Archive File 1G:

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DEFIANT CLASS ESCORT


Latest news on the design: Starfleet now has several Defiant class escorts in service. Two of them appear in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "A Call to Arms". The USS Monitor, appears in the novel Star Trek: The Return. Two more appear in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle". The only appearance of one Defiant class escort, the USS Valiant (NCC-74210), happens in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode appropriately titled, "Valiant".








The history of the class prototype, USS Defiant (NX-74205), begins at a point in time just after the Q entity hurled the Galaxy Class heavy cruiser USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) into System J-25 in the Delta Quadrant, where the first known direct encounter with a Borg cube was made by a Starfleet vessel. (Editor's Note: Years later it was discovered that other Federation ships and colonies had either been assimilated or destroyed by the Borg before this incident. However, since these colonies and vessels had failed to report without explanation and no trace of them was ever found, they were initially presumed lost for unknown reasons.) The information that the Enterprise gathered on the Borg projected a very grim shadow on the defensive systems Starfleet had in place at that time. Shortly after the Enterprise commanding officer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, presented a report on the capabilities of the Borg to Starfleet Command, Starfleet Tactical Division was assigned the project of developing new technologies and weapons to defend against a possible invasion.

Research was nearing completion on Stardate 43998.0, when the Borg invaded Federation space. Until then, Admiral J.P. Hanson and his aide Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shelby were in charge of Starfleet Tactical's efforts to develop new defenses. However, since the first Borg incursion came much more quickly than originally projected after the System J-25 incident, the advancements made by Starfleet Tactical were still only conceptual with no functional prototypes ready for service.


USS Defiant starboard view USS Defiant overhead view


The Battle of WOLF 359 that resulted in the loss of forty-eight starships and several Klingon vessels only clarified the need for better defensive weapons, so Starfleet hurried production of the USS Defiant (NX-74205). This vessel was the second Federation starship to bear the name and was the first of her class. Less than one year after the Borg cube was destroyed in Earth orbit, the ship was completed in its classified construction facility at the Advanced Starship Design Bureau Integration Facility, Antares Fleet Yards, Antares IV. The Defiant's weapons systems made it the most powerful known warship in the Alpha Quadrant. The ship was outfitted with four pulse phaser cannons capable of destroying the shields of an enemy vessel and then devastating its hull. The ship was also equipped with two torpedo launchers capable of firing photon and quantum torpedoes. Another non-standard defense at the time of its construction was ablative armor plating that covered Defiant's exterior hull. Added to these and other classified systems, the Defiant was able to travel at a maximum speed of warp 9.982 for twelve hours. It was also considered to have been the fastest known sublight vessel ever constructed in the Alpha Quadrant. The ship was extremely small with most of its systems having been automated. It accommodated forty officers and crew with an evacuation limit of one hundred fifty people.


Topside starboard aft view of the Starship Defiant


Commander Benjamin Sisko became the principal designer of the Defiant class team under Admiral Batelle Toh at the Antares Fleet Yards after the ship upon which Sisko served as first officer, the Miranda class USS Saratoga (NCC-31911), was destroyed at WOLF 359. When the Borg were no longer as immediate a threat after their first incursion of Federation space, the starship and its plans were placed into classified storage at the Utopia Planetia Starfleet Yards, Mars. Immediately after the Dominion's declaration of war on the Federation, the Defiant was removed from its dock at Utopia Planetia and was permanently assigned to Starbase Deep Space Nine in the Bajoran Sector. Until recently, it was the only ship assigned to explore the Gamma Quadrant. However, since the onset of war with the Dominion, at least seventeen other Defiant class vessels have been commissioned by Starfleet Command.


The USS Defiant is severely damaged while fighting the Borg cube during the second Borg incursion into Federation space


The Defiant proved the true worth of its class design to Starfleet during the second Borg incursion of Federation space. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf, the ship was part of a large force that fought the Borg from the Typhon Sector back to Sector 001. In the course of battle, the Defiant was disabled by a huge onslaught of Borg weaponry, but it had already invoked a considerable amount of damage to the exterior hull of the Borg cube.

Sadly, the USS Defiant was destroyed in battle as a result of a previously unseen Breen energy dissipation field which crippled its systems long enough for enemy fire to blow it apart. This happened when the Dominion retook the Chintaka System in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, "The Changing Face of Evil".

Fortunately, Vice-Admiral William J. Ross worked to bring another Defiant class vessel to Starbase Deep Space Nine a few months after the unfortunate battle. The recently commissioned USS Sao Paulo (NCC-75633) was permanently assigned to Deep Space Nine and placed under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko. Under special dispensation from the Chief of Starfleet Operations permission was granted to Sisko to change the name and registry of the new ship to USS Defiant (NX-74205). This starship appears in the last two Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes, "The Dogs of War" and "What You Leave Behind".


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USS Defiant Command Staff:


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