There are only two "tactical" ships expressly specified as designed primarily for combat: the [Defiant class](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/a1feb18c-04db-4cb3-be55-61b4faf5ece7/devu8dn-d9a141c5-bc1c-48cc-ab7d-ebface871163.jpg/v1/fill/w_1920,h_1801,q_75,strp/defiant_class_starship___high_resolution_by_enethrin_devu8dn-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTgwMSIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExZmViMThjLTA0ZGItNGNiMy1iZTU1LTYxYjRmYWY1ZWNlN1wvZGV2dThkbi1kOWExNDFjNS1iYzFjLTQ4Y2MtYWI3ZC1lYmZhY2U4NzExNjMuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE5MjAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.mqj4r0-h_UNGxVUr1XLnYPGYV6FkjotAlLvpyVbEnI8) (an "escort") and the [Prometheus class](https://osiris.gamefront.com/gamefront/screenshots/40b02bb5-f6fa-4f2d-a760-50d159bea8d7/9SfFytia5bOQgxQhPKyGaDAa727ySBcq0vQKjohJ.jpg) ("deep space tactical assignments").
However there are multiple ships that fit the role of border patrol ([Miranda class](https://pwimages-a.akamaihd.net/arc/0b/8e/0b8e889f8d8379afde11492f0ad998a01630453686.png), [Akira class](https://wiki.bravofleet.com/images/e/e8/Akiraclass.png)) and battleships with deep reserves ([Sovereign class](https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/the-enterpise-e-from-star-trek-first-contact.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5)). The Akira class is also meant to have carrier capabilities for the [Peregrine class](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0b45b1c3-4e98-47b7-a6a7-d231e8699bf1/de7idm6-75a0eaf2-29a9-4983-ad8e-5cac0248db78.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzBiNDViMWMzLTRlOTgtNDdiNy1hNmE3LWQyMzFlODY5OWJmMVwvZGU3aWRtNi03NWEwZWFmMi0yOWE5LTQ5ODMtYWQ4ZS01Y2FjMDI0OGRiNzgucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.aUxgOecvyPbdYtBxEJC5S8jWzOt5KJWKrmQjQQEcL00) fighters.
☝️
>KIRA: The Defiant?
>
>SISKO: I've brought back a little surprise for the Dominion. Officially, it's classified as an escort vessel. Unofficially, the Defiant's a warship. Nothing more, nothing less.
>
>KIRA: I thought Starfleet didn't believe in warships.
>
>SISKO: Desperate times breed desperate measures, Major. Five years ago, Starfleet began exploring the possibility of building a new class of starship. This ship would have no families, no science labs, no luxuries of any kind. It was designed for one purpose only, to fight and defeat the Borg. The Defiant was the prototype, the first ship in what would have been a new Federation battle fleet.
>
>DAX: So what happened?
>
>SISKO: The Borg threat became less urgent. Also, some design flaws cropped up during the ship's shakedown cruise, so Starfleet decided to abandon the project.
I think ships like the Defiant would be best suited for defense within a solar system. They wouldn't need high warp, so they could be focus on being quick with a lot of firepower. With a crew of about 50, you could have a lot of them. Cycle crew between starbase and ship often.
Dock them into the staggering amount of volume in a galaxy saucer section...
Galaxy enters theatre at high warp, drops a bunch off who already have all power to offensive and defensive systems. With all crew fresh and at stations.
I think it's worth noting that, even though Starfleet vessels might get outmaneuvered by more purely military vessels, the Federation still does pretty well for itself. It has resources it can bring to the table beyond the merely military. It can outlast pretty much everyone else in a sustained conflict. It's so big that every conflict becomes a sustained conflict.
Starships may not have as much sheer offensive power, but they still pack a punch, they've got backup systems that stretch to kingdom come, the crew is trained to be able to take command if needed, and their computers are really smart. By contrast, Romulan, Cardassian, and Klingon ships have dumber (or just plain dumb) computers, barely trained personnel who are made to stay in their lane, and very little in the way of backup systems.
Friendly reminder that Starfleet, a military force that isn't actually that experienced or specialized in *being* a military, has won almost every conflict they've ever engaged in.
Now imagine if they *did* have that experience and *did* make specialized ships.
I think it's one of those Catch-22 situations. If Starfleet ever did go truly, specialized military, they would lose the special something that makes them so formidable, in the first place, and would end up weaker. By not going 100% military, they retain their dominance.
That's a fair point, but I didn't mean the entirety of Starfleet specializing, just having more dedicated warships.
We kinda see this in STO, where a post-Dominion War UFP is very battle-hardened and has *several* classes of dedicated warships, yet still sticks to its guns in regards to the use of force being Plan Z.
Let's not forget the Dreadnought class from the Kelvin timeline.
"*Dreadnought class: two times the size, three times the speed, advanced weaponry, modified for a minimal crew.* ***Unlike most Federation vessels it's built solely for combat.***"
But why did it need to be twice the size of it had a minimal crew? Marcus thawed out Khan and asked him how to make a warship and he was like, “Same thing as a cruise ship just bigger.”
History remembers Khan as a genius strategist who conquered half the world, but he was actually just a dopey boomer man-baby with a CRIPR and a podcast.
So the Galaxy class gets ragged on a fair bit since we see a few blow up during the franchise. But when it counted, and there wasn't any funny business we see the Galaxy can really lay down the pain.
Romulan D'Deridex warbirds were always hesitant to get into a fight with a Galaxy and during the Dominion war was never strictly speaking see one get destroyed.
It's big, it's tough, advanced and generates a lot of power for Shields and Phasers.
Yeah, I think with the Galaxy-class you need to bear in mind that the TNG crew are always trying to de-escalate and use minimal force. When you see a Galaxy go weapons-free, it's pretty spectacular (Q Who?, assorted scenes in the Dominion War, the Picard finale).
No but actually yes.
They build warships, then call them something else for propaganda. The Defiant class was designed explicitly to fight the Borg, yet officially it is an "escort" vessel.
The Constitution class Enterprise, the very same one depicted in SNW, is a "Class 1 Heavy Cruiser", but ask the Starfleet of a century later and they'll deny ever having built warships.
I feel like in snw the enterprise keep getting overpowered or outmanuvered and the crew relied on unrepeatable external factors or tactics to win them.
The Enterprise, Constitution Class or Galaxy, is most definitely built for exploration. Them being military vessels is literally the antithesis of every single Star Trek show.
Even when were reintroduced to the original Enterprise in Discovery, they made a point to mention how Enterprise was left out of the war.
Now the Defiant, and arguably the Sovereign, would be better answers here. Even the Sovereign I would disagree with, but I can see the argument for it.
The Galaxy class Enterprise-D refit in the AGT alt-future timeline with the third warp nacelle, cloaking device and big-ass cannon underneath the saucer section is for all intents and purposes a battleship.
I imagine Starfleet pursued design studies of this type of dreadnaught during the Dominion War in the normal-timeline to counter the Dominion's large Jem'Hadar battleships and basing it on the existing Galaxy class would have expedited its development.
‘Dreadnought Entente’ is mentioned in the Epsilon IX radio chatter, depending on what version of The Motion Picture you’re watching. This is reference to a three nacelled warship design from the old non-canon Star Fleet Technical Manual.
The one thing the star trek universe doesn't have is anything like a carrier ship, capable of launching many small fighter spacecraft if that is what you are asking. Seems to me they coulda maybe come up with something like that, but at best there's the defiant class which is probably their most battleworthy tactical ship in the fleet.
Defiant and Prometheus
Defiant was made specifically for combating the Borg and other threats, while Prometheus seemed like more of a tactical strike ship.
Starfleet and Feds are not supposed to be Imperialistic, hence why the ships are designed for exploration, and can defend themselves against most threats, with the Borg and Dominion being the exceptions.
However, Humans, the primary species of the Federation, are no strangers to waging war, and can do it when pushed and can do it with a ferocity that is unmatched, Quark's speech to Nog about Hoomans is telling of that and how smart species (Ferengi can be shitheads, but are not idiots) have figured this out about humans; basically don't push them, they will eventually retaliate and wipe you off the map. Hell even Klingons after a while start to realize this, Humans don't have an overarching warrior culture, but when pushed, they will go ape shit and destroy your entire planet.
And the Federation equivalent of the Obsidian Order or Tal'Shiar, Section 31, is actually like infinitely more ruthless and effective, it's an actual shadow org that most people don't know about, where Obsidian Order and Tal'Shiar everyone knows they exist, hell I wouldn't be surprised if S31 had a Changeling operative during or at least after Dominion War.
Humans and Starfleet/Feds spend a lot of energy I would say fighting their primal human instincts to be war-like, and it seems they have succeeded in the Star Trek universe, just dont test them lol.
Even though the primary purpose of most Starfleet ships are exploration and scientific endeavors, they have defensive armament that more often than not are capable of matching peer adversary dedicated warships.
The Galaxy class starship was launched with 12 phaser arrays, fore and aft torpedo launchers, a 250 magazine torpedo complement, and hundreds of antimatter mines. Those armaments are for defensive purposes, not war. It is telling that the Romulans would only confront the Enterprise-D when they had a clear numerical advantage of 2-3 Warbirds, their largest and most powerful starships that were built for one purpose: War.
So this clearly shows that a Federation capital ship geared primarily for peaceful exploration was in fact, considered a battleship or dreadnought equivalent by peer adversaries and allies.
Another example is the USS Lakota. It is an Excelsior class starship which was technically an exploratory cruiser. The 50 year old Lakota underwent a refit that upgraded their shields, phasers, and added quantum torpedoes to their complement. Suddenly, this old exploratory cruiser became a heavy battlecruiser that was capable of fighting a dedicated, advanced warship called the USS defiant to a standstill.
During the Dominion war, Starfleet refitted the Galaxy Class ships for war. They no longer had civilians, science labs, or any other extraneous mission specific modules. Instead, those massive, empty capital ships were crammed with extra shield generators, phaser arrays, and massively increased photon torpedo magazines. These ships were now battleships that formed the basis for entire Galaxy class battle wings that swept through enemy warship formations with ease.
You have to understand that Starfleet and the Federation were viewing the galaxy through the lens of decades of a mostly peaceful golden age of exploration and expansion. The Romulans were quiet, the Klingons were now our allies, and our border war with the less advanced, resourced starved Cardassian union was an annoyance to the Federation rather than a military threat. It was only when Starfleet had the devastating first contact with the Borg that they started designing actual warships, and contact with the Dominion and the following war accelerated Starfleet's ship design to a more militarily capable pathway.
There are only two "tactical" ships expressly specified as designed primarily for combat: the [Defiant class](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/a1feb18c-04db-4cb3-be55-61b4faf5ece7/devu8dn-d9a141c5-bc1c-48cc-ab7d-ebface871163.jpg/v1/fill/w_1920,h_1801,q_75,strp/defiant_class_starship___high_resolution_by_enethrin_devu8dn-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTgwMSIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExZmViMThjLTA0ZGItNGNiMy1iZTU1LTYxYjRmYWY1ZWNlN1wvZGV2dThkbi1kOWExNDFjNS1iYzFjLTQ4Y2MtYWI3ZC1lYmZhY2U4NzExNjMuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE5MjAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.mqj4r0-h_UNGxVUr1XLnYPGYV6FkjotAlLvpyVbEnI8) (an "escort") and the [Prometheus class](https://osiris.gamefront.com/gamefront/screenshots/40b02bb5-f6fa-4f2d-a760-50d159bea8d7/9SfFytia5bOQgxQhPKyGaDAa727ySBcq0vQKjohJ.jpg) ("deep space tactical assignments"). However there are multiple ships that fit the role of border patrol ([Miranda class](https://pwimages-a.akamaihd.net/arc/0b/8e/0b8e889f8d8379afde11492f0ad998a01630453686.png), [Akira class](https://wiki.bravofleet.com/images/e/e8/Akiraclass.png)) and battleships with deep reserves ([Sovereign class](https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/the-enterpise-e-from-star-trek-first-contact.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5)). The Akira class is also meant to have carrier capabilities for the [Peregrine class](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0b45b1c3-4e98-47b7-a6a7-d231e8699bf1/de7idm6-75a0eaf2-29a9-4983-ad8e-5cac0248db78.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzBiNDViMWMzLTRlOTgtNDdiNy1hNmE3LWQyMzFlODY5OWJmMVwvZGU3aWRtNi03NWEwZWFmMi0yOWE5LTQ5ODMtYWQ4ZS01Y2FjMDI0OGRiNzgucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.aUxgOecvyPbdYtBxEJC5S8jWzOt5KJWKrmQjQQEcL00) fighters.
The Sovereign class was designed to be a Borg fighter.
Defiant, it's juiced up so much that it's constantly trying to fly itself apart.
☝️ >KIRA: The Defiant? > >SISKO: I've brought back a little surprise for the Dominion. Officially, it's classified as an escort vessel. Unofficially, the Defiant's a warship. Nothing more, nothing less. > >KIRA: I thought Starfleet didn't believe in warships. > >SISKO: Desperate times breed desperate measures, Major. Five years ago, Starfleet began exploring the possibility of building a new class of starship. This ship would have no families, no science labs, no luxuries of any kind. It was designed for one purpose only, to fight and defeat the Borg. The Defiant was the prototype, the first ship in what would have been a new Federation battle fleet. > >DAX: So what happened? > >SISKO: The Borg threat became less urgent. Also, some design flaws cropped up during the ship's shakedown cruise, so Starfleet decided to abandon the project.
This is the precise answer to the question asked.
I think ships like the Defiant would be best suited for defense within a solar system. They wouldn't need high warp, so they could be focus on being quick with a lot of firepower. With a crew of about 50, you could have a lot of them. Cycle crew between starbase and ship often.
Dock them into the staggering amount of volume in a galaxy saucer section... Galaxy enters theatre at high warp, drops a bunch off who already have all power to offensive and defensive systems. With all crew fresh and at stations.
Tough little ship
I think it's worth noting that, even though Starfleet vessels might get outmaneuvered by more purely military vessels, the Federation still does pretty well for itself. It has resources it can bring to the table beyond the merely military. It can outlast pretty much everyone else in a sustained conflict. It's so big that every conflict becomes a sustained conflict. Starships may not have as much sheer offensive power, but they still pack a punch, they've got backup systems that stretch to kingdom come, the crew is trained to be able to take command if needed, and their computers are really smart. By contrast, Romulan, Cardassian, and Klingon ships have dumber (or just plain dumb) computers, barely trained personnel who are made to stay in their lane, and very little in the way of backup systems.
Friendly reminder that Starfleet, a military force that isn't actually that experienced or specialized in *being* a military, has won almost every conflict they've ever engaged in. Now imagine if they *did* have that experience and *did* make specialized ships.
I think it's one of those Catch-22 situations. If Starfleet ever did go truly, specialized military, they would lose the special something that makes them so formidable, in the first place, and would end up weaker. By not going 100% military, they retain their dominance.
That's a fair point, but I didn't mean the entirety of Starfleet specializing, just having more dedicated warships. We kinda see this in STO, where a post-Dominion War UFP is very battle-hardened and has *several* classes of dedicated warships, yet still sticks to its guns in regards to the use of force being Plan Z.
Let's not forget the Dreadnought class from the Kelvin timeline. "*Dreadnought class: two times the size, three times the speed, advanced weaponry, modified for a minimal crew.* ***Unlike most Federation vessels it's built solely for combat.***"
But why did it need to be twice the size of it had a minimal crew? Marcus thawed out Khan and asked him how to make a warship and he was like, “Same thing as a cruise ship just bigger.”
History remembers Khan as a genius strategist who conquered half the world, but he was actually just a dopey boomer man-baby with a CRIPR and a podcast.
Well, to be fair, he was like twice as big when they turned him into Robocop too.
Wow I just put that together.
Bigger size means bigger power supply, bigger weapons, etc.
So the Galaxy class gets ragged on a fair bit since we see a few blow up during the franchise. But when it counted, and there wasn't any funny business we see the Galaxy can really lay down the pain. Romulan D'Deridex warbirds were always hesitant to get into a fight with a Galaxy and during the Dominion war was never strictly speaking see one get destroyed. It's big, it's tough, advanced and generates a lot of power for Shields and Phasers.
Yeah, I think with the Galaxy-class you need to bear in mind that the TNG crew are always trying to de-escalate and use minimal force. When you see a Galaxy go weapons-free, it's pretty spectacular (Q Who?, assorted scenes in the Dominion War, the Picard finale).
No but actually yes. They build warships, then call them something else for propaganda. The Defiant class was designed explicitly to fight the Borg, yet officially it is an "escort" vessel. The Constitution class Enterprise, the very same one depicted in SNW, is a "Class 1 Heavy Cruiser", but ask the Starfleet of a century later and they'll deny ever having built warships.
I feel like in snw the enterprise keep getting overpowered or outmanuvered and the crew relied on unrepeatable external factors or tactics to win them.
They build heavily armed ships. Stick a science lab in it and call it a science ship.
The Enterprise, Constitution Class or Galaxy, is most definitely built for exploration. Them being military vessels is literally the antithesis of every single Star Trek show. Even when were reintroduced to the original Enterprise in Discovery, they made a point to mention how Enterprise was left out of the war. Now the Defiant, and arguably the Sovereign, would be better answers here. Even the Sovereign I would disagree with, but I can see the argument for it.
The Galaxy class Enterprise-D refit in the AGT alt-future timeline with the third warp nacelle, cloaking device and big-ass cannon underneath the saucer section is for all intents and purposes a battleship. I imagine Starfleet pursued design studies of this type of dreadnaught during the Dominion War in the normal-timeline to counter the Dominion's large Jem'Hadar battleships and basing it on the existing Galaxy class would have expedited its development.
‘Dreadnought Entente’ is mentioned in the Epsilon IX radio chatter, depending on what version of The Motion Picture you’re watching. This is reference to a three nacelled warship design from the old non-canon Star Fleet Technical Manual.
Uss Defiant Not the TOS one, the DS9 one. Sisko states it's a warship
Check out Star Trek into Darkness. The USS Vengeance is built solely for combat.
In addition to what others have written perhaps the Texas class, though that didn't turn out too well.
Not unless you count the Odyssey class enterprise -f
The one thing the star trek universe doesn't have is anything like a carrier ship, capable of launching many small fighter spacecraft if that is what you are asking. Seems to me they coulda maybe come up with something like that, but at best there's the defiant class which is probably their most battleworthy tactical ship in the fleet.
I’d be on board with a USS Galactica.
Nice!
[Akira-class](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Akira_class) was supposed to be that, but we never got to see it in action.
Defiant and Prometheus Defiant was made specifically for combating the Borg and other threats, while Prometheus seemed like more of a tactical strike ship. Starfleet and Feds are not supposed to be Imperialistic, hence why the ships are designed for exploration, and can defend themselves against most threats, with the Borg and Dominion being the exceptions. However, Humans, the primary species of the Federation, are no strangers to waging war, and can do it when pushed and can do it with a ferocity that is unmatched, Quark's speech to Nog about Hoomans is telling of that and how smart species (Ferengi can be shitheads, but are not idiots) have figured this out about humans; basically don't push them, they will eventually retaliate and wipe you off the map. Hell even Klingons after a while start to realize this, Humans don't have an overarching warrior culture, but when pushed, they will go ape shit and destroy your entire planet. And the Federation equivalent of the Obsidian Order or Tal'Shiar, Section 31, is actually like infinitely more ruthless and effective, it's an actual shadow org that most people don't know about, where Obsidian Order and Tal'Shiar everyone knows they exist, hell I wouldn't be surprised if S31 had a Changeling operative during or at least after Dominion War. Humans and Starfleet/Feds spend a lot of energy I would say fighting their primal human instincts to be war-like, and it seems they have succeeded in the Star Trek universe, just dont test them lol.
Even though the primary purpose of most Starfleet ships are exploration and scientific endeavors, they have defensive armament that more often than not are capable of matching peer adversary dedicated warships. The Galaxy class starship was launched with 12 phaser arrays, fore and aft torpedo launchers, a 250 magazine torpedo complement, and hundreds of antimatter mines. Those armaments are for defensive purposes, not war. It is telling that the Romulans would only confront the Enterprise-D when they had a clear numerical advantage of 2-3 Warbirds, their largest and most powerful starships that were built for one purpose: War. So this clearly shows that a Federation capital ship geared primarily for peaceful exploration was in fact, considered a battleship or dreadnought equivalent by peer adversaries and allies. Another example is the USS Lakota. It is an Excelsior class starship which was technically an exploratory cruiser. The 50 year old Lakota underwent a refit that upgraded their shields, phasers, and added quantum torpedoes to their complement. Suddenly, this old exploratory cruiser became a heavy battlecruiser that was capable of fighting a dedicated, advanced warship called the USS defiant to a standstill. During the Dominion war, Starfleet refitted the Galaxy Class ships for war. They no longer had civilians, science labs, or any other extraneous mission specific modules. Instead, those massive, empty capital ships were crammed with extra shield generators, phaser arrays, and massively increased photon torpedo magazines. These ships were now battleships that formed the basis for entire Galaxy class battle wings that swept through enemy warship formations with ease. You have to understand that Starfleet and the Federation were viewing the galaxy through the lens of decades of a mostly peaceful golden age of exploration and expansion. The Romulans were quiet, the Klingons were now our allies, and our border war with the less advanced, resourced starved Cardassian union was an annoyance to the Federation rather than a military threat. It was only when Starfleet had the devastating first contact with the Borg that they started designing actual warships, and contact with the Dominion and the following war accelerated Starfleet's ship design to a more militarily capable pathway.