The Defiant class was initiated in 2365 as a crash program to develop a starship capable of fighting and defeating the Borg. The design incorporated several new weapons concepts, including the Quantum torpedo and Phaser pulse cannon. The design and construction teams were briefed to produce a small, tough, simple to build vessel packing the maximum possible level of firepower. A secondary aim of the project was to develop new technologies for implementation in the Sovereign project and possibly into existing starship designs.
The vessel which emerged from the design office was unlike anything ever contemplated by the Federation before. In place of the usual graceful structures, Defiant was a compact, boxy, almost ugly design. The central body is a three deck block with the a single deck bridge mounted on the top for four decks in all. The upper deck contains the bridge, engineering support spaces and some crew quarters. Deck two features main engineering, a simple medical bay, more crew quarters and the ships communal mess hall. The third deck includes the transporter room and ships storage and cargo bays and the deuterium fuel tanks. Deck four houses the ships replication storage tanks and systems, the antimatter fuel pods and the small shuttle bay. The single computer core is split between decks two and three.
The navigational deflector is located in a prominent housing on the ships bow, which also contains a probe launcher. Flanking the deflector housing are a pair of torpedo tubes capable of firing both Quantum and photon torpedoes. Aft of this the nacelles are fitted directly to the main hull, flanking the bridge. Each nacelle housing includes four warp coils and two of the ships pulse Phaser cannon. The nacelles supporting equipment are contained within a fifth deck which hangs below the normal four; this deck is divided into three levels of crawl way spaces. Aft of the nacelles is the aft torpedo tube, and the ships armament is completed by a turret type Phaser array aft of the bridge.
In mid 2367 a Borg attack was launched on the Federation. The Defiant was still many months away from completion, but her crew nevertheless prepared to launch the ship in a desperate attempt to inflict some kind of damage on the attacking vessel. In the event the Borg vessel was destroyed in Earth orbit by the U.S.S. Enterprise-D shortly after the Defiant left Spacedock to face it.
Shuttle launching from a Defiant class during the Shuttle's flight tests.
The Defiant continued to outfit in Spacedock for several more months, but serious faults in the design surfaced. Overpowered and over gunned for a ship of its small size, the Defiant experienced serious problems with her structural integrity during warp flight and weapons operation. With the Borg threat now less urgent, the President ordered the Defiant project shelved in favor of the new and much larger Sovereign class Starship which was then under construction.
In 2370 the U.S.S. Odyssey was destroyed in a disastrous encounter with the Dominion. The first of the Sovereign class was still months away from completion, so Commander Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine requested that the Defiant be assigned to a mission to contact the Dominion leaders. The ship was equipped with a cloaking device by the Romulans in order to facilitate this mission, in return for Starfleet sharing any intelligence it gained. Despite a disappointing performance on her first mission, when she was quickly overpowered and captured, Defiant proved her worth as a combat vessel over the next few months. The field engineering team under Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien have overcome her initial difficulties by re-calibrating and reinforcing the Structural Integrity Field system. Although not an especially fast ship by Starfleet standards, Defiant is far more maneuverable than any vessel of comparable size at both Warp and Impulse speeds. This, combined with her inherent toughness and high level of firepower, makes the ship a formidable fighting force. Despite this, Starfleet has had a difficult time getting approval to put the ship into series production, due in part to the designs perception as having failed originally, but also because of political trepidation within the government over fielding a dedicated warship. Fortunately these problems have now been overcome and the Defiant class is finally in full production.
The Defiant herself continued to serve at Deep Space Nine for some time, before being destroyed in late 2375 during the Dominions recapture of the Chin'Toka system. Fortunately most of the crew were able to escape the ship.
2365: Starfleet issues a brief for a long range, maneuverable warship as fears of a Borg invasion rise. Design plans commence at the ASDB.
2366: Twelve Design plans are submitted to the ASDB, the Defiant project is approved. Primary design work begins on the Defiant Class and the primary hull construction begins. By late in the year design work is still continuing with weapons consultants being brought in from the Klingon Empire. ASDB reconsiders the Type II MARA core as primary power source.
2367: Wolf 359 incident occurs crippling Starfleet. Fears of a second invasion mount as the Defiant Class continues under higher priority.
March: Basic chassis is manufactured and central computer core is Gamma Welded into place. Designs for a three chamber warpcore are send to the Propulsion dynamics lab for theoretical testing. Starfleet's Tokyo R&D weapons labs confirm an upgraded Phaser cannon, using artificially grown emitter crystals, is possible.
June: Ablative Armor arrives from the Antaries Ship Yard. Outer hull is nearing completion except for the engine bay. Designs for the warpcore are approved and production begins at the labs on Jupiter.
November: Warpcore arrives and is Gamma welded into place. Outer hull fully sealed and internal fitting begins. Warp coils arrive and are welded into place. Front end redesigned to accommodate the modified weapons systems. A modified Sub computer core from the Galaxy Class project found to suitable for use as a main computer. Unit is installed and technical modifications begin.
2368:
January: Warp field and weapons array problems found in frontal half of ship. Work is stopped until a new design is decided upon. New outer hull laid down over new front half of ship. Bridge module is attached. Crew quarter are fitted. Computer becomes self aware.
April: New ablative Armor arrives and is installed over the new front hull. Preliminary testing of all systems complete.
June: Ship completes its first warp jump. Serious problems are discovered with the warp engines and the SIF (Structural integrity field). Problems are rectified as best possible. Testing of basic systems continues.
August: After full power weapons testing the ship is deemed unsuitable by Starfleet inspectors and the ship is ordered to return to Utopia Planitia to be placed in storage.
September: The Defiant Project is officially closed by Starfleet.
2370: The Defiant Project reopened after Dominion Threat discovered. With recent advances in technology work begins to cure the Defiant's many problems. Within a month redesigning and retrofitting work has cured the major problems and the first ship of the class, the U.S.S. Defiant is commissioned at Utopia Planitia, the ship shortly after being immediately assigned to station Deep Space Nine.
2373: Starfleet reviews the modification field work carried out on the Defiant Class of Starship and deem that although the class has major flaws, it is a very capable ship and with the new technical design information gathered by the Engineering team on the ship decides to place the class in Active production as fears of a Dominion war rise.
Commissioned 2367 - Present
Classification: Escort Vessel
Structure:
Length: 170.68 meters
Width: 134.11 meters
Height: 30.1 meters
Decks: 4
Mass: 120,000 tons
Warp Systems:
Normal Cruise: Warp Factor 6
Maximum Cruise: Warp Factor 9.2
Maximum Rated: Warp Factor 9.9 for Twelve hours
Impulse Systems:
Power: Fusion
Engines: 3
Tactical Systems:
Phasers: Pulse: 4 Type X: 2
Torpedoes: 3 x Pulse fire Quantum/Photon torpedo tubes
1 x Probe / Photon torpedo launcher - equivalent to standard Photon torpedo tube
Quantum: 120
Photon: 50
Shields: Auto modulated high capacity shield system, total capacity 2,376,000 TeraJoules
High level Structural Integrity Field
Metaphasic Shielding
Heavy Duranium/Tritanium double hull plus 20 cm Ablative Armor
Cloaking Device
Crew and Auxiliary Systems:
Officers: 15
Enlisted Crew: 35
Passengers: 0
Diplomatic Capability: Grade 2
Expected Hull Life: 20 years
Refit Cycle:
Minor: 6 months
Standard: 1 year
Major: 5 years
Auxiliary Craft:
Shuttle Bays: 1
Shuttles: 2
Type 10: 2
Fighters: 0
Runabouts: 0