DEFIANT-CLASS ESCORT
Few starships have experienced “growing pains” like the Defiant class. Developed as a response to first contact with the Borg Collective, she goes against almost every tenet of Federation shipbuilding. Her gestation has been painful, with the vessel almost cancelled outright on a number of occasions. However, recent events have played in her favour, and it was decided to modify the vessel to make it a better fit with the modern fleet.
Class:
Derided by some as “the bastard child of the mating of a cruiser and a runabout”, the Defiant is essentially an escort body with a cruiser’s powerplant and weapons systems. The ship is low and wide, presenting a very small silhouette to targeting sensors. The vessel mounts almost all her weapons forward, and is designed to engage targets from the front.
Classification:
The Defiant class has been classified as an escort.
Design:
The Defiant and her sisters are incredibly spartan for Federation vessels. There is no dedicated medical staff, the small sickbay overseen by an Emergency Medical Hologram, but with a crew of only forty, this is not seen as a problem. The EMH is powered by its own power source and the emitter array is isolated to the sickbay. On such a small vessel, the FSQ shield system allows the Defiant to take massive amounts of punishment. In addition, ablative hull armour has been fitted to the ship to deflect disruptor accounts. Only the original Defiant mounted a cloaking device, which was of Romulan origin.
Engineering:
The Valiant and her sisters mount a heavily de-tuned version of the LF-35 warp drive system fitted to the original Defiant. While still too powerful for such a small vessel, the changes have greatly improved the ship’s handling characteristics. Top speed dropped to Warp 9.4, but she is far more efficient in the Warp 7-8 cruising range, allowing for a longer endurance.
Tactical:
The Defiant class mounts a devastating weapons array up front – four Type XII pulse phaser cannons and two Type X phaser arrays. She also has two Mk 90 photon torpedo launchers. Such a phaser-heavy compliment was created based on the Borg’s resistance to photon torpedoes. In her new role as an escort, the ability to deliver such sustained intense phaser power on target was an asset in the close-quarter battle tactics used by the Dominion.
Computer Systems:
The Defiant class is fitted with the Daystrom Computer Systems M-15 found on most ships of the line.
Builders:
Cosmadyne was the initial prime contractor, though they received design assistance from numerous other design bureaus in their attempts to get the ship to work. The original ship was built at Earth Station McKinley, but final outfitting was performed at the Antares Yards in Bajor, so that facility is listed as the builder. The next four vessels were manufactured at ESM, with an additional eight split between M’Yengh Yards on Cait and the Alfras Fleet Yards at Deneb V. The final two were built at Utopia Planitia, Mars.
Development and Construction History:
After first contact with the Borg Collective, Starfleet immediately began an intensive development program for a new series of ships to repel a possible future Borg invasion. The program essentially boiled down to using a few massive vessels, or a fleet of small, heavily armed and shielded, attack ships. The former concept became the Courageous and the latter the Defiant. Construction began in 2366 after a hastily put-together design program. Simulations showed massive design flaws, and with the Borg some 5,000LY away, the program was criticized by many in the MSC. With the invasion by the Collective in 2367 and the defeat at Wolf 359, her critics were silenced and construction began in earnest, with changes made in the yard to try and correct the deficiencies. The ship was completed and began her shakedown tests in 2368. These trials were an absolute disaster. The initial simulations did not do justice to the actual problems with her flight and structure dynamics. The engineer’s quickly determined that the propulsion system was far too powerful for such a small ship. Though she was designed for bursts of up to Warp 9.99, in actuality the ship’s structure could barely handle Warp 9 without risk of coming apart. After these tests, the ASDB declared the design a failure and mothballed the program pending a complete re-evaluation. Instead, the Courageous class was given the go-ahead and the first vessel was started. With the coming of the Dominion threat, plans were again floated to return the Defiant to the yards and finish her out. It was felt that a large vessel would attract too much attention and the Defiant’s smaller size would work. Most surprisingly, the Romulans approved of this plan, going as far as to offer a cloaking device and Tactical Advisor for the vessel. The ship was returned to the yards in 2370 and the vessel formally entered service in 2372, assigned to Deep Space Nine. Since that time, the Defiant class has proven herself time and time again in a variety of missions. Though the original ship was flawed, work continued on refining the concept and making it more stable. Continued simulation eventually resulted in new changes that resulted in a far more effective ship and a prototype, the U.S.S. Valiant, was commissioned. The new vessel proved to be a far better prospect than the original Defiant, but she was lost on a secret mission inside Dominion space.
Conclusion:
Though not effective against the Borg, the Defiant proved quite effective against Dominion (Cardassian and Jem’Hadar) vessels. As the Dominion War heated up, a crash construction program was authorized that saw nine vessels started in 2373, all of them entering service in the final months of the war.
Nomenclature:
The Sao Paulo (ES 75633) was renamed to Defiant by order of the Chief of Fleet Operations to replace the original, lost in battle against the Breen at Chin’Toka. It kept the original NCC, however.
Current Specifications for the Defiant class:
Displacement 355,000 mt
Overall Length 119.48 m
Overall Draft 21.07 m
Overall Beam 93.88 m
Propulsion:
Two LF-35 Mod 1 energized-energized antimatter warp drive units
Two FIG-2 subatomic unified energy impulse units
QASR-2 particle beam maneuvering thrusters
“Trentis IV” pulsed laser reaction control system
Velocity:
Warp 6 Standard Cruising Speed
Warp 8.0 Maximum Cruising Speed
Warp 9.982 Maximum Attainable Velocity
Duration:
5 years, standard
Complement:
10 Officers
30 Enlisted Crew
0 Passengers (Normal – Up to 100 maximum)
40 Total Crew (Standard)
Embarked Craft:
0 Danube Class Runabout
0 Type 6 Personnel Shuttle
0 Type 7 Personnel Shuttle
0 Type 9A Cargo Shuttle
0 Type 16 Shuttlepod
0 Peregrine Class Fighter
0 S-3 Sentry SWAC Shuttle
Navigation:
RAV / ISHAK Mod 3 Warp Celestial Guidance
Computers:
M-15 Isolinear III with LCARS
Phasers:
4 Type XII Pulse Phaser Cannon
2 Type X Collimated Phaser Array
Missiles:
3 Mk 75 Photon Torpedo Launchers
Defense:
FSQ Primary Force Field
Life Support:
MM6 Modular Gravity Unit
AL4 Life Support System
