp engine (see above for comparison), a single photon torpedo launcher and only Type-VIII phasers, in an era when all other "modern" vessels were being armed with Type-X as standard.

• Danube Class: Smaller auxiliary "Runabouts" assigned to starbases. Unlike shuttlecraft and most fighters. They had better weapons, shields, their own Warp Drives and even had their own names and Registry Numbers. Though obviously inferior to ships of the line. There are two variants, the standard configuration and one with a roller bar. Runabouts assigned to Deep Space Nine were named after rivers on Earth. The crew also lost more than a handful during combat and accidents. After losing the USS Odyssey, Starfleet finally saw the need to assign a larger more combat capable vessel to the station. Also destroying so many of them probably put strain on the show's budget as well.

• Starfleet's "Anti-Borg" ships In the wake of Wolf 359, Starfleet ship design took a radical shift in ideology, moving away from "exploratory vessels with guns" and more towards "fighting ships that can explore". While it took a few years for all of the ships to start rolling off the assembly lines, it ended up being a huge factor in why the Federation didn't simply collapse outright when the Dominion war really got going. (the Battle of Sector 001 and the proper beginning of the Dominion War were both in 2373) It's important to note that with the sole-exception of the Defiant class, none of them were strictly considered "warships" and still came with much of the traditional package of Starfleet gear, including science and technical suites that allowed them to do other their other jobs well enough to be able to say that they weren't "military vessels" with a straight face.
  • Defiant class: Sisko's wrath made manifest. It's small at 170 meters with few amenities but it can hit above it's weight in a fight. This is what you get when Starfleet makes a Warship: a bunch of weapons and armor strapped to an engine. Its was the first ship to have Quantum Torpedo with two launchers dedicated to them. Another new weapon for the show was Phaser Cannons with standard issue Phaser banks along the vessel and a rear Photon torpedo launcher rounding out its firepower. Another first for Starfleet is the addition of Ablative Armor. A feature that found its way onto some of Starfleet's other ships. The Defiant's top speed at warp is a bit slower than large ships at Warp 9.5.(1894 C) though it could achieve 9.982(5940 c) when power was diverted from the Phasers. The Defiant(NX-74205) was meant to be the first of many vessels to counter The Borg threat. Before taking command of Deep Space Nine. The Sisko(as he is called by Bajor's prophets aka wormhole aliens) was assigned to the project after losing his wife during the Battle of Wolf 359 against a Borg Cube. It was overgunned and overpowered for a ship its size and nearly shook itself during its shakedown cruse. Unlike other Starfleet vessels it had no holodecks and limited space for a Sickbay. Crew Quarters are basic and shared by two people. Having only enough room for bunk beds. With the exception of the CO, whose Ready Room next to the bridge doubled as their Quarters. Even the Transporter Rooms and Mess Hall are small compared to other ships. After the loss of the USS Odyssey on the Gamma Quadrant side of the Wormhole, Starfleet finally decided to finally stop screwing around. Allowing Commander Sisko to take her out of mothballs to search for the Founders. The Treaty of Algeron was amended to allow the Defiant and only her to have a Cloaking Device The agreement with the Romulans only specified the Gamma Quadrant's side of the Bajorian Wormhole. It should come as no surprise that they break this agreement to use it in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants quite often. During the season premier, the Defiant was only able to destroy one or two fighters before the crew was captured and bought to the Founder's homeworld. If it wasn't for DS9 Changeling main security officer tagging along. Finding out the Founder and Changeling's were one in the same. The crew probably would likely have been executed. A few episodes later, Chief Engineer Miles O'Brian was able to upgrade the Defiant to the badass fans know her to be. These flaws were also present on the alternate universe's ISS Defiant used by the Terran Rebels. They had to use an living version of Benjamin's wife Jennifer Sisko to force him fix it up for them. The USS Defiant was eventually was upgraded enough to serve as the now Captain Sisko's flagship during the Dominion War. Of course being Star Trek, Deep Space Nine solved at least one of these battles with help from the Prophets disappearing a Jem'hadar fleet to help retake DS9 because the Cardis joined the Dominion and another with solved by technobabble against automated turrets. As for being a Borg counter vessel. It only fought them once with Commander Worf in the Captain's chair in ST: First Contact. Lasting longer than the flagship in charge the Starfleet's Earth defense section . Worf ordered the helmsan to ram the Borg Cube before being saved by the Enterprise-E. It also the first and only "hero ship" to be destroyed on screen with another of the same class replacing it and rechristened with the old name and registry number on the hull. Remained from USS Sao Paulo. (NCC-75633 according to her dedication plaque. No letter added at the end. As usually was the case of a new Enterprise and other rare occurrences) As it was destroyed by a Breen dampening weapon during the Second Battle of Chin'toka along with the rest of the combined Feddie, Klingon and Romulan Fleet. The Dominion decided to find new allies after the Cardassian forces become increasingly useless, with at least half of them starting a rebellion. Most of the new Defiant's combat scenes were reused from older episodes because the budget was running out. With the exception of the Cardis turning on their old allies so they could Warp to Cardassia Prime to staredown the massive Dominion Fleet. So we didn't get to see a battle between the combined forces. As Odo convinced the Female Founder into surrendering offering to the cure them from virus they were infected with by Section 31 when after they tricked him to return to the Great Link a second time. The second Defiant itself was on display during 2041 in Star Trek Picard. Despite her official dimensions. The Defiant's size was inconsistent during Star Trek's switch to CGI from physical models during the 90s. Being nearly one fourth the size of a Galaxy Class in one episode than looking tiny next to an Excelsior class, while larger than a Klingon Bird of Prey in another.
  • Akira class: Starfleet's Gunboat-Carrier Hybird, yeah that's right. In addition to starting production of the Defiant class. The Feddies also made their own Carrier, than loaded them with shitloads of torpedo tubes(15 of them!) and phasers on it. When pushed come to shove, Starfleet doesn't fuck around. With four shuttle bays, one on the front and three in the back. The Akiras are the motherships for all those attack fighters used by Starfleet during the Dominion War battles seen on ST: DS9. All while in the same weight and size class as the Nebula. Basically the Akira is Star Trek's version of the Star Destroyer or the Battlestar Galactica from the same franchise. Like many of the new ships it appears in most video games set during the TNG era. Has a similar layout to the NX class.
  • Norway Class: Listed as a "Medium Cruiser" in the technical manual, with a length of 364 metres making it slightly larger than the old Constitution class, but smaller than the Excelsiors and Galaxies. Notable for being very flat, in order to reduce its profile to incoming weapons fire. Was one of those vessels that appeared in ST: First Contact and was earmarked for use in later DS9 episodes. According to the Visual Effects Supervisor, David Stipes. The files for the Norway were either lost or corrupted. So this left Video Game developers to make their own interpretations of the ship. The DS9 Technical Manual lists an evacuation capacity of 500, which Beta-canon sources say that was used to great effect as an rescue vessel, being able to beam aboard the entire crews of stricken vessels and remove them from warzones safely.
  • Steamrunner Class: Another one of the catamaran designs that puts the secondary hull further back between the nacelles. Officially listed as a "Heavy Frigate" it has a length of 372 metres, making it slightly larger than the Norway, but the weapons loadout was more modest, with only two torpedo launchers and four type X phasers, instead of the listed six phasers on the Norway.
  • Saber Class: A budget Defiant, though marginally larger, sources differ on its dimensions, but the Technical Manual copy/pasted the figures from the Norway class, so considering this one is designated "Light Cruiser" then it's probably the smaller one. The Saber was designed so that they could produce an Escort class warship that was no-where near as resource intensive as the Defiant, yet still have a package of scientific gear to be able to fall back into peace-time roles.
  • Sovereign class: The class of Picard and crew's second Enterprise, 1701-E after the D was wrecked in the first TNG movie. She premiered in the second TNG movie, Star Trek: First Contact. Basically a hybrid of Galaxy and Defiant classes at 685 meters in length. (Maybe stuff from the Intrepid too, but few fans care about that). The final class to come out of the Counter-Borg initiative, which was also just in time for the Dominion War to begin. This is what happens when the Federation gets their heads out of their collective asses. Where all of the preceding ships had some particular niche, the Sovereign was designed for EVERYTHING. Allowing their Flagship and its most elite crew to have the all fancy toys the new kids get. Except phaser cannons and attack fighters but with her speed and firepower she doesn't need them. Like other new vessels the Sovereign class have both Quantum and Photon Torpedo launchers (10 total after a refit), 16 phaser arrays and Ablative Armor for when the shields went down. With a top speed of Warp factor 9.995(11515 Cochranes) and able to sustain Warp 9.99(7912c) for 36 hours. While lacking the second forward Quantum Torpedo launcher the Defiant has. It can still spam them just as fast. Maybe the Sovereign's have a higher rate of fire than the smaller ships. She also appeared in Star Trek: Prodigy with other ships from the franchise while the reunited crew in Star Trek: Picard confirmed she was "lost" sometimes after Worf become Captain of the Enterprise-E. If you're thinking about why the USS Sovereign herself didn't show up in DS9 during the Dominion War. You're probably smarter than Paramount's producers. As they thought audiences were morons who would confuse her for the Enterprise-E. The same reason no Intrepid class ships never appeared during those battles either. It would have made at lot of sense for the Sovereign (or at least the USS Galaxy) to at least be Vice Admiral Ross's flagship. However because of stupid executives fans can't have nice things and doing things that make sense is alien to Paramount.

• Centaur class: Originally a kit-bash model composed of spare Excelsior and Miranda class parts, used by the showrunners in distance shots to differentiate them from "hero" ships, made several canon appearances overall, ended up in the technical manuals, and reappeared again in ST:Prodigy. In universe; it literally was a kit-bash of spare Excelsior saucers and parts salvaged from other ships, as the desperation caused by the Dominion War meant that shipyards needed to push out as many ships as they possibly could, leading to a second-rate destroyer vessel that could simply fill fleets, armed with two photon torpedo launchers and Type IX phasers (for reference, all of the "anti-borg" ships that preceded this design had Type X). After the war the class got its own "Sovereign" style glow-up, giving it a less frankenstein-ish appearance; putting a proper deflector dish on the hull and moving the shuttlebay forward on the saucer, presumably also beefing up the systems and armament.

The Cali-class: Not flashy, but it gets' shit done

• California class: The class of the lead ship of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the USS Cerritos Mariner and Boimler's stomping grounds. At 535.2 meters long it's not the fastest or the most glamorous ship, but Starfleet has a lot of odd jobs to do and a Cali's the ship to do them. It also has the nacelles connected to the saucer directly with engineering between them. Each vessel has different color strips on the hull to indicate their mission. Each ship is also named after a city in California. The main problem with that is your eventually going to run out of cities to name ships after a while.

• Parliament class: Basically a larger version of the California class. ST:O even calls it the "Miracle Worker Surveyor Cruiser" while the former is a "Miracle Worker Utility Cruiser". Unlike the California, the Warp Engines and Deflector Dish are connected to the Saucer Section independently of each other. Shoving the Engineering haul to the lower rear. Making it look closer to the Nebula. Their typically deployed for large scale engineering projects, though we do theme carrying out other missions. Parliaments are a considered more prestigious posts among Starfleet's newbie Ensigns over the the Cali. Star Trek: Lower Decks' writers are totally not hinting at something by naming them after Canadian cities while the California uses American ones, we think.

• Luna Class: The class of William T. Riker's ship, the first officer of both the Enterprise-D and the -E after his promotion to Captain, the USS Titan. If the Nebula is considered a miniature version of the Galaxy Class, then the Luna class is like a mini-Sovereign; at around 450 metres long it was considerably smaller, but with nearly the same armament and a slightly lower sustained Warp Factor. Apocryphal sources claim it was not part of the anti-borg initiative that had generated the Sovereign and had always been intended as a deep space explorer from the start (specifically for the Gamma Quadrant) and that its development was side-lined in favour of more militant ships during the Dominion War, resulting in its delayed commissioning. Despite this, it clearly took a lot of the advances from that initiative and was able slug it out with vessels over twice her size, as shown when the Titan fought three Pakled Clumpships armed with Borg technology in her first appearance on Lower Decks. It also looks much better than its successor the Constitution III. Why the designers and producers decided not refit the Luna Class and instead choose an ugly ass kitbash of the Connie or a whole new design for ST:Picard as the Titan-A/Enterprise-G. Besides nostalgia bait, we have no idea.

• Star Trek: Online imports: Ships imported from the game. They were used Star Trek Picard in season two and three because fans shit on the creators for cut and pasting the Inquiry Class(which was also put into the game later on) in the last episode of season one. Many are updated designs of older vessels. However many of them at least better looking than original ships introduced in Nu-Trek. This currently includes Gagarin, the aforementioned mentioned Ross, Excelsior-II, Reliant Class (updated Miranda), Sutherland Class (Miranda Variant), the Pathfinder(updated Intrepid), Edition Class (TNG style Discovery ship) and finally the class of the Enterprise-F, the Odyssey Class. Which actually comes in three variants itself in the game. The Big-E herself was a refitted Science Star Cruiser called the Yorktown subclass. Regardless of which is chosen, an Odyssey is much larger than the Galaxy Class and is longer than the Sovereign. ST:Picard's producers gave a flimsy excuse to retire the F. Going with the worst looking ship to have the name Enterprise(1701-G) yet.

Klingon Empire

"Klingons hardly ever update their fleet designs. They always want their ships to look like big stupid birds."

– Dr. T'ana, The Lower Decks

Klingon ships are about aggression. They're not as technologically advanced as their Feddie counterparts nor do they carry their multi-role capacities, but they have a lot of forward weapons and are made to get into the fight and overwhelm their foes with a lot of firepower.

• D7 class: The original Klingon Battle Cruisers used during the Federation-Klingon Cold War. These were deployed in response to the Constitution Class ships and later on the USS Excelsior at least once. A variant or refit, the K't'inga class was used during their misguided campaign against the Cardassian empire and the battles of the Dominion War. Where they were more or less equivalent to Starfleet's refitted ships of the same era, The Miranda & Excelsior classes.

Size comparison of different specimen of Bird Of Prey

• B'rel class: a.k.a. Klingon Bird of Prey. First seen in Star Trek III and used as a whale transport in Star Trek IV it became the main Klingon ship through TNG and into DS9. It's generally listed as being 157.76 meters...but the model has been used for both tiny fighters and 600 meter long ships that could tango with a Galaxy-class ship. Lower Decks addressed this by making a class of larger ships similar to the B'rel in shape but keeping the bird shape due to an apparent culture obsession.
• K'Vort class: The Bird of Prey, but the size of a light cruiser. Starting from The Next Generation. It was used as the main ship of the Klingon Empire until the Vor'Cha was introduced. Also nearly as wide as the Feddie's Galaxy class despite its smaller size. While the IRL reason is that VisionArt Design & Animation didn't create a CGI model for it. In universe the K'Vort's crusier role was supplanted by the K't'ingas and Vor'chas. So one can easily guess that most them were either lost during the Klingon Civil Wars(with the House of Duras getting help from the Romulans before being exposed by Starfleet), The Klingon-Cardassian War, some possibly lost to Federation vessels after withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords or Jem'Hadar warships. As the Jem'Hadar had them limping back to Fed boarders after the Cardassians joined the Dominion. Those three conflicts only happened because the Dominion's Founders took advantage of Chancellor Gownron's arrogance and left the Khitomer Accord, to their advantage. As no K'Vort Bird of Prey's were seen on screen after the empire rejoined the treaty nor during the battles of the Dominion War.
• Vor'cha class: Introduced during TNG Season 4 as the new Klingon warship of that era. The Vor-Cha is the first new ship since the introduction of Bird of Prey. As K'Vort was mainly the original model with the wings turned upwards. Armament wise its somewhere between the Galaxy and Nebula classes(+combat pod) with a standard array of Disruptors and Photon torpedo launchers. They can also achieve a Warp factor of over 9.5. Most Vor'cha class ships seem to be attached to the Klingon Defense Force (the empire's formal military), with older designs still being used by the various great houses that form the High Council. One served as the flagship of the Klingon Chancellor until the Negh-Var class made its debut. Though the Vor'cha appears more often as the Klingon's Empire primary capital ship. Many of them fought in conflicts the empire got themselves pulled into.
• Negh'Var class: The Klingon's answer to the Galaxy Class and presumably the first(and maybe only) vessel is their Flagship in the latter half of the 24th century. Presumably a descendent of the Vor-Cha. She only appears in two or three episodes. Despite her impressive looks and size, the Negh'Var is known for getting its ass kicked more than a few times. Once from the crew operating Deep Space Nine after being conned by the Dominion's Changeling Founders. Than expelled from Cardassian Empire' space with her fleet after they joined the Dominion. The Negh'Var's model was originally used as the alternate future Klingon Attack Cruiser in TNG's series finale two parter. With one being destroyed by a supped up version of the Enterprise-D. Its most prominent appearance was its used as the Regent's Flagship in the post alternate Terran universe. That ship got a beatdown from an alternate copy of the Defiant and a Terran Raider(the Terran Resistance's version of the Federation Attack Fighter). Nor did it have a cloaking device like its counterparts from the main universe. As Rom, one of DS9's best civilian engineers from the primary reality. This happened because the Regent and his Alliance subordinates are morons, allowed Rom to rig a cloaking device they stole (from a B'rel class) to disable her. This let the Terrans Rebels arrest its crew so they could be rescued allowing Quark and Rom to be returned to their home universe.

Romulan Star Empire

• Bird of Prey: Aka the T'Liss-class. A main hull that's circular in the front, boxy in the back and with a pair of nacelles on wings and a bird painted on it's hull. Averaging at 136 meters long and 199 meter wingspan, she's a bit on the small side compared to a Connie nor is she fast, but makes up for it with a Cloaking Device. Size of each Bird of Prey fluctuates to greater degree than other ships - each individual ship can be 35 meters at minimum, and over 600 meters at maximum; the reasons for this are not known (technical error? Romulans upscaled/downscaled blueprints? BoP grows in size as it gets older? BoP start small and grows bigger the more it stays in shipyard?). They're basically Space Submarines, able to turn invisible and alpha strike her targets with a high power plasma torpedo before they can respond. Later versions also had disruptors and colored green like their Klingon counterparts. Sometime in the 24th century a few of these vessels were either recovered by criminals or sold to the black market. Though not much if a threat to ships of the line (aka military and explorer vessels), with proper upgrades and/or sufficient growth, Bird's of Prey are still dangerous enough for civilian owned spacecraft.
• 2150s Bird of Prey: Seen in the Enterprise episode Minefield, similar to the T'liss in shape and with either a cloaking device or some other form of more primitive stealth technology. Plans were made to show more of them...but the series was cancelled.
• Scout/Science Vessel: These two ships types were depicted by a physical model constructed to be easily modified by the SFX artists for The Next Generation.
• D'deridex class: a.k.a. (B-type) Warbird. The standard Romulan starship during the Next-Generation-through-Deep-Space-9 period. Averaging at 1,041.65 meters long (though specimen of up to 2.5km lenght were reported), it's pretty big by Trek standards, even if much of that is negative space. This because Romulans use artificial singularities aka Micro Black Holes to power their Warp Drives. It comes with an unknown number of Disruptors, Plasma Torpedoes and even green colored phasers. Along with their standard issue Cloaking Devices. The Romulan Star Empire apparently had more than twenty D'deridex vessels. Unlike the Federation, they seem to have focused on a single class instead of building entire news ones. Since they often showed up as a counterpart to the Galaxy class and other large vessels. In fact, considering this fact and fluctuation of Bird Of Prey size, both ships may be different stages of same ship class (BoP ≈nymph, Warbird ≈imago). We'll assume they had more than a few upgrades between appearances. As they were the only Romulan ships shown fighting the Dominion(in DS9) & the Borg (Lower Decks's intro). This can be chalked up to creating one digital model to cut & paste for the large set piece battles of Star Trek: DS9.
• Mogai class:
• Scimitar class:

Cardassian Union

• Hideki Class:: Their Fighter/Patrol vessels. A relatively new design during season 2 of Deep Space Nine(circa 2370). So this means its a more recent addition than the Galor below. As a former member of the Bajoran Resistance, Major Kira didn't recognize it, other than it being a Cardassian vessel. One of the few things known about it that it can reach Warp 8 and comes with Disruptors, though some civilian colonists were able to modify them with Galor-Class phaser banks. While not much compared to the capital ships nor Jem'Hadar Fighters the Hideki class is roughly equivalent to Federation Attack Fighters. Saw use against both the Klingons and then Starfleet after joining the Dominion in Season 5.
• Galor class: Standard Cardie starship at 372 meters long with some stubby wings. Sometimes called a "destroyer". While smaller and lacking of the high warp factors of the Galaxy Class, it may not the biggest or the baddest ship out there but it can throw down reasonably well; they are presumably more or less equal to the K'Vort or Vor'cha classes used by the Klingons as the Cardassian Union was able to hold on to just enough territory before joining the Dominion a year later.
• Keldon class: A Galor with a box stuck on its back that some how makes it faster while also adding a cloaking device. Several Keldons were manufactured with the aid of the Romulan Tal Shiar so they can be assumed to be exclusive to the Obsidian Order. They made very few appearances in the show... In a season 3 episode of DS9, one was destroyed and a few more were damaged by the USS Defiant after she was hijacked by Thomas Riker (Will Riker's clone) and the Maquis. The fact that the Obsidian Order had any ships at all annoyed Dukat and the rest of Cardassian Central Command as the Order was forbidden to have any military equipment whatsoever. Later, a combined fleet of Keldon and Romulan Tal Shiar D'deridex Warbirds, under the command of Garak's father Enabran Tain travelled to destroy the homeworld of the Dominion's Founders. Because Tain wasn't smart enough to figure out that the Tal Shiar Commander Lovok was actually one of the Changelings, they had already relocated themselves to a new Homeworld, kickstarting the Battle of the Omarion Nebula while the USS Defiant came in hot to save Odo and Garak then bugging out to let the rogue spy agencies get slaughtered. Presumably all of the remaining Keldon class vessels were destroyed along with the Obsidian Order as they never made any appearances in the show after that. The Keldon class itself never had a CGI model and never appeared during any battles of the later Dominion War when they otherwise could have, since then they have mostly been relegated to appearances in video games such as Star Trek: Online.

Dominion

• Jem'Hadar fighter:
• Jem'Hadar battle cruiser:
• Jem'Hadar battleship:

Ferengi Alliance

• D'kora class: Also known as the Ferengi Marauder, the D'kora has a distinctive double crescent-shaped hull. At 630 meters long and 210 wide, it was in the same size ballpark as the Galaxy Class and was reasonably formidable. D'koras are not only capable warships, but also advanced cargo ships and long-range scout craft. Like the Federation, the Ferengi Alliance used these ships to seek out new life and new civilizations, but where the Federation sought knowledge, understanding, and to find new lifeforms to be friends with, the Ferengi sought new markets, goods, and peoples to swindle and exploit.

Borg Collective

• Cube: A massive cubical Hodge-podge of structural elements, duct work and odd mechanisms three kilometers to a side. The main ship of a Borg fleet that can handle any task from combat to assimilation to construction and carries thousands of drones.
• Tactical Cube:
• Sphere: A smaller Borg ship, about 600 meters in diameter. Apparently one can be stored inside a Borg Cube. As it acted like an oversized escape pod after Captain Picard took command over the fleet defending Earth in Star Trek: First Contact from a Borg Cube. While a threat in its own right. It was no match for a single Sovereign Class vessel like the Enterprise-E. Presumably that also applies to any other ship with Quantum Torpedoes.